DON SHIPP: FIVE TURKEYS I DIDN'T IMPRESS WITH MY THREE WORLD TURKEY CALLING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Old Hickory

EDITOR'S NOTE: Don Shipp of Clinton, Arkansas, an avid turkey hunter and caller and member of Mossy Oak's Pro Hunt Team and MAD Calls, has won the World Turkey Calling Championship, sponsored by Mossy Oak for many years, in 1997, 1998 and 1999. He also has won the Arkansas State Championship six times and the Southwest Open Championship four times. This week, Shipp will tell us about five tough toms and how he or his clients outsmarted them.

Another tough tom I hunted for two or three years was known as Old Hickory. The turkey had gotten the name Old Hickory because he stayed on a big hickory ridge. I was guiding at The Roost in Aliceville, Alabama, and owner George Mayfield and several well-known turkey hunters also were hunting this bird. This turkey was the most dominant turkey I'd ever hunted. When he gobbled, he'd let all the subordinates around him gobble. Then he'd gobble once or twice and shut everything up, and the turkey hunting would be over in that spot for the rest of the day. Every once in a while we'd get on one bird that was a long way from Old Hickory. But when Old Hickory gobbled, he'd shut up everything in the area. None of the other gobblers would challenge him.

Chet Ray got on a turkey at The Roost one morning that was in Old Hickory's territory. This bird wouldn't shut up when Old Hickory started gobbling. Chet went to set up on the other turkey, and Old Hickory flew down and gobbled a couple of times. But the other turkey still didn't shut up; he was working his way in to Chet's calling. Old Hickory followed the vocal bird with the intention to fight. And as the frustrated tom walked by Chet to get to the other gobbler, Chet bagged him. Old Hickory had 1 3/4-inch spurs, and we figured he was about 6- or 7-years old. He was one of the best turkeys I'd ever seen.

QUESTION: So Old Hickory was finally taken when he came in to fight another turkey?
ANSWER: Yes, he came in to whip the other turkey. We had tried gobbling and fight-calling to him with fighting purrs before, but that never worked. This other turkey was gobbling back to him aggressively, and Old Hickory came in to take care of business. That's when Chet took care of business instead.

TOMORROW: THE "OUT-THUNK" TURKEY