Law enforcement helicopter lands to check out hunter and his guide
A turkey hunting guide sees some pretty unreal happenings in the woods, including boss gobblers that won’t come to the gun and slithering snakes crawling right past their positions.
On April 5, however, guide Jeff Hunt added a new story to his repertoire after two armed fugitives ended up in the wooded area he was hunting and a law-enforcement helicopter swooped down on Hunt and his client in a brief instant of mistaken identity.“Brothers Mike and Matt Kopshever of Indiana had come down for a three-day hunt with us at Cypress Creek Lodge in Estill,” Hunt said. “Matt came to hog hunt, while Mike and I went out after the turkeys and, despite hearing about 250 gobbles on Tuesday and having two longbeards come to 50 yards before hanging up, we had not harvested any turkeys.”
While working to turn the hunt around, the hunter and his guide began hearing a helicopter circling above the woods in which they were hunting.
“They circled about 100 times it seems, and then I got a text message from my wife about a shooting and a BOLO or be-on-the-lookout bulletin issued for Hampton County,” Hunt said.
Hunt is not sure if the helicopter was using heat-signature equipment or not, but when the turkey hunters stood up to be recognized it took only about 60-seconds for the chopper to land in an adjacent field.
“I told Mike that this could not be good, and we agreed to lay the shotgun down,” Hunt explained.
After removing their headnets and being visually identified by the law enforcement officials, the chopper took off again.
Not long after their chance encounter, the two shooting suspects were apprehended by the Hampton County Sheriff’s office.
Hunt didn’t let the incident end the hunt, however.
“We did set out some decoys after the chopper left and hunted until the end of the day, but we could not stop talking about the helicopter encounter,” Hunt said.
The only thing the hunters thought when they saw the chopper was that maybe SCDNR was out looking for turkey bait – not that armed fugitives may be approaching.
The next day, the hunting duo was back on the hunt not far from the previous day’s encounter, and this time a huge longbeard was approaching their decoys at 11 a.m. when another unexpected party arrived.
A 17-pound jake with a 5-inch beard crashed the party, spooked off the boss tom and Kopshever made him pay the ultimate price.
“That jake cost us a big turkey, and that was a mistake that cost him his life,” said Hunt said.
With a morning hunt scheduled for April 7, the hunters were up against an 11 a.m. departure time from the hunting woods.
“The (previous) two days the turkeys were tearing down the trees with gobbling activity, but this day it was quiet,” Hunt said. “I had run through all my calls and was grinding loudly on a slate friction call when we heard one gobble from behind us at about 10:45.
“I had Mike reposition, and the bird came in without gobbling again and was in full strut.”
When the gobbler stuck his head up, Kopshever shot him at 15-yards with his 3-inch Benelli Nova. The trophy tom weighed 18-pounds, had a 10-inch beard and carried 1.5-inch spurs.
Clearly the Indiana hunter took his fair share of wild turkeys, but he also took home a tale of adventure that won’t soon be matched.
You can read more of Hunt’s tales at the Skinning Shed or in the March edition of South Carolina Sportsman magazine in a feature article about hunting the Savannah River titled, “Shall we gather at the river.”
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