2010 SYC Turkey Hunt

This past weekend I was blessed to be a part of an amazing event. The Special Youth Challenge Ministries of Northwest Iowa held their annual turkey hunt, and I was fortunate enough to get to participate as a guide during the hunt. It was definitely an experience I won't forget!

SYC is a non-profit, volunteer ministry that exists for the purpose of reaching people for Jesus Christ. The organization's vision is to empower physically challenged youth to enjoy hunting and the shooting sports and diminish a portion of their disability by teaching them to overcome barriers of the outdoors through the use of special methods, equipment or assistance from volunteers who desire to share their passion for shooting and hunting.

The event kicked off Friday afternoon when the hunters and guides began to arrive. The hunters are given the opportunity to get familiar with the equipment they will be using. The guns are modified so that hunters with limited mobility can use them by looking at a small video screen that shows the view through the scope and pressing a push-button controller that squeezes the trigger. Here is a picture of the setup.

Here is a short video I took of one of the hunters getting familiar with the gun. This was the first time this young man had ever fired a gun. (You can also click here to check out the video.)

On Friday evening a banquet was held where a delicious meal was served, a speaker delivered a message from God's Word, and each of the hunters were introduced. This year's event was one of the largest ever, with a total of 23 hunters participating. Each hunter is usually accompanied by a parent or guardian, and they are paired up with at least two guides for the hunt. There are also many behind the scenes volunteers who prepare food, landowners who donate the use of their property, and lots of people setting up and tearing down before and after the event. So altogether there are several hundred people who are involved to make the weekend a success.

The first hunt was scheduled for Saturday morning as all 23 hunters took to the field with their guides in search of that trophy longbeard. Despite some windy weather, that morning's hunt turned out to be great as five of the hunters harvested a turkey.

I was paired up with a young man from Minnesota named Zach Olson. Zach was involved in an automobile accident a few years ago that left him in a coma for 5 1/2 months. The injuries he suffered during the accident also affected his mobility which is improving, but he primarily has to remain in his wheelchair. I was also accompanied on the hunt by two other guides - Greg Somers and Josh Nelson.

During the first morning's hunt we heard turkeys gobbling all around us, but we just couldn't seem to coaxe one within shooting range. So we came back to camp empty handed on Saturday morning. But that evening proved to be a different story!

When we got to the blind that afternoon, the rain was steadily falling and at one point it was literally a downpour. That's when we noticed a hen and a gobbler walk out into the cornfield to our right about 100 yards away. The turkey calling duties had been assigned to me, and I tried my best to get the gobbler's attention with the slate call, but the rain was coming down so hard that he couldn't hear me. About 30 minutes later, after the rain subsided, I started hitting the call again. By this time the gobbler was out of sight, but I got him to respond to the call.

We could hear him answering back with a loud gobble almost everytime I hit the call over the next half hour. The rainfall hitting the blind and the sound of my slate call had apparently sung Zach to sleep, so as he snoozed the other guides and I kept our eyes peeled for the bird. After about a dozen gobbles from the tom in response to the call, it finally sounded like he was closing the distance. We could tell he was not far behind our blind, and when I looked to my right I saw him walking in directly to the decoys.

That's when all three of us guides began to frantically try to wake Zach up! We finally got him awake and ready to make the shot when we realized the safety on the gun was still on. So we got the safety off and helped Zach get realigned on the bird again. The slow day of nodding off in the blind quickly turned into about a minute of tense adrenaline. Zach fired the gun and made a great shot! The bird was standing 26 yards away, just past the decoys, and Zach hammered him with the 20 guage. Josh and Greg had no problems recovering the bird. We all celebrated, high-fived, and enjoyed the moment. The bird was an old tom that had a 10 1/2" beard and 1" spurs.

Congratulations on harvesting your first turkey Zach! I also should mention that SYC has taxidermy work done for each of the hunters who harvested a bird so they can show off and enjoy their trophy!

There were lots of memorable moments from the weekend, and one that I don't want to fail to mention was the opportunity I had to meet a young man named Matt Stutzman.

Matt is such an inspiration! He was born without arms, but has become one of the best archers you will ever see shoot a bow. How does he shoot a bow you might ask? Check out this video of Matt in action! (You can also click here to check out the video.)

As you can tell, it was a weekend full of inspiration and ministry. For more information about SYC Ministries or to make a donation check out their website at http://www.syciowa.com/. Here are some more pictures from the event.

Opening Day of Turkey Season

Turkey season started yesterday here in my neck of the woods, and my dad and I gave it our best shot to lure in an unsuspecting gobbler, but to no avail. We tried calling and setting up decoys at multiple locations on the property we hunt, but we didn't see or hear a turkey all day. We only saw a few tracks and it just seemed the birds were nowhere to be found. But, that's why they call it "huntin'" and not "killin'". Here are some pictures from the hunt.

This was our first decoy set, along the edge of a wheatfield in a spot where I shot a really nice gobbler a few years back. There is a creek bottom directly behind us that meanders through the property with a good stretch of woods where the birds have roosted in the past.

This was our second set, in an area that I would consider a mesquite savanna. That's my dad over there on the right.

This was the last place we tried, on top of a ridge where there is a nice stand of post oak and blackjack oak trees.

Some tools of the trade: a slate call and a Remington 1100 shotgun.

With no turkeys responding, I took the opportunity to take a picture of myself in action.

I saw this interesting-looking little cactus while we were hunting and snapped a picture. Anybody know what kind of cactus this is?

After we got done turkey hunting we put some protein pellets in a free-choice style feeder that we have positioned in the center of the property - in an area that we have designated as a "deer sanctuary" that is off-limits to hunting. We've had a game camera running at this site for quite some time, but we try to stay out of this area as much as possible so the camera has not been checked in about four months. I pulled the memory card and took it with me to view the pictures when I got home. While viewing the pictures I was tickled to death to see this:

I haven't gotten pictures of this deer since late October, and I had pretty much come to the conclusion that he had been shot on a neighboring property. This was the deer that I had nicknamed "Slingblade" because of his left G-2 being bladed like a knife. Much to my surprise, he made it all the way through the archery and gun seasons, and was photographed on our property in mid-February. I guess our little sanctuary might be paying off because we also got this picture of him in early December.

I can't wait to see what this deer looks like come this Fall! Hopefully he will just hang out on our property and show up on some more pictures before archery season rolls around.

Now on to the important stuff. We couldn't make a trip to the lease without stopping at this place!


I plan to do some more turkey hunting in the next month, and I've been busy working on a new trail camera that I hope to have completed in the next couple weeks, so check back for updates.

Odd Antlers

I changed out a memory card on one of my homemade trail cameras that I have at my "Official Camera Test Site" today and got a couple pictures of a very interesting deer...


Here is a cropped, close up for a better view.

A couple things are strange about this picture. First of all are those CRAZY antlers. What is up with that?!?! Secondly, this buck is still carrying his antlers as of March 18th, which is pretty late in the ballgame. This should make for a very interesting conversation piece.

I'm trying to think of a good name for this deer. What do you think I should call him?

More Shed Antlers and Some Colder Weather...

This morning, despite some windy, colder weather, my dad and I got up early and drove out to our hunting lease to try to look for some shed antlers. We haven't looked on this property yet this year, and we wanted to give it a try before the vegetation grows too tall to be able to spot them (and before it gets warm enough for the rattlesnakes to start moving). Temperatures have been in the 70's all week, but a cold snap moved in overnight bringing some snow flurries and temperatures in the low 30's. We gave it a valiant effort this morning, and I bet we walked every bit of five miles.

My dad found a small one on the edge of a wheat field right off the bat.

My dad ended up finding a total of 4, and I found 1, but all but the first one were old ones that have been on the ground since at least last year. We thought my dad might have found a matched set from an 8-point from last year, as he found two that were very similar in size and shape that were laying within 25 feet of each other. But after a closer look, I think the antlers were from two different deer.


I didn't have my good camera with me, so I was just taking pictures with my phone, and I stopped to snap these two shots of some of our Creator's handiwork while we were walking around through the woods.


The highlight of the day might have been the double-meat, double-cheese burgers we got for lunch at Herd's Hamburgers!

I also pulled a couple trail cameras that haven't been checked since the new year, so I had a good number of pictures to sort through. I got a picture of a really nice looking bobcat. Check out the markings on his coat and how heavily spotted he is.

I also got some hog pictures.


I was also really surprised to see that I had pictures of bucks still carrying their antlers as late as March 13th. I didn't have any pictures of bucks after that day so I'm not sure if they have even dropped them yet or not.


That may have been a contributing factor to why we only found one fresh one this morning...

Built Another Trail Camera

I've been working on another trail camera over the last several weeks and finished up the build a few days ago. This one is for a friend at church who happened to already own the specific model of Sony camera that I have been using for most of my trail cameras. Here are a few pictures of the finished camera:

Front view showing flash, camera lens, and motion sensor holes

Side view showing external toggle switch and pipe-thru security feature (for locking cable to go through to secure camera to tree or post)

Inside view of camera showing motion sensor control board, 9-volt battery, pipe-thru security feature, and Sony camera

Some features of this camera:
-Sony 4.1 megapixel digital camera with LCD screen to view pictures in the field
-Camera runs off two "AA" batteries while motion sensor runs off one 9-volt battery
-Mossy Oak waterproof case
-Pipe-thru security feature that allows a Python locking cable to run through the case to attach the camera to a tree or post for added theft prevention
-External toggle switch to activate/deactivate motion sensor to prevent unwanted pictures during set up or checking of the camera
-Two camera delay modes - trail setting or feeder setting
-Compact 6 1/2" x 4 1/2" case design that will fit in a coat pocket

I got another camera in the mail this week that I plan to begin work on soon that is a little bit newer model that takes higher resolution images. Hopefully I can get it into the field soon for some test shots. Stay tuned!