Swimming Through Life

A personal blog and author site

First Time Hunting!

The list of new things and experiences I’ve done since meeting Dan continues to grow! Right before I left for Baltimore last week, Dan took me hunting for the first time ever – at least the first time I’ve ever had the opportunity to actually hunt myself instead of just tagging along – and let me tell you, I can see what the hype is about! Earlier this year, Dan registered us both for a chance at drawing a turkey tag. He asked if I was interested in learning how to hunt and figured turkeys might be a good thing to start with. Well, we each drew a tag and we started making plans on when and where we would go looking for some turkeys. I was excited to finally experience what hunting was like.

Unfortunately, life got in the way, and the night before I left for Baltimore was literally the only night we were able to get out there before the season ended. But we made the most of it. We were able to get permission from one of the landowners Dan used to work with to hunt on his ground, so we went and scoped it out in the morning to see what the turkey situation was. We saw some, but unfortunately, they also saw us, so we spooked them off right away. We decided to come back in the evening to try again.

When we got back later that day, we only walked about 50 yards from the car when Dan saw a turkey and told me to freeze. I’m glad I had him with me to tell me what to do, because I did not know that turkeys had such good eye sight! I’d move a little, and he’d tell me to freeze, and then I’d move a little more until he told me to stop again. It definitely takes a lot of patience! The turkey we saw right away wanted nothing to do with us and just kept walking further and further away, so we didn’t get close enough to try and shoot.

Eventually though, we found a good hiding spot on the edge of the trees, where we had to sit and wait for something to happen. Dan told me when he turkey hunts, he typically moves around quite a bit, but since that night was literally the only chance we would get, we decided to sit and see what happened. Again, it takes a lot of patience! After a couple of minutes of nothing happening, I was ready to get up and move, but Dan told me this was an excellent opportunity to practice my patience. Because if you know me, you know it’s not typically something I’m good at!

We probably sat there for close to an hour with nothing happening until we saw four turkeys scurry across the far end of the field. Dan kept saying they were getting ready to go to roost for the night and they were heading for a pile of trees a couple hundred yards away. I was expecting him to say we needed to move or throw in the towel, because if that was the case, we wouldn’t be able to shoot them from where we were at. But we continued to sit. I started to get a little antsy at that point, but it surprisingly didn’t last long. Dan and I were able to whisper to each other and chat, and oddly I started to get pretty comfortable. At that point I remember thinking to myself that even if the turkeys didn’t come in, I was actually having a good time. πŸ™‚

Then, it was like they just popped out of nowhere. The four turkeys from earlier came out from the trees and were walking right towards us. They were all female turkeys, so I unfortunately even if they did get close enough, I couldn’t shoot. After a few minutes of watching them, Dan goes, “Tom coming from your left, no sudden movements, but point yourself towards him.” I didn’t even see it right away, but sure enough, there was a big ol bird coming to check out the ladies!

Dan kept telling me to breathe and be ready, but not to shoot until he told me to. Oh my gosh, I swear my heart was going to beat out of my chest! The feeling of anticipation was crazy. What felt like forever, I sat and watched the turkey as it kept making its way towards the females. It was still a good 50-60 yards away, but it was now directly in front of us. Dan tells me to breathe one more time and try and shoot, so I pulled the trigger and I MISSED. As soon as the gun sounded, the bird took off flying and Dan shouted to shoot again, but I couldn’t hit a standing target, and I definitely couldn’t hit a flying one haha! We waited a few minutes and then wandered out to the field to see if there were any feathers indicating that I might have nicked him. But there weren’t, he was able to go live another day. We called it a night shortly after that.

But even though I missed and we didn’t get a turkey this year, I was shaking with excitement for quite a while afterwards! It really was a fun experience. Growing up, we never hunted and honestly, I didn’t really have much of an interest in doing it. But I see how passionate Dan is about it, and I’m glad he wanted to share that with me. Sometimes all it takes is the right company to make a memorable event. And now that I’ve had a little taste of the action, I can’t wait to get out there and try again! I maybe just need to do a little more target practice first. πŸ™‚

Can’t wait to keep trying new things and living my best life with my bestest friend!

Until next time! πŸ™‚

Megan Reiffenberger

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