So your out to bring home ONE turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. You get up early on weekends & stumble out of the house to the truck., & as the season grows closer maybe a few mornings before work. Yes the dawning of the day is beautiful, sure am glad you don't have to do it every day though. It is doable, most certainly. To find that One special bird. To be the provider for those that depend on you for comfort, protection and security. That One special place where you can hunt without distraction or interference from other hunters. Now multiply that times 2, not to much harder. They say eating for two is as cheap as eating for one. So two can't be that much harder, right. What about three birds, what about four, or perhaps five. Now you say who would be crazy enough to want to locate five birds for five hunters. People that are dedicated to the sport, or perhaps a professional. Well you just glimpsed what a life of a guide is like. When I'm in " turkey mode I'm up at 3am every day, regardless of weather. That can make for a long season.

As I sit writing you it is 2:15 am, this is my first article for NHWF, and I would like it to be a good one. I'm not much of a writer, having been "labeled" dyslexic since early childhood, back in the days when it wasn't really understood, but was a " label'" for a "lazy" child. Sure glad those days have changed. As I was saying writing is like s foreign language for me, one that I never have heard before. Yes I write things backwards, never mind read things backward so I think I understand them, but my wife or someone else might not. So why did I undertake a task such as this? Why does a person climb a mountain? Most likely the same answer, because it was there. Several years ago there were some studies done on people with " learning disabilities" such as dyslexia. It was found out that they were not " learning disabled " at all. They are people that learn in very different ways from the standard "European" process. In fact it was discovered that they have a unique ability to understand time space relationships. Like hunter gatherers. Not unlike our own Native Americans, which I am a small percentage of. In fact it appears that aboriginal peoples across the planet and time had these same unique abilities. They needed to in order to live in their world. They cultures were also very oral usually having no written language. {Ask anyone that knows me, I'm Very Oral and as you can se I can't write a lick.}Just as you know where every piece of furniture is in your house, when the cat or dog want's to be let out of fed, they had that innate knowledge of their environment. When fruits would ripen in one valley before another, or where the does & cows would go to separate themselves from others, to be safe enough to give birth. To know that in which moon would bring which bounty from their Mother, Earth. Boy do I wish I was that good. In todayís society we have the benefits of modern technology. Such things as GPS units, Fish Finders, Compound Bows, Range Finders etc. These things make our lives easier "supposedly" when it comes to accomplishing the task at hand. I do know that I get to read about them and often get to see them in use by my clients. Personally I don't like technology. Much to the chagrin of my wife, I don't even own a cell phone. I tell her it is because I don't like the way they rudely interrupt ones life away from such anchors, when in fact I also see them as an unwanted nuisance that cost money of which I would like to spend what little I seem to keep hold of on things I deem more important. Such as clothing or the food that I do not harvest. Boy do we have it easy compared to the folks that lived eons before us. Well most of the time anyway's.

I once had this gent who had hired me to guide him for bear. We talked at some length about caliberís & his experiences equipment etc etc. Since he was using a modern long gun, I had discussed with him my reasons for calling bears for people with such a desire. Now he was truly loaded for bear, with a 300 Wetherby Mag. Which according to him was much more powerful and accurate than the well known 300 Winchester Mag. He extolled the virtues on me ,which in all truthfulness fell on deaf ears since I had never hunted with either one previously nor at that time had, had any clients that had. Bear calling is an art that isn't practiced much hear in the east, but is used a fair amount in the west, quite successfully I might add. Bear calling is similar to predator calling. The one major difference between east and west is, in the west it is usually used when a bear is seen spotted. Which works for them because their ecosystems are much more open and have greater and farther visibility than we do here in the east. Here you have to find a place that has "FRESH" bear sign for it to be reasonably successful. Calling is a very exciting way to hunt bears. You know, can't see the forest for the trees. They may not be as efficient predators as some of the others that share our world, but they are the biggest and certainly the strongest and as we all know complete opportunist when it come to food. Why did you take your bird feeder in when the snow was gone? When a bear comes to call, they are coming to intimidate, runoff, or kill what ever has just made that rabbit sound like it wished it had been deep in a brush pile at that moment. A dominant bear often will come in aggressively, and you can hear then coming from an extended distance. Their coming in to eat meat. Often when I hear one coming in like this the hair on the back of my neck will stand on end. Even though our local bruins are supposed to be more afraid of us than we are of then, they don't always know that., some one forgot to tell some of them. Coupled with sitting on the ground trying to be well concealed and wearing camo,, this can get the old ticker a jumin a bit, let me tell ya. Which brings us back to this Gent I started this story with. He had never hear of calling bears, which most people in the east haven't. Enough so that I've been told by people, even people from NH F&G that I don't know what I'm talking about. Anyways he was game to try as long as he could be up a tree in my tree stand. I pointed out that black bears could climb tree also, but he retorted that he felt safer there especially with me on the ground. Gee thanks pal. Ok, so up he went. We were in the White Mountain National Forest near a beach stand that had a lot of fresh sign. I set it up so that we were overlooking a small wildlife opening with the wind quartering towards us from the beach stand. I started a calling & with the first notes from that call the Gent damn near fell out of the tree. I've since learned to exhibit what it sounds like "before" we go into the woods. It's now 3:15am, & I gotta go find some turkeys I'll finish this story some time today before I hit the hay, I hope. Nope couldn't make it back yesterday. It's now 2:30 on the 20th let's see what I can accomplish today. After 20 minutes of calling I was patting myself on the back. Across the wildlife opening, about 60yds away an average sized bear had stepped out and was scenting the air trying to find the dying rabbit. I was intently watching the bear expecting the report of the rifle any millisecond. I looked, & I listened as the bear searched his way towards our position, but still I didn't hear a shot. slowly I turned my head towards my client to see what was going on with him. He couldn't be a sleep, those calls are loud enough to wake the dead. As I got my head around I could hear & then see he was up in the tree muttering to himself that he couldn't believe that I'd called in a bear, that he'd never heard of such a thing before. I slowly looked back at the bear which was now 20yrds. out in the opening. I turned just enough to the client to direct my voice to my client while keeping an eye on the bear that was still scenting the air and moving in our direction. Softly, but as loudly as I dared at that point I said to my sport " shoot the bear" and once again expected to hear the report of the rifle, nothing. I looked back to the sport again while still keeping one eye on the bear I said again to the sport" Shoot The Bear". Still not a move from my client. I was beginning to grow a little concerned, by this time the bear was more than half way across the opening. Being in full camo with face mask & mostly quartering wind from the bear to us I was certain that the bear was not going to know I was there, and with the way things were going at the time I was pretty sure he would step on me before my client shot unless I did something more drastic. When the bear was about 15yrds. from me I stood up, the bear just looked at me and his look was unmistakable. I don't know what you are, or what you are doing hear but I'm hear to get that dying rabbit. I then turned my head just enough while keeping an eye on the bear which was now less than 15yds and simultaneously withdrew my 44mag from it's shoulder holster. I said to the sport" SHOOT THE BEAR" expecting one of two thing to happen. Either I would shock my client into action or the bear would figure out that I was human an decide to make a judicious exit. Neither happened. My client still up in the tree was still muttering about not believing anyone could call in a bear & the bear was beginning to look at me as if I would make a good substitute for the rabbit. I then turned to the bear and LOUDLY told him in no uncertain and unprintable terms to leave now of forever regret his decision. He didn't budge. So I trained my pistol quartering just in front of his right shoulder and pulled the trigger. He bawled as he rolled over biting at his chest, got up to run when the second round ended it all. As I went over to the bear to examine him my client awoke from his trance & began coming down the tree in the climbing stand. I flipped the bear on his back to begin to dress him out when I felt a firm clap on my shoulder and a voice saying " thanks for shooting my bear for me" I said something like excuse me, to which he repeated himself. I responded that I had to shoot the bear because of his inaction and that I had to put my tag on it. It was the law, to which he responded that we were out here all alone and no one would know & he wouldn't tell any one. I said something to the effect that I would know and that was enough for me. Well the next few sentences out of his mouth contained some words I didn't know existed in the English language. He was a very upset gentleman so much so that he stormed off to the truck by himself. As it turned out I put him in front of another bruin two days latter after which he became human again.

So you say, huh interesting story, but what's the point. Yea it is kinda interesting. The point of relaying these event to you is not just for an interesting column. There is a moral to the story. When a client hires a guide it is expected that the guide will have done his job and that will increase the chances that the client might encounter the desired quarry. It is NOT A GARENTEE. Also the client has a responsibility also. One that is not often stated or understood by some. When a guide and client go into the out of doors in pursuit of anything the client has the responsibility to be prepared. To practice ahead of time so that he can cast that fly more than 10 yds. To practice enough be able to make a killing shot when one presents itself and if the client is not up to the task at hand it is the clients responsibility to inform the guide well ahead enough of the departure so that the guide can take the necessary steps to ensure that the client is going to be as prepared as possible. When a client hires a guide a partnership. Don't try to sound like your the next "great white hunter" or a world traveling fly fisher unless you are. For that partner ship to work at optimum it take both parts doing their jobs to be successful and even then that is still no guarantee. I would like to make it absolutely clear that the VAST majority of clients either come in well prepared or are very up front about what they do or do not know. It is the exception that for what ever reason either tries ties bluff his way through or doesn't know enough to know he doesn't know enough. the second are usually easy to spot. The prior can be a little harder depending on the delivery. Remember you guide wants you to be successful. They will have done their homework to give you the best of their abilities. You owe it to your self, to the guide along with the quarry to be properly prepared so there will be as small a chance as possible of pitiful poor performance.