Editor’s Note: Fred Darty, today of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, specialized in hunting canny old gobblers – birds that eluded other hunters many times. He learned in his years of hunting turkeys that no one else could take that, “A trophy turkey must be at least 5-years old and must have encountered many hunters. All but a handful of men have given up hunting him. He rarely will come to a hen or a caller. Caution has superseded his sex drive, and he’s probably the wisest creature in the woods.” Darty was like an Olympic athlete. He studied, he trained, and he polished his skills as he competed against the very-best adversaries he could find. He didn’t always win, but that’s what made his hunting turkeys worthwhile.

A trophy turkey hunter hunts legends, not just turkeys. Gobblers no one else can kill are his quarry. When everyone else gives up on an old bird, someone like veteran turkey hunter Fred Darty often hears about it and takes on the wary old bird. The length of beard and spurs and the weight of the turkey aren’t nearly as important to a trophy turkey hunter as the stories of the men who have pitted their skills against the bird and lost.

“I hunted one old gobbler for several seasons,” Fred told me. “Other hunters had tried to shoot him off the roost and had set-up three-man ambushes, but they couldn’t get him, no matter what they tried.”

For more than six years, this Clear-cut Baron eluded them all. Even Darty couldn’t outsmart him. “That turkey almost could read property lines,” he recalled. “He knew where there was sanctuary and how to fool hunters. The last time I saw the Clear-Cut Baron, he was strutting on a small knoll 200 yards out in the center of his clear-cut kingdom. There was so little foliage for 300 yards in all directions that there was no way to approach him without being seen, and he sure wouldn’t come to a call.”

Because rifles were forbidden for the taking of turkeys in Darty’s home state of Alabama, the turkey was out of range, and the bird seemed to be aware of that fact.

“You could call all day long, and that gobbler never would leave his home,” Darty continued. “He drummed, strutted and waited for a hen to find him in an open area where he could see a great distance. As far as I know, the Clear-Cut Baron died of old age, because I never heard that anyone killed him.”

To learn more about hunting turkeys successfully, visit John E. Phillips’ Amazon book page at https://www.amazon.com/John-E.-Phillips/e/B001HP7K6O. For even more information from many of the top turkey hunters, callers and guides, check out the book, “Turkey Hunting Guides’ Bible,” at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01ITWYY2K/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p5_i10 and available in Kindle, print and Audible. You may have to copy and paste this link into your browser. (When you click on the book, notice on the left where Amazon says you can read and hear 10% of the book for free). On the right side of the page and below the offer for a free Audible trial, you can click on Buy the Audible book.

Tomorrow: What’s a Trophy Turkey Hunter?