Osage Roost
Kitchen Sink => The Funny Place => Topic started by: Jake St. John on September 24, 2010, 02:04:50 PM
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A Quickie
Working Turkey’s can be short and sweet or they can be long drawn out affairs lasting days or more. Since my good friend Wade Wineman immortalized my longest hunt in his book East of the Slash with a chapter “He Had a Field Day”, I will not go there. I turn in the opposite direction, and give you a story about my shortest hunt.
It occurred about 5 years ago, 4/13/05. I know this because I made a Turpin reproduction call for my Nephew and it has the date of 3/97 in it. (And also because I had Wade look it up in his journal). I started borrowing this call from my nephew because a Turpin has a great cluck and it also has a great gobble. The call was patterned after an original Tom Turpin call that I used for about 15 years. The original belonged to the man that taught me how to turkey hunt here in the Ms. Delta , Mr. Jack Ellis. He bought the call from Tom Turpin the first year he returned from WWII. Mr. Jack let me borrow the call after he had a stroke. He knew I loved that ole raspy hen on that box. He showed me how to cluck and gobble on it also. I killed the bird in “He had a Field Day” with Mr. Jack’s original Turpin. I don’t believe that tidbit is mentioned in the book.
The particular weekend of this hunt, we had come back down to Franklin Co. because the birds in Tunica were still not gobbling. I was able to roost a bird near the top of the main hogback. Two weeks prior, I had a bird, one ridge over, come up on the far range of my 12 and would not move closer. I passed on a shot. This particular morning, I came loaded for bear. I had my son’s 10 Ga. Browning, in case he hung up at anything less than 50 yards. My plan A was to slip in quite and easy down beside a tree on the finger ridge going off into a ravine where he had roosted. Usually I formulate a Plan B if Plan A does not work. This particular AM. I eased in and sat down. He cranked up right on cue and just let him rattle everything awake around us. I could hear other birds in the distance and I just waited. I pulled out two boxes. My Stribling cutting box and my nephew’s Turpin. Getting later and still a little before fly down, I picked up the Turpin and clucked once and set it down. I was not prepared for what happened next. The gobbler pitches down to within 30 yards on my ridge and starts fast walking. He got behind a 30 inch oak, I raised the 10 and shot him at 17 steps when he cleared the oak. 6:12 on my watch. I had been in the woods maybe 30 minutes. Mr. Wineman had one of the best hunts that he ever had in Franklin Co. that A.M. The picture of his huge turkey is on his website www.bestturkeybooks.com. If you look close you will see the beard and feet of another turkey on the railing of the pier where the picture was taken. That was my 2-year-old bird. At 6:12 he said his bird had just started gobbling, and the percussion from the 10 startled him ¼ mile away. Later while he was cleaning his bird he said “You shot that bird off the limb." These were fun days in the Hamburg Hills.
Here is a picture of Mr. Jacks original Turpin, and my nephew’s call that I made..
(http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll150/jleddleman/TC-2-2.jpg?t=1285354597)
(http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll150/jleddleman/DavissTurpin001.jpg?t=1285354744)
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Good read, Jake...I got to it a little bit late for the coffee this morning *cheers*
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Another good one John!!
Mike