Life-giving force

Sherwood hunter overcomes illness to bag gobblers

Photo submitted by Thurman Booth
Thurman Booth of Sherwood bagged these two big gobblers in Alabama last week while hunting with his friend Glenn Walker, formerly of Pine Bluff.
Photo submitted by Thurman Booth Thurman Booth of Sherwood bagged these two big gobblers in Alabama last week while hunting with his friend Glenn Walker, formerly of Pine Bluff.

Turkey hunting is powerful medicine, but for Thurman Booth of Sherwood, it's a little more than medicinal.

It's a life-giving force.

Booth, the state director of wildlife services for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is an avid hunter of all game, but turkey hunting is his first love and passion. He hasn't hunted for three years because of some major heart problems. He can't tell you which hurt worse, illness or being prevented from chasing gobblers.

His drought finally ended last week when he bagged two mature gobblers in Alabama while hunting with his old friend and protege Glenn Walker, formerly of Pine Bluff.

This story actually began four years ago when Booth hunted in Alabama with Walker. While entering the woods before dawn, Booth complained of chest pains. Walker insisted they go immediately to the hospital, but Booth refused.

He said he took his time and bagged two mature gobblers, but by the third day he said he knew he had pushed his luck far enough.

His cardiologist put him in the hospital when he returned home to open up two blocked arteries. At a wild game feast at his church shortly after, Booth proudly showed off his little wallet card that showed the locations of his four stents.

Since then, Booth has had two valves replaced. Complications ensued, including a massive staph infection that Booth said kept him bed for eight weeks with his chest open. When it was over, he said he had to go to a rehabilitation facility to learn how to walk again.

Booth was not expected to survive, let alone hunt.

"Four times doctors called my family in and said I wasn't going to make it, but I had gotten word from someone who trumped all that," Booth said . "God told me I would survive, and I communicated that to my wife."

Booth said his medical team was harder to convince.

"My surgeon was the last one to give up on me," Booth said. "The way he said it was this, 'Thurman, typically a person with your complications does not survive.'

"I told him if that's the case, then do not come back in this room unless you can say, 'Thurman, we're going to pull you through this.' And he didn't. I could hear him outside talking in the hall, but he did not come back in my room until they closed my chest back up."

That was a year ago. In the meantime, Walker had been calling Booth on the phone pumping him up about turkey hunting. Walker has about 100 acres in Alabama that Booth said is filthy with turkeys. In January, at the end of deer season, Walker locks the gates and does nothing to disturb the birds. They do not see people until March.

On opening morning, Booth and Walker entered the woods. Booth said he was too slow, and Walker got anxious.

"I said, 'Glenn, I know the way. You go on and set up the decoys and get the blind ready. I'll be there in time.' "

At sunrise, Booth said three toms gobbled down a river bottom. Soon, a giant flock of hens entered the field.

"They were pecking around, scratching and feeding," Booth said. "All the gobblers were gobbling behind us and in front, but none of them would come to us. They were trying to get the hens to come into woods."

Finally, one turkey appeared and carved off a group of hens. Booth said the tom strutted and gobbled, but it wouldn't come closer. Eventually, they drifted away.

During that time, the real hens had made a lot of noise responding to Booth's and Walker's calling. That lured in a quartet of mature gobblers that appeared about 60 yards away. As they ran to the blind, Walker put down his video camera so that he might get a shot, too.

At 40 yards, a gobbler stopped and stood erect. Booth shot one that jumped into the air, so he shot it again and put it down. It was the first time in three years he had fired a gun.

Walker fired three times at a flushing bird and missed, but another bird ran up to fight with Booth's dead bird. Walker shot that bird, and then a fourth bird came out and circled the two dead gobblers for 45 minutes.

"They were all 3-year old birds," Booth said. "I'm sure they'd been together all their lives."

On Sunday, Walker and Booth roosted several birds. Booth returned to hunt them on Monday while Walker hunted a different spot. They agreed to communicate via text messaging, but Booth's birds were on him so fast and for so long that he was unable to respond to Walker's texts, making Walker very anxious, Booth said.

Booth's lead gobbler was a 4-year old bird with the reddest head that Booth said he has ever seen. Booth pleaded vehemently for the hens' attention, but the gobbler surprised him. As close as it was. It gobbled very quietly. Booth called it "whisper" gobbling.

"I could tell by the way he herded them that he wanted to take them back down the road," Booth said. "I called to them real aggressively."

While this was going on, the gobbler took time to breed with one of the hens. The alpha hen of the group took that opportunity to investigate Booth's calling a little closer. When she did, three other hens followed her.

"That really made that gobbler mad, but here he came with them," Booth said. "When he got to 43 yards, I let the hammer down on him."

Only then could Booth take the time to answer Walker's frantic texts.

That bird weighed 22 pounds and sported a 10 1/4-inch beard and 1 1/4-inch spurs that Booth said were sharp as needles. The first bird weighed 19 pounds and a beard just shy of 10 inches.

"That was in the same place where I had the chest pains before any of this bad stuff started," Booth said. "Turkey hunting is the best medicine there is. It was a humbling experience that the lord was generous to me to put that many turkeys where I was and let me take part in it."

Chances are good that Booth will chase gobblers again when turkey season opens in Arkansas on April 18.

Sports on 03/22/2015

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