Ed Garner garners the gobbler of a lifetime
Just about every time I run in to Ed Garner at the Y he wants to talk hunting. I don’t mind! I saw him after he sent this picture and story, but before I had opened the email. He told me the “short” version in the locker room, and let’s just say he was still pumped!
“Attached is a picture of the beauty I bagged opening morning. The big gobbler weighed at least 25-27 lbs with 1 1/2 inch spurs and a 10 inch beard. The bird was beautiful and huge!
I got to my hunting spot in Bedford a little late, about 10 minutes before sunup. When I got out of the truck to put on my gear, the turkeys were gobbling from all directions–must have been 7-10 birds gobbling within 300 to 500 yards. I was perplexed about which bird to pursue. I settled on one gobbling down below the house, across the creek. I would have a fence line with trees to provide cover as I tried to sneak within good calling range of the gobbler.
I finished putting on my gear and started out. After going about 75 yards, I realized that I would have to cross about 50 yards of open field with very little cover and probably would be seen. So, I decided to set up my decoys on the edge of the field and found a place to hunker-down about 35 yards off to the side with a good view. Fortunately, I found a depressed area, with good cover beneath a big oak tree, sat down and grabbed my Magnum Strutter box called. I had wanted to try my new friction call, but the box call was the first one I could grab and I wanted to minimize my movement. I had not been spotted and the birds, including the one I was pursuing, continued to gobble.
I hit my box call, and the raspy sound was music to my ears (and apparently the gobbler’s because he continued to gobble). A bird approached from my right side, though my view was blocked I could hear it putting real close to me; apparently It saw something it didn’t like and retreated. But my gobbler continued to gobble about ever 3-5 minutes and seemed to get closer then retreat.
After about 50 minutes of toying with me, I could tell the gobbler was finally consistently moving toward the decoys and me. I put the caller down and peered intently in the direction of the last gobbles. Suddenly, I saw a flash of red, blue and white as the bird began to strut, as he moved slowly toward the decoys and came fully into view above the depression in the field. The bird was so beautiful and big, I had to remind myself to get ready to take a shot. The bird strutted, then stopped, then strutted as he cautiously approached the decoys which were below me and off to my left.
The big gobbler was about 35-40 yards from me but I was afraid he would see me if I moved; as he continued to move, he put a tree between us; I felt it was now or never to get my 870 in position to fire. As I raised the gun, the barrel hit a limb and made a noise; the safety click seemed really loud, but I had the gun up and ready to fire when the gobbler came back into view. It took about 20-30 of the longest seconds of my life before he would reappear. I wondered if he had heard me raising the gun and was heading for the woods on the other side of the creek and out of range.
After what seemed like an eternity, that brilliant head, then the rest of the gobbler’s strutting body popped into view! I was ready, lined up the neck and head and slowly squeezed off a shot of 3″, no. 4 Winchester single X shots. The big bird went down and never got up! I just sat there for a moment, staring and catching my breath. Finally I walked over and just stared at the huge gobbler, lying motionless, with the sun reflecting off all those beautiful, iridescent blue, green and brown hued feathers.
The bird was of trophy proportions and beauty! I doubt if I will ever bag another gobbler as big and beautiful as this one–truly a magnificent trophy! The picture does not do it justice! I am mounting the tail feathers, beard and spurs. What a memorable hunt! I have never heard so many gobblers gobbling at the same time and for so long! What a beautiful morning that was! I am sorry you missed it!”
This is such a great story I am going to give Ed a little bit of a break on this “hero” shot. What an awesome hunt and bird!
April 30, 2012 - 4:37 PM
Great story!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m for hunting as long as you intend to eat whatever you kill. BUT, in fact you are also getting rid of the gene pool that ensures there will be more of that trophy size bird, deer or whatever you are hunting.
Debbie,
Being thats it’s fairly late in the beeding season it’s a safe assumption that this gobbler has most likely passed his genetics onto others hens allowing for his offspring to possibly be just as impressive as he once was that is if a turkey’s genetic makeup is passed on in the same manner as it is with whitetail. The goal is to take mature animal beit a turkey or a whitetail. Taking a young one out of the group ensures that it’s genes are no or will never be passed down. This gentleman did exactly what is prefered in the realm of trophy hunting and I congratulate him on it.
Great Comment Debbie..head on back to Dan Casey’s blog where you belong.
Thanks for addressing Debbie’s comment the way you did, Kevin.
The truth is, there actually is a sizable amount of research on the potentially paradoxical issue of removing “trophy”-sized game animals from a population, and its potential impact.
Most often the discussion revolves around deer, of course. After all, it’s pretty difficult for hunters to select for truly trophy-sized gobblers in the field because a 5-year-old bird looks pretty much exactly like a 2-year-old bird during the heat of the hunt. I mean, has anyone here looked at a mature gobbler strutting in, checked out its spurs and said, “That’s a pretty bird, but not quite a shooter”?
As for deer, there is the question of the impact of regulations that require bucks taken by hunters to have certain point minimums. Under a 4-points on one side rule, for example, you may increase the kill of basket-racked yearling bucks that have potential to grow into really nice trophies, while the spikes that get a pass will never amount to much.
If that kind of behavior is taken to an extreme, there could be an impact over the long haul of selecting for genetically inferior animals.
From what I have learned, hunters’ impacts on wild populations are minimal at best. There are just too many of those critters running around out there passing along their genes for hunting, as it is now regulated, to have much of an impact. Even that basket-racked 8-pointer probably got some action with does before he got shot.
As for turkeys, we were already well into the breeding season by opening day so, Kevin, you are correct that Ed’s bird has already passed its genes on.
Nice of you to cut your buddy some slack on his hero shot Mark. At that point he was still so pumped up he couldn’t think clearly on the hero shot! Great story on a great morning of spring gobbler hunting…wouldn’t we all like to head into the woods on an average morning and hear that many options around us…had to be a tough call, but he sure headed the right direction! Way to go Ed, big bird!
And Debbie, I didn’t read where Ed said he was mounting the whole bird, just the inedible parts…he’s probably got a recipe or two for that twenty pounds of turkey meat…that would make ALOT of turkey salad! And you would be surprised at the number of hunters that feel the same way you do and are not strictly hunting to make trophies of their game…I’m one of them.
Quite welcome Mark. Sorry about the tpyos, but I was using a tablet at the time with that pesky little pen touch keypad and one tends to miss a key here and there. I’m sure folks can figure out what I was meaning.