The author with a pair of toms he killed on a "scatter and call back" hunt. ▪ Photo courtesy of Bennett Kirkpatrick.

Wild turkeys were introduced into the Midlands and the Piedmont sometimes during the '50s. This stocking proved to be a huge success.

I started hunting turkeys during the '70s with John Good of Rock Hill; it was strictly trial and error with an emphasis on error. We read everything that we could, and listened to every tape we could find. Ben Lee made a tape that we about wore out listening to, and practicing calls with.

What little information that we could get favored diaphragm mouth calls. After purchasing one, I went out to my car to practice. A single sound wouldn't come out of it! After going back into the store, I told the owner that the call was defective, and would not work. He chuckled, and gave me my first lesson using a mouth call. At least I could get a sound out of it now. Determined, I practiced religiously in my car driving down the road between customers that I called on. At last things began to fall into place.

South Carolina had a fall season then. John and I hunted a farm that we knew had turkeys. We split up in the bottoms next to the Broad River. About mid-afternoon, I heard my first actual wild turkey yelp. My calls went unanswered, but the hen was generally coming my way; the yelps went between the river and me before fading out. I went to John, and told him what had happened. We struck out toward where I last heard the hen. John got an answer to his calls that was several hundred yards away. We eased through the trees until we were almost to the river when a loud cluck broke the silence. About that time, around 15 turkeys flushed in front of us like a covey of quail. They were sailing through the trees overhead. After picking out a big one, I fired. The hen folded, and fell to the ground. As soon as she hit, she ran like a fox with its tail on fire. It took two more shots to anchor her. Success at last!

That hunt started a spark in me that I have yet to be able to put out. The turkey season opens in the Lowcountry on March 15; the rest of the state opens for the entire month of April. I hunt every day except Sundays. I am a walking dead man when the season closes.

Good fortune has smiled on me in that I have killed my limit of five wild turkeys almost every year for over 30 years. Most years I call 10 to 30 toms within shotgun range. Some are killed by me, and some by friends.