By Louie Stout

Trophy Turkeys Are No Challenge to this Grandma

On one hand, Betty Vanlue isn’t your stereotypical grandmother.

Indeed, she has three daughters, seven grandchildren and three great grandchildren she loves dearly. Her grandkids call her “Neenie” and like hanging out and grandma’s house.

But come hunting season, they’ll find her in the woods.

Hunting.

That’s quite evident when you walk around her home and see the walls decorated with deer heads and turkey beards all harvested by her.

Vanlue added another trophy to her wall last month when she shot a 22-pound tom turkey with a 9 ½-inch beard off her farm opening day.

She was in the woods at 7 a.m. April 23 and shot the bird at 8.

“I called him in (with a box call), took one shot and dropped him in his tracks,” said the proud grandmother.

That wasn’t her biggest, either. Of the eight beards adorning the wall, she has another that measures over 10 inches.

Oh, and don’t forget the two 10-point bucks she shot during deer season and an 11-pound pike she speared through the ice a few years ago.

Vanlue started hunting with her late husband in 1958. She’s basically self-taught although her first hunting experience was with a late husband.

“He asked me if I wanted to go with him one day and I said, ‘sure, why not?’ recalled the 82-year-old Niles woman. “I’ve been hooked ever since.”

Her husband got ill shortly thereafter and couldn’t go but she kept hunting.

“When people see me they can’t believe I love to hunt,” said Vanlue. “I love being in the woods; it’s beautiful and you see so many things going on in wildlife.”

Like the day she sat on the ground against a tree with her feet propped up on a log. A chipmunk suddenly skirted along the log, ran up her gun barrel, darted across her face and leaped off her head.

“It happened so fast I didn’t have time to flinch,” she said.

Vanlue hunts turkeys alone, pointing out that gobblers have incredibly keen eyesight. Hunting with another person only adds to the possibility of being noticed by the bird.

“Blink your eyes and they take off,” she said. “You cannot move a muscle when calling in a bird.”

Her kills don’t go to waste, either. The recent trophy’s breast was soaked in a brine and cooked in a smoker.

“It was delicious!” she insisted.

She can’t recall how many deer she’s killed over the years, but there have been several and she says the venison is devoured by her and family members.

“My family loves venison,” she said. “I make Italian venison sandwiches and they love that more than they do beef.”

And what do the grandkids think of her latest turkey hunting venture?

“The boys are proud of me and say, ‘well, Neenie has still got it,” she joked.

‘Neenie’ still has it because she stays active and, of course, has no plans to give up hunting.

“I stay busy and remain active so I can stay on this earth as long as I can,” she added.

That could be bad news for the deer and turkeys that venture onto her farmland come spring and fall.