Spring 2024
Article and photos by Herb McClure
Reminiscing back over the many gobbler hunts, which go back for over 60 years, I have experienced some unusual hunts. One hunt really stands out in my memory, which I was fortunate to have shared with my son, David McClure.
David, first of all, is an exceptional good wing-shooter. He is an avid quail hunter, using a .28-gauge or a .410-gauge shotgun. David also, was exposed to my early gobbler hunts over fifty years ago, going before he was 10, even without a gun. This was only to be my ears listening for gobbles, which I hardly ever could hear.
The hunt’s details are as vivid today in my memories, as when they happen. Located across a highway from where my log home is in White County, there is a mountain that goes by the name of Horse Range Mountain. Horse Range is a 3000-foot-elevation mountain that has a long narrow ridge top going nearly a mile from its beginning at the highway, to a gap that separates it from another higher mountain range. On both sides of the it’s top, it has steep sides. One facing to the east and one to the west.
Horse Range Mountain in White County.
I invited David to go with me on that memorable morning. We went to the midway section of Horse Range at 5:30 a.m. It was a clear and still morning. When the eastern sky begun to lighten up, I called some on the eastern side, but we did not hear any gobbles.
However, on previous hunts I had called other gobblers to a place on the west side. It is a small level shelf gobblers like to use as a strutting place. Above the strutting place, there is a big rock that has a 6-foot vertical cliff wall, which is facing down towards the shelf. It is a good place to sit back against the rock and shoot to either the left or to the right sides.
Up on top of the rock, the ground is level and flat, with the rest of the slope that goes back to the mountain top. We went down the slope to where the rock is located, and that’s when David said, “I heard a faint gobble”, which I did not hear. We sat down, back against the rock cliff with our legs straight out in front of us. I asked David to do the calling, as I had not heard any gobbles. David then said, “I heard another faint gobble coming from over the mountain top: back to the east of us.”
I still had not heard any gobbles. Before long, I too heard a gobble on the mountain top. In a few more minutes, David made some purrs and clucks, and a real strong gobble followed. The gobble sounded like it was right behind us, where the rock becomes level to the ground. David was to the left and I was on the right. The sun also had now come up and was shining over the top of the rock’s cliff. Thus, causing a shadow on the ground out past our boots.
In a short time, we could hear footsteps crunching in the leaves above our heads. Then, a shadow silhouette of a turkey’s head and neck could be seen on the leaves out in the sun light in front of us. The shadow could be seen going back and forth in the sun light. We knew the gobbler was above us.
When his body came into the silhouette. The gobbler flushed straight ahead, without even flapping, just sailing down. David’s gun roared, and the gobbler folded before he had sailed even 20 yards.
Herb McClure is a freelance writer living in Gainesville. Having been blessed with a long life hunting in the turkey woods, It has left him at old age with a desire to share some of his turkey hunting in writings. Herb can be contacted at herb.mcclure56@gmail.com.