One of the legends I met...

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 but I will if you want me to"..."Oh no".

I decided to just sleep on the fold out couch in the living room.....I told Brotha Zack to wake me up in the morning because I did not have an alarm or a cell phone...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 and when I caught up to you it wouldnt have been nice"

I came back about 1 or 2 in that 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 call 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 style call 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 crossed his arms leaned back a little and kinda stuck his chest out and said...."I kill all my takees with my trumpet calla"

"Brotha Zack I got a question for you"...."ok"
"If you call all your turkeys with your trumpet call why do you tote that Lynch box caller ?" that caught him off guard because not many people knew he toted a Lynch box call.....

He replied "Oh...I only tote it for luck"....I stepped a little closer to him...."Brotha Ack ain't you a Preacher man ?".......he quickly replied "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 like right up close to his face and replied..."Brotha Zack don't tell that crap to a turkey man because we don't tote stuff we don't use"

The day the Preacher man met the devil down in Georgia.

How many times are you going to post that.....

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/16970113/1/legends-i-have-met

Met Fred Bear, Tink Nathan and Pete Shepley at the Bowhunters Jamboree in NC back in the late 70's.

Never heard of em.

I'm sorry I forgot I posted it.

Let’s see, Toby, Mark, efw, the list go on and on!!!

I met TK and Mike they were craZier than hell....

I've had the (mostly) pleasure of meeting a whole lot of the famous folks in the industry. Not sure how many of them I'd call "legends", though.

I wouldn't mind meeting Big Stick he's a legend...

Yeah.............he's...........somethin' or another.................

Stick wouldn't tolerate your shyt for 2 minutes and you'd look rediculous with a child sized logger boot hangin out your ass.

I ain't sure how tall Luther is. But I'm pretty sure Stick couldn't get his midget foot that high.

I'll have you know me and Big Stick are comrades....

Pretty sure stick could get him down to the correct level.

I'm trying to be civil. I'm leaving this alone for now.........

Frank is a legend and i grew up around him . Between him and my dad ive seen the real legends

Who would your dad be ?? If you don't mind me being nosey.

I'll be in Stick's neighborhood in July. Maybe I'll drop in on him.

He'd bite your ear off for sure Big Stick doesn't tolerate total ignorance....

He'd need a step stool..........

Stick's okay. A bit abrasive to some. But he's the kind of guy that if you get a flat on the road and he happens by, he stops, breaks your lug nuts with his fingers, lifts your truck with his left hand, replaces your tire with the right, puts it down, and torques your lug nuts back on with his fingers, then doesn't accept any pay, but calls you a drooling fugg-tard as he drives away.

Seriously, he's never bothered me. Yeah, he's a bit abrasive. But some of the things he's gone through might make anyone a bit whacky. Some of the insults hurled at him on this forum about his family tragedies are appalling.

He's also an outstanding photographer. He shares a passion with me for nature photography. And he's damned good at it. What he posts here is a smidgeon of what he's posted on photography sites.

He's also a fisherman, so he can't be all bad.

Why, I’m a legend in my own mind….

No more appalling than the insults and acuzastions you threw at me and my family.

I'm sure Big Stick enjOyed the nutt licking you just tried to give him.....

You glOcksucking bass'turd.

You're the only friend he's got, then. And, likewise, he's YOUR only friend.

Did you two meet in therapy ?? Or Match.com ??

Never threw any aspurstions at your family, ever. Not one.

If you are trying to throw off your reputation for being a jive turkey, you aren't doing a good job.

LOL

He makes up his own realities, Glocks. Then cries about stuff that ain't so.

Kinda sad and pathetic. He'd make a world-class democrat politician.

So.......... Thought about it.

Of all the people in the turkey/turkey hunting world that I've met...... I would consider these to be "legends".

Tom Stuckey
Dick Kirby
Ben Lee
Preston Pittman
Dale Rohm
Jim Kasper
Rob Keck
Harold Knight
David Hale
Bill Jordan
Irving Whitt
Ray Eye
Marlin Watkins
Darrin Dawkins

That's who I'm coming up with at the moment. A whole lot of other people who have made big names for themselves. But, the above guys have, IMO, left a lasting mark on the sport for one reason or another.

Wonder how long til our local, resident troll starts bashing names.............. ???

I have a Realtree cap that I won at a local hunting and fishing club banquet. It's signed by David Hale, Harold Knight, Tiffany Lakosky, Brad Farris, Lee Lakosky, and a bunch of others from the 2010 NWTF convention in Nashville.

Does this count? It's got Tiffany's phone number with it.

To me....... Tiffany's phone number would decrease its value.

Now, Harold and David are salt of the earth individuals.

I grew up about 15 miles from Cadiz Ky where Harold and David are from. They were definitely local legends back then when Harold won the world goose calling championship. About the only place you could find turkeys in western KY back then was Land Between the Lakes or Ft. Campbell.

You have to admit, if the people mentioned here are legends, it doesn’t take much to stand out in a crowd of 3 turkey hunters…

Never met Shrapnel face to face, but had a chance to speak at length with him about Winchester rifles. I call that a meet. Do a little research on Shrapnel, he's a legend.

Yeah I was wondering how one becomes a legend for ground sluicing birds with a shotgun during their mating season....

I went to high school with David Hale. He was older than me, and I remember when Harold Knight was a barber in Cadiz.

I grew up with Bart Conner, kindergarten through high school, Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics and went on to marry Nadia Comaneci. All this and a couple dollars got me a cup of coffee this morning...

Lmao! Im very impressed and almost in as much awe of you as i am of these other guys that have met all these "legends" of the turkey woods. . I watched a turkey hunting TV show one time that had Michael Waddell on it but I call him "Waddy" because He is salt of the earth guy and I consider us as buddy's 😁...Hb

Back when I was Charter Flying, I had 'Slammin' Sam Snead as a passenger............

And I know DD......

I met two really nice guys who I consider to be legends in the Turkey hunting world. I met Mr. Smith who founded Smith Game Calls from Summerville, PA . I was hunting spring Turkey in Clarion County PA in 1970 I was 12 years old and turkeys were so rare I only saw a small flock one time in my life. It was May and I was out on our property on a Saturday hunting using a home made suction call. I did not hear a bird but thought I saw one. Got to be 12:00 and I headed down a tram road going back to camp. There was an old Ford truck and a older gentleman sitting on the bed with plaid shirt and brown canvas pants. He asked what I was up too. I told him I was hunting turkey. He asked if had any luck and I replied I thought I saw one earlier. He said he heard a few and called 2 in but they did not get close enough. He said I was the only person he ever met spring Turkey hunting in the area. He wanted to see my call, I showed him and I played it for him. He fiddled with it and showed me how to use it. Wow, my calling never sounded like that. He took out a small wood box with slate and a peg stuck in the side hole. He played that thing like an instrument. He taught me how to use it. I invited him to our camp for lunch, we drove to camp and my aunt had a wonderful lunch for all of us. Mr. Smith asked if I would be hunting next week. I said yes. He told me to meet him at the Y in our camp road at 4:30 and we would hunt together. I met the following week and we hunted together. He really taught me so much in that morning. He called 1 bird to 40 yds but was to far to shoot. We went back to his truck and he had slate call sitting on the seat and he gave it to me. He said he wanted me to practice this coming week on my back porch and think about how we hunted today. He told me to meet him at 12:30 at the Y next Saturday. That next Saturday, hunted a new section of our mountain side and I took a nice Tom. I wrestled that bird all the way to the Y and met up with Mr. Smith. He wanted to know all the dtails. We drove back to camp, took pictures, had lunch. We had boaters going up and down the river stopping to look at my bird. That afternoon we had 50 people stop to look at the Turkey many of these people never saw one before this time. Mr. Smith taught me how to clean the bird. I became friends with him and his family often trout fishing and deer hunting with them. A true gentleman!

The other Turkey legend is Don Marley Watkins from Salienville, Ohio. I had a call made and he invited me to his beautiful property/house to pick it up and visit. What a nice man, and wonderful hunter, he has made me a number of calls which I consider working pieces of art. I often call him and listen to the most interesting Turkey hunts.

Most of the biggies in Turkey hunting are the salt of the earth. They love the sport, and want to pass along their knowledge.

Gary U

COOL STORY !!!!


I may or may not have spent some time at a shop in the Summerville area at one time or another.

My late brother met Ben Rogers Lee. He said he was quite the character.

He was.

Met him somewhere around 1983.

This was my good friend and legend Alex Vedrinski. He beat Preston Pitman in a couple gobbling championships. Made it on the Regis and Cathy Lee show. The guy was the best natured and funny guy you could ever meet. He hunted with my family for many years. Eventually started a call company Chestnut Ridge Calls. He could also skin a muskrat in under 60 seconds. He’s a legend to me. Miss him!

I knew Alex (and Rick) VERY well.

Alex was a GREAT guy and a grade-A doofball. Gone way too soon.................

Until I came to this site and then LFC joined and declared himself god of turkey hunting, I had never even heard of that bozo. Lots of others, yes. LFC? Hell no.

Your full of chit I ain't declared or bragged about nothing until I was pushed.....

So you admit your did brag and declare...

The truth always comes out.



The reason you can't even mention another call makers name without running him down. All your posts are like that. Even you stupid twice-posted "Legends I've met" thread was intended to belittle those "legends."

Your fugging ego knows no bounds.

So, God of Turkey Hunting, point to us an article, book or study you've authored. Or are you in this just to glorify yourself and make money off your calls that you can't seem to make anything come out of except a god awful squawl?

That's cool that you knew him, Yoder. I never really knew Rick, though it seems he's carrying on well. It's funny Alex never brought Rick to hunt with us. I knew Alex since I started hunting. He's really the one responsible for getting me going turkey hunting and using mouth calls. I recall he wasn't much on friction calls and regalia. He used to say, I only carry two calls, one in a pocket and one in my mouth. And the one in my pocket is just in case I lose the one in my mouth.

I remember when he started making diaphram calls, and selling some. He said he'd go to the pharmacy and buy condoms by the case. He said after the 3rd time or so in as many weeks, they kinda started to look at him a little differently.... He said, be careful, though. You want to make sure you get the UN-lubricated ones. For a big guy, he could sure cover a lot of ground. I don't think I ever saw him without a smile on his face. A grade-A doofball he certainly was.

He and Rick's Chestnut Ridge booth (and Bill and Deb Zearing's) was almost always within one or two spaces of ours at shows and the NWTF Convention. So you get to know people pretty well year after year after year. Alex and Rick gave me quite a bunch of their calls over the years. I always enjoyed watching Alex in the NWTF gobbling contest.

Met the legend himself, shared a camp and tipped a few with our very own Ingwe !!

George Digweed, Andy Duffy, Bobby Fowler, Dieter Krieghoff. "Legends" of a sort but whatever. Just people. Never saw the value in bragging you "met" someone who did more than you in whatever discipline you find important or interesting. Doesn't make you some sort of bad ass. I mean, I had the great fortune to train with and work with some SEALS, I wasn't one, I just met and worked with them - does it make me a bad ass? Nope. Same as "meeting a legend".

George is THE MAN !!!

I'd love to spend a day under his instruction.

Did you like his turkey beard he made from frayed bailer twine? Funny, this thread got me thinking about him. Didn't sleep half the night. So many guys I miss from the old days.....

Yeah. He wore that thing around...........looked like a horse's tail !!!!! LOL !!!!!!

A local guy was all worried because he lost the plastic factory beard from his turkey decoy (that's a story in itself). So I made him a baler twine beard ala Alex only a whole lot smaller.

Alex had a turkey suit, too. Wore it at the gobbling contest at least once.

Yeah, he wore that on the Regis and Cathy lee show. Imagine on national TV.... He looked like a giant butterball.

Yeah. He was a bit bigger guy than me. He looked like a total doof in that suit..........and smiled like a Chessie cat the whole time !!!

A legend I knew pretty good from phone conversations and letters he wrote me but I never actually met face to face....

Dwain Bland author of "The Turkey Hunters Digest".

A clue....like I figured an NWTF boOth bOy.

I think I can speak for everyone here in the turkey forum and say that we're PROUD of you, Luther !!!

You just might figure out Blues Clues, yet !!!!

🤣🤣🤣

Here ya go, Rickshaw.............

I was thinking I had this somewhere. Just had to do some looking.

Was in the Marines with the guy that makes Bud and Betty calls. He's in SC now, but originally from Arkansas. He's a legend....even if it's only in his own mind.

He (back then, it was still "they", I guess) did win some NWTF awards for his calls 15-20 years ago. I bought an Earl Mickel book from him. That's about all the further I actually KNOW him...........

That's awesome!!!! Thanks for posting. Dude was a trip!

I wish I could remember what it was I said to him to get that pose.............or what hand/finger gesture I may have made at him.

He was a doof, indeed.

in his own mind.....

At least Big Stick wasn't an NWTF coffee bOy....

Don't be butthurt, Luther.

Obviously, not everyone is cut out to be an ambassador for the sport to the general public.............

Wifey says I’m a legend in my own mind.

I met the guy that is the voice of squidward on spongebob square pants.

👍👍👍

🤜


🎤

One of the cool fringe benefits of being a lowly "booth boy" as our beloved, resident, mouth likes to call me, is the people OUTSIDE the industry you come in contact with. Over the years when I was "booth boy-ing"............ I got to meet Jeff Foxworthy. Other than being a gazillionaire, he's about as normal a country hick as me or anyone else you know. I got to meet Charlton Heston. Even in his later years, when he was becoming fragile, he had a presence about him that TOTALLY AWED ME !!!! And I ain't easily impressed. Got to meet Uncle Ted Nugent a couple times. Hung out with him at his hotel for an hour or two the one time. Ted the man and Ted the stage persona are two ENTIRELY different people. He is the fastest mind you will EVER have a conversation with. He's actually called my older daughter on the phone and had a fairly lengthy conversation with her. AND............ I got to have lunch with the late 4-star General Norman Schwarzkopf. A total honor !!!

The ability to separate "Bob I see on TV" with "Bob I know at McDonalds over coffee" is really hard for a lot of people. Often they're not the same and too many assume TV Bob would be the same as coffee Bob. IME - rarely is that the case.

So you an Uncle Ted got intimate in his hotel roOm

Watch it, LFC is starting to get turned on.

sounds like he is jealous of you talking to somebody other than him

One day at a racquet ball court this guy asked if I wanted to play. Said yes, and we played 3 or 4 games. He was new at the game and I beat him. He then asked if we could play again and I said sure. He was cut built and athletic. The next time I started to think where do I know this guy? Beat him again and he asked to play again. Eventually his name clicked and I knew who he was. Short story was he kept getting better quick and eventually beat me. He said "Finally, how about a beer to celebrate?"

So we had a couple and talked some. He finally asked, "Do you know who I am?" I replied yes. Then he mentioned, "I go out to dinner or on the town, and often wish I could just relax without people coming up to me. And after you said nothing for a month or so, it resulted in something different. I was worrying that I wasn't that well known." I said, I figured if you wanted to let me know you would have mentioned it. He just shook his head and laughed.

The guy was a well known starter for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

I've met a fair number of guys from 24hourcampfire, Good guys all!!

So, you've never met LFC, then................

And, THIS, folks.................is why first cousins shouldn't marry.

The laughing stock of the turkey forum............. The laughing stock of the turkey callmaker world............. And, NO DOUBT the laughing stock of his own family. Yet he doesn't see the hole he's standing in. He JUST KEEPS A DIGGIN".............

Back in the day.........there was a local redneck bar/dance hall that a bunch of the Steelers would frequent because they didn't get mobbed when they were 50 miles out in the boonies like they did closer the city. A couple of them hunted ducks on the same beaver pond as me, too. One in particular, was actually a deputy game warden in my county and a friend of a friend. First time I met him, I couldn't believe his size. He was a skinny little dude !!! Kinda shattered all the stories I'd heard about how badazz he was.

Well, he was a prick and eventually was dismissed from his Deputy Game Warden duties for the same by PO'ing off a landowner who owned thousands of acres that he left open to hunting. Our home counties must be close. I'm originally from Armstrong. His football rep is legend, and he was bad ass. His local post career rep not so much.

I met Charles Bronson's daughter, looks just like him!

I'm told I look a lot like Terry Bradshaw, must be true! I took my son, and a couple of his friends, to a skateboard camp in central PA. On the way back, I stopped for gas and something to eat. People kept asking me if I was TB. And then at a Japanese Steak Houseone time, the chef kept looking at me while he was making all our dinners. He finally said, with a heavy Japanese accent, you look like Terry Bradshaw!

All that and still a couple bucks for a cup of coffee!

None of them in Bradshaw's days made the money they do now. He made up for it in his post career. Breeds championship Quarter horses, well known on Monday night football, had his own reality tv show, tv commercials, etc. Bradshaw comes off as a country bumpkin, but he is the country fox.

He was called dumb when he first started out here in Pittsburgh. We all should be so dumb.

I met skater Scott Hamilton and got to party back stage with Joan Jett. I've met Joe Foss, Greg "Pappy" Boyington and Flying Tiger Tex Hill. I waived to Ronald Reagn and he waived back at Bicentennial of the Battle of Yorktown in 1981. I've met Rob Leatham and Brian Enos. And my parents knew Elvis - does that count?

Was hunting quail on Cascade Ranch (central California San Mateo County) and my German shorthair Dotti went on point. Walked up and on the flush got three for three with a 20 gauge Browning Auto 5. Guy was clean across the meadow from me but walked all the way over to congradulate me on what a fine dog I had and how well I shot. He had a lab that was being trained at the Crooks kennels on the ranch and had his son with him. It was Bing Crosby and he asked if I might hunt with him for a bit as he wasn't hitting very well and wanted his lab to get to retrieve a couple of quail. He offered to let me use his shotgun if I wanted to. I told him no way, and he chuckled and asked me why not> It was a Browning Midas grade 28 gauge over and under and I told him I wouldn't be able to give it back to him. Anyway, we hunted a bit but hunting a fine German shorthair pointer with a Hard charging Lab just didn't work out well. He was a real gentlemen though.

Same guy.

Lol !!! Some day we need to talk. Tell ya a heartwarming story of him at said bar/dance hall. Him and a local farm boy.......

I'm laughing all the way to the bAnk coffee bOy...

I'm sure you are, Luther.

Keep digging, buddy. Keep digging.

I thought this thread was about turkey legends not about your skool boy travels....just saying.

Wanna hear something funny Donny....I'm probably the only callmaker out there to ever made Rob Keck and Carl Brown pay for one of their calls....

If by chance was a pool cue involved?

Not that I'm aware of.

But the hood of a car was.

You spend time in his hotel roOm too Donny ?

A hunt ro remember.

You're like the 5 year old in an adult discussion, Luther.

Gonna start making poop jokes next ??

There he goes with the gay innuendos, again. What the hell, man.

There are a variety of stories of what supposedly happened in multiple joints going N on 66. So it is questionable if it is urban myth. What isn’t, is he was known to have been obnoxious and played the hard ass role in public places. And you can be sure one of the farm, or coal minors, would have been more than willing.

I think we know. 🙄

Not hard math to do.......... 😏

It's just weird. I think it's Freudian.

This was out Rte 85. It was pretty well substantiated. Wouldn't be surprised if it happened more than once and in more than one place. He had that hard ass attitude was well known on the field. But it didn't play out too well out Rte 85.

How the world turns...He often goes into places now, and they have no clue of who he is. Tunch Ilken told a classic story of one encounter..

I believe it !!!

He was at my buddy's retirement party (12-15 years ago) and I hardly recognized him THEN. He was maybe 175-180 lbs looking like he was dying of something. Wearing Dockers and a cardigan like Mr. Rogers....................

If nothing else... a Big Legend in his own mind...

But there definitely not of him on the planet.... He adds to the campfire "ambiance"

Much like ticks, chiggers and rattlers and LFC add to the turkey hunting "ambiance".

Let's not forget the phoney azz coffee bOys like Yoder409....

Paid in peAnuts for two over decades.