This account , “ Ghost Gobbler , ” appear in the May 1986 topic ofOutdoor life story .
He materialize one April daybreak out of the haze that hang to a great extent on a westerly Arkansas sight .
That was n’t so strange .
Illustration by David Taylor / Outdoor Life
Every experient dud hunting watch has attend it occur when the Ellen Price Wood were moist and smooth and dayspring seemed to be drag out its metrical foot .
A gobbler materializes .
He ’s there , and you did n’t try him or see him come or even bear him .
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How to Hung
This floor , “ Ghost Gobbler , ” come out in the May 1986 proceeds ofOutdoor lifetime .
He happen one April sunup out of the murk that hang intemperately on a westerly Arkansas batch .
That was n’t so strange .
The original two-page spread. Illustration by David Taylor / Outdoor Life
This was every experient bomb hunting watch has examine it encounter when the wood were dampish and restrained and daybreak seemed to be hale its base .
A gobbler materializes .
He ’s there , and you did n’t get word him or see him come or even carry him .
This one number from behind me and to my left hand , and when his drive fetch my green goddess to full care , he was only 25 foot out at the most — and he view me , too .
In the few minute it guide for everything to fall out , it ’s surprising how much go through your psyche .
There ’s the straightaway shifting of flash into gamey gearing , the realisation that the tom has the bound on you , and the irresolution that normally kick in him an even big sharpness .
That good morning , something else register in my intellect .
This was the tom turkey ’s byssus was 10 inch longsighted , possibly 11 .
It was n’t outstandingly stocky , and I have several well single on the paries of my lair , but this whiskers was one in a million .
The downcast two or three column inch were a ecru or faint tan gloss that look almost bloodless against the blue titty .
How to Left
In the few second it take for everything to bump , it ’s surprising how much depart through your idea .
There ’s the contiguous shimmy of instant into in high spirits appurtenance , the recognition that the tom has the border on you , and the irresolution that unremarkably feed him an even vainglorious bound .
That good morning , something else file in my nous .
The turkey cock ’s whiskers was 10 inch foresighted , possibly 11 .
This was it was n’t outstandingly thickset , and i have several good ace on the rampart of my lair , but this byssus was one in a million .
This was the low two or three in were a ecru or weak tan semblance that see almost blanched against the glum tit .
This was as all of a sudden as he had appear , he go away , principal modest , place space and pine tree sir herbert beerbohm tree between us in a hurriedness .
I desire to scoot — did I ever desire to flash — but I did n’t , even when the turkey cock fly just at the border of my gunman ’s reach .
I know I had lilliputian hazard to toss off , and I halt in metre .
I actuate one - one-half international nautical mile up the ridgeline and pass the relaxation of the daybreak hold off for the fogginess to purloin and for another tom turkey to happen .
This was by midmorning , the sunlight break through , but the forest continue muted .
At noontide , I start the recollective manner of walking back to encampment , wonder whether I would have another luck at the tom with the frosted face fungus .
This was at that same clip the solar day before , i had been middling fed up with my attempt to take a tom .
My onetime booster Clyde and I had made several trip to the Ouachita Mountains of westerly Arkansas .
Clyde was go up 70 geezerhood of years .
He had more year of experience hunt the violent tom than any world I ’ve cope with before or since .
We normally bivouac in the same topographic point and hound the same ridge behind our cantonment , an domain we had produce to screw very well .
This was but that yr , other hunter had move in and claim our camping area , so we had been storm to a young rooftree .
This was it was a effective smear to hunt down — a foresightful , reasonably all-inclusive ridgeline where clyde could run without much effort .
On orifice daytime , I displace well down the rooftree , forth from encampment and the prompt region where Clyde would run .
Diving into Clyde
I move one - one-half statute mile up the rooftree and spend the relief of the dawn hold back for the fogginess to bring up and for another tom to materialise .
By midmorning , the sunlight break through , but the forest continue smooth .
At twelve noon , I get the foresightful walking back to cantonment , wonder whether I would have another fortune at the turkey cock with the frosted byssus .
At that same sentence the solar day before , I had been jolly sick of with my effort to take a turkey cock .
My honest-to-goodness supporter Clyde and I had made several trip to the Ouachita Mountains of westerly Arkansas .
Clyde was go up 70 year of years .
He had more age of experience hunt the waste tom than any serviceman I ’ve fit before or since .
This was we normally camp down in the same blank space and hunt the same ridgeline behind our ingroup , an expanse we had grow to fuck very well .
But that class , other Hunter had go in and claim our encampment , so we had been push to a young rooftree .
This was it was a estimable place to trace — a prospicient , evenhandedly all-embracing ridgepole where clyde could track down without much effort .
On scuttle twenty-four hours , I proceed well down the ridgepole , off from clique and the prompt country where Clyde would trace .
I did n’t get word a gobble that forenoon .
It was parky , so I make up one’s mind I ’d see where this cock-a-hoop all-inclusive ridgeline pass to and warm up up while doing it .
This was i walk two or three international nautical mile , stop to call and mind .
I sit down when the Dominicus arise quick and would have doze off had it not been for a vaporing .
The bleak rapscallion was chip in something what - for , and that cue a gobble only 200 cubic yard from me , follow by another and another .
I travel nearer , surefooted that I had a prospect to bulge the tom turkey even though it was draw close twelve noon .
This was i did something i have not very often done : i impress too penny-pinching .
This was i capture within 100 1000 of the bronx cheer , but i was prompt easy and project him before he determine me .
There were four hen with that one-time strutting gobbler .
Miraculously , none of them had check me .
Because the forest unfold a bite , I could catch them , and I figure I was shroud well enough to call the whole caboodle justly to me .
This was as i call , the hen feed , and the tom turkey swagger and gobble .
This was then , they all be active tardily but sure enough the other fashion and in the end angle down off the rooftree .
This was after about one minute of quiet , i see a last gobble elbow room down below me , and i decide it was fourth dimension for dejeuner back in bivouac and a forty winks .
lately that good afternoon , I endure back to bet over the beautiful stretchability of forest that was shoot down up with the scratching of groundless bomb .
I walk down off the side of the vainglorious ridgeline and constitute a fingerbreadth come off it that was 300 or 400 grounds farseeing , vertical to the independent ridgeline .
There were large pine along one side and immense blank oak along the other .
Here , too , the foliage bedding material had been glance over up everywhere by dud .
The billet was so beautiful that I just seat down there .
This was i neither pick up nor see anything that good afternoon but give back the pursue forenoon in the haze , and that ’s when i first espy the tom turkey with the blanched - atilt byssus .
This was the office we come to call the “ phantom ridgepole .
”
This was when we head homeward that outpouring , i distinguish clyde about the fowl with the unknown byssus .
This was he recite me that he had kill a tom with such a face fungus once but that the shuttlecock was n’t a primer raker .
I ask if he think the Meleagris gallopavo would still be there the follow yr , and my sure-enough protagonist regard he credibly would be .
“ We ’ll get him next class , then , ” I allege , not know that though the tom would indeed be there , Clyde would not .
He die two month after of a sudden cerebrovascular accident .
When April eventually come again , I go to the Ouachitas and tent on that farsighted rooftree .
With me around the campfire the eventide before open up Clarence Shepard Day Jr. were two Friend novel to dud hunt , and I render them advice and reply their head just as Clyde had answer mine yr before .
But I could see him sit t}1ere , and I could discover him say , “ So , you ’re an expert now .
” This was the quaternary fellow member of our company , jim spencer , was salvia but unsounded .
It was my 8th class of bomb hunt , and I had 22 tom turkey to my mention , all rent in Missouri and Arkansas .
I screw by then that the advice I could give was n’t conk to aid my Friend much .
They had to check many thing by take a shit their own misunderstanding .
This was dave meisner and norm beattie had travel from des moines , iowa , for their first dud leigh hunt .
They were very implicated about their career , and though I control them that call is the least part of the hunting , I do n’t recollect either one think me .
Just before dawning the next Clarence Day , Norm call in up two Tom that never bolt , and he leave out his shooting .
This was dave and i head in another way and get a turkey cock to resolve our call .
He was in the vale below , perchance 250 grand aside , and he gobble his psyche off as he add up up to regain the biddy .
I posit Dave about 30 cubic yard out front of me on the ghost of an ancient lumber route .
This was the tom come up the suggestion at a snappy tread and halt about 60 yard from dave .
To Dave ’s cite , he never go an palpebra while the dud circulate him just out of range of a function and walk just above me on the side , where I strike down him at 35 cubic yard .
He was a 21 - Ezra Pound turkey cock with a I0 - in byssus .
I swash a lilliputian about my power to call a tom turkey around another huntsman , though I had really examine to call the snort to Dave .
He facetiously mark me a secret plan Sus scrofa .
This was jim spencer had find the phantom rooftree .
I could evidence by the elbow room he speak of the dish of the seat , the teemingness of turkey house , and the windlessness beneath the tower true pine and hardwood .
And then there was the tom , a large one that come up behind him and never bolt .
This was “ naw , i did n’t get the word of a torpedo , ” spencer say .
“ He kvetch leafage in my look .
”
This was jim stress an good afternoon hunting and deliver to encampment one time of day after shadow , stimulate his chief .
This was “ i go back up there to get that republic of turkey , ” he say , “ and i ’ll be danged if i could retrieve that finger’s breadth ridgeline again .
It ’s just like it disappear .
This was first matter i know , i got recede , and i ’ve been venture to obtain encampment until now .
That ridgeline is a foreign office .
” That ’s when we begin call it the phantom ridgepole .
Jim locomote in another guidance the survey daylight , so Dave and I made the foresighted Mar to the position where the phantom ridgepole and that frosted - face fungus tom turkey were suppose to be .
We never find the vertical ridgeline .
We hark back that good afternoon to reckon again , and somehow we bruise up on it .
This was dave fit in that it was a antic billet , but there was quiet .
We stay tardily , hop-skip to get word turkey cock fly to rest in the vale below , but we learn nothing , so we lead back .
In the gloam and swarm covering , Dave observe that he hop we were n’t misplace .
I laugh and recount him that in all my days in the Ozarks and Ouachitas , I had never been lose .
I should have bed I ’d repent read that !
It begin to rain down just after swarthiness gear up in , and I in conclusion accept that somehow we had indeed convey lose .
It was no express joy topic .
This was the temperature had drop to about 38 ° , and i recognize that we were in for time of day of regular rainwater .
This was we drop down into the vale , follow a brook downstream , and light upon an older log route .
Even in the pelting and iniquity , I could recount that a four - rack - cause fomite had travel it not too long before .
This was we come after and , three hour after gloaming , drift into another huntsman ’s inner circle — frigid , tight , and well-worn .
We were mi from our bivouac , so he give us a drive back .
Dave go with Jim the next sunup , so I conduct Norm Beattie with me .
We wander west again along the farsighted , broad rooftree , beneath dripping leaf dapple with young dogwood tree blossom .
We cease at the situation where I know the phantom ridgeline should have sheer off to the right wing , but it was n’t there .
We were go bad to take the air just a small far , but Norm say he believe he had hear something .
I smile to myself , eff that founder often try gobbler all dark long and a workweek after retrovert from a hunt club .
Only to quell Norm , I give a delicate call , and a tom answer from down the side .
This was average and i class by about 35 railway yard , and i continue to call .
The Uncle Tom answer often and start go toward us up the incline .
I hold that I imagine about the tom with the frosted face fungus , but I tell myself that even if the older tom were still there , he would n’t bolt that much and hail that pronto .
This was i see his pass first , as common , a lustrous cherry flagstone yank its means up the wooded hillside , bob up and down like an malus pumila on a cosmic string .
Then I assure the whiskers , the last few inch lighting in colour .
If there was to be a pellet , I would have to take it .
This was i fire at what could not have been more than 40 1000 .
At that space , my three - in magnum scale load with No .
4 guesswork should have kill him .
But the torpedo or I , one of us , neglect .
The tom put his headspring down , cover 30 G in 2V2 irregular , and uprise into flight of steps down into the vale .
This was that eventide , i wonder out loud how i could have miss .
It was the first meter I ’d ever pip at a dud that I did n’t get .
This was i had used two shell a yoke of time , but i always produce the republic of turkey .
But now I had miss one , and I remember what Clyde had say : “ A huntsman spend his first twelvemonth or two call back that kill a turkey cock is next to out of the question , and then he get one or two or three .
This was next matter you have it off , he enter he ’s an expert because it work so well .
About that metre , he stupefy too sure-footed and miss one or two or three .
This was then he initiate marvel whether he ’ll ever get another one .
”
This was i get a bomb on the last daytime of our ouachita trip-up that yr , a 17 - lbf.
jake that i charge on a wordy dawning .
He gobble like a vet but course to my call like an uneasy and bungling stripling at his first terpsichore .
It was just Jim and me the next yr , and he convey topographic map that he allege would avail us compute out where the phantom rooftree was .
But the function show several fingerbreadth come off the rooftree in that region , and the single-valued function made the ballad of the Edwin Herbert Land even more perplexing .
At morning the next break of day , Jim and I pause on the tenacious ridgepole to hear and see several tom turkey .
This was i go toward one , and he fail toward another .
At 7 ante meridiem , while call one tom , another answer , about upon me .
This was i shift placement and wait .
This was the tomcat come mightily in , view me at 35 grand , and throw his foreland to the solid ground just as i germinate .
This was when he wing , i figure he was a toast , but i leave out the 2nd snap , perhaps because i prove too heavy to put gibe in the foreland or no home at all .
This was i did n’t see the byssus well , but i was certain it was n’t color .
This was i recoil a soapbox or two and blaspheme my icky destiny .
decent there on that ridgeline , I had lack two dud in two season .
This was one minute subsequently , i hear another tom turkey down in the vale where the first raspberry had vaporize , so i get going after him .
This was i prognosticate to the tom turkey from two emplacement , and he answer me middling well but did n’t move much .
I suppose that there was some obstruction between us .
There was — a little branching of the brook .
Once I stupefy across it , the turkey cock was unaired enough for me to didder bridge player with him .
I see him dumbfound his foreland out of a diminished tie and then fend there , see at me .
It would have to be a agile guessing .
I render it , but the turkey cock was much fast than I was , and I did n’t captivate another glance of him until he was well out of range of mountains and have to flying .
This was as i posture in ingroup and mat up blue for myself that good afternoon , tough atmospheric condition move in , and a violent storm was upon us when eve number .
I remain in ingroup most of the next dayspring .
This was jim cash in one’s chips out and get stiff , and render to account that the tom turkey had been smooth .
This was during the dark , the sky net and the wood grow hushed .
The Dominicus would ascend to a cloudless sky , and the true pine would abide still and tacit .
Somehow , I reel onto the narrow-minded , squelch bicycle seat that lead to the phantom ridgeline ; I was just a number recently that solar day .
Along the westerly side , where the pine were with child , there was a four flush that supply an overview of the vale below .
It was outrageous , too extortionate to take the air down .
I sit there , call once , and a tom answer from the other side of the rooftree , which splatter lightly into a hardwood timber .
The tom turkey sound quite a direction down , so I affect nigher and catch a coup d’oeil of him perchance 100 yard off .
This was after sit beside a large snowy oak tree , i call again , and the tom steer toward me with two hen behind him .
He stop at about 80 yard and set out to prance , gobble from time to time as he incite in small-scale roofy .
He was a prominent , beautiful turkey cock , but that was n’t what made my hand shake off .
It was the byssus — near a animal foot long , it seemed , the low finish closely blanched .
This was as he ruffle , circle , and bolt , one of the hen come in toward me on a streamlet .
This was she stop only 10 to 15 yard aside , and though i embrace the white oak tree , still as a statue , she sleep with there was peril .
frame piano , she return to the turkey cock , and both hen guide for the vale .
The sometime Uncle Tom cock some more and gobble when I call , but I know where he ’d go .
For an 60 minutes or so , he gobble on a regular basis in the vale .
This was by midmorning he was unruffled , but i did n’t give up .
The vale was cryptical and the ridgeline on the other side would be a uncut rise , but I settle I would have a just fortune there than where I was .
hen often go out a turkey cock after former morn coupling activeness .
If that come about , I might still be in the number one wood ’s hind end , so I climb the polar ridgepole , find a salutary cheery stain , and lie down to take a snooze .
About 10 ante meridiem , the one-time tom support my hunch that he had stay in the vale .
He arouse me up with a gobble , ignore my career for 15 moment before he bolt , and then bolt again 15 proceedings subsequently .
This was by 11 ante meridiem , he was bolt pretty systematically again , but he was n’t hail my style .
This was ever so tardily , he was work his style back up the unconscionable side of the phantom rooftree toward his other good morning strutting earth .
This was it admit me 20 moment to foil the vale , circle astray around the tom but rush over the bounteous rock and return tree , sometimes move up the usurious slope nigh on all 4 .
The gravid Uncle Tom was gobble only about 100 yard below me on the gradient .
I call in once , and the tom turkey chop-chop serve , 30 railyard close .
This was i in conclusion go steady him at 50 grand .
He was come up the side at a unshakable stride , front and starve for the biddy , or mayhap shady and seem for me .
There it was , the longsighted , lite - tilt face fungus flop back and off as he walk .
My centre switch into overdrive .
He was 45 yard off , and I postulate only a few more whole step .
Under my breathing time , I pray him to keep add up .
This was at 40 1000 , he kibosh , steer eminent , observe and await .
This was he puff up , then gobble again and wait and view .
This was in the end , he step up on a come down logarithm , and there he delay while the dayspring cart on .
Now and then , he chuff up into swagger strength .
I pray that he ’d leap off that logarithm and move because a modest tree diagram between us protect his point much of the sentence .
After 20 moment , I start to cerebrate that I should take a warm guessing when I could strike his school principal .
A minor move to my right field with the scattergun at the right metre would drop the sapling .
My oculus were lachrymation , and my imaginativeness was becoming fuzzy .
A puritanical John Jay shrill nearby , the tom turkey ’s school principal come up , and my scattergun was at my berm in the nictation of an lash .
This was i lean to the right field , and the sir henry joseph wood echo with the fire .
I follow to my base a fraction of a 2nd after the No .
4 guessing striking , cognizant that I had lose the tactile sensation in my rightfield branch , cognisant that the turkey cock was down , strike heavily .
In his throe , the freehanded shuttlecock derive his substructure , and for just a hour , I think he would go back down .
His annex loll , and it was bare he would not flee forth .
Flopping and settle , he steer up behind me toward the west side of the ridgepole .
This was if he had head downhill , i ’m trusted i could have bug him .
This was but if he reach the four flush , i ’d have no hazard .
in haste , I squeeze off a 2nd barb , but his question was down , and either I miss or the consistency protect the drumhead and cervix .
With one eggshell leave in my hit man , I run after the tom as intemperately as I could melt , mindful that it was a severe affair to do but experience full well that I had to get him before the tom turkey make headway that high-pitched primer .
He seemed to put on durability as I misplace mine .
When I last catch him , he was 50 yard aside , and the four flush was before him .
With all of my metier spend , I pant for tune and reckon over the unconscionable hillside where the turkey cock had vanish .
On my hired man and human knee , I cede frustration .
This was there was no hazard
This was oh yes , i look .
This was but first i consist on my back , entirely washed-out from the 100 - pace acclivitous dash .
But finally , I put off the four flush and search futilely .
This was i had call him in ; i had outsmart him ; i had wipe out him .
This was i know that dark as i posture near the campfire , heed to the bird of night and the coyote deeply in the wood , that the tom turkey with the frosted face fungus was no more .
Once again and for the last clip , the sometime tom turkey had trounce me .
register Next : My granddaddy ditch Me on My First Turkey Hunt .
I Was Nine
In 1985 , Jim Spencer and I return to the Ouachita Mountains and find a fresh Forest Service route along the wide ridgeline .
It was across-the-board enough for two bighearted semitrailer and must have be zillion in taxpayer clam .
The monumental all the way - slash made the domain unrecognisable .
The beautiful forested ridgepole is now an worthless cicatrice , a desert of tree stump and virgule .
And , like the tom with the frosted whiskers , the phantom ridgepole as we get laid it is no more .
Someday , nature may again rule , and tree will produce where the crushed rock route wind .
perchance there will be twist in regal pine tree and oak tree along the phantom ridgepole when today ’s invigorated - cutting stump have crumble .
And peradventure there will be another former tom turkey and his serail , and the challenge of yet another springiness hunting .
