Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Austin prays; grandson bags trophy
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
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On the morning of March 6, Gerald Austin woke up in his hospital bed at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital and gazed out of his room.
"When I watched the sun rise over the Roanoke River, it was the most beautiful sunrise I'd seen in my entire life," said Austin, who lives in Buchanan.
A lifelong outdoorsman, Austin has seen many gorgeous sunrises. What made that one special was that Austin was there to see it.
A day earlier he'd been in the operating room undergoing open heart surgery.
"Whenever you go through something like that it really changes your perspective on things," he said.
Not that Austin was one of those guys who took a lot of things for granted. Those of us lucky enough to know him know him as kind, generous and thoughtful.
But a medical scare can provide clarity, and there was one thing Austin really hoped for.
"My prayer was that I would be alive long enough to see my grandson Clayton kill his first spring turkey," Austin said Monday.
Austin left the hospital in a couple of days and recuperated at home. When he was able to get out of the house he eagerly looked for the big bunch of turkeys he'd watched at one of the properties where he hunts.
The birds were still there, several strutting gobblers among them.
Last week Austin got outdoors and built a makeshift ground blind, where he, his son Jerry and Clayton sat at dawn Saturday, Virginia's youth turkey hunting day.
The birds gobbled well on the roost, exciting the Austins .
But then the turkeys flew down and things grew quiet.
Gerald Austin's calls went unanswered.
"But then I heard one drumming and spitting," said Austin, who turned to see the strutting gobbler approach.
Because of the way the bird came in, Clayton couldn't see it.
The turkey walked closer and closer, getting to within 20 feet. The confused turkey looked for the hen that made the seductive calls.
"He was standing there and his head was like an accordion," Austin said of the alert, suspicious turkey. "His neck was getting longer and longer.
"I knew it was about over."
Austin told his grandson to lean out of the blind. He did, finally saw the turkey, and shot.
The gobbler crumpled.
The 2-year-old gobbler weighed 20 pounds. It had 3/4-inch spurs and two beards, one 7 inches long, the other 11 inches long.
"I told Clayton 'You've done something many hunters will never do,' " Austin said of shooting a double-bearded bird. "I've killed a pile of turkeys, but probably only two or three with two beards."
Austin isn't sure about his hunting prospects this spring. He's forbidden by his doctor from shooting a gun because of the potential damage from the recoil. He has an appointment today and hopes for clearance.
If he doesn't get it, that's OK.
"That hunt," he said, "made my spring."
Youth day numbers
Virginia's young hunters had a solid day on the youth hunt.
They registered 402 turkeys through the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Got Game electronic checking system.
The total was 10 percent more than the 365 turkeys registered on the 2009 youth day, but well above the 238 registered on youth day in 2008.
This is the first year that spring gobbler hunters are required to check their birds electronically either online at www.huntfishva.com or by calling (866) GOT GAME.
Hunters who kill a turkey that they plan to enter in a state-sanction big game contest are still required to get a certified weight of the bird.
