Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Legends I have met.....

Hope no one is offended by this....them legends is awful testy at times.

Years back I got an invite to hunt at Bill Jones place on the coast of Georgia....this was before the bigger hunt he put on at Cabin Bluff before the riff raff wriggled their way into the hunt.

Flights out of Nashville were half price of a flight out of Memphis.....Howard Harlan said I should drive up to his house in Nashville and fly with him and his sidekick....(I forget his name).

We were met in Jacksonville Florida by Jim Jones driving a green 1970's vintage Cadillac Limo. When we arrived in camp I notice Howard Harlan and his sidekick were scrambling to get their stuff in the house. When they walked in Zack Farmer walked out....they had this possum grin on their faces seems they had stuck me in the room with Farmer. I'm getting my stuff in the room and Farmer is following me around like a puppy dog with a piece of paper. "Brother Cox look what my takey call sold for at the Orangeburg Turkey banquet"....I replied "Ain't it amazing what a bunch of drunk idiots will do".

This house had 2 bedrooms with twin beds and 3 bathrooms....next I hear" Brotha Cox you know this bedroom only has one bathroom".....I replied "I don't plan on spending a lot of time in the bathroom I'll use the one in the hall"

Next thing "Brotha Cox you don't plan on smoking in here is ya"....."I wasn't planning on it I will if you want me to"..."Oh no".

I decided to just sleep on the couch in the living room.....I told Brotha Zack to wake me up in the morning because I didn't have an alarm....he said "Okay"

Next morning I hear shuffling around and see light under the door.....I jump out of bed and Brotha Zack is heading out the door...."I told you to wake me up when you got up"...."I thought you had an alarm"....."Brotha Zack your lucky I heard you and got up because if daylight had caught me sleeping I would be hunting you"

I came back about 1 or 2 in the afternoon.....I had cleaned my turkey and put the meat in a walk in cooler.

Brotha Zack was sitting on the front porch swing when I pulled up on this electric cart they let me use.....he came walking out.

"Did you kill you a takee ?"....."I killed a nice one"....."Did you kill him with your trumpet calla ?"...."I chased the turkey for close to mile set up several times the hunt took about 5 hours I used several calls on him a trumpet a box call a pot call and the little Jet style slate I showed you yesterday is what tuned the tide....then I used a diaphragm call to get his head up in the Palmettos for the kill so I used several calls on him".

Then Zack kinda stuck his chest out and said...."I kill all my takees with my trumpet calla"

"I got a question for you why do you tote that Lynch box caller ?" that caught him off guard because not many people knew he toted one.....he replied "I only tote it for luck"....I stepped a little closer to him...."Brotha Ack ain't you a Preacher man ?"......."Oh yes I'm a Preacher man"....." I didn't think Preachers believed in luck"...."Oh no I don't believe in luck"

I stepped a little closer...."Don't tell that to a turkey man because we don't tote stuff we don't use"

Day the Preacher met the devil down in Georgia.

Seen a few at the NWTF show in Nashville back when I would go. Only one I ever talked to was Eddie Salter. He seemed nice enough.

He kinda sold his soul with the squealing hen.....

Eddie is good folk. A good Christian man who would go out of his way to help you out. Yep.

Never met a "celebrity" hunter of anything that I could tolerate! Bunch of useless poachers!

And I know your post is "Legends" not "celebrity", I apologize for that. I got carried away...

I met Mark and Toby . Does that count?

My grandfather's brother-in-law was a guy named Harold Schmidt and he owned several hunting lodges in Maine, among them The Driftwood and Camp Wapiti. Harold and my grandad's sister divorced, but my grandad and Harold stayed good friends. Harold was a "master guide" and specialized in bear hunting. I've hunted at the Driftwoodf a couple to times before he died and it got sold off. Harold was friends with Fred Bear. Harold also was highlighted in a 60s or 70s on the cover of a archery hunting magazine because he decided to hunt a bear with a spear. He made a spear out of a copper pipe and a spear head made out of a saw blade. He actually killed a bear with that spear and ended up getting cited by the Maine wildlife authorities for using a non-allowed weapon, but defeated the charge based on a nebulus definition of "contrivance." He killed a bear with a spear long before that numbnut a few years ago did it and where people tried to gey his Under Armour sponsorship killed.

https://bangordailynews.com/2008/09/25/obituaries/harold-d-schmidt/

Yeah........

There are "celebrities" and there are "legends". Some are both.

I've met most of them. Talked at length to many of them. Call some of them "friend". There's a few of the celebrities I could never hunt with. Only one I could say was a total A-hole (and I am being sincere in saying that individual is NOT LFC and I am making NO insinuation to his internet antics WHATSOEVER). Most of the people (MOST) in both the celebrity and legend categories are truly salt-of-the-earth people. I'm including TV hunters, call makers, big name gun smiths and choke makers, ...........the whole industry. I've heard stories. I can't call any of them "poachers" from first-hand experience.

Here's a riddle for you yOder.....

What do you call a guy that claims he's been paid by the turkey hunting and choke tube industries for two decades won't tell who paid him and hides behind a bogus user name on the internet ?

Just answer the riddle yoderbOy

I met another legend at the Cabin Bluff hunt....Ralph Permar.

I was waiting in the soup line when I noticed him up ahead of me.....I cut line and slipped up behind him like an old gobbler and said.....

"RALPH.".....he turned around I shook his hand and said...." boy you do look like a Nutty prO'fessor".....

His reply was something along the lines of it wasn't the first time he had been told that.