Sherry Bags the Sentinel

EDITOR'S NOTE: My good friend, Sherry Crumley, the wife of Jim Crumley, the creator of Trebark, a longtime, avid turkey hunter, a member of the board of the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) as well as wildlife activist in their home state of Virginia, remembers her favorite turkey hunt this week with Bo Pitman, the lodge manager at White Oak Plantation in Tuskegee, Alabama, as he helps her go after a wily tom.

We both decided the Sentinel turkey probably would escape unharmed. We wanted to make the play for the strutting gobbler. I unwrapped my arms from the tree, moved as slowly as maple sap pouring out of a cold bucket on a winter's morning and reached for my gun. However, I kept my eyes focused on the Sentinel, putting and walking away from me. He moved very slowly taking only about a half-step each time he putted. Although the Sentinel appeared alarmed, because I moved so slowly, the bird didn't panic.

As I brought my 20-gauge Beretta to my shoulder, I noticed the other turkeys didn't seem alarmed. They tried to determine why the Sentinel was putting. Although the other turkeys looked at me, they never putted. They never seemed frightened and didn't move away from me. Even though I would have had a closer shot at the other gobblers, I would have had to turn my gun more to the right to bag any one of them. But with the Sentinel walking straight away from me, I felt I'd have to make the least amount of movement to take the shot if he remained in range.

I brought the stock of my gun to my cheek. I pushed the safety off. When I saw the bead on the end of the barrel pointed at the bird's wattles, I fired. As the Sentinel went down, I heard the wild thrashing of wings. Turkeys flew up all around us. We had waited motionless for 20 minutes. Every muscle in my body cried for relief. My legs had no more feeling below my knees.

Bo jumped to his feet to go after the downed bird, staggering like a drunk man since his legs also had fallen asleep. I knew I couldn't get up immediately. I straightened my legs out and waited for the feeling to return to my toes. When Bo brought my gobbler back to the tree, he said, "I knew we were in a tight predicament. I didn't know what we could do. I've never had that many turkeys around me and that many gobblers so close to me for so long without being able to take a shot. If you hadn't moved as slowly as you did, and if we hadn't been camouflaged from the tip our heads to the bottom of our boots, you'd have never gotten away with moving so much on that gobbler."

After hunting with Bo Pitman, I honestly can say I have had a total turkey hunting experience and a total Bo experience as well. A sign just outside White Oak Plantation states, "Bo knows turkeys." I believe more appropriate words are, "Bo knows more about turkeys than turkeys know." The war was over. We had won. With battle scars on my arms, chest, thighs and knees, I proudly marched into camp with the Sentinel on my back.

For more information about White Oak Plantation, call (334) 727-9258, or, visit the website www.whiteoakplantation.com. To learn more about Trebark camo, go to www.trebark.com.