Posts by Donald Devereaux Jarrett
What To Do When Turkeys Reject Your Call
It had been a half hour since my last call. I had no idea if the bird was even still in the neighborhood or not. He hadn’t given me any reason to believe he was, and when he had last gobbled, he was still in the same vicinity as he had been when he first…
Read MoreFinding Memories
The drift of smoke from a chimney somewhere distant instantly grabbed my attention and caused my mind to rewind to years a long time ago. It reminded me of my boyhood as I walked this very logging road I was now on, but I was a kid then, likely still shy of my teens, and…
Read MoreKeeping It Real For Turkey Hunting Success
There was a time years ago when I tried pretty hard to convince my younger brother, Walter, to go turkey hunting with me. I had experienced some early success in the turkey woods and curiosity eventually got the best of him. The first day we went to the turkey woods together, I managed to call…
Read MoreThe Broad Perspective Of Turkey Hunting
“Turkey hunting? You have lost your mind!” I remember saying. That was the response I gave to my longtime friend Cal Marsh over three decades ago when he suggested we go turkey hunting. He had been a few times before he made that suggestion, but I had never hunted anything in the spring woods, except…
Read MoreLong-Range Gobblers
It had been a long time since my oldest son Devereaux and I had been able to turkey hunt together. The last turkey hunt we had shared had been a few years back. His duty in the United States Army had taken him to a baron, turkeyless place called Afghanistan, and since his return we…
Read MoreOld Habit Gobblers
My son, Devereaux, and I made our way along the old, worn trail in the morning darkness toward our listening spot. I knew where two birds likely were, and I also knew we would be nowhere near them to start the morning. I had hoped there might be other birds closer to where we would…
Read MoreGobbers Up Close And Personal
Surprisingly, there wasn’t a single truck at the gate when I pulled into the parking area in one of my favorite old spots. I had gotten there early in hopes of beating the crowd. It was only 4:15 a.m., but I was still surprised. I sat there in the truck for another 15 minutes rethinking…
Read MoreCrash Course Gobblers: Hunting New Land
The alarm sounded at 2 a.m., and it was briefly a bit aggravating. Then I remembered the reason I had set it for such an early hour. We were going turkey hunting, but we needed to leave earlier than normal to drive the 2 1/2 hours to a place we had never hunted. My good…
Read MoreThe 2021 Georgia Turkey Hunting Special
Two decades have passed since poult counts began to shift downward and hunters begin to cry about worsening conditions in the turkey woods. Southeastern biologists, researchers and hunters have come to the same table to discuss the issue, and we now find ourselves on the cliff of what could be pretty drastic changes to Georgia’s…
Read MoreSwamp Gobblers
The sandy road glowed in the darkness as longtime friend Jonathan Barber and I traced it toward the swamp’s edge. We finally reached the end and stood pacing, waiting for the first early morning gobble from the Savannah River swamp. We had hunted together here before and had tangled with some tough old birds. We…
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