For someone who got a late start chasing turkeys, Ray Jones of Huntsville has spent the last 60 years catching up.
In fact, Jones, 86, reached and surpassed a milestone this season by bagging the 400th and 401st turkeys of his career.
The reason he got off to such a slow start was because he lived in far north Alabama where turkeys were scarce for most of his life.
âWe really didnât have any turkeys north of Birmingham when I was a young boy,â Jones said. âThey had all been killed during the Depression. We hunted squirrels. We didnât even have any deer.â
Tom Lounsbury: Bagging my first homegrown gobbler
Tom Lounsbury, For the Tribune
May 6, 2021
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Tom Lounsbury s homegrown gobbler featured needle-sharp spurs (aka hooks ) which were 1 3/4 inches long, attesting to the fact it was an old and wise gobbler. A true trophy to outfox! (Tom Lounsbury/Hearst Michigan) Show MoreShow Less
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Tom Lounsbury is pictured with his hard-earned homegrown turkey gobbler taken last Sunday with a vintage Model 97 Winchester 12-gauge shotgun. (Photo provided/Tom Lounsbury/Hearst Michigan) Show MoreShow Less
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Tools of the successful hunt: Lucky s hunting blind, vintage 12-gauge Winchester Model 97 shotgun, and box and Easy Yelper friction calls. Tom Lounsbury prefers to keep things simple. (Tom Lounsbury/Hearst Michigan) Show MoreShow Less
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The Sportsman’s Corner: May musings
Published: 5/6/2021 1:42:51 PM
Modified: 5/6/2021 1:42:49 PM
The month of May is our transition from spring to summer, usually. Second to October, May is this sportsman’s favorite month. My passion for spring turkey hunting is a big reason for that and the spring woods coming alive as dawn approaches is something that never gets old.
Since that first turkey fell to the Winchester Model 1300 National Wild Turkey Edition shotgun in 1987, the many facets of the spring gobbler hunt consume me as soon as winter begins to give way to the spring. In conversations with other turkey hunting addicts, it has become obvious that the pursuit of gobbling tom turkeys is special; but it is so much more than putting a turkey on the ground. Each time out this year, there has been that moment of awe when you just take everything in as daylight sneaks in.
Pa. hunter bags turkeys in 49 states, earning national recognition
Updated May 06, 2021;
Posted May 06, 2021
Travis Thompson is an avid turkey hunter, managing to kill birds in 49 states that have turkey hunting seasons.
Photo by Brian Whipkey, Erie Times-NewsTNS
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A Pennsylvania hunter has completed one of the most challenging goals in turkey hunting.
Travis Thompson of Bulger, Washington County, has harvested a mature gobbler in 49 states.
The accomplishment is what the National Wild Turkey Federation, aka NWTF, calls the U.S. Super Slam. As of this writing only 11 other sportsmen have been certified for this achievement.
Thompson, 33, is in the process of completing the registration process to be the next name on this small list of hunters.