The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-04-09
LUCK VERSUS SKILL.
A Veterans Story of Deer, Wild
Cat, Three Bears and a Wild Turkey.
FTogl the Ne,5 York Sun.

- 1SCA al . SUI Va = OG0A w AANA
Cat, Three Bears and a Wild Turkey.
From the Ne,o York Sun.
HARRIsBURG. march 29.-AccordiDg to
Jabez Metcalf Of Kettle Creek 1t is sons
times better to have luck in the woods than
skill, and he demonstrates his theory by
some notable experiences of his own.
Once said he, Il tried all the tricks I
had learned in forty years as hunter and
trepper trying to bag big buck that was
spending the season in my nelghborhood,
but be got the best Of me every time. That
same fall wild cat had defied ell my skill
in the same way, sad she bear and her
two cubs had actually laughed at me for
weeks. Finally I did succeed in getting the
wild cat to step into a trap fixed for it, but
the blamed beast walked away wish
the trap. l followed the trail Of the
cat and the trap for miles and lest
1t. The same day got after the buck, and
he oircumvented me. and then l struck the
tracks OF the bear and her two cubs. While
l was following them l heard some one
shoot in the woods of to my left, and went
down TO see who 1t ives and what he had
shot. found fellow named Jim Coles,
who drove the tannery mules. He sat In
the snow, apparently scared half TO death.
Six feet away. by the side Of a log, lay the
wild cat I had tried so long to capture. My
dead. Jim had shot it.
"'Did 20 hear me shootP said Jim.
eyes l said, and l was mad.
"'Jist nowP said Jim.
"'Yes said l.
'TThen it wasn't this wild cas We heerd
me lhoot,' said Jim. 4 shot tina wild cat a
good while ago. It was the deer ye herd
me shoot at Just now. He's over there in
the brush
~ stepped over IN the brush, and there
lay the big buck that had fooled me for two
months. dead as a stone.
"'An' If ye'd ben up yender bout q mile
an hour or so sgo,' SAID Jim, we mowt a
heerd me shoot the two bars, big un an
little. There was two little uns. but one
on 'em got away
"Jim Cole had never besn In the woods
with gun before in his life, and here. just
by blind, bull-heRd luck, he had killed,
inside of an hour, the buck. the wild cat,
and two of the bears that had deded all Of
my skill for weeks I was 60 mad that I
made Jim present of the steel trap that
wild cat had on.
''But didn's feel half as bed over this as
did over the mammoth wild turkey that
was so smart tha5 for three years it had
foiled all my efforts, and all the efforts Of
every other good hunter who tried to bag
it, and then let 12-year-old boy, who had
never fred q gun or seen wild turkey in
his life, get the best of it. This was up IN
Juniata county. There are q good many
wild turkeys vet in the mountains up there,
but there never was one in the whole state
as smart or as big as this one. l had seen
this turkey often, aud had heard him great
deal oftener He was a gobbler, and had
the longest and reddest wattle9 Of any
turkey [ ever saw. They actually cleaned
like streak Of fire as he flew or ran through
the woods. His plumage was almost black,
ho1 l,reAa aIuDOgt blin5a6 uOt
when the sun shone on him. He had been
shot at aud missed by all the creek turkey
hunters in that part OF the state and came
TO be known as the spook gobbler.
1.-THE third year l had hunted this big
gobbler went to Juniata county early in
May The spook gobbler had already been
saeL by dozen hunters, and shot at 100
times without feather having been
knocked out OF him. | got three shots n5
the big and aggraVating bird che first day I
was there, and any one OF them ought have
brought him down. woodchopper named
Shaffer had come into these woods on q
chopping job, and had his l2-year old son
Jack with him. The boy had 20-shilling
shotgun, and the second day was there he
got up before daylight, loaded his gun with
buckshot, and said he was going out to get
the spook turkey In less than an hour after
ne went away Isaw him coming back, bend
ing almost to the ground beneath the
weight OF something he was carrying on hia
back. When he reached the cabin he sank
down on the doorBIll, and don't want t0
live another minute il the burden that SAM
him down wasn't the monster gobbler tnst
had lodged the bullets Of that whole region
for three long yearsl That boy had kAled
the spook gobber, sure enough.
"'I heard him boiler said the boy, AN
list snuck up to the tree where be was
roosin'. He looked at me as If be was goln'
to fly down an gobble me up, an l was
Altered be would, so 1 jist plunked him.
ga boy not near so big as the turkey and
a pot-metal gun had done what tho sSarpest
shooters, with the best guns to be had, had
been unable to do, and slcker lot Of hunt
ers never lived than those woods contained
when the news got around. The turkey
stood nearly feet high from its tees to its
head, and weighed forty-two pounds. l
gave the boy 81 for the gobbler., Francis
r. Skunk was governor then, and sent it
Co him. He gave big dinner aud 1 was
invited TO come down and eat some Of the
big turkey, bat hadn't the heart to do it. "
TittIa Josia-IVhat do Won guppose all