First Light, Why - Ep 50

But one of the things that I love to do more than anything else is take somebody else's I really love to take somebody hunting.

And one of the great privileges of living where I live is on a pretty regular occasion, maybe every single year, but at least often, I have the fun privilege of taking somebody turkey hunting for their very first time.

And maybe even actually get to experience the very first turkey that that person shot on a turkey hunt.

And turkey hunting... is really on the top of the list of one of the greatest outdoor life experiences I think a person can ever hope to experience.

There's two that I would put in that category, turkey hunting and the 10 seconds, maybe the five seconds around the moment when you set the hook on a largemouth bass.

I'm talking about a nice bass and you're fishing and you feel the tap on that worm and when it tap, tap, and then you set the hook, those five seconds or so, sometimes it's even shorter than that, are some of the most intensely enjoyable seconds that a person can hope to experience in the outdoors if you capture it all into one.

Now, that's just my opinion.

I mean,

you guys that hear a bass elk bugle and then actually see that elk appearing through a woods line with his antlers, all those huge antlers, that's an experience I've never had.

So maybe it's better.

But I'll put right up there with it, maybe even better, is that experience of being in the woods right before daylight, waiting on daylight, knowing that you have a really good chance of hearing a turkey gobble on the roost and he's close.

Like you've done all the homework and you think you know right where you need to be and you're there, got there early, pretty sure you hadn't busted anything and you hear that turkey gobble.

And then you have just enough time to set up your, be camouflaged to get where you need to be And the anticipation of having that turkey fly down and then go into full strut and come in toward where you've set up your, hopefully maybe you got a turkey decoy out there, but where you're trying to get that turkey to be within like 18 or 20 or maybe 25 yards right there in front of you.

in a position where you can see the gorgeous beauty of that male turkey, and he is completely fooled.

You're an apex hunter now.

You're at the top of it, and you have a chance to shoot and take that turkey, and just the thrill of being able to do that.

is high on my list.

And so the day that I'm talking about, I like to refer to it as my favorite turkey hunt.

And I do that very much with tongue in cheek because I'm not sure I have a favorite turkey hunt, but this is one of my most favorite turkey hunts.

So I'm with this really great young man.

He is younger than my oldest son.

pretty close to the age of my youngest son, actually, and at this point in his life, I think he has not ever killed a turkey.

Now, he did kill a turkey with me hunting, and I can't remember if it was before this turkey or after, but the turkey that I remember being with him when he killed it was really a Jake, and so I don't really count that.

It really wasn't like a the kind of classic hunt that you want.

So whether that occurred first or this turkey story I'm telling you about occurred first, I don't know, but I'm gonna say this was his very first.