Anniversary Coming Up

[Pygmy]

My 40th anniversary of killing my first gobbler is coming up next week.

I was glancing over my "memory shelf" just tonite and spotted a turkey wishbone.

The date written on it in pencil reads " May 15 1975"..

It's from my first spring gobbler.. I hunted them 1n 1973 and 1974, but never killed one until 1975.. I was 25 years old..A mere wisp of a lad..I have killed at least one gobbler per year in NY except for 2 or perhaps 3 years.. I have been fortunate to have taken some other birds over the years in PA,Virginia, Kentucky and Ontario..

I've always been somewhat of a duffer at turkey hunting, although I have persued it passionately.. I have never been very good at it, but I have worn them down with persistence..

[ants]

My 40th anniversary of killing my first gobbler is coming up next week.

I was glancing over my "memory shelf" just tonite and spotted a turkey wishbone.

The date written on it in pencil reads " May 15 1975"..

It's from my first spring gobbler.. I hunted them 1n 1973 and 1974, but never killed one until 1975.. I was 25 years old..A mere wisp of a lad..I have killed at least one gobbler per year in NY except for 2 or perhaps 3 years.. I have been fortunate to have taken some other birds over the years in PA,Virginia, Kentucky and Ontario..

I've always been somewhat of a duffer at turkey hunting, although I have persued it passionately.. I have never been very good at it, but I have worn them down with persistence..

With that record I would say you are good at it….Congrats.

[Lawdwaz]

40 years of spring gobbler hunting means you really were in on the ground floor of it.  Do you know when they started the spring season, early 70's?

 

Were there many birds around then? 

 

What did you use for calls, box? 

 

Had you been hunting fall birds prior to the spring hunts?

 

Were face masks in play then?

 

Did PA have a season back then?

 

Remember my friend Albert who I introduced you to this past February?  His late father was one of the early spring gobbler hunters around here too.  Albert just sent me a clip from a Buffalo news article from 1977 that spotlighted his father and spring turkey hunting.  They were killing them then also!

 

Al's dad is also the one that took me under his "wing" when it came to spring birds.  I was just a 21 or 22 year old piss pot that he let accompany them on a few hunts each year.  I will forever be indebted to him as he taught me a ton about calling and the birds. 

 

That's pretty cool Dan, 40 years is quite a milestone.  Congratulations!

[Pygmy]

IIRC, both NY and PA opened their first spring seasons in the late 1960s.. Pa had a fall season for years, and NY had a short fall season for several years before spring seasons were opened.My very first TURKEY was a hen I shot in the fall of 1965...Got my name in the local paper for that.  Never killed another bird until the gobbler in  1975.

 

There was little published info about turkey hunting at that time.  Only a few sports writers wrote about it..Dave Harbour and Charles Elliot were a couple I remember.

 

I learned to call from a 45rpm record featuring M. L. Lynch himself. I still have the record but I don't have a turntable to play it on.

 

There were only a few call manufacturers.  My first call was a Lynch World Champion box made in Birmingham, Alabama...It took me a few years to get the hang of moth calls..The call I learned on was the first commercially offered  twin diaphragm, the Perfection Super Double D...

 

Camo was pretty rudimentary, mostly WWII.   The first " designer" camo I remember was Trebark.  Facemasks and gloves were used, even back then.

 

Camo finishes on guns were unheard of.  Those of us who camo'd their guns used camo tape.

[Lawdwaz]

Interesting.......I forgot about camo tape.  I used plenty of that in the day.  I still have my Lynch box call I bought in '81 from a small gun shop on Main St in Clarence.  Funny thing though about that call, I have never had the "touch" with it.  Called in some birds of course but the mouth call has always been my best.

 

The Quaker Boy diaphragm calls I went through over the years would have to be the Single, Pro Triple, Old Boss Hen.  The later being my favorite for years.  The DD Adams Double Slate was my first slate call.  

 

These days I'm happiest with a mouth call and slate from the closed Kits Calls Company.  The mouth call is probably 5 years old!

 

I don't really remember my first camo but it probably was similar to my one and only turkey vest.

 

From a number of years ago.........

 

 

 

I do love that old beat up vest.  It's been sewed so many times, the straps are so stressed with a bird in the pouch.  It has to have thousands of miles on it!  '81 vintage too........made by Duxbak and designed by the late great Dick Kirby.

 

Your 45rpm record has got to be valuable.  I think I still have a Quaker Boy cassette tape around here from the 70's where my deceased old friend Wally kills the boss gobbler of Letchworth Canyon. (The State Park of course)

 

Good memories Dan.

[maytom]

Congrats Danno!!! That's a milestone to us youngsters!!!

[Pygmy]

The Quacker Boy Grand Slam was my first turkey vest also...I finally gave it up (after many repairs) when the fabric BEHIND the shell loops wore through and the shells would fall out...I replaced it 12 years ago with Bucklick Creek vest, which I don't like NEARLY as well as my old Grand Slam...<<sigh>>...

I have the cassette tape with the Letchworth hunt on it...really cool to learn that the guy who pulled the trigger was one of your buddies.. Small world.

[Lawdwaz]

I have the cassette tape with the Letchworth hunt on it...really cool to learn that the guy who pulled the trigger was one of your buddies.. Small world.

 

Yes, Dick Kirby was the caller and my buddy Wally was the trigger man.  IIRC Wally had hunted that bird a few different mornings with no luck.  He was friendly with Dick and over a phone call Dick said he'd come along and see if they could get the wary bastid...........and not surprisingly the old barber worked that bird right in!!

 

Did you know Dick Kirby was a barber in his former life?

[Pygmy]

Yes I did...The first time I saw Dick was at the NSNWTF Convention and Calling Contest in Portville in '75 or '76...  He placed high in the contest, but not win...For the life of me I can't remember the name of the old boy that did win it, but he was president of the NYSNWTF at the time.  He was a veterinarian, and took the xrays that were used for printable turkey head targets for years...He's been dead for years now.

 

I had the pleasure of visiting with Dick at several seminars, plus a couple of NWTF national conventions  in Columbus, Ohio and Nashville, TN.....

[Red]

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/4473185/2

love reading these kinds of old hunting stories I'm not familiar with the babe dick kirby so i googled it so i could read some stories this was the first thing i found.

[maytom]

Danno, Dick Kirby was my barber when I was in high school. Graduated back in 73' from Orchard Park. He would show me all the mouth calls he was making at the time on an arbor press he had in his home. That veterinarian's name was Dr. Paul Pellam, actually met the guy at one of Kirbys seminars many years ago.

[Pygmy]

Yeah, Paulie  !!  Dr. Paul Pelham was the guy !  He was an awesome caller ( he had to be to beat out Dick Kirby)  and a real nice guy to talk to also...He passed away quite a few years back.

 

I used Quaker Boy mouth calls for a number of years, my favorite being the Old Boss Hen....The name always reminded me of one of my old girlfriends...<<GRIN>>...

 

Have you heard anything from any of the old gang ?  I get an email once in awhile from Mike Davis and Ray Goff...I see Slater and The Big Galloot now and then..That's about it..  Oh yeah...Gator and I still exchange hunts every year....

[Lawdwaz]

Doc Pelham was good friends with Al and his father too.  I heard many stories about him but never had the pleasure of meeting him.

[Lawdwaz]

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/4473185/2

love reading these kinds of old hunting stories I'm not familiar with the babe dick kirby so i googled it so i could read some stories this was the first thing i found.

 

Ha!  I forgot about that post, thanks Red.

 

Good write up from Will Elliott...........

Edited May 11, 2015 by Lawdwaz

[Red]

Your welcome i thought you would appreciate seeing that old post.

[ants]

I learned to use a mouth call, back in the late 80's, by listening to a Dick Kirby cassette tape, while I drove around in my truck. The only person I knew who turkey hunted back then was my late hunting buddy herb. He was an old timer (LOL ! he wasn't too much older than me back then) and he only used friction calls. I liked the idea of hands free calling so I bought the tape at Dick's, when they first came to town. Theres a slight chance that I still have that tape somewhere, but more likely than not its gone. Probably went with the truck. The man could call.

[Pygmy]

Next time I'm out in the garage I'll dig my turkey tapes out of my old gun cabinet and see what I've got..I know I had two of Kirby's instructional tapes at one time..No telling if I still have both of them or not..One may have been a bootleg that one of my hunting buddies gave me.