S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S
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hidden presence.
Finally, he reached my pre-determined spot for the
moment of truth. I essayed the softest of clucks, and
when his head went up, I squeezed the trigger.
It might not have been a classic confrontation with a
tom gobbling and strutting all the way, but in my eyes
he had been fairly hunted and cleanly killed. To my
way of thinking, that's woodmanship, the number one
characteristic in defining a turkey hunter's make-up, and
if you think otherwise, so be it.
Such matters of turkey "fair chase" aside – yes, I
basically ambushed the bird – when I got him the
bittersweet joy that envelops me every time I take a
mature gobbler ratcheted up several notches. Why?
Simply because he was my finest Eastern ever, and over
the years my tally for that subspecies has climbed well
above the century mark. The lordly gobbler sported two
beards that together totaled 19 inches and matched spurs
just over an inch and five-eighths. It was a moment I will
always cherish.
A second longbeard the next morning, called to the
gun with all the gobbling that love-struck two-year-
old birds sometimes provide, finished off matters in a
most satisfying way. As I headed back to the spot where
Arthur Dick had agreed to pick me up, with gobbles
still ringing through the April air from all points of the
compass, it dawned on me that I had just spent a couple
of days in a turkey hunter's paradise. Small wonder I've
always liked calling Carolina home.
IF YOU WANT TO GO
As a commercial hunting operation, the primary focus
of Willow Oaks is on bobwhite quail. Yet much of what
is being done to manage quail is equally beneficial to
turkeys. The result is as impressive a density of Eastern
turkeys as I have ever seen. For more information, visit
www.willowoaksplantation.com.
Note: Signed copies of Jim Casada's latest book,
Remembering the Greats: Profiles of Turkey Hunting's
Old Masters, a lavishly illustrated, exhaustively
researched 317-page hardback, are available from
Sporting Classics www.sportingclassics.com or the
author at www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com.
im Casada took this magnificent eastern gobbler at Willow
Oaks Plantation. The big tom sported two beards that
together topped 19 inches.
J
