The Mighty Hunters

 Great times with Colby hunting pheasant and going after a turkey. My co-worker has property in Newton and invited a bunch of us from work to come shoot a turkey and pheasant, and have a great time. I took him up on his offer and Colby was my wing man for the fun adventure. I have never been bird hunting before, so this was a new experience for Colby and me. 

We left in the afternoon with high hopes to get something. It had snowed that whole week, so the odds were not in our favor that day. When we got there, Trevor and Tyler from work were there and we hung out for a bit and let the rain settle down. Once the rain settled down we went out and walked around to see if we could get a pheasant to fly up. No luck when we walked around. Chad said there were two by his garage we could try and shoot. Colby was excited and said, "Let's do it." So off we went. We knew where they were, and we had to be careful because we were by the dogs. We were locked and loaded, one flew up and I shot and feathers flew everywhere. I was excited I got it! The second bird flew up and Tyler shot and Trevor and I almost crapped our pants because he shot the dog house and the dog ducked and ran. Oh boy we thought. Colby and I walked up and saw our bird. The one side of the breast was massacred. Later we found out that Trevor took a shot at the bird also. I had no idea we must have shot literally at the same time. I only heard one shot go off as I shot at it. That makes sense on why the bird was toast. 

Colby loved all the different colored feathers on the pheasant and wanted to keep some. He helped me take the feathers off and cut off the head. He told me I had to do the gutting part. I laughed and agreed. The rest of the day was waiting for the turkeys to come out. Colby and I went out and walked around to see if we could see more pheasants. We walked by a ravine and about 6 birds flew, but they are so fast I could not get a shot off quick enough. There were a couple of birds that flew behind me and I turned and Colby was behind me, so of course those got away. Colby was like "Dad shoot them!" I laughed and said, "If I shoot at them then you will be part of the target also." He told me that makes sense why you didn't shoot. It was fun hanging out with my oldest boy hunting, these are great memories we will always have. The day was uneventful of getting a turkey. We saw them around 5 pm and started to go after them, but they high tailed it out of the area as fast as they could. Poor Colby was wet and tired by the end of the day. We took our one bird and headed home as the fearless hunters.  

We decided to eat the bird at the same time we making food for dinner on the smoker. I was really taken back on how small the bird actually was. I have always heard from others that there is not much meat on a pheasant and now looking at one for the first time they were right. I brined the meat over night, and put it on the smoker hoping for a successful cooking. Once the bird was done, I took it off and we tried it for the first time. I was a little tough and chewy. We found some left over shotgun pellets in the meat that I hadn't gotten out. Poor Colby took a piece and walked away saying yum, but walked right back in and said here is a pellet. I laughed at it because it is like the scene in Back to the Future and Marty is eating a rabbit that was killed and while he was chewing he bit into a pellet and spit it out. I took off the meat and there was literally only a small bowl full of meat to eat. Hunting is not always about killing and getting your tag filled, it is the fun memories that are made and spending time with those you hunt with. We will definitely have to go again.