The Hardest Turkey’s Teach the Best Lessons
By Ronnie “Cuz” Strickland
As easy as “easy turkeys” can be, “hard turkeys” can be just as hard. I have seen grown men
turned into zombie-like creatures that can’t concentrate, behave or even function as a human due
to a lengthy encounter with a hard bird. What constitutes a hard turkey?
Here are some statements I have heard from hunters when describing a hard turkey.
In reality, any or all of these descriptions can indeed define a hard turkey. In my humble opinion a hard turkey may have all these
aggravating traits and more, but one constant factor that surely defines a hard turkey is the amount of hours, days or weeks that have gone
into hunting him. I’m not sure what exact measure of time would dictate a hard turkey but at the very least it would have to be four to five days, and
those days would certainly have to be several hours each. A one-hour hunt at dawn four days in a row would not count. I’m sure there are many “hard
turkeys” hunted that were really a combination of turkeys. Often times a hunter will go to an area that has several gobblers and end up hunting several while thinking it was the same one.
I have heard first-hand tales of people who hunted the same gobbler for eight or nine years. I’m no biologist but I don’t think a wild turkey
gobbler lives that long. Surely these turkey hunters would not lie. I am also confused on how you can determine from year to year how
the gobbler in question is indeed the gobbler in question. With a buck you can tell by antler sheds or rack similarities from season to season,
but with a gobbler from year to year I’m still not up on how you can be sure it’s the same one. One thing’s for sure, if you want to get a heated
discussion going, just ask someone who’ s telling you about a hard turkey just how he can tell it’s the same one from year to year. You might as well ask him was that his wife you saw coming out of the
juke joint last night with another fellow.
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Source: Mossy Oak Turkey Thugs/ Sportsmans Life / Baret News Wire
