Just to get aways from the "other news" that seems to have taken over everything:
86 pages of pure heaven
Every year about this time, as the days start to lengthen and an occasional South breeze brings in an olfactoric hint of spring, the best possible thing that could happen, happens. The spring turkey hunting catalogs start to arrive in the mail. This year the first to arrive was the beauty from Midwest. I ‘ve had mine now for a couple of days and I just can’t leave my hands off the darn thing…86 pages of pure heaven.
Over the years I’ve watched as new gear and gadgets are presented for my approval and I must admit, I am as big a sucker for something new as the next guy. In past years I’ve bought some of the best and some of the worst turkey hunting aids you can imagine. I once bought an umbrella thing that fastened to a tree, supposed to serve as a combination rain cover and camo blind. I carried it for two years, it never came out if it’s perfectly camouflaged carry case. Several comfy cushions hang on a peg in my hunting room, boxes of books and tapes adorn my shelves…and calls… too may to count. In more recent years my investments have included a vest that had so many pockets I surely couldn’t fill them all...but guess what, it wasn’t even close, I will admit though, that baby could haul the stuff. By the time I was through filling those pockets the damn thing weighed just slightly under twenty six pounds.. But one of my favorite buys was the “Bobbin’n Head Pair” of decoys. A hen and a tom, his head a “bobb’n” and his wings dropped… and her, layin down low, kind of a smirk on her face and guess what they were adoin...you know...the nasty. These things are so affective they should be against the law. When I set mine up for the first time I was so engrossed with the action that I failed to notice the two big Toms and a Jake that had snuck in behind me just to take in the show. I haven’t had the nerve to set them up again.
This year is going to be different. I have promised myself no more gadgets, no more silly stuff that I know deep in my heart are just scams, nope, I am settling for one new call and that’s it! Now that may sound simple enough at first glance, but alas, the choices are many. What type of call…a box, a slate, yelper, gobbler, locator, scratch box…what to buy? A quick count from the catalog gave me these numbers: 55 traditional box calls, 81 friction calls, 10 wingbone yelper type, 16 scratch box calls, 7 push button yelpers, 11 snuff tubes, 5 gobbler, and an amazing 156 diaphragm calls. But with names like “Little Big Mouth Enticer”, “Beggin Hen”, “Widow Maker”, “Flock Buster” and “Head Hunter”, “SS Shorty” (now there’s a name you hope your wife never calls you) and “Preston’s Sweet & Nasty”, I was starting to feel a little woozy from all the possibilities. But if years of turkey hunting has taught me anything, it has taught me to be patient . I narrowed the field, I re-read the descriptions and studied the pictures close, and at last, I’ve made my choice. This year for me, it’s a little sweety, sure to bring ‘um in, called… “Lucky Clucker”. At $18.95, I can’t go wrong. Comes complete with it’s own carrying pouch. Well, the order has been sent and I’m feeling pretty good about myself right now, sitting here, dreaming and waiting for that warm spring day when me and my new “Lucky Clucker” drift off into slumber under a big pine tree in the turkey woods. Damn, I love this time of year.
Copyrights 2005, BPturkeys
