A ‘Family Affair’

Cathie Van Cise, just moments before fraught with tension and burdened with pressure and doubt, pulled her mask down from over her nose and mouth and placed her face in her hands, tears flowing, overwhelmed by the moment. She nestled tightly into her low-slung chair as the emotion poured out.

“It’s got a band,” yelled out Johnny Young, hoisting the mature gobbler and prompting the joyous scene around her.

What made the moment so incredibly unique was that Cathie’s husband Matt Van Cise, a perennial senior turkey-calling champion, was with her. Further, the Van Cise’s had traveled to Maine from Pennsylvania, a trip celebrating their anniversary. And, most remarkably, Matt had shot a banded gobbler two days earlier.

Sandy Brady, a North Carolinian well known for his hand-crafted trophies presented to winners of NWTF calling and other sanctioned competitions, was also on the hunt. The hunting party earlier had joked about getting jewelry – as bird bands are often called – as an anniversary present.

The prize, though, didn’t come without first overcoming a deep dose of adversity. Cathie had earlier missed – twice. Turkey hunting can be notoriously difficult when conducted as a group affair. After all, each person represents an opportunity for a wary bird to spot something amiss and call the whole thing off. Yet, Cathie had a substantial supporting entourage, including her husband, plus Brady, Young, a North Carolina game warden, and Rob Sukis, the only Maine resident at the week-long camp.

As they spotted and moved in on promising gobblers, Cathie’s shooting scenarios got squirrelly, as turkey hunting setups often do. One hasty opportunity, where the turkey unexpectedly rushed toward them, only presented a standing, offhand shot. Misses can be rough, psychologically, with the range of emotions and intensity often flipping at light speed.

“We watched Cathie go through the experiences of a quick hunt, missing the bird,” Brady said. “As we all do at times, we get upset and mad at ourselves. She struggled, but then she persevered. We offered love and encouragement, and we were all right there within seven feet of one another when she heard the bird was banded, put her hands in her face in that little turkey chair and began weeping. I’ll never forget it.”

The hunt exemplified a point that each of the hunters underscored in later discussing the importance of sharing the outdoors and how it has shaped their lives.

“To me, turkey hunting is about the fellowship and enjoyment of sharing it with someone else,” Brady said. “For a long time, it was about the excitement of chasing the birds; now it’s enjoying the woods with others, seeing the sunrises. Without the friends, it’s just another hunting trip.”

“The friendships you make, the people you meet due to turkey hunting is just phenomenal,” Sukis said. “I think the love of wildlife and the land, enjoying the time we spent together is the key. When people come to camp, they unwind, get to be themselves, no complications. I think it’s a great thing that everybody gets together. It’s about family and friendship. Then, of course,” he added, “there’s the adrenaline rush. Still, it’s all about the bird.”

Matt said involvement with NWTF and turkey calling competitions changed his life in many ways.

“If it weren’t for turkey calling, I never would have met him (Brady). Now, he’s one of my best friends,” Van Cise said. “We talk all the time. I have friends all over the country that I hunt with, talk to. But I don’t talk to a single person I went to high school with. The people I talk with daily are my best friends, all because of wild turkeys and turkey hunting, and NWTF, the organization that gave us a platform, a chance to do the things we love. My marriage came about because of turkey hunting. I met Cathie through someone that I go turkey hunting with.”

The latest survey regarding hunting participation in the United States, published every five years by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, showed some 14.4 million hunters, with about 11.5 million of those engaged in hunting big game, such as elk, bear, deer and turkey, devoting 135 million days to those pursuits. The specific number of turkey hunters is no longer calculated in the USFWS survey, but is believed to be fewer than 3 million based on previous reports.

Brady says turkey hunters are distinct among the hunting community.

“Duck hunting has some of the same camaraderie, but it’s still not the same as chasing wild turkeys,” Brady said. “Deer hunting really isn’t a fellowship sport unless you’re sharing a deer camp or something of that nature and talking with your buddies.”

Young lives for hearing turkeys sound off, saying, “Hearing that first gobble really got to me. I don’t have to kill a bird, just hearing a bird is good enough. Every time I hear one gobble, I thank God for letting me hear it one more time.”

“That’s the thing,” Brady said, “hunting wild turkeys is not about the kill. You absolutely do not have to take a bird to have an incredible hunt. Or even hear a bird. Sometimes, it is about just sitting there and talking with a guy from a totally separate walk of life.

“Here, we’ve got a group of people, from different backgrounds,” Brady continued.

“There’s nothing related to money, property or prestige, it’s all about passion and love for the chase of the gobbler. We pull for one another. We cut up, have fun. There’s nothing I’ve ever done that has more highs and lows than turkey hunting. The sound of that gobbler changes every perspective, and that change can happen in a minute – or less.”

“I’ve met people through turkey hunting that I never would have met through my years of playing football, wrestling and other sports,” the burly Young said. Voice slightly cracking, he added, “The guidance I’ve received from some of those people, guidance that has nothing to do with turkeys, has changed my life, from where I used to be to where I am now.”

Young smiled and cited the oft-used notion that turkey hunting is a joyous disease, one that forces you to rise in the morning when you should be sleeping, living for that next gobble. “There’s no cure for it,” he said.

The hunters relate to the NWTF’s recently updated vision statement, “Uniting a nation through the life-changing power of the outdoors,” a declaration about positive change and the idea that a life well-lived in nature is deeply transformational.

“Everything is changing in the world as we know it,” Brady said. “It is our job as mentors and conservationists to do all we can to get all kinds of people in the outdoors. The NWTF, especially through the JAKES program, teaches that. You don’t have to be a hunter to be an outdoorsman.”

Sukis remembers when hunter safety was routinely taught in schools, something rare today. He believes there’s no substitute for actually getting kids outdoors where they can personally experience the sights, sounds, smells and feelings, especially compared to reading about it in a book or on the internet or watching a video.

“It changes a person,” Sukis said. “It reveals a whole different world to them, showing them what the outdoors can offer. I take any kid that asks me to bring him or her hunting.”

Van Cise sees declines in turkey hunters in his home state of Pennsylvania. His encounters with fellow spring gobbler hunters within a 50-mile circle from his home seem to be dwindling annually.

“I’m not sure we’re going to get that back (the participation of prior years),” he said, “but a lot of it will depend on how we raise future generations.”

Brady said it should be every hunter’s job to bring in new people, including younger generations. “We need to give of our time to introduce new generations. We’re losing the traditions of grandfathers and fathers who passed down our hunting traditions,” he said. “We need to find ways to reach youngsters who might have an interest but don’t have a parent or relative prepared to teach them.”

Integrating conservation into the dialogue is essential, Van Cise believes. “Even with the declining turkey populations in some areas, we still have huntable populations in 49 states, something we didn’t have just 50 years ago. I don’t think there’s any argument about conservation helping to unite part of the country,” he said.

Brady said the recent slight drop in public approval ratings of legal hunting illustrates that sharing the conservation message must be atop the list when communicating about hunting passions to the non-hunting public.

“We call ourselves friends, but we’re really family,” Brady said. “When a fellow turkey hunter has a problem, there’s another turkey hunter who has their back, no matter what.”

“The laughs we have, the experiences we share, the goals we achieve together, how much we learn from each other – those are the biggest things (about spending time together hunting wild turkeys),” added Sukis.

“Cathie is from Ohio and, other than Pennsylvania and Ohio, this is the first out-of-state turkey hunt she’s ever done,” Van Cise said. “She’s with a group of avid turkey hunters, and she was welcomed like she’d been hunting for 50 years.”

Matt recalls walking up to his gobbler and finding the band.

“I’ve seen a lot of turkeys die in my 34 years of hunting, but never a banded bird,” he said. “To say I was excited is an understatement. I was more excited about that banded turkey than any contest I’ve won over the years. Then we had a rough patch before Cathie killed her banded bird. To go from never seeing one to killing two on one trip, an anniversary trip, it blows the whole thing up.

“The passion for the wild turkey grows every time you step into the woods.”

Springtime in Maine is beautiful with wildflowers erupting and boundless acres of lowbush blueberries readying to produce their sweet bounty. Spring also delivers a bumper crop of mosquitos and blackflies, especially around the edges of woods and other areas sheltered from any wind – places where turkey hunters often set up. Repellents applied to exposed skin do an excellent job of deterring bites but not much for keeping skeeters and flies from buzzing distractingly close. That is why each hunter carried ThermaCell devices, often in special holsters, the curious, faint aroma working its magic to deter the flying pests, creating a bit of a bubble around the hunting party.

Matt Van Cise and Johnny Young regularly talk about another kind of bubble, the zone where you make a mature gobbler uncomfortable or challenged, forcing him to react. “You get 200 yards from a turkey and he might gobble, and he’ll gobble and gobble, but he’s not going to leave nearby hens,” Van Cise said. “But suddenly, his hen’s voice pops up at 80 yards. Use a jake yelp or a gobbler decoy, and you’re challenging that gobbler. He has to go check that out.”

The team uses that tactic to remarkable success. Van Cise explained it is one of the reasons why turkey hunting is so special.

“For me, it’s the interaction with the animal,” he said. “With a deer, and their sense of smell, it’s hard to take the action to them. With a turkey, you can get aggressive when things aren’t happening. You can make it happen. It’s not about calling then; it’s about getting inside the bubble. And the size of that bubble can vary – sometimes it’s 100 yards, other times it’s 80. A lot of time, we’ll get inside that bubble before we ever make a call. We’ll get eyes on the bird and move in. When it gets to that point, it’s often game over for them.”