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With his gun
soop
Member Posts: 4,633
Lost my boyhood friend and hunting companion last summer.Seems he took the day of from work towards the end of summer.Knowing the weather would soon turn cooler he said It`s too nice to work,I`m going fishing.He would save vacation days and do this every so often.He went fishing and never came home.Divers found his body several days later in about 12 ft of water.The autopsy reported that he had drowned.He didn`t have a heart attack ,just drowned.He could swim like a fish so it surprised everyone.
His wife gave me his pop up blind that we had just gone to Cabelas and bought for deer hunting.We were going to hunt together from the blind on opening day.On opening day I hunted alone in the blind.One chair for me ,one empty chair for my friend.I was determined to hunt from the blind till I took a deer.I took a big fat doe on opening day from that blind.
I also bought his turkey hunting gun.He always bragged about his Mossburg 835 being one heck of a turkey killer and it was. After his funeral his brother,nephew and I went to the edge of the woods where I have a fire pit and ate the last turkey he had taken with that gun.We stood facing the trail leading into the woods and fired a salute with our shotguns .We then drank several of his favorite beers and ate the turkey.
He was looking forward to teaching his nephew to turkey hunt as his father had never shown any interest in it.This spring his father decided to give it a try.I was pleased to be hunting with them as I didn`t really want to hunt alone.Young Joey took a nice jake two weekends ago and now both father and son are hooked. I hunted the rest of my season alone as they had other plans for the Memorial Day weekend.I was determined to take my next turkey with the shotgun that my friend had always bragged on.I hunted harder than I ever had but was haveing a difficult time getting close enough to take a bird.Each time I would pattern a bird the next day something would happen and the bird would change his habits.I hunted at least 5 hrs a day all weekend.I also took tuesday off just in case I needed it to get a bird. It`s a good thing I did.I stumbled onto a flock of jakes and by accident on sunday.I went back monday but was not early enough and they spotted me coming in.Tuesday I arrived plenty early and snuck in from the back road.I didn`t expect any birds for several hours so I brought a magazine to read. After several hours I got up and took a peak into the field where I expected to see the birds come from.I didn`t see the same bunch I had seen the previous two days.Only one bird was in the field.With my binoculars I could see this was no jake as he had a nice beard.From his location I figured I had a half hour before he would reach the top of the hill where four pasture lots come together.All the birds seem to enter the same pasture when they reach that particular spot.I got back in my blind to read a little more when I heard a noise about 10 yards ahead of me.It was a woodchuck and he was on to me.He watched me from a tree as I sat in my blind.I didn`t feel like I could scare him off without spooking the turkey.I lifted my gun to the top of the camo netting and moved the gun into shooting position.The woodchuck just watched.I thought,ok,you can stay.
I went back to reading and when I finished I picked up the gun and waited.In the blind I couldn`t see the turkey until he entered the corner of the field.At that point I could raise the gun as the bird would be momentarily out of sight behind some brush as he took several steps forward.When he would enter my field of view again I would be ready with the gun in place,waiting for him to take one more step.It all fell together just as I had hoped.He wasn`t the heaviest bird I have ever taken weighing in at 19 1/2 pounds. But he had a 10 1/4 inch beard and inch long spurs.And I had done it with his gun.I felt great as I looked to the sky and said we got him.Thank you my friend.I then took pictures of the turkey and his gun.It was the end of a beautiful spring hunting season for me.My first without my long time friend and turkey hunting buddy.I will always miss him.But a part of him will always be there in the warm spring woods as I will always hunt turkeys with his gun.
Sorry it`s so long,but I needed to say it.
His wife gave me his pop up blind that we had just gone to Cabelas and bought for deer hunting.We were going to hunt together from the blind on opening day.On opening day I hunted alone in the blind.One chair for me ,one empty chair for my friend.I was determined to hunt from the blind till I took a deer.I took a big fat doe on opening day from that blind.
I also bought his turkey hunting gun.He always bragged about his Mossburg 835 being one heck of a turkey killer and it was. After his funeral his brother,nephew and I went to the edge of the woods where I have a fire pit and ate the last turkey he had taken with that gun.We stood facing the trail leading into the woods and fired a salute with our shotguns .We then drank several of his favorite beers and ate the turkey.
He was looking forward to teaching his nephew to turkey hunt as his father had never shown any interest in it.This spring his father decided to give it a try.I was pleased to be hunting with them as I didn`t really want to hunt alone.Young Joey took a nice jake two weekends ago and now both father and son are hooked. I hunted the rest of my season alone as they had other plans for the Memorial Day weekend.I was determined to take my next turkey with the shotgun that my friend had always bragged on.I hunted harder than I ever had but was haveing a difficult time getting close enough to take a bird.Each time I would pattern a bird the next day something would happen and the bird would change his habits.I hunted at least 5 hrs a day all weekend.I also took tuesday off just in case I needed it to get a bird. It`s a good thing I did.I stumbled onto a flock of jakes and by accident on sunday.I went back monday but was not early enough and they spotted me coming in.Tuesday I arrived plenty early and snuck in from the back road.I didn`t expect any birds for several hours so I brought a magazine to read. After several hours I got up and took a peak into the field where I expected to see the birds come from.I didn`t see the same bunch I had seen the previous two days.Only one bird was in the field.With my binoculars I could see this was no jake as he had a nice beard.From his location I figured I had a half hour before he would reach the top of the hill where four pasture lots come together.All the birds seem to enter the same pasture when they reach that particular spot.I got back in my blind to read a little more when I heard a noise about 10 yards ahead of me.It was a woodchuck and he was on to me.He watched me from a tree as I sat in my blind.I didn`t feel like I could scare him off without spooking the turkey.I lifted my gun to the top of the camo netting and moved the gun into shooting position.The woodchuck just watched.I thought,ok,you can stay.
I went back to reading and when I finished I picked up the gun and waited.In the blind I couldn`t see the turkey until he entered the corner of the field.At that point I could raise the gun as the bird would be momentarily out of sight behind some brush as he took several steps forward.When he would enter my field of view again I would be ready with the gun in place,waiting for him to take one more step.It all fell together just as I had hoped.He wasn`t the heaviest bird I have ever taken weighing in at 19 1/2 pounds. But he had a 10 1/4 inch beard and inch long spurs.And I had done it with his gun.I felt great as I looked to the sky and said we got him.Thank you my friend.I then took pictures of the turkey and his gun.It was the end of a beautiful spring hunting season for me.My first without my long time friend and turkey hunting buddy.I will always miss him.But a part of him will always be there in the warm spring woods as I will always hunt turkeys with his gun.
Sorry it`s so long,but I needed to say it.
Comments
His family and I talk more now that he's gone than we ever did before.
Big Daddy my heros have always been cowboys,they still are it seems
God,Guts,& GunsHave we lost all 3 ??
Lost my best friend a while back too.[:(]
The gene pool needs chlorine.
It ain't what you shoot, it's what you hit.