As Told By His Dad, Brian Birchell

I had grown up hunting, but after leaving home & getting married I had gotten away from it. As my kids grew they both became interested in sports, but not in hunting. But some of my sons friends were into hunting and my son became interested. In September of 1999 Cody was diagnosed with leukemia, it was during this time when he couldn't play football or baseball that his love for hunting grew. It was something he could do outdoors, which he loved to do and something we could do together. And as it turns out, he excels at it just as he did football and baseball.

Neither of us had ever been turkey hunting before, but something we have both become addicted to since. When I grew up there were no wild turkeys in our area so I was a complete novice. Cody was invited to the first annual KY Youth Turkey Hunt on a farm owned in part by the President of the local NWTF chapter Gary McClure and my wife's boss Dr. Mark Yurchisin. Several kids had been invited out as well as several experienced turkey hunters to guide the kids. I went just to take Cody and to help out in the lodge cooking. The morning hunt had limited success, with several Toms seen, but only one shot taken & missed.

Since no one got a bird in the morning some of the kids, including Cody, wanted to go out after lunch to try & get one. Some of the kids and guides had to go to town in the afternoon for one reason or another, and there weren't enough guides to take all the kids out who wanted to go back out. Gary asked me if I would take Cody out since I had hunting experience, then when the guides got back in the evening, they would take the kids back out.

So Cody and I went out with not a lot of expectations, but we both love to be in the woods. We set up at the edge of a set of woods in a creek bottom with an open field about 100 yards across between us and the creek. Once we got set up, we realized the only call we had with us was a NWTF souvenir box call that was given to each of the kids the night before at the kick off supper, but surprisingly it has a great sound to it. So, Cody got it out and hit it a couple of times, but heard no reply.

We sat there for about 1 1/2 hours without hearing or seeing anything, hitting a few yelps every 10-15 minutes. I think both of dosed a little in the afternoon heat. But about an hour and a half after we got there, Cody hit a few yelps, and a gobbler fired back across the creek a few hundred yards away. A few minutes later we saw him across the field about 200 yds away at the edge of the tree line. Cody yelped at him and he went to strutting and moving our way slowly. Each time he would stop and parade around Cody would purr or yelp at him & he would start moving our way again. However, we were set up on a point in the wood line and it made a semi-circle to our right, and there wasn't much cover on that side and that was the way the old tom was coming.

Once he got to within 150 yards, we were in pretty much open view to him. So Cody gave me the call and he got the gun ready. The gobbler skirted the tree line the whole way to the decoy set up in front of us 22 yards away. He stopped several times to strut and drum Whenever he would hang up, I'd purr with the boxcall and he'd come on in. My heart was beating so hard I was sure the turkey could hear it. My adrenaline level was off the scale! His drumming was incredible! I kept whispering to Cody to be absolutely still because he kept looking in our direction as he came in.

We were sitting like statues for what seemed like hours, but was actually about 20-25 minutes, and he just kept strutting towards our decoy. Just to the right of our decoy, at the edge of the tree line was some brush that would block his view of us and give Cody a chance to get his gun up. As he went behind the brush Cody got the gun in shooting position, and as soon as he came into the clear, right at the decoy, Cody made a perfect shot on him.

I've never seen him so excited! I grew up on a farm and had seen chickens flap & flog after having their heads chopped off, but Cody hadn't. I saw the head when the shot hit it and knew the turkey was dead, but it was sure carrying on & even got airborne. Cody jacked another round in the chamber ready to shoot it again, but I told him it was dead and not to mess the bird up. He took off running toward the Tom and had forgotten he had taken the suspenders of his vest off his shoulders and it was now falling around his feet. He was jumping and kicking the vest off and running trying to get to the bird. It was so great to see him so excited!

When we got to it, it was still flapping and getting off the ground and he was afraid it would get away, so I took my hunting knife and stuck it through the head, although it was apparent from the damage to it's head from the shot that it was dead, but it satisfied Cody. He was so proud of that bird! He had the biggest smile I've ever seen him have. Even more than Christmas or when he hit his 1st homerun. And when we came driving back to the cabin you should have seen the smile on his face when he held that Tom up and showed it to all the guys there.

That was one of the greatest adrenaline rushes and proudest moments I've ever had, and couldn't have been more fun if I had gotten the bird myself. I will always remember that hunt. At that time Cody's leukemia was in remission, but not long after he relapsed, and had to literally battle for his life. He received a bone marrow transplant January 10th of this year (2002) and is on the road to recovery, and looking forward to chasing gobblers in a couple of weeks.

(4/26/02 - Additional note - Cody, who had been battling leukemia since September of 1999, passed away on April 1, 2002.)