GUIDED TURKEY HUNTING IN MAINE

Turkey Hunt – May 4

I was lucky to be gifted with a guided turkey hunt with Casey Mowers of Reddog Guide Services by my husband,
Tom Barks. The excitement of the following day made it impossible to not wake up at 2 a.m. Surprisingly, and happily, I was able to get ready and leave without waking up Tom, the pup or our daughter. I arrived at Casey’s at
3:45 a.m. and the crisp darkness was full of the sounds of peepers.
Our first stop I was so excited and ready to get things going, but as we began to discuss things, Casey noticed red
lights in the distance. Headlamps, and in the exact spot Casey had planned on setting up….What a let down, but
we didn’t have time to waste so we got back in the truck and off we went to another location. Upon arrival Casey
said we were going to need to book it to get set up in time and of course I respond “No problem, I may have short legs but I make up for it with enthusiasm” and we began through the field. Casey eventually slowed us down at a
good spot, but still wanted to ensure he was in the best spot possible. A few more steps and all of a sudden we
heard and saw turkeys spook from the trees….oh no! We quickly backtracked and set up to wait and hope.
As the morning light started to show itself, the birds and bugs began to make their familiar sounds. It reminded me
of sitting in the goose blind, watching and hearing everything wake up with the start of the day. Soon, the same
turkeys we saw spook began to come off their roost one by one with a quiet elegance. After giving them some time,
Casey began to work on them with his calls. Before I knew it up pops the head of a Jake cresting the hill and he begins to work his way to the decoys. Now, Casey and I will tell the following in two different ways with the end result being the same. In my version, I hear him whisper “it’s a Jake” and I, of course, ask “can I shoot it?” (duh!).
He tells me if I wanted to then go for it. I very slowly pulled up my gun and lined up my shot. I took a couple of deep
breaths, pulled the trigger, and down he went! I couldn’t believe it and sat there stunned. Casey then used the calls again and we heard more chattering. He decided the best thing to do was to belly crawl up the hill to see what was going on. We get to the top and carefully look to see a large flock of several hens and Jakes together. I was given the choice of going after another Jake or trying elsewhere for a Tom and no surprise, I decided I’d like to try for a
Tom. We gathered our things, including the stinky Jake (you can ask Casey about that) and made our way back to his truck.
Once we got it tagged, we moved on to looking for a Tom. We didn’t see much and stopped at a few places to see if we got any responses to calls, but again with no luck. The morning was getting late and we decided we’d stop at one last spot. We began walking down a damp dirt road paralleling a field when all of a sudden we heard a loud and close gobble. Next thing we knew a Tom runs across the road in front of us, but it was certainly too far and moving too fast to attempt a shot. We both dropped down to the ground hoping there was another around. Casey began to use his call and we got another close gobble in response. I slowly got up on one knee looking, waiting and hoping. Soon I saw its head, I slowly pulled my gun up and whispered to Casey that I could see it. Casey was staying as low to the ground as possible to avoid being seen by it and said: “if you have the shot, take it because I
can’t see sh*t”. The Tom came out into the road more, I took a deep breath and took my shot. I can’t believe it still,
but I connected! I tagged out in one amazing day!
I am so appreciative of being gifted this experience and to have had Casey to guide and help me on this hunt. I’m so excited for next season and will be trying it on my own. I would highly recommend reaching out to Casey for his services. He’s informative, comfortable to talk to, and I felt he was as invested in my success as I was.