This great September weather had me excited about my chances of having a great month leading into this first autumn weekend, but it just wasn’t meant to be as my luck turned sour.

Friday the 13th was the start of it all and I’m not even superstitious. My application was in to the PGC for the annual elk license drawing, which was held on the 13th.

Winners of the elk hunt draw were to be notified by mail and the unsuccessful applicants would be put on the computer a few days later. At first, I was hopeful as the computer report was pending and the mail is sometimes slow … but no letter arrived and later the computer posted me as unsuccessful. Maybe they should say no luck this year, please try again.

Of course, I will get some extra chances next year as unsuccessful hunter applicants get a bonus chance added each year. Great news two out of 200,000!

My bad luck didn’t end with the elk drawing as I attended one of my favorite turkey shoots out in Boyers. They really shoot at targets to win a frozen turkey and I have been doing all right for years … but not this year.

Last year, I won several turkeys and a new shotgun. I was on the money and hotter than the Fourth of July in 2012. The year 2013 was a different story; I just wasn’t on my game.

I did have a couple of close seconds, but what good is a second at a turkey shoot? I was doing so bad that one time I shot the wrong target and with two of us shooting at the same target we still couldn’t win. Of course, we would have been disqualified but I didn’t even know it until I searched for my target and my pal J.T. picked up the same one. Oops! That was embarrassing!

Then I looked at the barrel of my trusty 870 Wingmaster and there underneath I found a rust spot shaped like a small tear drop. What caused that to happen is a mystery to me and just one more issue on the day.

Is it possible that I could have shot out all the luck I’ve been carrying around for all those years? All my so-called buddies enjoyed my demise at the turkey shoot and told me that I would have to go vegetarian for Thanksgiving.

One friend consoled me with the fact that grocery stores have plenty of turkeys hanging around in November. Great guys!

I came home and on the table was a stack of mail; I nonchalantly went through the letters when I saw one small postcard. It was from my friend and taxidermist Bob McGinnis. The postcard simply stated that my mounted deer head was ready for pickup.

I yelled to my wife, “When were you going to tell me that I got this notice?”

What’s the big deal was the look I received; little did she know that I was getting skunked at about every bend and I needed this good-luck charm right about now. My change in luck would have to wait as it was too late and the studio was surely closed. I would hit it on Monday and then be able to take on a whole new set of good karma.

Monday came and I couldn’t get my schedule free to pick up the buck mount. I made a fateful decision right there that I needed help from my brother-in-law, Leroy. I made the call and he delivered.

The buck was waiting for me when I got there late Monday evening and Leroy had temporarily hung it up in his man cave to give it proper homage. I hope that he didn’t use too much of his own luck up as he helped me out.

I didn’t feel as unlucky as I rearranged my man cave around to display the mount in a dignified fashion and the bad luck was melting away. In the end, I guess the feelings of being skunked earlier in the week really made me appreciate the new feelings of success.

I thought, “There is always next year’s turkey shoot. I might even go for a trifecta win, I will really have the 870 shined up and ready for turkey-shoot vindication!”

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle