Disabled teen gets first turkey!!!

[Squirrelhunter91]

Now.. some of you may remember me posting about a disabled teen, Chris Reinhardt, a child who lost his legs to meningitus (sp?) when he was 8 years old. It was last year I think when Chris decided that he wanted to go hunting for the first time. The local hunter ed instructors decided to make this dream a reality. Late last summer, we tried to raise funds to get Chris a wheelchair that was more woods-friendly because the one he had was difficult to navigate through the woods. We did end up getting him that wheelchair. The wheelchair can be seen in the pics of Chris in camo.

Anyway.. on 5/12/07, Chris shot his first turkey, a 15lb jake. Here is the story, as told by Mike, Chris' neighbor and hunter ed instructor, who took him hunting and called the bird in for him.

The morning started at 4am, Chris and I decided to try somewhere new , so we headed to Stewart. After walking in about 2 miles and only hearing birds in the far distance, we decided to start heading back to the truck. But as we were going back , trucks with dogs kept passing us , we finally stopped one of them to find out what's going on. well they were having a field trial for hunting dogs. So needless to say our day there was over at 8am. So we headed to Sterling Forest, the gate by Blue lake was open so we went to where we called the bird in 2 weeks ago. But when we got there, I couldn't find a way to get Chris and his wheel chair were I wanted to get him. But walking back and forth trying to find away, I heard a couple of gobbles. Set up Chris in a spot that looked ok , but wasn't really a spot I thought a bird would make his way thru. So we moved up this hilly road and heard the bird again, this time using the box call the bird responded, but still seemed a distance away.
We then set up about 5 feet in of the logging road and was actually getting ready to have something to eat , when the tom gobbled again , but this time he sounded as if he cut the distance to us in half. I put out another box call but no response,not 10 minutes later , 2 toms came in around the corner right on the road, about 40 yards away, so I told Chris to get ready and wait till they got closer. Looking for a hen, the 2 toms kept looking around, so I put out a couple of light clucks,I kept telling Chris to wait,wait,wait,Boom, he didn't wait . So a 40 yard Shot , a bird down ,I jumped so high that I think I was half way up the tree, Chris is telling me the bird is down, the bird is down, so I told him to get up and get em. Below are some pictures we took . Hey what an awesome feeling , You have no Idea how great that felt ,watching this kid get his first bird.

Mike

He even had his face mask on wrong because of all the bugs

Here are the pics..






Mike is on the left, Chris in the middle and Stan on the right.

[buckee]

Way to go Chris !!!!

That's an awesome chair. I know a few folks that could use one of those.

[bonecollector34]

Sweet! Congratulations to Chris on his success...

Fat Marty

[stevebeilgard]

very nice, chris. way to go, and keep it up

[Shaun_300]

Wow, awesome Chris! I love when disabled people get opportunities like this, simply awesome. Way to go!!!!!

[Timj]

i think thats the best when they can get out and do something like that. it makes it all worth while. Congrats Chris on your first bird

[IllinoisMackDaddyHunter]

That is totally awesome Chris. Sweet turkey. You put the smack down on that bird. And a special hats off to the guys who took you and made this possible. You look hooked for life. Keep up the good work. Now its deer hunting time.