For many Americans, Thanksgiving memories are centered around the special recipes and aromas that find their way into the kitchen during the fall season. Because every family deserves to sit down to a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, the National Wild Turkey Federation's Turkey Hunters Care program is providing turkeys for families across the country.

"NWTF chapters will be reaching out to families in their local communities throughout America," said NWTF Vice President of Sales and Marketing Dick Rosenlieb. "Even though the donated frozen turkeys are domestic, the NWTF wants to do its part in addressing hunger in a meaningful way."

The Turkey Hunters Care program is in its third year and continues to grown. Last year, NWTF local chapters donated 3,704 turkeys to families in 36 states nearly doubling the donations from the previous year. Local NWTF chapter volunteers can team up with church ministries, food pantries, children's organizations, homeless shelters, National Guard units and other civic organizations.

One of the most successful Turkey Hunters Care stories in 2002 came out of Bakersfield, California. The Bakersfield Chapter donated 250 turkeys to the Bakersfield Homeless Center. Nationally, the NWTF is made up of over 500,000 members in 2,050 chapters dedicated to conserving the wild turkey and preserving our hunting heritage.

"I've never been more proud of the NWTF members for reaching out to the community as they do through the Turkey Hunters Care program," said Michael Tull, chairman of the NWTF board of directors. "This programs success is a true example of hunters giving back and it will continue to grow."

For more information about the NWTF's Turkey Hunters Care program, call Kim Saxon at 1-800-THE-NWTF or visit the website at www.nwtf.org.

About the NWTF: In 1973 when the National Wild Turkey Federation was founded, there were an estimated 1.3 million wild turkeys and 1.5 million turkey hunters. Thanks to the work of wildlife agencies and the NWTF's many volunteers and partners, today there are more than 6 million wild turkeys and approximately 2.6 million turkey hunters. Since 1985, more than $175 million NWTF and cooperator dollars have been spent on over 24,000 projects benefiting wild turkeys throughout North America.

The NWTF is a half million-member grassroots, nonprofit organization with members in 50 states and 12 foreign countries. It supports scientific wildlife management on public, private and corporate lands as well as wild turkey hunting as a traditional North American sport.

For more information on the National Wild Turkey Federation, call (803) 637-3106, check out our web site at www.nwtf.org or e-mail questions to nwtf@nwtf.net.

This article first ran in the September 2002 issue of the Bullet. Since the subject deals with hunting and the information is always relevant, we thought we would run it again. Enjoy.

As society becomes more aware of the risks of exposure to blood-borne pathogens, i.e., HIV, hepatitis, West Nile virus, etc., it's apparent we must be cautious with more than just HUMAN blood. Any blood has the capability of carrying blood-borne pathogens (a virus, microorganism, or other substance that causes disease).

That scampering squirrel and regal 10-point buck may be carrying a pathogen that could land you in the hospital, possibly even the morgue! So...do you give up hunting? Do you resign yourself to watching hunting videos in the safety of your own home? Look, you could still get West Nile from the mosquito that just flew in when you were paying the pizza boy!

Don't give up the adventures, just take a few more precautions!

Limit the amount of blood you get on you. Wear gloves. Disposable gloves are inexpensive and can dramatically reduce, even eliminate, contact with blood. Wash your hands thoroughly.

Keep the meat clean. Make sure your hands are relatively clean before you even start dressing your game. Soap and running water is the best way to wash, but, if that's not available, use sanitizing wipes. They come individually packaged these days and are small and lightweight enough to carry in your tote. Minimize the meats' contact with the animal's hair and intestinal contents. These also are frequently full of pathogens. Lastly, don't contaminate the meat with other germs. There are hazardous pathogens "laying in weight" for a nice warm piece of meat to invade.

Reduce the growth of bacteria by keeping the carcass cool. 35 - 40 degrees should inhibit the growth of many pathogens. In addition, trim away any blood-shot, bruised or damaged portions of the carcass because bacterial growth will be more rapid there.

Sanitize your knives, meat coolers, work counters and any other equipment that had contact with the meat or animal parts with a 1part bleach to 10 parts water solution. Some pathogens can remain dormant on an unsanitized surface for months just waiting for a new host.

Lastly, cook the meat thoroughly. Cooking to 165 degrees kills most bacteria. This means cooking the meat until it is medium-well to well done.

Don't miss the adventure, just take care, for the good health of you and your family! Until next time...Maggie.

   I had eagerly awaited the start of bow season all year long as I was determined to get my first ever bow kill. All of the preparations had been made. A new Trophy Ridge sight system, a Whisker Biscuit arrow rest and a dozen new Easton carbon arrows had been purchased and fine tuned for the coming season. Making my plans well in advance, I headed to the ranch the first weekend of season to try my luck.

Arriving late in the morning on Friday, I was chomping at the bit to get going. Arriving in the field, I assembled the ladder stand and had it set up in no time. Getting settled in, I uttered the phase "Game On" and waiting patiently hoping to see some deer the first evening. I waited until dark with no deer appearing on the trail. That was just fine because I still had two more days to hunt and knew things could only get better.

The next morning I was up at 4:00 am with a new plan in my head. As always, I underestimated the time needed to get things together and time was getting tight as I arrived at the field. To speed things up, I decided to drive the truck in about halfway, unload my climbing stand and other stuff then drive the truck back out to the road so I wouldn't have to pack in all of the equipment. In the middle of the field there is a rise that you can't see over the top of and I thought "I hope there aren't any deer on the other side of this". Well as I topped the rise what do you think was there staring at me? You got it, three does. I couldn't have called that better. I immediately shut off the truck and lights and waited for them to leave. This put me even further behind. This was as far as I would go and would have to pack in everything. Oh well, adapt and overcome. Right?

With time short, I couldn't make it to the spot I wanted to set up in, so I put my stand in the only straight tree I could find along this one trail. Not a bad spot to be in I found out later. About 8:30 something caught the corner of my eye to the right. It was a turkey. A gobbler in fact. He came within 25 yards of my stand picking around on the grass, eating bugs I suspect. Seeing him get closer I decided to try and take a picture of him. The camera was in my fanny pack that was hanging under my left elbow. So, without turning my head I slowly slipped my left arm down to retrieve the camera. Off course I couldn't get the stupid pack open one handed and had to bring it up to my lap. While fiddling around trying to get the camera I just knew he was going to see me and spook out of the area. Well he never spooked and he never got any closer. Instead he turned straight away from me up a trail, circled around and a couple of minutes later flew across to a field that was over my left shoulder and disappeared. I never saw him after that.

Shortly after nine I spotted a doe coming out from around a tree on a hillside out in front of me to the right. I was really glad to see another doe come out right behind her. They were on a direct course down the trail to my position. I got ready. As they stepped behind some tree limbs, I lost sight of them. I waited and waited but they never reappeared. Grabbing my binoculars I scanned the open field trying to see if they had bedded down or what. I guess they did the 'or what' because I glassed so long my eyes got strained and my arms grew tired. I have no idea where they went.

Heading in at noon for lunch I was trying to decide what to do that afternoon. Move my stand over to the spot I was heading to that morning or stay where I was. I decided to stay put since I had seen some deer on the trail and it was well traveled, and besides I could always move the next morning.

Eating lunch at the local eatery I relayed my tale to my friend Flynn who lives next to the ranch and goes for evening walks around the area. He said he sees deer in my fields just about every evening. He suggested to get in the middle of some hay bales (large round bales, not small square ones) that we had left in the field and set up an ambush that way. I had always thought about doing something like that but never had the right setup. My Dad has a friend in Tennessee who does something similiar to this. He arranges his hay bales in a square with one end open towards the deer trail. To hunt he simply drives out to the field and backs his truck right into his "blind" and waits until the deer appear. He then steps out, takes a rest on the truck and bang. Meat in the freezer.

I stored that idea in my head and headed back out. Getting all set up again I looked at my watch. It was 3:15. Still had almost three and a half hours of daylight in which to hunt. Nothing much to do but watch squirrels and try to stay awake.

Around 4:30 I spotted a spike buck coming up the trail from my left with another deer trailing him. Alright! Some action. He came up the trail and stopped thirteen yards from me, staring up the trail in my direction and eating around on some bushes. I thought I would wait a bit for the other deer to show itself before taking action. If the other one was a doe I would take her and spare the buck. It finally stepped out where I could get a good look at it. It was another spike the same size as the first one. He came over behind the first one that was still standing on the trail and jumped up on him from the rear trying to "get with him". How strange was that! After a couple of seconds he shook him off and stepped over to the right to nibble on some brush. The weird one turned broadside to me at about twelve yards. I thought, "First bow kill, spike buck, okay". I let my arrow fly. It made a thump sound as it found the mark. Great shot!

Well all hell broke loose after that. The first buck took off one way and the one I had been hit started back down the trail, only a bit slower. Suddenly another deer appeared running through the woods. There were three I thought. Then another deer took off. Before I knew it, deer were running around everywhere. Where did they come from? Once I regained some composure, I grabbed by binoculars trying to see if one of the deer was the one I had hit. I couldn't hold the binoculars still enough to get a good look. I was shaking with excitement. I did manage to cock another arrow as I still had a doe tag to fill.

After several minutes of deer running back and forth in the woods the last doe snorted at me from the middle of the trail and took off over the hill. The only thing to do now was to wait before getting down and trailing the buck. With my binoculars I found my arrow stuck in the ground half buried in the grass so I knew it had went clean through. I decided to wait at least an hour before starting my search.

That was one of the longest hours of my life. I even gave it an extra 5 minutes for luck. Hitting the ground in record time, I immediately went to my arrow. Picking it up, I could see good blood on the fletchings. Good shot, now where was he? I started following the blood trail. After twenty yards it disappeared. I marked the spot with an arrow and started a crisscross pattern in the field. I finally found another another spot of blood about ten yards from the last. Marking it I continued the search. An hour later with no more blood found and no deer found either, I knew that I was going to need some help so I headed in.

On the way back to the truck I spotted several deer, a lot in fact, at this gap between two fields, which is the way out. They were heading to the left up over a small rise in the field. Not seeing me, I slowly stalked over to a spot where I could possibly ambush them. Staying low I crept up to a grown up fencerow and looked through. Nothing. I crept further down the fencerow and looked again. Nothing. Suddenly behind me from around a tree and some brush came a doe hightailing it for the fence. I immediately dropped to my knees to lower my profile. Suddenly another deer came running around the same tree and turned straight torward me in a trot. I could see it was another spike buck.

The little fellow came straight at me and stopped about forty yards away. Looking at me curiously, trying to figure out what I was (I was in full camo) he stomped his front foot a few times trying to get me to move. Taking a few steps closer he stomped again. I didn't move. He ran toward the fence a little putting a bale of hay between him and me. I stayed still knowing he was either going to show himself on the other side or come back the way he had just went. He did the later. Coming back around torward me, he repeat his stomping act.

He then turned and ran back behind the hay bale. About thirty seconds later he peeked his head out from around it looking in my direction. I still hadn't moved. Well that was enough. He tired of the game and took off toward the fence. Jumping it flat footed, he was off and so was I. I still had to go get help and track down my deer.

Arriving back after dark with flashlights, Tink's Starlight Bloodhound and my brother-in-law Tommy we started the search. After retelling the story we followed the blood trail to the point I had lost it and started the search. I'll have to say that the Tink's Starlight Bloodhound did work quite well when you can find the blood. Unfortunately the moon was almost full and with a cloudless evening it was bright. The product worked well in the dark shadows or if you shielded it from the moon light. We never did pickup the blood trail from where I had originally lost it, so we split up and started zigzagging across the field in hopes of finding the deer.

I started down one side spraying the Bloodhound in every dark place under bushes and brush where a deer might have tried to hide and at places where they jump the fence. Nothing. I was determined to keep looking and search the entire field. I just knew he was in there somewhere.

Finally, I stumbled upon the buck. He had traveled over one hundred and fifty yards from where he had originally been stuck and close to a hundred yards from the last place we had found blood. When I rolled him over there was a puddle of blood not much bigger than a silver dollar under him. No wonder we had a hard time tracking him. Now came the chores of dragging him out and field dressing him by flashlight. But those were good problems.

I set to work the next morning, although not real early. I took the deer to the check station, then washed out the truck, went to church and then ate lunch. After lunch I went back to work and had him quartered up and on ice in my huge deer keeping cooler by 2 o'clock. It was now time to go for a slick head.

To be continued...........