Herb McClure

Been on here reading some old old threads written by Herb McClure. Guys like him are what got me into turkey hunting. I didn't just want to kill turkeys, I wanted to be a turkey hunter. After several years of hunting these amazing animals & taking some longbeards, I can tell you that I am a Turkey Hunter. Not because of the beards & spurs. But because I've came out of the woods with my hind end spanked by an old tom on public ground, yet felt completely 100% satisfied with the hunt. Wouldn't go back and kill that bird if I could. The beard hangs off his chest clearly in my mind. Where it belongs. If I live 40 more years it'll be nice to wistfully imagine that same ol' bird that outwitted me is still out there on some oak flat somewhere. Yea I love to kill turkeys, but I'd rather hunt 'em. Going to the Unicoi call show for the 1st time. Hope to see Herb and many more of you there. Thanks to all that help keep this tradition alive.

I feel the same way stop by the table and say hello by the way you are going to have a ball at the show.

Yes. A ball will be had. The next best thing to huntin' turkeys is talkin' turkey with new and old friends. Who knows, some of it may even be true.

I'll be there too. Stop by.

Bob

Mr. Herb is a dear friend of mine! I met him about 4 years ago at the show in Perry, GA. Since then, I've had the opportunity to hunt with him on a few occasions. He is a true woodsman and a real TURKEY MAN!!! A lot of folks knock him for the way he hunts and his beliefs. But, once you hunt with him, your eyes will be opened. He spends countless hours in the woods trying to better the place he loves to hunt. He transplants young chestnuts in these woods and totes water to them during 100 degree heat, just so we can have a tree that was once a living staple to the American Wild Turkey! He does this with no thanks in return just so you and I can have a population of turkeys that is worthy of hunting!! He is a true American Sportsman and Turkey Man. His love for this majestic bird has caused him to lay down his gun and take up his camera!! If one reads the final chapters of his book, one can not help but see what makes Herb McClure the man he is today!!! Mr. Herb McClure is a true friend indeed to this old flat woods turkey hunter!! He has shown, and told, me of things most don't know about those mountains!! The cover from the Unicoi 2017 box call discussion DVD comes from this very area!! Thank you Herb McClure!!!

X2 Mark, you have to know Mr. Herb, and have hunted with him to appreciate the way he hunts. All I can say to the people that knock him wear a pair of ear plugs, and a pair of ear muffs (not electronic ones that help you hear better) hunting all day, and see how not being able to hear puts you at such a big disadvantage!!! Yes, thank you Mr. Herb for getting my dad interested in turkey hunting, and he then started taking me. Going hunting with Mr. Herb was a lot more educational than sitting in a Ga history class room at 16 years old!!! Steve

Got to talk to Herb on the phone once. Just talking to the man was a blessing. As for anyone not liking his style of hunting...I didn't know there was another way. This is how I was told to turkey hunt before I'd ever heard of Herb McClure. That's why I started this thread, to show my thanks to guys like him & see if others felt the same way. I lost a friend that I gardened with this past summer. He was 97 years old and He often spoke of the chestnuts that use to be in these hills. Never understood why it was that when I'd mention turkeys he always turned the conversation toward the chestnuts. His younger brother of 86 years old is raising 2 acres of chestnut saplings that are suppose to be blithe resistant. With hopes of restoring them back to the mountains. After reading Herb's book, I realized that all these older guys are telling the same thing. I hope the Lord blesses me with enough years to pass these men's stories, books, calls and traditions on to my grandchildren. Turkey hunting has connected me to the hills in a way that I can't explain. Claiming to be a turkey hunter but who knows...I might just be a hillbilly. I'd consider both a compliment.

I`ve had the pleasure to meet and talk with Mr. Herb, and a very good friend gifted me with his book after our gator hunt in 2013.

His style of turkey hunting mirrors the way the old turkey hunters of the South Georgia swamps that I knew as a child hunted back around the turn of the century. These are the men who taught me how to turkey hunt.

Having seen this thread titled my name and reading the many posts on this thread; I feel compelled that a response is in order.

How humbling these remarks by so many make me feel.
Yes, I am well blessed to have so many friends who respect me as a person and my days in the turkey woods.

Not having hearing equal with others, may have been a blessing. Mainly, because without good hearing that kept me slowed down as a turkey hunter and I learned to hunt by the turkey's rules and ways.

Please don't feel sorry for me. As I have been blessed and re-blessed so many times. Mark, seeing and videoing that descendant gobbler from Arthur Woody's turkeys with you; was one of those blessings.

At Unicoi, if you stop by my table be sure you tell me your name and forum handle, as I am loosing much of my mentally and remembrance.