Larry A. Smail's Blog

A couple of years prior to Covid, my friend Kenny Crummett passed away in a car wreck. He had had some strokes, and he may have had a heart attack causing the wreck. I was honored to hunt with him a couple of years locally. Ken was from West Virginia, but we had a local mutual friend.

Ken was always sending me various things including turkey calls. The call shown here he affectionally called The Buzzard Call. The title brought about laughs and jokes, but to be honest the call has a good tone.

I had given the call to my stepfather to hunt with not knowing his hunts would be about over due to cancer. Bob succumbed to the disease in April. Recently I rediscovered this call.

Kenny Crummett’s Buzzard Call.

I talked with our mutual friend and was told to visit his property and hunt fall turkeys. I gladly accepted. I arrived in the dark hours prior to dawn and began a walk towards my destination. About fifteen minutes before legal shooting time, I noticed a dark mass below in a tree. I soon saw a couple of others dark forms. I was seeing turkeys! I made a move and walked directly below them.

I had a dilemma for my friend has tame turkeys and I began to wonder if these birds could be his. I was over two hundred yards from his home. I called him and he told me his birds roost at the house and the birds I was seeing were wild turkeys.

The time was moving along, and the birds were very visible. I heard one drop down and I decided now was the time to attempt to break them up. At least, six turkeys exploded from the trees. The break didn’t look too good.

I moved away towards the direction they all went. I walked a right-of-way and settled in to call. It wasn’t very long I heard yelps below my position. Once I determined exactly where the bird was, I readjusted my position. The Buzzard Call was working, however, I switched to my natural voice once the bird was well committed to coming in.

The shot was a twenty-two-yard shot and I had my gobbler. The beard was five inches and the spurs were five/ eighth inches long.

I spotted this doe bedded down but she stood up just as I was about to snap the photo.