Solitude

This weekend I went down to my home town to see some family and to take my wife to the annual Hillsboro Arts & Crafts Fair. I wasn’t planning on going down, but some last minute plans got changed and I went. My idea of fun isn’t really walking around and looking at crafts with another 60,000 people. I happen to like Hillsboro when the normal 2500 residents are the only ones there. So I decided to capitalize on an opportunity I had. I went out with somebody to shoot a little bit. I needed to fire some rounds through my 500 Smith and Wesson to make sure everything was working properly. I was also given a chance to fire 14 rounds through a Barrett M82A1 .50 caliber semi-automatic rifle. So I decided to decline the offer. Just kidding, do you think I am that stupid? I accepted the offer and shot the 14 rounds through and was fairly impressed with my 4” group of 8 shots at 100 yards. Another fun thing to do with that gun is to shoot two rounds as fast as you can, that gets the adrenaline going as the shock wave comes back and blows through your nostrils and almost blows your ear plugs out. I must admit that I enjoyed spending time away from the crowds and being outside and enjoying nature, shooting the Barrett, and blowing up mud clods with my 500.

In the Bible, one thing we see over and over is Jesus getting up early in the morning to get away from the crowds and spending time in prayer. If Jesus, being God, needed to spend time with God, then we know that we should strive to do the same. You and I need to make it a habit to get away from the “crowds” and spend time with the Lord in prayer and reading His Word. Now getting away from the crowds may mean closing the door to your office or going down the street to get a coffee. It doesn’t matter what method you use, the important part is that you are spending time with God. I try to spend a 15-30 minute window each morning in my office reading my Bible and praying. It doesn’t always happen due to certain things going on. But I try to make that my morning routine, and if I can’t, I will try it some other time in the day. Hunting season is coming up, so I can spend my early mornings out in the field with my Bible on my phone and read as I listen for the turkey clucks.

If you are ever faced with a tough decision as I was this weekend, either to walk and look at crafts or shoot a Barrett, I hope that you make the right decision.

Opening Day, How Beautiful

Yesterday was opening day of spring turkey season here in Kansas. It seems as if I have been waiting for that day for months. Turkey hunting is one of the most trying and rewarding kinds of hunting there are. You don’t think that a big bird with a brain the size of a walnut (and fewer brain cells than a cockroach) would be too hard to hunt, but they are quite a challenge. Mainly because they are very wary of everything. If they see something that looks “unusual” they will stop and turn around. If they see a body move at 500 yards away, the take off running like the world is ending. The trick is to outsmart them, which sounds silly knowing that they are almost brainless. When you sneak in the timber in the dark hours of early morn and set up on a tree with a decoy or two out, and you begin to hear a few yelps followed by a gobble, you know that you are in the right place. When they fly down from the trees and you see the big toms strutting and the hens running around, it is a glorious day. When they walk away and you don’t see them again that day, you have still had a great day of hunting. There aren’t too many birds around that can challenge the beauty of a strutting tom. The colors are iridescent, his head changes from red to blue to white, his tail fans out, he puffs up to three times his size, and it is beautiful. Watching the birds strut and run around is 66% of the fun of hunting. The other 33% is the rush of having the birds in range and looking at them down the end of the barrel, knowing that they are yours. Even when you don’t shoot, they are yours, because you know that you can drop them at anytime.

In Kansas all you can bag is two bearded turkeys in the spring. My associate, Brian, went out yesterday and today, no birds down, but he has seen them each day, so not a total loss. I went out yesterday and had some come in, watched them for a while, and then realized there were a couple toms strutting away. As I was watching them, it looked as if they were getting ready to move farther away, so I decided I should probably drop one of them. So I did. He had a nice 10 inch beard. It was a two year old, judging by the spurs. This guy weighed only about 15 pounds; I was amazed at how light he was. Nevertheless, I got one, and he looked good. This morning I decided to go out to the same place, just 50 yards down the fence line. They yelped and gobbled for about 45 minutes and then flew down extra early. About 30 minutes later they poked their heads out on the other side of a brush pile about 100 yards out. There were about 5 hens. They stopped at the fence line, about 60 yards from me. I didn’t think they were going to cross, but then the tom came, strutting away. He came up to the fence and then the hens went under, followed by him. The hens starting walking away from me, soon to be out of range. The tom followed. I was a little nervous. “Will this work?” I thought to myself. But then he stopped and walked the other direction, out in the open for about 5 seconds. I decided now or never, and boom! There he was flopping, 50 yards out, not too far for a 3 ½ Remington Premier Hevi-Shot #5. This one was from the same batch, 9 ½ inch beard, 2 year old, but he weighed in at a nice 21 pounds. So I have my birds. I will leave the gun home and bring out the cameras and go with Brian to video his hunts. That sounds like fun, because after all, two-thirds of the fun of hunting is watching them.