Turkeys

I know it doesn’t have much to do with pointing dogs, but I thought I’d pass on my first dumb move of the year 2026.

As we do quite often, Grady, Lane, and I took a hike through the mountains, hoping to find a bird. I always like to go to different places. While hiking, Grady crossed some Turkey scent. I was pretty sure that’s what he was on because at one time, he was about 400 yards away. He very seldom gets that far. Pretty soon, I hear some barking, and a Tom and two Jakes come flying by. I know that’s not what a pointing dog is supposed to do, but Grady has learned that those big birds will run fast forever, and you have to do the same to ever get close to them. So, over the past couple of Springs, I haven’t tried to break that habit and let him have his fun. It happened three times that day, along with one time on a ruffed grouse he had treed.

One more thing on the turkey-chasing part of this story. A Tom flew across the canyon on an open and sagebrush slope. I watched him land and then proceed to run up the steep slope. Shortly after it landed, I watched Grady hit the scent of the turkey’s trail. It was so fun to watch Grady follow that scent trail up the hill where the turkey went. Man, those dogs have great noses. Back to the blunder.

I was kind of naked on the hill that day because with all the moisture we’ve had, I didn’t have to pack any water for the dogs. So I just left the rig with my phone and the remote for Grady’s collar. My pockets were where I held the remote and phone in. I know that’s always a stupid move. The vest or pack has things in case of an emergency. I learned forty years ago that lesson. Never take your pack off and leave it, thinking you’ll just come back and pick it up soon. That lesson almost cost my life. That’s a different story, but my vest should have been on simply because that’s where I’m used to carrying my remote.

We got into some birdie country, and I decided to film Layne going through the brush while Grady was off doing his thing.

I was enjoying watching how bold she’s getting in the cover. I went to look for my remote to see where Grady was, and wasn’t too happy to find it wasn’t with me anymore. Yep. Panic set in. I took the whistle out of my pocket and blew it. Grady recalls great to the whistle, but I haven’t had to use it for years. I was glad that at least I carried a whistle in my pocket, and Grady found his way to me. He got to me, and I continued to look for the remote, keeping Grady from going too far away.

I recalled that the last time I had remembered looking at the remote was about a quarter mile away at the edge of the timber. I followed the route back to that spot the best I could. I was following Layne the whole way up and down through the brush, trying to film her. No luck. I was pretty sure it was in this one sagebrushy area and concentrated my effort there. The next problem arrived.

I had to head home and take that stuff that helps clean your body out for a colostomy, only it was to probe down my throat instead of you know what. You have those certain times you have to make each fun move in accordance with the time of your fun two and a half hours at the hospital. Which is at 1:30 tomorrow. Oh boy.

So, I get home and find that Garmin can track exactly where the remote is as long as it’s left on. I got the coordinates and was at least excited that I was correct at where I thought I had lost it. I called my grandson Conner to see if maybe he might help me the next morning to find it. He agreed and mentioned that we go up early and try to call a turkey in. So we got up early and did just that.

My problem there was that Conner hadn’t gotten his turkey tag yet. He wanted to save his tags for a later hunt we would be taking up at Dworshak. So was I. Conner is all set up with good filming equipment, so I suggested we do that, and he suggested that I take my shotgun too. The short of this part of the story is, He did a fantastic job of calling, he had the filming camera all set up, and Tom put on a beautiful show for us. Right up to the point that I couldn’t resist pulling the trigger.

It happened early, and we spent the next two hours looking for the remote. We had the exact spot where Garmin said it was located. We treated it like a wounded animal and covered all of the country around that spot. No remote. Conner had to leave because he had another friend to take turkey hunting in the afternoon. I have to blow Conner’s horn here. His friend is already Conner’s fifth turkey called in for someone this Spring. 3 youths, me and his buddy. He’s pretty good.

After he left, I drove back over and looked for another hour with no luck. It had to be there. There’s no way Garmin could come up with that location unless it was sending a signal.

Now I’m sitting here typing, drinking fluid, crapping it out, and going back to typing. And then going through that process again and again for the next 8 hours. I won’t be able to look again until the day after tomorrow sun up.

One last thought I had while making that video of Layne running through the sage. You can hear the on-point signal on the remote at the end of the video. I still had it at that point. My thought was to take Grady’s collar back to that location and turn it on in hopes it would sync up with the remote. It would then send out that same sound after I stood there for 45 seconds. But I’m pretty sure the batteries will be dead by then.

I got my new remote ordered, and it will be here on Tuesday. I have to have one. My nerves can’t handle being with my dogs and not being able to always know where they are. I’m now out almost $800 and going to have to go through the headaches of reprogramming the collar and the InReach part of it, also.

I remember a show called Forrest Gump, and he said: “Stupid is as stupid does”. Is that ever true.