At the "Wheelin Sportsmens Banquet" thursday i volunteered to be a guide for saturdays hunt. They were expecting 18 or so handicapped hunters to show up.
Today , upon arriving at the area we were hunting, it was learned that only 11 people would be hunting. I still got to be a guide and was assigned an older gentleman.
His name is Jim and he is 85 yrs old. As we sat in our blind and talked about hunting and many other things i learned a lot about Jim. He shared with me some of the past hunts he has been on, some including pheasants,mulies,whitetails and several others. He seemed most fond of the pheasant hunts in South Dakota many yrs ago but he also relished the Mulie's he had killed over the years. The one game animal Jim had not killed but really wanted to was a turkey so he signed up. Having had knee replacement surgery,a broken back and neck,he met the requirements for this hunt not to mention his age. We didnt get a bird today but he had a great time and so did i (only saw hens). It will go down as one of my most memorable hunts. To see someones face light up when they see a turkey the way Jim's did was something else.
I also got to meet some of the other handicapped hunters including a younger fellers in a Wheelchair named Mitchell. It was Mitchell's first turkey hunt and he got a Jake! He was soooo happy.
Over all, the hunt was a huge success. Not only did everyone have a super time but there was 8 Turkeys killed out of 11 hunters.That is a super success rate for this type of hunt and in bad weather also.
Five of the turkeys were longbeards of 9" or greater and two sported spurs that were close to 1-1/4" long. I'm looking forward to helping out again
