Turkey Hunter's first bird required no shots

[webfoot]

Hunter's first bird required no shots


By Bobby Cleveland
Clarion-Ledger Outdoors Editor

Even PETA, the vocal animal rights group, can't fault the hunters for how this successful Madison County turkey hunt ended.

David Dunbar, 41, a Jackson attorney, harvested his first gobbler March 30 without ever firing a shot.

For real.

Mother Nature did all the work for Dunbar and his hunting partner Bryan Jameson, 40, a real estate salesman from Ridgeland.

First, she provided a natural locator service and then dispatched a second gobbler to do the dirty work.

"Weirdest thing I've ever seen, even though I heard it more than I saw it," Dunbar said.

"It was unreal," added Jameson.

Hunting in the Pearl River swamps off the Natchez Trace, the two men were in the woods before daylight that morning.

"Right before dawn, there was this crow and owl fight, and it was quite a cacophony," said Dunbar. "A turkey started gobbling at them. We moved on him and set up."

They were in perfect position, between the gobbler and some hens, who were yelping from the roost.

Dunbar soon heard and saw the gobbler fly down.

Before Jameson could start working that bird, a second gobbler got into the act.

"We heard a second gobbler gobble close and then he flew down," Jameson said. "They were both gobbling on the ground, and I could tell by the sound that they were coming and getting closer together."

The gobblers' paths merged about 50 yards out behind a thicket. That's where things got wild.

"They started fighting," Jameson said. "We couldn't see it, but we should could hear it."

Said Dunbar: "It was the loudest thing I've ever heard in the woods, other than maybe a tree falling. The sounds of their wings flapping, the loud purring ... I'm telling you it was wild.

"Then, after the wings stopped, there was the drumming. It was awesome."

Jameson guessed the drumming, a sound made by a gobbler's strutting, was because the second and more dominant gobbler had vanquished his opponent.

"I figured he chased that one away, and then started strutting," Jameson said.

The show wasn't over.

"Two hens flew down practically between Bryan and me," Dunbar said. "They got scared and started clucking and it was over. They ran off and the gobbler must have gone with them."

The men got up and went looking for another turkey but couldn't locate a gobbling bird. On their way back, they passed the area of the fight and found a dead gobbler laying there, still warm.

"He had been spurred right behind his eye, deep into his brain," Dunbar said. "He also had a big cut across his chest. He had been whipped, bad."

[mississippi_duc_htr]

I guess you might say that ole tom got him an eyefull hehehehehe. [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img] ouch! Good story!

[blacklab101]

Sounds like a real "BOSS" bird!! What day was that in the Clarion Ledger?

[Super-X]

I'm thinkin the victor might have belonged to ROY D. MERCER [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] .

[Doc & Nash]

The real question is would you count that as one of your limit?????