(Adam and Tonya) thanks for tuning into KSL Outdoors, I’m Adam Eakle. (tonya) and I’m Tonya Kieffer. (adam) This evening, Tonya and I are going to introduce you to relatively new organization that says it hopes to be the voice of the average Utah sportsman. (tonya) that organization is called United Wildlife Cooperative and this spring they chose some lucky youth to go on a turkey hunt. (adam) lets go meet the kids and the organization.
(Tye Boulter, President; United Wildlife Cooperative) “Welcome to turkey camp, we are excited to have you all here. I’m Tye Boulter, president of UWC, we’ve got a lot of volunteers here that have dedicated their time to make this a good experience for you all.”
(Tye Boulter) “This is our third annual turkey hunt. We have 12 hunters this year. We are looking at expanding the program to as big as we can get it. The more kids we can get, the more people that come out and enjoy this, the better.”
United Wildlife Cooperative organized about two and a half years ago. They are a non-profit that says they are hoping to make a difference in conservation and outreach in Utah.
(Tye Boulter, President UWC) “We see trends going towards, you know money kind of running things and that doesn’t bode well for the average guy that just wants to get out there and enjoy the outdoors. So we organized and more or less want to keep people informed on what is going on. We do a lot of service projects, let people be hands on. We’ve done habitat work, from planting bitter brush to doing cleanups on the Weber River like we did today.”
To go on the hunt, each family was asked for a twenty five dollar donation. Most signed up at this years International Sportsman’s Expo where United Wildlife Cooperative volunteers helped out with the kids fishing pond.
(Tye Boulter) “We are getting people to come out and support our functions. They’ve come out with their voices and supported us and said hey this is what I see is wrong with the world of wildlife and it’s been really fulfilling so far.”
(Mike Brailsford, son won turkey hunt) “Actually got him on camera when he read the email and it was terribly exciting. I think we all had tears in our eyes.”
Mike’s son Braydon was one of the lucky youth picked for this years hunt.
(Tye) we bring them in, introduce them to everyone, our volunteers and everybody. We get them some target practice. We shoot those shotguns, some have shot a lot, some have never shot a shotgun.”
(Dan Ahlstrom) “Remember take a deep breathe and squeeze on the exhale. (shot) (dan) that’s a dead turkey.”
(Dan) “Oh yeah, smoked it. He’s got a headache. (tonya) what do you think, is that a dead turkey? (daughter) yeah.”
(Tye) “So we get them out there, pattern their guns, teach them how to sit and those things. Then we bring in Jonathan Moser in here and he sits down and gives them a safety briefing”
(Jonathan Moser, DWR Conservation Officer) “You have a clear shot at a tom turkey, but right behind it is a hen. (kid) don’t shoot. (jon) what could happen? You could kill the hen and why don’t we kill hens in the springtime?”
(Tye Boulter) “Really we try to emphasize what is important about this. The end goal, yes we want them to harvest a turkey, but we really want them to enjoy the whole experience, A-Z. Enjoy the outdoors, see the animals, learn, that’s a big thing we do with our guides is we make sure they are teaching them about nature Not only turkey hunting but about being in the outdoors and being good stewards.”
(Kris Marble, V Pres; UWC) “and hopefully get them interested in being sportsmen, active sportsmen and giving back and going forward.”
(Adam) “United Wildlife Cooperative hopes to get more sportsmen involved with their organization, and get families outdoors. If you’d like to learn more about UWC, their turkey hunts, and up coming events. Check them out unitedwildlifecooperative.org. Hey Coming up on KSL Outdoors!”
(turkey gobble..only use gobble, not calling nat)
(Adam) “The kids flock to the fields in search of a big tom, the rest of the story in just a moment, but first tonights quiz question.”
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(Tonya Kieffer, KSL Correspondent) welcome back to KSL Outdoors, I’m tonya Kieffer. Spring is here and turkey hunting is in full swing and we are hoping to go out with United Wildlife Cooperative today and bag us a few turkeys with some of the awesome youth hunters that they’ve chosen for this years youth hunt.
(tye) Yeah the Wittiers own this property. Justin Richins with R & K hunting has been so gracious to allow us this property to hunt on. He just said hey guys, let’s do a youth hunt.”
(Tye) “We’ve got thousands of acres that we can take these kids on and just have a good time and we are really grateful for that.”
For two straight weekends, UWC held a campout. Each morning, the kids were fed, teamed up given a guide.
And taken on a hunt.
(Tonya) “Alright Darren where are we heading to? (darren) up here on the left there is a draw that goes North and West and I google Earthed it the other night and it is just meadow after meadow and it looked really turkeyish. So we are going to go try that first.”
(Darin Gardner, UWC Turkey Whisperer) We are in new country, new territory and we are doing what I like to call run and gun and that’s where we hike around in likely spots and go about 2-300 yards at a time, do some soft calling and try to get a gobbler to strike, which means to gobble back at us or call back at us if we strike a gobbler we’ll try to do the best we can to set up and try to call him in. It’s a great way to hunt if you are learning new country. It’s a great way to hunt if you want to scout new country and it’s a great way to hunt if you are in great country that you know and don’t know exactly where the birds are. During the day the hens usually go to the nest and the gobblers are usually sitting around with nothing to do, so the middle of the day by far the best time to try and call a turkey in. They are without the hens, they are usually just loafing around in the trees and if you can get close to them and sound like a lonely hen, they usually respond quite well. So most people put up the calls and go back to camp at 10 o’clock, 10 o’clock is when I start really getting after it. I kill most of my turkeys between 10 and 2 in the afternoon.
Darin is not just a turkey whisperer, but he’s also an award winning taxidermist from Kaysville. The goal is obviously to shoot a turkey, but Darin has more in mind as he educates Aubrey on everything, I mean everything turkey.
(Darin Gardner) “You taste it, if it tastes like turkey scat you know what it is. Do you know what that white stuff is on turkey scat? I don’t know either but it’s still turkey scat.”
(Darin Gardner) “There is very little seeds and very little grass in that. So that is telling me he is eating protein. Grasshoppers, snails, that kind of stuff.”
(Darin Gardner) “We are up here to teach these kids woodsmanship skills and why we are out here. It’s not to kill a turkey it’s about the whole experience, hunting, what turkeys eat, where they live. Because if you are going to hunt something and pursue it, you might as well know about it. That’s the best way to take advantage. because they have all the advantage, we are in their neck of the woods so to speak. They are the ones that have the advantage. so everything we can learn about turkeys the better hunters we are going to be.”
(STAND UP) Darin was never able to get Aubrey a shot, but coming up, we take Braydon out on his first turkey hunt, you won’t want to miss it. That and more up next, but first lets head back to Mickey at Fish Tech as he shows us how to cast the perfect fly.
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(Mike Brailsford, Perry Utah) “He actually got a shot at one last Sat morning. He was on his belly and afterwards, he said “dad i was wiggling around quite a bit. He knows what he did, if we get the chance again, it’s not going to happen, huh bud. This one is a done deal huh. (laugh)
Meet Braydon Brailsford, this is his first hunt with his dad and Darin is determined to get us on a turkey.
(Tonya) you planning on getting a turkey today so you can add to that turkey feather? (braydon) yeah. (tonya) show me your excited face. (tonya) no give me your really excited face. (laughs) (tonya) ok, let’s go turkey hunting. (braydon) ok.
Darin has lead us into right into the turkeys lair.
(Darin) “you see him?”
Immediately he’s spotted a tom and he’s coming our way! So we set up… Darin and Braydon get in position, only to have the turkeys throw us a curve.
(Darin) “We heard these turkeys gobble and I thought they were above us and so I got down set up and I had him right in my lap aimed up hill because I thought they were going to come in that way and they gobbled again when a plane flew over and it was very clear to me that they were below us. And I said hurry move. You need to get a better view of the downhill shot. So he jumped up like a pro and moved and got into position. I called one more time and those things were right there.”
(laughing) (braydon off cam) DAD I DID IT!
(Dad and son hug and laugh) that is freaking awesome, safety bud. Safety?
(Darin) Look at that buddy, you hammered him. Good job Braydon, good job.
(Darin) “This is the greatest feeling the whole wide world when I can take a kid out and call a turkey in and he shoots it. It doesn’t get any better than that. This is what it’s all about. I would much rather do this, watch this guy shoot a turkey than shoot one myself.”
(guys hug) (mike) thank you. (darren) hey you are welcome. (mike) that was awesome. (darren) that was awesome.
(Mike Brailsford, Perry, Utah OR Proud dad) “I don’t know how to explain it, it far exceeded anything that I could have thought of when we came up. Really excited and things turned out better than expected. I hope we get an opportunity to do it again. If nothing else we’ll be up to visit the gang again, we made some really good friends up here.”
(Braydon) We got er’ done! (darin) Larry the Cable guys nephew here. (laughs)
(tonya tag) Well everybody today was a success and you can see this young man is on the phone with mom right now. While we are waiting for them to finish their call, so we can celebrate a little bit more, lets go ahead and take a look at tonights Utah Field Guide.
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