First I want to thank the hunters helping kids chapter for allowing me to come and participate in the spring turkey hunt. I would also like to thank Dick Worden and his family for welcoming me and the other members from Hunting the Backwoods who came on the trip with me we just want to say thank you for the hospitality and for treating us just like family we really enjoyed that. I had a really great time in New York hunting for turkey. When we first arrived at  the cabin were me and my hunting group were staying at, we all were over whelmed by how the turkeys were every where, but once we all got in the woods and did some scouting it was even more amazing to hear turkeys gobbling everywhere. To hear so many turkeys gobbling at one time is a sound like no other you will ever hear and it sure does get your knees knocking. So here is how my hunt went. Saturday we got in to our blind we had set up the night before and just called all morning long and we had turkeys gobbling every where. So my dad got up in this tree stand that sits about 35 feet in the air to let us know where  the birds were coming from, so my dad spots some, we get out of the blind to go check it out and we spot them, so we lay on the ground so they don’t spot us ,but it was too late, we were spotted and they were too close so we could not move, when we get back to the blind we come to find out from my dad that the turkeys circled around and went past our blind when we were not even in it. So the turkeys outsmarted us that time, but they didn’t Sunday. So its Sunday the last day, we get into where we are hunting and find that the blind we had set up was missing, so that’s ok no worries just gives us a chance to get a jump on where the turkeys have been coming out of,  so we sit along this big open field and wait, well we start calling the turkeys and we have them calling  every where, then we hear someone shoot right behind where we are sitting, so we start to figure the day is done because that’s what usually happens. Later we start to call the turkeys again, we only get one to answer and by that time my dad gets on the radio and says that we have birds in the field headed towards the rode we walked in on, so we get up and go after them so we can cut them off, well it worked. My turkey caller guy and I sit and wait for them. Then we see them come in and I start to shake so Troy (my turkey caller) tells me to take a deep breath. So then the three birds start to walk out to where I can get a shot at them and the first one walks out, then the second, then the third and wammm the third one goes down. Yep that’s right I got my first turkey in Pulaski New York and I have got to say there is no better feeling in the world than seeing that bird go down and knowing that you just got your first turkey. Also when I went up to retrieve my turkey Troy says that he can’t get up because he tucked his foot underneath him when we went to sit and wait for the birds to walk in that will teach him to do that again.

 A Special thanks to:

  I want to thank everyone who made this possible for me to come and enjoy hunting with the Hunters Helping Kids organization in New York. I want to give a special thank to and his family for inviting me to come up and hunt. I also want to thank Dale Dodson for taking time out of his busy schedule to come and help with the whole thing. I want to thank everyone once again for everything they did to make this hunt possible I really enjoyed it and don’t worry I will be back.

I also want to thank Fitzgerald Auto Mall for giving us a Highlander to use for the trip. I also wanted to thank Tom Ackley from Northern Pennsylvania for the Gun Sock that he gave me. His company is called Cusom Cun Socks by Ackley

 Written By: Danielle Strickhouser

Hunting the Backwoods Member