Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk ALTurkey Talk -- Beards and Spurs Tom Kelly’s last hunt...

He sure has brought enjoyment to a lot of people with his words. Tell him you know a whole bunch of folks back in Bama pulling for him on his last hunt.

Guys you gotta believe the Turkey Gods has one heck of a hunt planned for his last!
I remember Dr B discussing his visit to sign the book his dad left him .
One fine gentleman!

What an honor. Pretty cool, thanks for sharing.

How did it go??

Man, what an honor! Excuse my ignorance, but how does everyone know it’s gonna be his last hunt?

Fo real! Give us an update Scott!!! Maybe the coolest experience I have ever read about on the turkey forum!

Sorry guys, it was a blowin and going week in Maryland. Started off opening day I killed a monster turkey on a straight off the roost. My personal best bird, 26.8 lbs 10.75 beard and 1 1/4 spurs... ended up ranking #2 in Maryland in weight and 15 in total score for a typical bird... enough about me...

Tom and the NWTF producer showed up on Friday early enough to roost some birds on the property we had been saving for his hunt. It was “Damn Cold” as Tom would call it even with a solo cup of Blanton’s whiskey, (thanks Dr B) Tom had enough and they retired back to the hotel...

Mali and I stayed out and watch gobblers retreat to the woods, and it just so happened that big gobbler Mali was watching was chased by a fox and roosted in an area away from his hens so we figured we had the perfect game plan...

Morning of the hunt was a bitter cold 35 degrees but at least the wind had died down. Tom shows up in ready to rock sporting a 1979 Sears and Roebuk hunting jacket and camo and a pair of pants only an Alabama game warden would be proud of! It was like stepping back in time and old school all the way!

To get to the spot we expected this gobbler would be going to his girls was about a 300 yard walk at least 30 minutes before you would even think it might be turning daylight. It was a very hard walk for Tom, who will be turning 91 in two weeks. But he was excited and determined...

We get setup and as light approaches the gobbler fires off on his own and he is no more than 100 yards from us roosted on the edge of the Chester river across the winter wheat field to our left. We let the gobbler do his thing for about 15 minutes and he gobbled at least 10 times before we gave him some nice tree yelps... That was the last time we heard him gobble. Plus he was the only bird that gobbled at all...

About 45 minutes into the hunt we had a beautiful Bald Eagle sweep down towards our decoys Tom turn to me and says, ( I have video of this on my phone) “I’d bet if you had one of the moving decoys he’da attack them”. I’ve seen some cool stuff in the turkey woods but that has to rank the best, and to be sitting next to Tom made it even more special... we then decided it was time to get some breakfast and head back out for the 10am “run and gun”...

During breakfast Tom treated us to some classic stories from hunting in South Dakota with a fan to watching Turkeys eating crawfish in the swamp, I could sit and chat with him for weeks and never get tired of it, got a few of the stories on my phone as well but with Tom’s Army background the language is rated R... if you know what I mean...

We get back out for the second hunt that morning, quitting time is 12 noon in Communist Maryland. Still no gobbles, but Tom did get a chance to fan a deer, to at least 20 yards of our setup. Then the answer to our “where are the Turkeys?” Question showed up...

We were all sitting a long a downed tree on the edge of the field Tom on the left, the NWTF producer next, then me and Mali was on the far right, he and I were basically in the woods. What we thought was more Deer coming out to the field ended up being a huge fox. Mali started giving him some mouse Squeeks and he turned and came straight to us... when he got 20 yards from Mali, he broke into a run and was on Mali so fast all he could do was hit him with a stick. He stuck around eye balling us for about 15 minutes at about 40 yards away, we were all hoping he would go into the field and Tom could kill that sum beech... anyway day one was a bust as far as getting Tom on a gobbler...

I’m going to finish this on my computer, this is too much writing on my phone... stay tuned...

This is outstanding! Can’t wait to read the rest of the story.

Very Cool

Ok,

After the morning hunt, Tom and John Brown go back to the hotel to take a nap, while Mali and I start smoking some ribs... Figured the man has been out of Bama long enough he had to have some home food...For those of you that don't know, Tom is living in Bethesda Maryland near his Daughter... When John Brown was asked him as he was leaving South Carolina if he was ready to go hunting, his replay was "H*ll yea, I'm sick of all this GD metal and concrete you need to F'n hurry up!" Classic....

Everyone shows up around supper time, Tom's Daughter and Grandson show up as well... I was shocked to learn that his Daughter is only in her lower 40s and his Grandson is only 13!! I was expecting the grandson to be my age (53) and daughter to be at least 70!! We all had a great dinner and I was able to get a great photo session for Tukey Country Magazine with everyone and especially Tom's favorite "Ross" Mali's Wild Turkey hen... Tom was amazed over this turkey.

Mali is in the Land Management business and last year he was mowing fields and ran over a Turkey nest. After 4 days of the eggs sitting there exposed he decided he needed to do something about it.On Mother's Day last year he drove out to rescue the eggs of the 12 only 4 were not busted. He ordered an incubator and it was delivered 3 days later... So these eggs were basically left unattended for 7 days... He figured they have no chance of surviving. about a week after being in the box, he did the light test and found only 2 of the 4 had living embryos and the 2 began to hatch on Fathers day... The first bird never made it out the shell and when Ross started to hatch Mali made sure she got out of the egg... So just like "My life as a Turkey" Mali imprinted this hen as her mother...

What amazed Tom the most about Ross is she is friendly to everyone! Not just Mali, he said he has met numerous people that have raised wild turkeys for the egg but their imprint was 1 on 1 and never did the birds ever trust anyone other than the "momma"

Anyway back to the hunt...

Everyone really wanted Tom to kill a bird. So instead of trying to hunt the edge of naked woods with 6 people and a camera, we decided to break up. I would take Tom's daughter and his grandson, (whom never shot a shotgun before) out and John Brown and Mali would take Tom and hunt a bird I roosted...

I managed to call up a Super Jake for Tom's grandson and he killed him at 20 steps, while their hunt was a disaster for the start when they pushed a bird off the roost sneaking into the woods... Tom didn't care one bit, he was too excited for his grandson and I have to say, I shed a tear knowing I helped pass the torch from the Legend to his Grandson...

That must of been awesome ! Mr. Tom can sure tell a story.

Id certainty be happy if my last hunt ended with my kid or grandkids first bird..great story thanks for sharing

Awesome thread, I enjoyed reading this and the pictures.

Great story! Thanks for sharing

That last black and white pic should be on the cover of a book

Thanks guys, I’m beyond humbled... I did get noticed he just finished the last chapter and the book should be out soon...