Next week is Thanksgiving, and here is my true turkey story.
I was walking/jogging along the bike path by my place. It's wooded and follows the Mississippi River.
There are some adjacent homes along the path which sit down an embankment. I'm jogging along and hear a man down there yelling, "GET OFF! GET OFF!". So I go and peer down the hill. The guy was in his driveway waving his arms around, and there was this huge wild turkey on the roof of his car with no intention of getting off. The guy says to me, "Can you believe this!?" I said, "The nerve." I'm thinking, serve with candied yams and cranberries.
My best buddy lives accross from an older gentleman who has "wild" turkeys. There are now 3 Toms - 2 juveniles and in voice training LOL and 3 'ladies'.... of course these were not born in the wild. I went to visit yesterday and one of the 'ladies' ate corn out of my hand... talk about collecting "wild" turkey feathers...... we did thruout summer and fall..........
I don't do turkey as a rule.... especially at this time to the year
Don't bother trying to shoot any wild turkeys with a bow and arrow. You'll never get em. However, if you find one perched on top of your car, you can probably whap a large fishing net over it. Better yet, drive into the garage and hit the remote door closer. Brag to the hunting buddies about your sharp shooting skills.
Last year I had a turkey walk around my deer stand for 10 mins. Then it flew up into the tree I was in and roosted about 10 feet away. It was all I could do to keep from laughing. I left the tree after dark and it never moved. It was still there when I climbed back up the next day. LoL. It finally flew off after sunrise.
It wasn't easy. It's not for the novice, not that I'm braging. What I'm saying is that I worked hard at it. It takes a lot of time learning about your target and spending a lot of time in their domaine. Then after the first success or two it seems "easier" from then on. After that deer with a bow lost some value to me so I started hunting them using a cynder block.
<After that deer with a bow lost some value to me so I started hunting them using a cynder block.>
ROFL! My car is determined to get a deer for me this year. I've had FOUR very close calls since last weekend. Just last night, the BIGGEST freakin' deer I've ever seen (and, it may have been an elephant mascarading as a deer, I can't be sure) ran out in front of us on the way home. It's CRAZY how fast a car will slow from 75 to zero... This coming weekend, I'm staying in or walking - shotgun season starts and that's when things get CRRRRRAZY.
Monica
My yesterdays are all boxed up - and neatly put away.
Hunting with cinder blocks did indeed get old especially with the 3 hole blocks. It was easy to line them up on their heads using the center hole of the 3 hole block. The 2 hole blocks offer a little more challenge since you have to allow for the offset of the middle of the block. That especially depends on how high you are in the apple tree. The 2 hole blocks certainly require more aiming skill than the simple 3 hole blocks. Windage doesn't really play a part in cinder block hunting unless it's really windy and moving the apple tree limb that you are laying on. On windy days I have to admit that I cheated a couple of times and used the simple 3 hole blocks.
Regarding hunting with hands and teeth, I have a turkey story too. Well, it's more of a deer story but it happened while I was turkey hunting. I was sitting there minding my own business over looking a small hollow. I was nestled in between these two big roots coming out from the base of a huge hemlock tree. About 2 hundred yards to my right, I saw two hunters sneaking down into the far end of the hollow. A couple of minutes later this old doe came screaming up past me hell bent for election. A couple of minutes later a yearling doe came up and stop about 15 feet in front of me. The poor thing was breathing so heavy it look like its ribs were gonna cave in. Any way it stood there for about a minute trying to figure out which way mom went. I knew as the doe had just passed within a few feet that the youngan would walk right by me. I laid my hand out into the deer trail and just waited. Sure nuf, the youngan walked right over my hand. I grabbed the far back leg just to see if I could. In a fraction of a second the other tiny little hoof hit my hand square in the middle. It felt like it had gone all the way thru my hand. It felt like it had spread the bones apart in my hand.
On the way home my hunting buddy asked me if I seen those two deer. I said, “Yeah.” He then asked why I was still wearing my gloves. I said, “No reason, hands are still sorta cold. (It was about 75 degrees.)” He noticed that once in a while as I moved around that I would grimace. He finally said, “What did you do?” Then I told him. He pulled the truck over and insisted, as he was laughing his ass off, to see my hand. I pulled the glove off and it had a knot the size of a golf ball and my whole hand was blue.
So you see, I have paid my dues.
BTW, RW, did the turkey on top of the car have red legs or white legs. Would this be something that we would have to use hypnosis to get into your sub-conscience to retrieve? On second thought, I remember something about scary yellow eyes. I’m not sure I want in that sub-conscience.
H2C,
Hypnosis will work very well in recovering the turkey leg color.
I was eye witness to a murder back in 1980. It was getting dark at the time. The detective had me hypnotised to bring back all the details I could. There were many accurate things they got out of my scary sub-conscious yellow eye-memory....especially colors.
That was a case where a local surgeon had another hospital employee murdered for having an affair with his wife. He stalked him for 2 years after the affair ended.
When the detectives knocked on his door three days later, after my leads panned out, the doc shot his wife and himself. So three people paid for that affair with their lives.
...and back to the lighter side again. Here in Chicago when we want turkey or other meat, we have these things called grocery stores. You just walk in, plunk down some $ and wa-la, they put it in a bag for you and you take it home. No sittin in the cold or blue hands for me! (Only thing I ever hunted for was a good sale. Well, that and maybe a lost shoe, car keys, etc.)
<<<Last year I had a turkey walk around my deer stand for 10 mins. Then it flew up into the tree I was in and roosted about 10 feet away. It was all I could do to keep from laughing. I left the tree after dark and it never moved. It was still there when I climbed back up the next day. LoL. It finally flew off after sunrise.>>
Ok, I know I'm a city gal but...and don't laugh at me, I thought turkeys didn't fly????
Angela
This message has been edited by nobodys.fool on Nov 15, 2006 5:36 PM
Wow, the things I learn here... I didn't know turkies flew and I DO live in "the country".
Several years ago, I worked for a friend in her home office WAY out in the country. They had all kinds of farm animals and added 5 turkies to their brood. At first, I was really scared of them, I'm just SO not an outdoorsy girl! Then, we developed a weird relationship: they'd all run to my car when I got there, walk me in the house, and then mill around outside the office until I went to get the mail. Then, we'd all walk single file across the yard to the mailbox. They were SO cool! I didn't eat turkey for 4 Thanksgivings after meeting them. I made her promise to never tell me what happened to them. I think they went to live on a farm with other turkeys, with lots of room to roam...
This year, we've adopted a deer at work whom we've named Tripod. She (he?) has 3 good legs and we take turns bringing her food. Turns out, she LOVES dog food! She is a gorgeous creature... but I sure don't want to meet any of her relatives while driving!
Monica
My yesterdays are all boxed up - and neatly put away.
See the turkey in the picture (the one wearing the lamp shade) with WHITE legs. That is a brown domesticated turkey. That was probably what was on the guy’s car, probably from a nearby farm or something. A truly wild turkey rarely lets themselves be seen by a non hunting human. Wild turkeys have tremendous eye site. It's their best defense. They also can take to wing for escape but their launch is sorta slow because of their weight. Once they get airborne, they glide. They may glide up to 1/4 mile then they use their loud calls to re-group. They live primarily on the ground so they need their good eye site to survive. It is said that turkeys can see 10 to 20 times better than humans. Deer, on the other hand, rely on their sense of smell which is easier to fool than the turkey's site, IMHO. Deer also use their speed to escape. BTW, it's really tough hitting a running deer (40 mph) with a cinder block. I don't care how good a hunter you are.
Here is the key to turkey's eye site. Because they are birds they can see in color. Unlike deer which are mammals that see in black and white with shades of gray in between. Humans are the only mammals that see in color.
Did you know that Ben Franklin wanted the wild turkey as the national bird? I like the eagle instead, but it shows you just how much respect the wild turkey has among outdoor people.
H2C,
It didn't escape from a farm. I've watched the population grow here over many years.
From the Minnesota Wild Turkey site
"Within 25 years the state's wild turkey population has grown from a few birds to more than 30,000. Harvest has followed suit. In the state's first wild turkey season in 1978, hunters bagged 94 birds. These days, hunters are harvesting more than 5,000 wild turkeys each spring."
Eagle or Turkey
Turkey is considered the Give-Away (pot latch) Eagle or South Eagle by many native people. In a pot latch a tribal member might gladly give away everything they own. The person who gives the most is most respected. So 'turkey medicine' is about giving.
When you're struggling to keep body warmth living out in the woods as winter settles, and you haven't eaten anything lately except some roots, grubs, and a couple bites of squirrel, the wild turkey tastes better than filet mignon at Charlie Trotter's in Chicago.
I know this happened in the 80's. The sleepy effect of turkey eating resulted in this dietary supplement to help people sleep better:
Genetically Engineered Food Can Cause Toxic Effects
The fact that genetic engineering can go seriously wrong was shown by one of the very first products introduced into the market. An amino acid called tryptophan was sold in a number of countries including the United States as a dietary supplement. In the late 1980s, the Showa Denko company of Japan began making tryptophan by a new process, using genetically engineered bacteria, and selling it in the United States. Within a period of months, thousands of people who had taken the supplement began to suffer from eosinophilia myalgia syndrome, which included neurological problems. Eventually at least 1500 people were permanently disabled and 37 died (Mayeno and Gleich, 1994).
Ah, but dietary supplements are neither food nor drugs, so they are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. Drugs produced in the manner noted must be tested for efficacy and safety by the drugmaker and approved by FDA.
