The article that was published was a great summary and perspective, but here is the whole story of Sydney's hunt. Its a LONG story and full of detail,s so I apologize if its too long, but it was one of those hunts that really needs to be told fully, especially in order to fully appreciate the article. The pictures and video at the end are mine and I'll try to keep those minimized since Michael Pearce from Kansas got the best pics!
We had a long day Wednesday, getting on a 0520 flight, a quick layover in Dallas, and then a short flight to Wichita. Syd’s guide picked us up and we started on a great note. With all we try to teach her about empowerment and being successful in a male-dominated sport, it was great to have a strong female guide. We got checked into our hotel room and then walked over to registration. It was great to see her name listed under the “celebrity board”, sandwiched between Michael Waddel and Billy Yargus. When we received Syd’s registration packet, I was amazed at all the great stuff she received. There was a Yeti tumbler with the Kansas Governor’s One Shot Turkey Hunt logo, a mouth call from Preston Pittman, a custom slate from Berndtwood Custom Calls, and a huge bag of peanut butter cookies. Apparently, a retired police officer bakes over 2,000 cookies to give to each hunter! Of course, I gave up sweets for Lent, so I couldn’t have any!
We went to the celebrity social followed by the welcome dinner Wednesday night and we had a great time. Word of Syd being the JAKES Essay Contest Winner started getting around and several folks were very excited to meet her. We sat at the Kansas Governor’s table and had a great time talking hunting with him. Shortly before everything started, Rob Keck, former NWTF CEO and emcee for all events, came up to introduce himself to us. We chatted a bit and then I told him to ask Syd about her elk hunt. His jaw dropped when I told him about her Unit 1 early rifle bull tag. As Rob was talking and introducing all of the “out of the ordinary celebrities” (Governors, Mayors, TV personalities, calling champs, etc.), he introduced Sydney as the JAKES Essay winner, talked a little about her accomplishments and interests, and then announced her elk tag. There were a few cheers and a few gasps from people who knew just what that tag means. We also met the landowner where Syd would be hunting. He was described to us a “gruff, mean old man with a heart of gold”. I guess I could see where the former descriptor comes from, but all I saw was a guy who became enamored with a 12-year old girl. We also met the gentleman who paid for all of our flights (TN and KS) and hotel stay in KS. Mark Elliott is truly a stand-up guy who believes in giving back. We didn’t get to bed as early as we’d have liked Wednesday night, but we got a little bit of sleep to be at breakfast around 4:30am. Fortunately, our hunting spot was a very short drive to the outskirts of town.
Thursday was almost nonstop action packed turkey hunting. The birds started firing off on roost at 6am Thursday morning. Not long after that, there were close to 30 birds in the field about 400 yards from our blind. Toms were strutting and gobbling. Toms were chasing Jakes. Jakes were acting all tough…until a tom showed up. Hens were chasing hens. Toms were chasing hens. Birds were gobbling like crazy. At one point, there were 10 mature toms in full strut. We had birds gobbling in the distance behind us, but on property we didn’t have permission to be on. When our guide started calling, a tom that was obviously old and wise broke away and started working towards us, gobbling his head off. About 100 yards from the blind, a lone hen walking off caught his attention and he ended up following her instead. Five jakes were following not far behind him in the same direction. We never saw that tom again, but three of the five jakes came back and goofed around at the decoys for about 10 minutes before wandering off. I was surprised that Syd didn’t ask to shoot one, but she told me later she was still under the impression the landowner didn’t want jakes shot. She was also hoping for a mature tom for her first bird! Shortly after that, we had two nice toms coming in strutting and gobbling, but they ended up hanging up at 60 yards. We thought for sure they would charge in and beat on the jake decoy with the hen, but they didn’t. We figured they must be two year old birds that have been whipped before by a boss tom for acting up. I’ve never seen a tom shy away from a jake decoy before. Not long after that, we had a lone hen walk up and start doing the half-strut to the lone hen decoy. We got to witness all kinds of cool things, there. She was the boss hen, for sure! She squared up against and then got up on her tip toes to be taller than the hen decoy and she was cutting and doing the fighting purr to instigate a fight. After about 10 minutes, she got bored and fed off out of the way.
Another 20-30 minutes went by and I looked up and a nice tom came out of the treeline. Syd’s guide started talking to him and got him to about 30 yards out. I had a great view from my spot in the blind and he was walking that way. We readjusted Sydney to shoot out the side window and she got lined up. Unfortunately, she missed her first tom. It was a clean miss and it looked like it went right over the top. She was bummed, but took it in stride, especially when we all started sharing stories of missing birds. Syd learned that there are three types of turkey hunters: 1) Those who have missed; 2) Those who haven’t missed yet; and 3) Those who are lying about missing. We regrouped after that and made a move to another blind about a half mile away. This blind was in a pasture that had lanes mowed in it and turkeys were known to move through all day long. In fact, the other hunter in that blind in the morning had something like 50-70 total birds move through, including several two-year old toms.
As we moved up to that blind, Syd and her guide went first since turkeys were always possible in the open there. Sure enough, there was a small group, but they got busted trying to maneuver for the shot. They didn’t go far and didn’t run off alarm putting, so we moved in quickly and got set back up. After about 20 minutes, I looked up and saw black feathers moving. “Turkeys coming in!” Sure enough, a huge group with 5-6 hens, 5-6 jakes, and two big strutters bringing up the rear worked their way in, feeding, and clucking as they went. Syd waited patiently for the two strutters to separate from the group and Mike, who wrote the article, called to get one to lift its head up. As soon as he did, Syd fired, but missed another one. She was extremely unhappy and not sure how she missed, but she held it together. We worked on keeping her calm, though. After things calmed down outside, we had a lone hen walk in to within three feet of the blind. That was cool to see, but no toms came in with her and she calmly walked off. Syd decided to practice her calling with one of her new custom slates. She’s getting really good at calling. About 5 minutes after she stopped, I looked up to see three of the biggest jakes I’ve ever seen walking in. One was in full strut and the other two had blue heads and were fired up! Syd called in her first birds and they were less than 20 yards from the blind. “I don’t care! I’m shooting a jake!” was all we heard as she raised her gun up. Unfortunately, that resulted in miss number three for the day. Tears started and hearts sank all around, but Syd actually got mad and demanded a solution. We talked a bit and Mike and Syd’s guide suggested we stop hunting for the day, get some light loads, and go practice.
A quick stop at a local place for a shake for Syd to calm her down was followed by a stop to get a box of light 20 gauge loads, and then we headed back out. Syd’s guide, Melinda, is a shotgun instructor and Mike has years of experience as well. I shot the gun the first time to check it. It was a little high at 30 yards, but not enough to cause a clean miss. Syd tried and we quickly figured out the problem: flinching at the trigger pull. Melinda had her do some dry fire exercises and worked with her on shooting a shotgun like a rifle. We figured out that Syd has been shooting her rifles and mine with extremely light triggers for so long, I never stopped to think that the heavy shotgun trigger would be a problem. I felt horrible and later apologized, almost in tears for failing her. After 5-6 dry fires, she had the hang of it and made one last shot with a live load, hitting the mark at 20 yards! Her confidence was back up and we had a plan for the morning!
The evening dinner was great, but we were glad when it was over. We were tired and ready for bed. They auctioned off 15 limited-edition Preston Pittmann custom box calls made specifically for this hunt. Syd wanted one in her lucky number 7, but when the first call went for $1100, I told her I’d get in so much trouble if I bid on one! I noticed that the landowner bought one for either $400 or $600, but it slipped my mind shortly after that.
We walked into breakfast at 0430 Friday morning and there was Mike with a box call in his hand. “Ramon bought this for you last night, but didn’t see you after dinner was over. He kind of likes you!” I was speechless, dumbfounded, and amazed! This guy has a reputation for being as grouchy, stubborn old man, but secretly has a heart of gold when he likes you and he loved Sydney! She found a sharpie and asked Michael Waddell to sign one side of it for her and he gladly obliged. Not long after that, we took off and were walking into another blind in a light rain. We had to be even more cautious and quiet because this blind was set up less than 100 yards from the roost site. We got set up just in time, too. The rain really started coming down. By about 0600, it started to let up and about 10 minutes later, we heard the first gobbles. The rain had them sleeping in that morning. Around 0620, I looked out my little corner window and saw a big strutter out in the field about 80 yards away and I let Melinda know. I looked back to see two strutters and a couple of hens. Then four total strutters and more hens. Melinda started calling and the two closes strutters started heading our way, walking wing-to-wing, strutting the whole time. They never gobbled, but they never broke strut and came closer with each set of calls from Melinda! Syd had her gun up and ready. “They’re right there. Can I shoot?” I told her to let them get a little closer, worrying about what a fourth miss might do to her. She insisted she had them dead on and then I heard Melinda, who was looking over Syd’s shoulder say “Whenever you’re ready.” I knew she had a better angle than I did and about three seconds later, I heard the BOOM followed by seeing the bird on the right drop straight in its tracks! The second bird ran right in front of the blind, but Syd missed it as it was running crazy. No worries, though, since we had Syd’s first turkey on the ground about 20 yards from the blind. We tried to call the other bird back, but he ended up walking off with the other hens, back where they came from.
This is when things got really interesting! We texted Mike (sitting in another blind across the field watching) to let him know we were ready to be picked up. He had asked us to stay put so as not to scare any other birds away for future hunters, but also because he wanted Syd’s genuine reaction for his story. Right after texting him, we heard gobbles fairly close. “Hold on with the pick-up. We have birds gobbling and we’re going to try to get one in!” Syd and Melinda started calling and I saw two turkeys pop out of the trees directly across from us. Both were toms and one had a huge beard. Then a hen walked out with them, followed by two more toms about 15 yards from them. We were really concentrating on those birds, with Melinda doing her best to lure one of the toms over, when Sydney blurted out “Oh $h!t! There’s a big tom right here!” and that’s when we saw the big tom 5 feet outside the blind, walking the gravel road. She stuck her gun out, shot, and missed. The bird was surprisingly clueless, kept walking like nothing happened, and Syd racked another shell, but missed the second shot. That’s when it got really good! The bird started running directly away from us and, rather than switching to the bigger window, Sydney ended up leaning halfway out the smaller corner window with her left leg kind of flopping for balance and fired a third shot. The bird face planted hard and skidded about three feet in the mud! It flopped a bit more than we wanted it to, but it eventually died and we had two big toms on the ground within 30 minutes of each other. We were done hunting by 0710!
Mike finally made his way to us and that’s when we discovered that Syd’s first tom had a double beard! All I could do was shake my head, knowing that some hunters wait a lifetime for that chance. Sydney did it on her first one! We took the trophy pics and then headed into the check-in station. Her first bird weighed 20 lbs, had 1-inch and 7/8-inch spurs, and 10-2/8” and 6-5/8” beards! It ended up scoring just over 74” and she gets to enter it into the Kansas Trophy book because of the double beard! For scoring purposes for the hunt, only the longest beard is scored and she had some points deducted for the previous day’s misses, but nobody cared about that. We cared that she had her first bird! Her second bird was 22.94 lbs, had 1-inch spurs, and a 10” beard. As we were getting ready for more trophy pics, she saw the landowner and ran over and gave him a huge hug. He was so excited for her and it was one of the best things I’ve seen. Michael Waddell even asked if he could have an official picture taken with her and another girl who scored two big birds that morning.
I’ll keep the rest short and sweet, but word got around about the cute 12-year old girl from Flagstaff who shot a double bearded turkey for her first one and what happened when she shot her 2nd bird. She had so many people walk up to her and hug her and congratulate her. One of my favorites was one of the veterans. Turns out, he served in the 173rd Airborne, same as my dad, and knew my dad’s famous picture. He survived the battle of Wanat in July 2008 in Afghanistan, but barely. With the connection of me knowing the unit, he and I formed a friendship, and he told Syd he’d do whatever is necessary to protect her and keep her safe! Yes, I got choked up. When it was time for her essay recognition at the banquet, everyone went crazy cheering for her when she was announced. Dr. James Earl Kennemer asked her to talk about her experience, but also asked her to not use the exact words! The video is too large to upload, but her words were "...to see this bird coming up, full strut, with me about to crap my pants..." The crowd erupt with laughter and, afterwards, I had several hunters come up to me, congratulate us, and agree with her feelings wholeheartedly! After her speech, they presented her with the gun she’d be bringing home. Turns out it is a Weatherby Vanguard 7mm-08 and it is the 2014 JAKES Gun of the Year. Even better: it is #1 of 190. Even though she already has a 7mm-08, she’s excited and has made it clear she’s keeping it forever and can’t wait to hunt with it!
When we got home Saturday night and were putting the birds up, we discovered that the cleaners/processors overlooked the second bird on her first bird. Syd was extremely upset, and rightfully so. I was almost in tears over that one and just about sick to my stomach. Fortunately, I remembered that I had a beard from a wolf-kill turkey in New Mexico, so we measured the right length, taped it off, and we’ll use that to represent the double beard when we finish her fan mount. To be sure, we’ll print a picture I took and put it nearby. In the spirit of not dragging this further, I’ll end it for now, but there is more in the works that she doesn’t even know about yet. But she now has three custom slate calls, thanks to Bill (turkhntr on here), her guide, and the Kansas Governor’s One Shot Turkey Hunt and she has two custom box calls thanks to a generous landowner and her parents. She did say that turkey hunting is her absolute favorite thing to hunt now and she's excited for the youth camp and a chance at her first Merriams and a third bird this season. We’ll see if turkey hunting is still her favorite when she’s chasing bugling bulls in late September in Unit 1!
The celebrity board, pre hunt
Anticipation, watching 10 toms in full strut and countless other birds
Hen displaying and challenging decoy!
Representing our friends at The Mountain Project before beginning the afternoon hunt on Thursday!
We all know boredom sets in while turkey hunting, especially after missing two birds.
First tom down!
Calling to returning birds
First Tom, Double beards!
Second Tom, 30 minutes later, thick beard!
Trophy Walk
Celebrity Board, post hunt
Banquet, Dr. Kennemer Introducing Sydney as the JAKES Essay Winner
Presented her rifle
Flight home
