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Outdoor Truths

Even though a friend took me on my first turkey hunt, my first success came while hunting alone. That morning I remember that my tools of the trade amounted to a Lynch box call and a ten-gauge H and R shotgun. No slate calls and definitely no mouth calls. I can also remember moving from place to place on this farm without having much confidence. Late in the morning, I made my way to an area known to hold deer. I crossed a hay field and crawled under a barbed wire fence before giving that box call another try. As soon as I slid the lid of that call across the box, I heard a gobble to my left. I didn’t even recognize at the time that it was a jake. But it really didn’t matter to me. My heart started beating like I was drawing my bow back on a deer. This was even stronger because of this first experience. The young gobbler came running, and soon was in front of me. It couldn’t see me because of a log that was lying parallel to the ground. I watched him walk in front of me until he stepped into the open. In a few seconds it was over.

I’m so thankful someone took me on my first turkey hunt. I watched, listened, and soaked in as much information as I could. And even though the excitement ran high, I knew I had to temper it in order to learn. My guide would not always be with me. As in most areas of our life there comes a time when we have to step out from the security of the teacher and into the risky business of going alone. It can be a time of trial and error, but it is nevertheless necessary if we are going to stretch ourselves into new and exciting arenas. I think about my daughter. When she was only a young teenager, she would…

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