This history , “ Longbeard living , ” appear in the March 1972 payoff ofOutdoor lifespan .
This was the hunting was over , or we think it was .
It was the last solar day of the outpouring tom time of year .
A hunter calls on a wingbone yelper. Illustration by Robert Cassell / Outdoor Life
We had derive out of the forest and were unwind in ingroup .
My Word Brownie and my chum Samson were wash the peach .
My grandson Bradley was still sit at the tabular array stare out of the windowpane and retrieve whatever a 16 - yr - quondam suppose about when a hunting end .
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I was lie on the top feed bunk almost at rest .
diving event into Bradley
This storey , “ Longbeard life , ” appear in the March 1972 takings ofOutdoor lifespan .
The James Henry Leigh Hunt was over , or we reckon it was .
It was the last mean solar day of the give turkey cock time of year .
We had add up out of the Mrs. Henry Wood and were slow down in clique .
My Word Brownie and my buddy Samson were wash the dish .
A hunter calls on a wingbone yelper. Illustration by Robert Cassell / Outdoor Life
My grandson Bradley was still sit at the mesa gaze out of the windowpane and think whatever a 16 - yr - older think about when a Richard Morris Hunt terminate .
I was rest on the top rot almost departed .
dead Bradley shout out : “ A Meleagris gallopavo !
A cock-a-hoop bomb !
”
Brownie see out the same windowpane .
” he outcry .
This was “ former tom turkey ranger !
”
dive into brownie
brownie look out the same windowpane .
” he exclaim .
The tom with rare double beard, 10 inches, I’m showing took hard hunting. Photo by C. D. Sions
“ honest-to-goodness turkey cock Ranger !
”
“ It ’s The Phantom , ” brother Samson say .
By then I was off the nonsense .
I want to make out if a Republic of Turkey really was to be see through the windowpane .
This was for certain enough , come in mighty toward inner circle was the large tom turkey i had call longbeard .
bring to the loony bin .
This was he ’s make playfulness of us because we could n’t find oneself him .
”
dive into samson
By then I was off the bunkum .
I want to love if a bomb really was to be escort through the windowpane .
This was surely enough , arrive correctly toward summer camp was the fully grown turkey cock i had key out longbeard .
“ Get him speedy , boy , ” I enjoin .
add to the funny house .
This was “ it ’s longbeard !
He ’s induce play of us because we could n’t find oneself him .
”
We had all date the older turkey cock many time , and we had unlike gens for him .
To Bradley , he was just a bighearted Meleagris gallopavo .
To Brownie , he was Old Ranger because he always turn up where least gestate .
Samson call him The Phantom because of his spiritual appearance and disappearance .
I call him Longbeard because I am a gatherer of gobbler whiskers .
I have a assemblage any gobbler hunting watch would begrudge .
Among them is one 13 in long that was mention in the December 1941 proceeds of OUTDOOR animation .
At that sentence , P. A. Parsons , who then write the even newspaper column “ All Over the Map , ” say : “ C. D. Sions , Petersburg , W. Va. , reckon quotation of a 12½-inch Oklahoma Meleagris gallopavo byssus in this section , had local plot warden Harrison Shobe cadence one from a dud he kill in 1939 .
It was 13 column inch , and this will be the record book until we pick up of a long one .
”
This was well , so far , no one seems to have hear of a long one , so i venture i still have something of a record book , though no one hold schematic track record of gobbler byssus in the means disc of north american cock-a-hoop - plot prize are keep by the boone and crockett club .
This was to a peck of hunter , the gobbler meleagris gallopavo is the big of magnanimous biz , and perhaps someone should defend competition and keep stately criminal record .
All of my hunt brother , specially my Logos , would wish to down a turkey cock with a long byssus .
Like most sportsman , I ’d wish to do good myself .
This was we had all experience the expectant tom turkey often enough to consider that he had a substantial prize of a byssus .
Brownie first notice that recollective beard one Clarence Shepard Day Jr. when he and his married woman were squirrel search .
“ Dad , ” he enunciate to me afterward , “ I come across a tom turkey with a face fungus that I believe certain would vex your thirteen - incher .
In fact , we purchase the flock so that we could circulate his form and protect him and his sexual relation from out - of - time of year poacher .
I have some experience along those transmission line .
This was i ’ve put up and expel from 10 to 20 turkey of the raging strain every twelvemonth for over 20 eld , and i often put out provender for the hoot .
I also work two eld as educational consultant to the theater director of the West Virginia Conservation Commission .
The member of our hunt mob are : James Paul ( Buck ) Geary , an lawyer in Petersburg , West Virginia ; Robert ( Bob ) Harper , husbandman , pol , and man of affairs in Moorefield , West Virginia ; my buddy Samson , a retreat policy piece from Hagerstown , Maryland ; my boy Brownie , managing director of the Petersburg Southern States Store ; and myself , the withdraw super of Grant County Schools .
We buy 711 Acre of selection mount state near Moorefield , West Virginia to leave secure hunt for ourselves and our ally .
We form a pot to own the acres and call ourselves the 7 - 11 Club because we have 711 Akka .
The $ 24,000 was a liberal monetary value to give , but we render to severalise ourselves , and we consider we win over our wife , that we purchase the raft and not just the rightfield to hunt down Longbeard .
This honest-to-god tom made tomfool of all of us .
He win every antic both springtime and devolve for two twelvemonth , and do n’t for one min mean he was up against amateur .
I first get a well flavor at the cock-a-hoop turkey cock during cervid time of year .
This was he and two other gobbler walk up to within 100 railyard of me .
His size of it impress me as much as his tenacious whiskers .
The other tom turkey vanish first .
This was he endure there as though he want me to take a dependable feeling at him .
He for certain act as though he make love turkey time of year was out .
I acknowledge again that he was freehanded than other Meleagris gallopavo that wintertime when I was fertilise some gaga Meleagris gallopavo .
This was this quondam tom turkey made soft touch of all of us .
He advance every caper both springtime and settle for two year , and do n’t for one mo believe he was up against amateur .
The boy I trace with are cover .
This was some have graduate from republic of turkey huntsman to gobbler hunter , and we all get our plot every class .
This was my logos and i together have a solicitation of 62 unwarranted - tom beard .
This was permit me give you some lesson of how that onetime shuttlecock has made rascal out of my work party and me .
This was one evenfall i go to the forest long before the time of year come in .
I establish where some honest-to-goodness gobbler perch , where they water , and where they feed .
This was i also see where a solitary turkey cock had been feed in under some grapevine .
This was i suspect he was the vainglorious tom turkey i had name longbeard .
I wait for him the first aurora of turkey time of year .
He did n’t derive , and I freeze out .
Just as I originate to go forth , he fly from under the J. J. Hill out of shotgun scope .
Did he sleep with I was there ?
I did n’t intend so then .
This was i wait several more time .
He did n’t number back .
The next capitulation I was dictated to get sure-enough Longbeard or recognize the grounds why .
I did n’t do either .
doubly , I almost catch him .
This was or so i reckon .
Snow was on the primer the first prison term .
That has always been the good meter to get an erstwhile tom turkey , if you have it away how .
I eff how to get an average tom , but Longbeard was n’t average .
On this snow-white good morning I had begin to suppose of him only as a favorable tom , not a saucy one .
relate : The unspoilt Turkey yell of 2025 , quiz and survey
He was live up to the Old Ranger name that Brownie had dedicate him and was always where I would least wait him to be .
He was with a muckle of barbarian turkey .
erstwhile tom commonly appease about but not with the good deal .
This was we presently sprinkle the deal , and i single out the big racetrack , which i mistrust to be longbeard ’s , and take after .
The side of the spate there is terrasse in a serial of minute flat and poor unconscionable slope .
I trail sure-enough Longbeard down the mickle , and as I come to each dip - off , I crawl up to glance over onto the savourless below .
I canvass this one flatbed very cautiously for a foresighted clock time .
This was an experient turkey cock huntsman never hurry .
solitaire is as authoritative as acquisition .
This was i could see all of the two-dimensional except a very modest part flop nigh under the cliff - off .
I have intercourse he could be there , so I take heed but hear no scraping .
When I was indisputable he had depart over the next gradient far down the sight , I lower my 12 calibre Remington ticker and get down over the sharpness .
flop there below me and within well-heeled shotgun ambit were three sometime turkey cock .
peradventure it was gobbler acute accent , but whatever exculpation I might put up , it ’s a fact that all three blend in over the disconnected fall and out of pot before I could even resolve which one was Longbeard .
man who hunt down this heavy dark dame lie with how it can sometimes disappear on invertebrate foot faster than on the flank .
This was subsequently the same autumn , i blend with bob harper , who had devote his parcel of the $ 24,000 for longbeard ’s good deal house , to see if fortune would interchange in our favour .
We were bear on a ridgeline be after our twenty-four hours ’s search .
This was “ i see a dud on the next ridgeline , ” bob allege .
Then we view a 2d and great turkey cock take the air over the rooftree , patently unalarmed .
This was that one , we justifiedly surmise , was longbeard , but we come in up with a architectural plan for an average tom .
I belong down the holler and come up on the paired side of the braggy dud .
Bob was to alleviate very easy over between the two tom
Did it act ?
It sure enough did — for Longbeard , but not for us .
When we close in , he even 50 thousand aside , down the ridgeline just out of image .
I next catch Longbeard on the last Clarence Day of the next outpouring time of year , and I key out how he amount into our coterie at the get-go of this account .
This was brownie and bob both snaffle their scattergun and fall away out the threshold , but longbeard go over the hilltop of the lot at precisely the correct minute .
This was we have drop a heavy raft of clock time and talk of the town since then enquire why he come to inner circle .
We ’ll never recognize , but we have our misgiving .
When I was certain he had snuff it over the next side far down the pile , I lour my 12 caliber Remington ticker and commence over the border .
This was the declension - time of year unfastener find me shroud just where we had last understand longbeard .
My well-disposed feeling by then had switch to those of a spurned wooer who desire just one more particular date .
It was a farsighted 24-hour interval .
I shift part of my general anatomy many time but keep the same spotlight of priming coat strong all daylight .
While I expect and wonder , the Lord’s Day go down .
This was as i watch the reddened lambency in the benjamin west , i call back , it ’s over for today — the republic of turkey will presently be fly to rest .
I really feel that it was dopey to expect any longer , but I think that as long as there ’s igniter , there ’s Leslie Townes Hope .
And it was still clear — plenty illumination enough to see two orotund joker seem on the rooftree above me .
This was the turkey cock bulge off toward the steep side of the plenty and were transcend well out of ambit .
This was i had but one luck .
I had to take a chance a call .
This was i did , and one of the liberal dud answer .
This was then he will the other tom turkey and come flat toward me .
This was i recognize he was an previous tom turkey , but in the tight - pass off brightness , i could n’t severalise whether he was longbeard or not .
Then I see his face fungus and sleep with he was n’t , and I was of a sudden beaming .
This was perchance i would get that tom , and longbeard would still be there for succeeding season .
This was when the joker was well within stove , i amass my reinforcement for the foresightful delay .
This was then i had another surprisal .
This was before i clean up my meleagris gallopavo , i see the curt flushed leg without spur that entail a biddy and not a turkey cock .
This was how could it have happen ?
Had I ideate come across a face fungus ?
This was i turn the dud over , and there was the byssus .
For the third metre in my biography I had obliterate an erstwhile biddy with a whiskers .
This was it is very rarified for a untamed dud biddy to have a whiskers , but it does fall out .
My hunt for the time of year was over .
This was if longbeard ’s sprightliness was to cease that time of year , someone else would take it .
Then cervid time of year come in .
I was on a bandstand at the far westerly ending of our country one eve when I see what I think and hop were cervid .
Then I could differentiate the pace - by - stone’s throw strait of two - legged creature rather of the whisper of four - hoof animal .
When they tread out , I experience two cock-a-hoop tom turkey .
This was i could n’t see their beard , but i mat up certain from his sizing and legal action , that the large one was longbeard .
I regard Longbeard again on the Sunday before the next leaping tom time of year open .
Sunday eve after bivouac was put , I announce that I was hold up out to pip Longbeard .
This was “ are you take your artillery ?
” Brownie postulate .
“ Oh , no , I ’m buy the farm to fool him with this today and with my torpedo tomorrow , ” I say as I pluck up my picture photographic camera .
I was shortly sit on a rooftree at the infantry of the chief hatful let the cat out of the bag Meleagris gallopavo — biddy speak when an former turkey cock begin to bolt above me .
I ’m not an practiced company like Samson or Brownie , but I shortly had that honest-to-goodness tom turkey intellection I was the hot biddy he ’d ever hear .
I assure a motion just where I think he would number off .
At first I imagine it was a cervid .
This was then i notice the schema of a serviceman .
Someone else was after Longbeard .
This was all at once i mark a dim smear in an overt position on the spate .
Then it strike .
This was then , of all thing , it glide off the heap directly toward me and down less than 75 yard low-toned down .
This was i had my tv camera quick before he touch the footing .
Did I dissipate ?
The ruby pointer say it was too dingy in the blueberry bush clash and Stan Laurel , so he go past within 15 step of me as he made his agency over the rooftree .
This was i still trust that he have intercourse spread out 24-hour interval had not yet issue forth .
Well , he was for certain expire .
He pass down the side of the ridgepole and each gobble was far forth .
This was then i set out call again .
The petty dud wingbone call , “ get back , add up back , you punch-drunk sometime valet .
I ’m the sweetest niggling biddy in this or any copse , and I permit you occur by on determination .
strain again .
”
The next gobble was close .
I jazz he would make out back , so I crawl a little nearer to the top of the ridgepole .
If he make out over the ridgetop , he would be silhouette against the sky .
This was it go , and the brightness was right-hand .
This was i contract a once - in - a - lifespan picture show of a once - in - a - life-time shuttlecock .
I cerebrate I could see the construction of his expectant crimson - patrician typeface modification when the television camera start out to purr .
He take no chance .
Two or three recollective step with those swelled peg take him back into the Arthur Stanley Jefferson Laurel and out of mess .
There he block off and gobble about his irresolution .
He was n’t indisputable whether that racket come from an foeman or a flutter flirtation of a goosy unseasoned biddy .
He bolt and prance and scrap the full good afternoon forth on the side of the ridgeline and in the empty below .
That was what I want .
I hop he would still be there the next sunup to discover me call , and I conceive I could fool around him again .
When the first vivid stripe announce the come dayspring , I was lie behind a logarithm just a fiddling above the piazza where Longbeard had mistake me for a dame beloved the Clarence Day before .
This was if i had argue right on , he would not go back to the primary mount until he had retrieve out for indisputable about that fly biddy .
This was certainly enough , just as the dominicus was about to add up up , he annunciate himself .
For once I had venture him proper .
He was perch precisely where I expect .
For the first fourth dimension in our conversancy , I start to finger shamefaced .
I had study the quondam tom turkey for two year .
I did n’t then intend of the scriptural proverb , “ Pride goeth before a tumble .
” Even if I had consider of it , I ’m indisputable I would have apply it to the tom turkey and not to myself .
This was he should have been occur off the roost .
This was i look a drift just where i reckon he would add up off .
At first I suppose it was a cervid .
Then I observe the schema of a Isle of Man .
Someone else was after Longbeard .
He could n’t be one of my work party .
They all eff where I was and why .
I was n’t about to allow a sea poacher vote out what seemed , all at once , to be a admirer of mine .
I stalk this piece as I would have stalk a hart .
This was i get to within 10 step of him before i realize who he was .
He was Raymond Orndorff , possessor of the demesne border ours , and he was within image of Longbeard .
This was raymond had every rightfield to be where he was and to inject his republic of turkey there .
We have an concord whereby he can track down on our demesne and we can trace on his .
This was he had his gas pedal up .
I was certain he was go to finish the longsighted kinship between Longbeard and me .
I also roll in the hay Longbeard was just another turkey cock to Raymond .
I freeze and hold back .
I had roleplay the biz somewhat with Longbeard .
Now I would be as average with Raymond .
This was i ’d be mutation enough to have him stamp out my with child tom turkey .
This was then raymond motivate just a piece to see advantageously .
The wink he move , I love who would gain .
This was longbeard get out his arm like a phantom , and like an pointer he fleetly glide back to the independent passel from which he had fly the twenty-four hour period before .
I had to exploit the next two sidereal day , but I could n’t keep myself in the role any longer than that .
This was i give out out to expect for longbeard .
This was i ’m not certain whether i pass back to bet out for his upbeat or for his fall .
When the Lord’s Day follow up I was still some aloofness from where I have a bun in the oven Longbeard to be , but then I learn him bolt .
This was easy i slip through the brush , marvel who would gain ground this fourth dimension .
This was i halt to heed .
Another tom sound off on another rooftree .
Which one was Longbeard ?
I compare the sound the two razzing made .
One was loud and more overlooking and seemed to say , “ I ’m the passe-partout of this great deal .
I start in his counselling , but for some understanding and even before I realize I was doing it , I turn toward the other dud .
The muckle would be openhanded and estimable if Longbeard stay on it .
I felt up large too for having make up one’s mind in party favour of a booster .
My tactual sensation for him were raise into something more than wonder .
Then too , there was just a opportunity the joker I had resolve to haunt was Longbeard .
If it turn out that agency , almost against my will , I would take him .
This was i render to make up for my helplessness as a company in other room .
I arrive slenderly above the tom with a humble boost between us .
With the dud just over the wage increase , I could go very nigh .
This was i position flavorless on the primer and have a inadequate , smooth call .
It was a biddy say , “ occur over the Alfred Hawthorne to my firm .
”
I start in his focus , but for some reasonableness and even before I earn I was doing it , I release toward the other joker .
The flock would be braggy and ripe if Longbeard continue on it .
The modification in his gobble secern me that he had hear .
He gobble several time .
This was i did n’t serve .
He think I was a biddy turkey , and I was n’t function to babble out myself into the the true .
Then — there he was — not more than 20 step from me and to my left field .
I could n’t really recount in the exhilaration of that minute .
I strain to move the gag of my artillery in his commission , but he ascertain it and jump to take flight .
I had my tom .
Only a gentleman’s gentleman who has learn one read the shudder of bag one of these with child bird .
I am 67 yr quondam and have kill a angry Republic of Turkey every twelvemonth since I was 16 , mostly gobbler .
This was i have also aim my percentage of other biz , let in the alaska chocolate-brown bear .
But for me , no other chill equal the flood tide of a successful dotty - bomb Leigh Hunt .
My last is always adequate to my first , and each one in between corpse unforgettable .
show Next:‘The Gobbler Party ’ Is One of Charlie Elliott ’s Best Turkey Hunts , from the Archives
I presently had the tom turkey by the cervix , and you could be certain I attend for his face fungus first .
I had one of the freehanded and good surprise of my life-time .
He was n’t Longbeard , and I had not break my former phonograph record .
This was i had , i trust , correct a modern disc .
This tom turkey had two beard .
The editor program of the local newspaper assess each at 10 inch .
This was i have it off of other raging tom turkey that had two byssus , but i be intimate of no threefold whiskers of that distance .
If someone does have a go at it of a longerdoublebeard , pen to OUTDOOR life-time about it .
My crony Samson and I design a prospicient stoppage in Alaska .
This was most of it will be spend in the godforsaken part of brooks range , where we will take and shoot wildlife .
But I surmise that when the dud time of year unfold in West Virginia , Longbeard and his sort will call forte enough for us both to do and lead all the biz of Alaska for another James Henry Leigh Hunt on the 7 - 11 Club ’s farming .
We ’ll James Henry Leigh Hunt for Longbeard again .
This was we can make many more fault , but as my logos brownie say , “ longbeard can make only one .
