NWTF, US Forest Service Team Up
Each year, the National Wild Turkey Federation partners with the U.S. Forest Service at the Department of Energy’s sprawling Savannah River Site near Aiken for a special turkey hunt for disabled sportsmen. Twenty-four hunters from several states were chosen via lottery this year to come for a guided hunt on property that receives no hunting pressure for a chance to take a trophy gobbler.Tommy Sorrells of Easley is 71 years old, a survivor of polio and loves to turkey hunt, and his guide for the hunt was Joel Bennett of Jackson. After clearing a government background check, the duo scouted their section of woods Thursday (April 14) afternoon before their Friday hunt. With three longbeards sited at a T-junction on a woods road at 4 p.m., Bennett slipped out of the woods and decided to hunt that spot the following morning.
A mild 60-degree dawn greeted the hunters, who were inside a pop-up blind at the T-junction when the woods began to come alive with singing birds. Bennett began with subtle hen calls from his Hustlin’ Hen box call made with a purple-heart lid and a walnut bottom.
“Joel is a legend around this area, and I have hunted with him on this Ultimate Turkey Hunt for six years now,” Sorrells said.
To Bennett’s surprise, no turkey calls of any kind were heard except for a lone gobbler sounding off on the far side of a nearby swamp that was too far across uneven ground for this hunting party to consider.
Bennett waited only 30-minutes to declare this first set up a bust, and he went for the pick-up truck to take Sorrells to a Plan B location, where he heard a ‘lake gobbler’ sounding off after 8 a.m. the morning before.
For the second setup, Bennett used a Buck Wing jake and hen decoy in the woods, and set up an H.S. Strut curtain blind around Sorrells. Plenty of crows were sounding off in this area, but no turkeys had been heard when Bennett began to call from a position 30 yards behind Sorrell, who was facing toward a lake.
“At least the crows are doing their job today,” Bennett said.
About 30 minutes after the second setup calling commenced at 8:20 a.m., a jake answered Bennett’s call and made a slow and steady approach through the mixed pine and hardwoods that were marked as ‘set aside’ woods by the U.S. Forest Service. The jake seemed to fancy Bennett’s wing bone call, and they putted back and forth to each other until the bird stopped to preen about 50 yards away.
The jake became wary and began to circle Bennett, putting it right in front of Sorrells. The hunter raised his gun, and at 9:15 a shot rang out and the jake did a pirouette of sorts only 15 yards out and ran away from the hunter at top speed.
Bennett yelled for another shot but Sorrells replied that his gun had jammed.
“I saw that bird, took my shot, and then I saw him run off,” Sorrells explained. “I don’t want to hurt Joel’s reputation with my miss, but it sure happened fast there at then end.”
Back at the hunt headquarters where the Aiken Chapter of the Sertoma Club was grilling lunch for the group, it turns out that 16 turkeys had been harvested by 24 hunting parties the morning of April 15, and that gobbling activity had been less than anticipated.
Hunter David Howard of Hazlehurst, Georgia was in the woods with father Wayne and guide Ralph Gill of Barnwell when he used a 20 gauge to harvest a turkey from 15 yards away at 7:15 a.m.
“He pretty much came right to the call, and we had a nice quick hunt,” said the young Howard, whose tom weighed 19 pounds with 1-inch spurs and a 10-inch beard.
Daniel Clare of Nebraska also took a tom with spurs measuring 1 5/8-inches, the longest spurs of the hunt. To see pictures of Howard’s bird and Clare’s trophy spurs, plus a hunt video visit the Turkey Hunting Forum.
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