Help From My Friends

All hope seemed lost as we headed into the afternoon of day two during the Kansas Governor's One-Shot Turkey Hunt.  Despite seeing several birds on the first morning and having a close encounter with a long beard during some run-n-gun on day one, we were still without a bird.  Thirteen year old Chandler Nusz of Augusta, KS never wavered in his quest to bag a turkey.  He had endured bone chilling temperatures, hurricane force winds, and toad strangling rain all in the name of drawing a bead on his first gobbler.  With only 4 hours until final weigh-in, we called in reinforcements.  Derek and Charlie had tagged their birds before lunch on Friday and were more than willing to make sure Chandler didn't leave El Dorado empty handed.

We all loaded the truck and started a race against the clock.  We headed to a field where Derek was able to put Charlie on a monster the previous day.  After a time consuming unsuccessful stalk on a nice bird (spoiled by a woman wearing a helmet on a horse walking her dog in the middle of nowhere!) we were down to our final hour.  Driving down the road, on a whim, Derek pops out of the truck a gives a few yelps and is immediately cut-off with a gobble.  This was going to be our last chance to score, we hurriedly took off through the timber until we reached the edge of a green wheat field.   Derek placed the DSD Jake Decoy and we all took cover on the fields edge.  The three of us starting calling and we could tell the bird was "hot-footing" it to us.  After 8 minutes of calling, the bird popped out of the timber 30 yards from the decoy and started struttin' our way.  Ol' tom got within 10 yards of the decoy and suddenly startled and was doing an about-face preparing to bolt when Derek whispered to Chandler "Shoot, Shoot, Shoot him now!".  With one simple squeeze of the trigger, Chandler became a bona fide turkey hunter.  Words cannot explain the moment that turkey went down, seeing a young man bag his first bird as part of a team effort with your best friends will serve as an everlasting memory.  Even better, after some Dukes of Hazzard style driving, we made it to the 5 o'clock weigh-in with 2 minutes to spare!

(L to R) Derek Benson, Chandler Nusz, Charlie Reynolds, Jeff Nusz (Chandler's Dad), Joel Pile