HUNTER’S
SPECIALTIES’ PHD GOBBLERS
The Crooked Toe Tom, PhD
EDITOR’S NOTE: Any turkey hunter who tells you
he knows everything about taking a turkey will lie to
you about something else. Turkey hunting is a continuing-education
program. Every spring you learn more than you have the
spring before. There are several ways to learn the sport
of turkey hunting, including videos, television shows,
books, magazine articles and newspaper articles. But
the very-best way to learn how to hunt a turkey are
from the turkeys themselves, especially the PhD gobblers
that know as much about the hunters who hunt them, as
the hunters know about the turkeys they are trying to
take. I’ve just completed my fifth turkey-hunting
book, “Hunter’s Specialties’ PhD Gobblers.”
In the book I’ve interviewed some of the greatest
turkey hunters in the nation - the Hunter’s Specialties’
Pros - and each pro tells us about three different gobblers
and what they’ve learned from these PhD gobblers.
For the next few days, you can read excerpts from the
book. You can buy the book from us by calling (205)
967-3830 or emailing us at john7185@bellsouth.net
for $24.95 each plus $4 shipping
and handling. I’ll sign and date the book for
you if you’ll send a check or a money order for
$28.95 each or use PayPal- john7185@bellsouth.net.
Eddie Salter began hunting at the age of eight near
his home in Evergreen, Alabama. Then after learning
turkey-hunting techniques from his father and grandfather,
Eddie called in and harvested his first gobbler at the
age of 10. In 1981, Salter began participating in competitive
turkey calling and amassed an impressive list of titles,
including seven Southeastern Open Turkey Calling Championships,
six Alabama State Championships and two World Open Championships.
Salter was named one of the top-10 sportsmen in the
U.S. in 1986 and 1989. With over 35 years experience,
Salter, who is recognized as one of the country’s
leading authorities on turkey hunting, has appeared
on ESPN, TNN, The Outdoor
Channel and ABC’s 20/20 TV show and in numerous
hunting videos and television commercials for Hunter’s
Specialties and has been featured in many outdoor magazine
articles and radio interviews.
“I never forgot a gobbler I took almost 30-years
ago,” Salter reports. “My buddy and I had
been hunting this bird that I called Crooked Toe, off
and on for a week. I called him Crooked Toe because
he had one big toe that was crooked. I couldn’t
make that gobbler do anything because he always had
hens with him. I finally bagged that turkey because
the hen came into where I was, and when he followed
the hen, I got him. I killed Crooked Toe on a Tuesday
morning, and on Wednesday night, my friend called and
said, ‘Eddie, you won’t believe what I just
did! I finally killed that ole Crooked Toe turkey we’ve
been hunting so hard. Can you believe that he’s
only a 2-year-old bird?’ I said to my friend,
‘Well, why don’t you stop by my house, and
I’ll show you that same 2-year-old bird that you’re
discussing.’ The bird I’d killed Tuesday
morning had 1-1/2-inch spurs, weighed 20 pounds and
had a 12-inch beard, which for my home state of Alabama
was a big bird. My friend replied, ‘That can’t
be Crooked Toe because this morning I shot the bird
we’d been hunting almost every day this week.’
“Eventually
my friend and I realized that although we’d been
hunting the turkey almost all week and never heard another
bird gobble in the woods, after I killed Crooked Toe
on Tuesday, another bird already had taken his spot.
Apparently, this 2-year-old had been living in the same
woods with the Crooked Toe Tom that I’d killed.
When I took that dominant bird out of the area, the
2-year-old tom immediately took the old bird’s
place the next day. From the Crooked Toe Tom, PhD, I
mainly learned that just because you killed one turkey
in a certain hunting area didn’t mean that another
turkey wouldn’t be there the next day in the same
spot where you’d taken your turkey.”
TOMORROW: THE HEAD THUMPING
PHDS
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