2010 Spring Turkey Season
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Turkey Season Summary Letter 2010
Well I know you all want to know how our season went. So I am going to give you the stats first.
TOTAL NUMBER OF:
Hunters -------------38 –2 bow ---36 gun
Observers-----------1 little boy watching his Dad from PA. 1 Dad watching his son from here in KS. And another Dad watching his Daughter and her best friend from L. Is. N.Y.
Birds Harvested---46
Tags to be filled----72
Misses----------------41 “whoa”
Kids that hunted---10
Rio Grande----------7
Eastern---------------29
Hybrid----------------9
Jakes------------------12
First Timers---------10
Birds getting mounted—3
Tail Mounts---------20
Heaviest Bird-------25 and ½ lbs. taken by Chris Galati on April 24th
Longest Single Beard—11 5/8 inches also Chris Galati same bird
Multiple Bearded Birds—5-total---3 triple----2 double (both Jakes)-----1 sextet
Yes, that’s right, our first ever six bearded bird taken by Dave Ketcher of MN on his very first turkey hunt. He took a very nice bird on his first day and then took this bird on the following day. The beards measured, 9 ¼, 5 ¼, 5, 4 ¼, 4, and 4. Totaling up to 31 ¾ inches, he weighed in at 19 ½ lbs and his spurs were 1 inch long. Plus he made an excellent 50 yard shot.
Our 3 bearded birds belong to Joe Colgan, MN. Stephen O’Donnell, L. Is. N.Y. (Youth) and Tom Connors, also of L. Is. N.Y.
Our two double bearded Jakes belong to Richard Ashley of CT. (Youth) and Dillon Damron/Smith of Buffalo, KS which got two in one shot, which happened to be my first ever two birds in one shot while I was guiding, can you believe that! One click of the trigger and his season was over.
We also had a couple of miss fires and an unloaded gun situation, all of course at the worst time possible, which really makes turkey hunting so much more exciting and unforgettable. Our first hunters were on April 1st and my last was on May 27th and this time Mr. John Grady, TN. I am sure you all saw him on the Country Music Awards in April. Anyway, he got even with those birds this year and hammered a couple of late season Amish birds about 45 minutes apart. Believe me folks it was, “HOT and HUMID”. Then we went fishing for a couple days, what a way to end the season.
Now for a little note from the Head Honcho. No not Mike! Come on you guys, cut me a little slack.
My Health: Well most of you turkey hunters back in April know that I was not in the best of health when they last saw me. But I want all of you to know that they have me all straightened out for the time being. You know that once you reach 50 you have to say that, anyway I do, because it seems as though I get one thing fixed and then another part breaks down. I wonder if I am a Ford instead of a Nunnenkamp. Actually I feel better than I have for a few years, except for that one time when Nate said, “you are the Man,” boy did I feel good there for a moment or two. So that means next year when you all show up I won’t be looking for the slowest person for me to guide that looks like they are in as bad a shape as I am. Well then again, I might still do that. “Slow” is my game when it comes to turkey hunting and this season was proof for me that slow is good, cause I had a great season. My main goal in life you know is just trying to keep up with Nater and Dentron on the kill list.
Well once again I was worried about our bird population and if I had booked to many hunters, but once again I got lucky and had about the right number. You know I don’t want to take any bodies money if I don’t have the birds. That is the last thing I want to do. I feel that I have done a fairly good job of not over booking hunters. You know that the birds being down in number has cut our income in half for turkey season from where we were four or five years ago and boy that hurts. Our leases have not gone down, that’s for sure. This year we had 5 hunters go home empty handed, but only one person did not get an opportunity to harvest a bird. Actually if you put the math to it, we had a better percentage of kills this season than we did five years ago.
The Weather: We were actually having the best nesting season we have had for several years until June hit. Now the rain doesn’t want to stop. We had 5 inches last week and last night we had around 1 ½ inches, June 14th. The river got out of its banks for the first time this year last week and is probably working on doing it again today. More rain is in the forecast for several more days. I sure feel sorry for those quail and turkeys that nest on the ground and then set on them for 28 more days to incubate their eggs. Hopefully they were on the ball and got to it early and the chicks are off to a good start by now. We did not have a single rain out day during the season, can you believe that.
My Help: Well here I am once again bragging on my guides and my cooks. None of this would be possible if it weren’t for them. Denton comes out early to help us get started filling feeders and what ever we have to do. Nate he always comes out early for deer season and last year we made quite a few improvements to the camp. I am feeling sure they are under paid, but I do what I can and I never hear any complaints. Our buddy Shane could not be here this year because of a tragedy in the family, plus his wife had to have emergency surgery to remove a tumor from behind her eyes. It was a time for lots of prayer and God answered them all with a very good outcome. She came through the 12 hour surgery in good shape. Thank You God for answering so many prayers this year. We went through another turkey season with out any accidents and I don’t think anybody was even sick this spring. That is a Blessing right there. My two cooks also did an outstanding job. Life at the camp would not be near as much fun without all that great food. Am I right? Thank you so much all of you.
The Kids: Wow, they were great. We took ten kids out this year and only had a few misses, sure can’t say that for the adults, now can I. Things that make you say, hummm. Well, I guess that is what takes the word, boring, out of turkey hunting. I know the twins will be looking for revenge next year, so be prepared Denton. I think those two would probably do better with a couple big clubs as much energy as they seem to put into it. I know I couldn’t keep up with them. Nater had his son Austin and his cousin flown out, but Austin struggled to put one down. His cousin Allen did get his tag filled with a real nice bird. I did get to look at some of the pictures Nater took while they were in the field and believe me they were priceless. All of our kids got at least one but Austin, I know he was sad but I also know it won’t stop him from trying again. Once again they were all awesome and I know they will make great hunters in the future. Keep it up guys, don’t ever quit hunting.
Excuses; Well I finally got my PC back. I can’t believe there is hardly anyone around this country to fix them, and every time this guy gets mine it seems to take foreevveerrr. It has been over two months and then the wife had to work on it by ph with him for the last week. Now we have switched back to outlook express and I am going to have to go through all of my addresses and get them all sorted out again. The poor guy means well and tries hard, but, you know!!! I am sorry the letter is so late, it seems like about a year ago when I saw some of you, and heck it was only the first of April. But a lot of water has gone under the bridge since then and I have forgotten more of the hunts than I remember.
Anniversary: Guess what folks, 2010 is our 25th anniversary and I kind of forgot all about it. Wow, twenty five years. My first ten years was guiding quail hunts from Nov thru Jan and the first year I took one group one day from Wichita KS and it was a snow storm and we didn’t get a bird, and to top that off, my 35mm film was not turning. Not many have ever heard this story, but I didn’t give up. It went from there to around 60 days and killing around 500 wild birds per year in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Man did I walk a lot back then. Plus I kept at least 10 bird dogs on hand at all times. Wanda my dear, I do need to write that book. I could write one just about the dogs I have had and I know I could still write a chapter about her. She is one of the sweetest hunters I have ever met. She and her family have been hunting with me since the early 80’s. Three generations and possibly working on the forth. Now I’m feeling old, how bout you my dear. In 25 years I really can’t imagine how many hunts I have been on. And this makes my 13th year of guiding turkey hunts. I am sure I have seen at least a couple thousand different faces easily. My mind is flashing hunts back at me like a slide show that happened years ago, the laughs, the pranks, the dog work, the shots, the tears of joy and sadness, and just like that, I have tears running down my face, I miss you so much Doc. It’s never going to end, but this letter has to.
Well on that note I better go, I thank you all for coming out and having some fun with us and I wish you all the best. Next year, well I guess I will be waiting for deer season this autumn to see what kind of a hatch we ended up with throughout the summer. The trail camera’s and the hunters will give me a good idea what we have. I am sure we will not have any more hunters than we took this year and I am not sure we will ever get back up to the number of hunters we used to take, no matter how many birds we have. It was just too much for me. I do want to survive so I can ride my New Custom Built, “Trike”. It is being built by, 234motorsports.com, owned by Tony Marrara. I can’t wait. Don’t be jealous, BE HAPPY! AND COME AND RIDE WITH ME AND THE WIFE…..verrroooommm.
Written by; Kurt Nunnenkamp
June 14 and 15, 2010
p.s. Some of you that I sent this to I have not heard from for a while. This was an old email list and some of you I just left on. Hope you don’t mind and wither you still hunt with me or not, I wouldn’t mind hearing from you.
Also Deer Hunter’s that have not checked in with me since the tags were issued, please contact me. Deer season is just around the corner and will be here before you know it.
