My First Turkey Hunt

Chad and I had a rare opportunity to have a weekend away and, of course, we went hunting! The truth is, I wanted to attend a wedding in San Antonio and the only way I could get Chad to go with me was to offer a hunting trip along side it.  It was the opening weekend of turkey season and the deer lease in Mason is only an hour and a half from San Antonio – perfect!  

It was one of the most amazing weekends! The bluebonnets were in perfect bloom.  It was a surreal scene sitting on top of the hill with my husband watching the sun rise over the hill country, the fields coming to life, and the wildflowers waking with the morning light.   Chad and I travel many weekends so we aren’t consistently in church, but your soul is filled when you engulf yourself in His Creation and experience Him bringing to life another day.

This was my first turkey hunt.  It is definitely different than deer hunting.  I love walking around calling, listening, hunting!  Deer hunting in Texas and Oklahoma is centered around food sources – deer feeders and food plots.  You work to pick the right spot, you sit, and you wait. With turkey hunting you are constantly on the move, calling to the gobblers, listening for their response, and good, old-fashion huntin’ down those birds!  Not to mention the weather is warmer and the scenery is blossoming. 

I decided to try my hand at filming Chad on this hunt.  Chad and I have laughed for days at our unprofessional video skills and our want-to-be commentary.  There is definitely a skill to be learned in filming a hunt.  The number one lesson I learned is you don’t talk behind the camera. For some reason I always felt like I had to be talking and explaining – “this is Chad calling a turkey,” “here is the cabin and the outhouse,” “this is where I sleep,” etc.  It is worse than home videos.  At least home videos have cute kids in their underwear playing fake guitars and air drums! 

The second lesson I learned is that you cannot guess an animal.  You have to be prepared for the animal to come in any direction and at any time.  Chad was working a turkey and that bird was coming to us fast.  It was an adult version of hide and seek!  We had been trailing this bird for some time, and he finally started coming our direction.  We set up the decoy and hurried to hide in the brush knowing the bird was coming up this cleared trail way.  Only, that isn’t the way he came.  Instead he turned and started coming toward us with a large mesquite tree in the way of my view.  It took a lot of patience and a lot of calling to get that bird past the mesquite tree and in view of the camera.  I felt like Michael Waddell’s cameraman when Michael is yelling at him because he can’t get the video shot in an episode of Bone Collector.  If you’ve seen that episode, you know what I’m talking about.

The third lesson I learned is that you have to have a tripod.  If you ever have the privilege of watching our video, you better have a barf bag.  The shaking of the camera will give you motion sickness.  It reminds me of the Blair Witch Project which had people throwing up in the movie theater.  There is something to be said for having the right equipment. 

The fourth thing I learned is that I do not like editing videos!!!!!  I can’t put enough exclamation points at the end of the sentence.  Again, if I had the right equipment and the right programs, this task may be a little easier. However, I was using Microsoft Movie Maker and I spent hours cutting, splicing, story booking, and adding audio to finally get to the end and not be able to save the stupid thing.  I will try to find a different program to use, but it is going to take me a while to get over that experience and sit down to edit a video again! 

Well, I can’t wait to go turkey hunting again.  Turkey season doesn’t start in Oklahoma for a couple more weeks, and hopefully I’ll have a chance to go again.  One of these days maybe we will have the funds to invest in good video equipment, but for now, I will practice with my hand-held home video camera and share precious memories with my husband and kids laughing at our unprofessional, want-to-be hunting videos.