Each year, our State Chapter sponsors a JAKES Essay Contest and this years winners have just been announced.

Virginia State Chapter 2009 Essay winners

 12 and Younger Winners

1st Place

Tyler Presley                                        11                    Front Royal, VA (Read his essay below)

2nd Place

Casey Burton                                       12                    Rocky Mount, VA

3rd Place

Matthew Allison                                    7                     Tazewell, VA                          

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13 - 17 Year Old Winners

1st Place

Quinton Ellington                                  13                    Rice, VA (Read his essay below)

2nd Place

John Dustin Utt                                    13                    Bassett, VA

3rd Place

Hunter Altice                                       13                    Glade Hill, VA

The Hunt

By: Tyler Presley

11 yr old

I am eleven years old and I live in Front Royal, Virginia.  Ever since I joined the JAKES program I have had the goal to get a grand slam by the time I am twelve.  A grand slam is to harvest all four sub-species of the wild turkey that live in the United States, the Eastern, the Osceola, the Rio Grande and the Merriam’s.  Last year I got two of the sub-species, the Osceola longbeard, which was my first turkey, and an Eastern jake at home. 

This May my family went to North Plate, Nebraska to turkey hunt.  We hunted with Jason and Britney Edney of Fur and Feather Outdoors. Now, to the hunt.  It was a perfect morning.  Me, my dad and Jason met and drove for about one hour to the hunting area.  Jason took us to a large field where we sat up next to a tree, right at daylight.  My dad was to the right of me and Jason, who was videoing, was behind my dad.  There were a lot of turkeys gobbling down the field at the roost.  Jason did some calling and it wasn’t long before a big longbeard started coming our way.  I was getting very excited and nervous.  As the gobbler got within about 25 yards I aimed and shot.  The next thing that I knew, I saw the turkey running away!  I couldn’t believe it, I was so upset! After the hunt we went back to the house and watched the video and I saw that I shot over and to the right of the turkey. 

That afternoon it was raining when Jason took me and my dad to a place where there was an old farm house.  We had been there for a couple of hours and it started raining harder, so we were going to go and get in an old barn.  When we started to stand up, we saw a longbeard in a field.  My dad started calling and the turkey was making his way toward us.  My dad is a great caller.  But there was a corral between us and the turkey, and he wouldn’t come across the corral to where he would be in range.  Then he started moving back away from us.  We would have to belly crawl to the corral if we were going to have a chance at him.  Dad told me that he has too much belly to do any belly crawling, but he knew how much I wanted to get a turkey and we started crawling to the corral.  It took us a while to get there, and the gobbler had moved about 100 yards back into the field.  Dad called some and the gobbler started back to the corral.  When the turkey was in range dad clucked really loud and I took my shot.  It was a hit. But the bird got up and started to move, he couldn’t move very good, and ended up beside a fence, and layed down.  I slowly moved to it, and when I was about 5 yards away, he started to get up and fly away from me!  I started to run after him and kept up with him, and finally after about 100 yards he just fell back to the ground.  Then I jumped on him and tackled him.  I was not going to let this one get away!  I was glad that I had been in shape from playing soccer so that I could run to get to my bird.  My dad came up and I gave him a big hug and high fives.  I called my mom on the cell phone and said “I got one - I got my Rio.”

We had such a great time in Nebraska.  Jason and Britney were so nice.  The next day, my 6 year old brother Matthew got his first gobbler.  Our family had the hunt of a life time in Nebraska.  Hunting with my dad and being able to share my goal with him has been great.  Hopefully, next year I will be able to get a Merriam’s and complete my grand slam when I am twelve years old.

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 The Hunt

By: Quinton Ellington

13 yr old

It was Monday morning about on just happened to be my 13^th birthday. I got up and was running all over the house trying to find my boots and hunting gear. My dad made breakfast of a sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits. I had a gut feeling that something good was going to happen this day. We pulled into the field at about 5:30 A. M. I was so excited. As we walked along the edge of the field you could feel the frost scrapping across the bottom of your shoes. It was very dark outside. I was lucky that I knew where the buddy stand was.

My dad was the first one to get in the stand so he can watch me as I come up. I finally got in the stand and got strapped in. It was very quit outside and you couldn’t hear anything. Not a singles bird was chirping, not a single crow was crowing. About every five minutes I would start to fall asleep. I just told myself that I need to stay awake because something good is going to happen this morning. At about 7:00 I heard something walking through the edge of the woods. I looked out in field and there stood what appeared be a shooter buck. I slowly eased up my muzzle loader. My dad said, “No don’t shoot that deer it’s not a shooter” and I whispered “ but dad it’s my birthday and I really want to shoot this deer”. So I had to wait for the deer to turn broad side to me.

When he turned to that perfect shot angle I slowly squeezed the trigger. A big puff of smoke came out of the gun barrel and them I heard the deer flopping on the ground. When the puff of smoke went away there the buck lies on the ground about 25 yards away from the tree stand. I was so happy. When I got out of the tree stand as I walked up to the deer I noticed that It was a whopping 8 point buck with a 15 inch spread. The thing that inspired me the most about this hunt was the love of the outdoor that I have learned from being a jake member for the past two years and that it was my birthday. Killing a deer on my birthday was the greatest gift that I could ever ask for. I am really happy that my dad has time to take me hunting.