By Greg Traynor
This year I again had the pleasure to go hunting with my brother John and two great friends, Chris and Guy.
The quest started this year on Monday, May 14th 2012. My family loaded my action track chair after work onto my 4×6 trailer. Of course it was raining while we loaded the wheelchair. After the chair was secured onto the trailer, we noticed the left trailer tire was completely flat!
It was 7 PM, the action track chair was loaded and covered with a tarp and I had a flat tire! The tire had a metal screw lodged firmly in the treads. Great, just what I needed. Fortunately my nephew had a tire repair plug and tool in his car and quickly plugged the tire. With the help of a portable air compressor, I was back in business.
By 9:30 PM, I was in bed praying the tire patch would hold and I would not need the can of fix a flat we purchased that night. Tuesday my day started at 2:45 AM, I would like to say the alarm went off but in truth, I never slept. I have insomnia at times, but the real reason I didn’t sleep was because I was really excited to be hunting with my family and friends..
I woke up and Beth got me dressed and transferred into my wheelchair and we checked the trailer tire, the patch worked! I was out the door by 3:30 AM and on my way to Waynesburg PA to meet up with Chris and Guy to hunt on a beautiful 900 acre farm in pursuit of a spring gobbler.
Once we arrived, my pit crew set about transferring me from my everyday wheelchair into the action track chair or as I like to call it “my tank”. We rounded up my gun brace, backpack and shotgun. And made our way up the mountain, Guy and John set out on the Honda quad, me in my tank with Chris walking beside.
We reached the summit by 6 AM, it was still dark and the fog was everywhere. Guy made a few calls. (Did I mention he is a professional turkey caller and call maker?) We decided where to go in order to set up our two ground blinds.
Figure 1 “Photo” John, Greg and Guy waiting for the fog to lift, on top of the ridge line in Greene County.
After getting our decoys out and all of us in the ground blinds, Guy proceeded to throw out calls. Although there were a few responses we were unable to get a turkey to come into shotgun range. By 11:30 AM we decided to change locations. By this time the fog was long gone and it was a fantastic morning in Pa.
Figure 2 “Photo” Greg moving to a new location in the Action TrackChair.
We made a few calls at several points but had no response, so we did not set up the ground blinds again. It was afternoon and we decided to go in for lunch. We were all hungry and ready for some good food.
Chris lives close by, so he called his wife Tina who graciously agreed to make us all lunch. While enjoying our lunch we sat in their game room surrounded by the most spectacular examples of taxidermy I have ever seen. Chris and his family are outstanding hunters and proudly display their trophies in their home. There on the walls were beautiful mounts of whitetail deer, sheep, waterfowl and even fish from all over the USA.
Lunch was over so we thanked Tina for a great meal and we went back out and hunted hard all afternoon. Unfortunately I did not fill my turkey tag that day. I did manage to bank many memories with family and friends that will last a lifetime. I can’t wait to get back out there in 2013! I know a mature tom is waiting for me to call him in I just need to put in the time.
How was your 2012 spring turkey season? Please share your thoughts and experiences!
