IT WAS 3 A.M. when Price Shurley’s alarm clock awoke him on the morning of April 8, 1969. Taking care to not disturb his spouse, he eased away from bed, slipped into his camouflage coveralls, and double-checked his gear. Assured his callers, headnet, shells, and knife had been of their correct pockets, he shouldered his previous Browning 12gauge automated and stepped out onto the porch, closing the door behind him.
Outside it was lifeless calm. As was his customized, he appeared up into the predawn sky. Overhead the celebrities sparkled brightly, bringing him promise of turkey gobbling and one other stunning spring day within the Mississippi woods.
At 3:15 a.m. Shurley joined a searching companion for breakfast at a McComb cafe. After a hearty breakfast they started the 11-mile drive to some woods in Amite County the place the morning’s hunt would happen. Shurley had scouted the woods numerous instances to find turkeys and to review their actions. Two afternoons earlier than he had made a blind of pure vegetation on a low ridge the place he anticipated the turkeys would transfer after they got here off the roost. Shurley deliberate to place his companion on this blind.
At 4:45 a.m. the 2 males stepped from the truck and started the threequarter-mile hike that may take them to the searching space. In due course the blind was positioned and Shurley’s buddy took his seat. Shurley then continued on for a protected distance earlier than sitting down along with his again to a big pine.
About 5:50 a.m. Shurley started to putt sometimes along with his diaphragm mouth caller. Two hens answered his calls, and at about 6:45 a.m. they flew off their roosts to the bottom. Shurley tried to name them up, hoping {that a} silent gobbler could be current after they got here into view.
After about quarter-hour of intermittent calling, Shurley appeared round and noticed his companion approaching. He motioned to disclose his place, then appeared again within the course he anticipated the turkeys to look. Shurley’s companion had certainly seen the motion, however to him it appeared precisely like a gobbler’s head, and he shouldered his gun for the shot. When Shurley glanced again a second later, he appeared into the muzzle of a 12-gauge shotgun loaded with three-inch magnum shells at a variety of twenty-two yards. He waved once more, but it surely was too late. The gun roared, sending a load of No. 6 shot crashing into Shurley’s face.
“It was a terrible hunting accident,” recollects J. E. Thornhill Jr. of McComb, Mississippi, who was an in depth buddy of Price Shurley. “It always is when one friend shoots another. Price survived somehow, but he was totally blind for the rest of his life.”
Thornhill believes the accident would have killed a lesser man. Shurley was a robust specimen, standing six-feet 5 inches and weighing greater than 250 kilos.
“He looked as though he could play defensive end for the Pittsburgh Steelers,” says Thornhill.
PRICE SHURLEY labored as a locomotive engineer for the Illinois Central Railroad, however he was higher identified for his searching and fishing skills. He was usually acknowledged to be one of many most interesting turkey hunters in south Mississippi. Stories of his calling potential and searching prowess had been legion. He was 50 years previous on the time of the accident.
He hunted all Mississippi recreation from deer to doves, however turkey searching was his old flame. He was additionally knowledgeable at hand-grabbing large catfish. It is alleged that Price Shurley had an uncanny sense of contact for large fish. Once he had positioned a catfish in a hole log or up below a washed-out riverbank, he may take a twig and, by feeling the fish, estimate inside ounces what the catfish would weigh when he lastly wrestled it out of its lair.
“Because he was such a successful hunter and hand-grabber,” Thornhill recollects, “he was typically labeled as an outlaw by those that had been jealous of his success. But in all my years afield with Price, I by no means noticed him ‘outlaw’ any recreation.
Shurley had all the time been a cheerful, sociable man, however after he misplaced his sight he grew to become brooding and morose. Eventually he started hand-grabbing once more, for it’s contact and never sight that’s essential on this distinctive sport. On fishing journeys he appeared to return out of his shell and revert to the previous Price once more. But when spring got here and the scent of blooming dogwood crammed the air Price Shurley actually damage.
“I guess there were just too many old gobblers in his mind for him to accept the fact that he had bagged his last one,” Thornhill reckons.
He recollects a day when he paid Price a go to. They sat on the porch and loved a very good discuss bygone days that they had shared within the area.
“It was dusk and I was about to leave when Price asked me to stay a minute longer,” Thornhill remembers. “He went inside and returned with his old Browning autoloader in his hands. He said it was too good a turkey gun not to be in the field and he wanted to pass it along to me. I insisted on paying him for his shotgun. Driving home that evening I realized that Price had finally accepted the fact that he could never bag another gobbler. When I got home I put my gun in the rack, and I’ve used Price’s Browning since that day.”
Thornhill and different buddies sometimes took Shurley with them on late afternoon rides by means of the large woods, the place they’d cease and hear for turkeys to gobble as they flew as much as roost at twilight.
“I could never tell from Price’s reaction whether these outings helped or hurt him,” Thornhill recollects. “I do know that he appreciated to offer recommendation to hunters who had been having issues with good gobblers. He listened fastidiously because the hunter advised him about it. He would ask numerous questions on the way in which the birds reacted to varied calls and concerning the lay of the land. Then he would recommend a sequence of calls to attempt, or encourage a change within the place of the hunter’s blind. He all the time anticipated a report on how his recommendation had labored. I may sense his psychological involvement and the pleasure he received from the tales I advised him about good turkeys I attempted to work.
Thornhill recollects that Shurley’s bodily adjustment to blindness was fast. “When Price had his sight he was an amazing woodsman,” he stated. “He used all his senses, and I discovered an important deal from him once we had been within the area collectively. I suppose being blind served to sharpen his already outstanding remaining senses. He may determine males by the sound of their stroll and girls by the scent of the cosmetics and fragrance they used.
Thornhill thought of taking Shurley alongside on a hunt in order that he may take heed to the calling and gobbling, however when he thought of how powerful it’s to barter turkey woods the place pace is commonly important, he was afraid it might be too troublesome for Price. He determined that if he ever roosted a hen alongside a highway, he would invite Price to return alongside, however that good state of affairs by no means appeared to look.
Then about three years after the accident the spring turkey season rolled round. Halfway by means of the season Thornhill positioned a very good gobbling turkey and tried to name him into vary. This previous tom resisted his most attractive requires six days straight.
“Finally, I asked Price for advice,” Thornhill advised me. “I advised him all the pieces I may bear in mind about every hunt, recalling as many particular particulars as doable. He listened intently, quizzing me after I didn’t make some level clear. While we talked, I remembered how his eyes used to glitter once we plotted towards an previous boss gobbler.
“At last he settled back in his chair and said, ‘There’s some obstacle between you and your turkey-a fence, a thicket, a creek. There is some spot of ground there that he chooses not to cross. You have two options—come in from another direction or make him overcome his fear.’”
“A CREEK WOUND by means of these woods, and I advised Price I had by no means been capable of get a gobbler to fly throughout a creek. A giant grin unfold throughout his face, and he stated, ‘Well, that’s one distinction between you and me. I by no means had that downside.
“I wished that gobbler badly, however I wished much more to see if Price may name him throughout the creek, so with out actually contemplating the implications, I advised him I might choose him up at 4:00 a.m. He would do the calling and I might do the capturing.
At first he made no reply. He simply sat there behind these darkish glasses. Then I detected the hint of a smile and he stated he could be prepared.”
At daybreak the 2 males had been half a mile into the deep woods. They stood in silence because the sounds of a brand new day grew louder. Then approach throughout the underside an owl hooted and the previous turkey devoured from his roost tree in reply. Arm in arm, the hunters moved ahead 300 yards whereas the turkey continued to gobble.
Thornhill helped Shurley take his seat on the base of a giant tree. While he minimize branches and usual a blind, Shurley raked away floor litter the place they’d sit facet by facet. As Thornhill sat down at his buddy’s left facet, the turkey devoured from the bottom. He was off the roost.
“Price put his mouth caller into place and began making a series of excited clucks, and the turkey answered immediately, as I knew he would,” Thornhill recalled. “Then for the next half hour Price and the bird exchanged calls. We could course the bird easily because he was so vocal, and I knew he was nearing the creek where he had stopped each day to gobble and strut for another hour. I whispered this information to Price, but he only replied ‘Sit still.’”
The gobbler did in reality cease on the creek, which was 80 yards or so away in entrance of the blind. He strutted and devoured on the far facet of the stream, strolling backwards and forwards over a 50-yard space. The tom raged and devoured for half-hour, however Shurley made no reply. Thornhill strained his eyes for a glimpse of the turkey.
“And then the gobbler hushed, and I began to wonder if he had crossed the creek and was coming in or if he had found some hens and was moving away,” Thornhill stated. “I used to be about to inform Price to name once more when the turkey devoured a ways away from his strutting space. Instantly Price started a name I had by no means heard earlier than. It was a sequence of loud and damaged cackles with some shrill whines and excited putts thrown in.
“The tom answered with a double gobble, and then we heard his heavy wings beating. I didn’t see him, but I could hear him as he flew across the creek and pitched in 75 yards or so off to our left front. I figured the turkey would come in from the left on Price’s side of the blind, but it wasn’t until I put my finger on the safety that it occurred to me to pass the shotgun to Price. He was making some soft clucks and purrs when I silently pushed the gun across his lap. ‘You kill him,’ I whispered. ‘I’ll help you kill him, Price.’”
When Shurley moved his arms to the smooth-worn inventory of the Browning he whispered, “This is my gun.” It was; it was Price’s previous turkey gun.
“By this time, my heart was in my throat,” Thornhill says. “Having that gobbler on our side of the creek was thrilling, but what we were about to try had me breathing so hard I was afraid the turkey would hear me. All this time Price sat there like a man made of stone.”
Minutes handed earlier than the turkey devoured once more. They may inform he was 50 or 60 yards away now, however nonetheless out of sight. Luckily, he was nonetheless off to the left the place the barrel of Price’s gun pointed because it lay throughout his lap. Thornhill stated a silent prayer that the hen would maintain his course.
“And then he gobbled again loud enough to knock off your hat, and Price let go a loud cackle right back at him, much louder than I would have dared to call,” Thornhill continued. “The turkey answered with a fast gobble, and Price countered with one other cackle, to which the turkey double devoured. Price had blown that turkey’s thoughts, and knew then it was solely a matter of time earlier than he got here up. I prayed he would are available in so Price may get a shot.
“We may hear the heavy drone of his strut and the rasping of his wing ideas as they dragged the bottom. He was transferring barely to the left once more, and I appeared previous the tip of Price’s nostril in an effort to see him.
“Then, suddenly, he appeared. He was in a full strut and every bit as big and beautiful as I knew he would be. His head was a flaming red with wattles as big as buckshot. His beard was a black stripe down his bronze breast. My heart was pounding as I whispered, “There he is,’ and Price silently slipped off the safety.”
The turkey stood immobile for a number of seconds after which moved slowly ahead. When he stopped he was not more than 40 yards away. The turkey’s head was behind the trunk of a giant pine. Thornhill whispered to Price to shoulder his gun, which he did in a single fluid movement.
With the fingers of his proper hand, Thornhill touched Price’s proper elbow and pushed gently. Price responded, and the muzzle of the gun moved to the left. Thornhill appeared down the facet of the barrel and whispered, “Up—up some more,” and he noticed the barrel decide on the half-hidden gobbler.
“Right there,” I whispered, and Price froze the gun in place. “From where I sat I was looking down the side of the barrel. As strong as Price Shurley was, I knew in my heart that he would hold the gun steady for as long as it might take to get the shot.”
Probably solely seconds handed, but it surely dragged like hours whereas the 2 males sat ready. The thought crossed Thornhill’s thoughts that Price needed to kill this turkey. He hadn’t thought of what failure may do to his buddy. Now it got here to him that the subsequent second may destroy Price Shurley. A miss now may accomplish what a magnum load of No. 6’s had didn’t do on one other turkey hunt.
Finally the gobbler stepped out, however he was partly screened by underbrush. He angled barely to the left once more, and once more Thornhill pressed Price’s elbow. The muzzle inched to the left, after which the turkey stepped away from the comb.
“Shoot,” Thornhill whispered, and the Browning roared.
“Price held the gun,” Thornhill displays, “but the good Lord must have been with him, because the turkey went down with feathers flying.”
Thornhill sprang to his toes, dancing and yelling, “You got him, Price! You did it!” But when he appeared down at Shurley, he was simply sitting there with the shotgun throughout his lap.
“I always went straight to my turkeys,” Price stated quietly.
Thornhill turned and ran to the fallen gobbler. He was a positive turkey with a 9 1/2-inch beard and lengthy, hooked spurs. He carried him again to the blind man and positioned the nice hen throughout his legs.
Price’s fingers labored their method to the spurs first, and he ran his thumb and index finger over them. Then he stroked the heavy beard and felt the guidelines of the wings, which had been worn blunt by strutting. He hefted the turkey and guessed the large tom’s weight at 20 kilos.
“I couldn’t tell from the way Price reacted to the kill how he felt about it all,” Thornhill remembers. “I didn’t know what I ought to say, so I didn’t say something. Price got here to his toes, so I picked up the turkey and the gun and we began again to the truck. He took maintain of my proper forearm and we slowly labored our approach out of the woods.
“On the experience dwelling Price was quiet, and I understood. I knew he was desirous about all the pieces that had taken place that morning and that he would come to some conclusion about what all of it meant to him. I used to be fearful sick that it had all been a tragic mistake, and that killing the tom would stop Price from coming to phrases along with his blindness.
“We will need to have been about midway dwelling when a smile crossed Price’s face, and he stated, ‘I knew we would take him when he double gobbled on our side of the creek.’
“Relief swept over me, and we started to speak about each name Price had made, each reply the turkey had given, and each contact I had made on Price’s elbow. All the stress vanished, and we laughed and congratulated one another on our million-to-oneshot hunt.
“We were almost home when Price asked, ‘He’s still in the bed of the truck, ain’t he?’ I glanced around and assured him the turkey was there. ‘Good,’ he said with a smile, ‘A turkey isn’t yours for sure till you close the oven door.’”
The two males confirmed that turkey all around the county and advised the story of the hunt 100 instances. And that hunt remained the excessive level of Price Shurley’s life for the remainder of his days. He died in 1976 of pure causes not associated to his searching accident.
“It was a crazy idea, and we didn’t set out to do it,” J. E. Thornhill advised me. “I don’t think we could have done it again, but we did it that time, Price and me. And if I take a thousand turkeys before I am done, none of them will ever mean as much to me as Price Shurley’s last gobbler.”
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