I found this in a box the other day and it brought back alot of good memories from 30 years ago. I thought it might do the same for some of you. I've got Lee's Champion Gobble Box packed up also. I may just break it out this spring for old time sake.
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Dang, that's cool. That's how I learned to call. My uncle had a Lee's Champion Gobble Box. He was my hero growing up. I've got a pic of him in my living room with a nice buck. People who see it think it must be a pic of a relative. Hope to find one of those calls someday. Thanks for posting that pic. I could quote that thing backwards and forwards when I was a kid.
Nice!!
Quote from: Rzrbac on February 12, 2017, 07:12:29 PM
Dang, that's cool. That's how I learned to call. My uncle had a Lee's Champion Gobble Box. He was my hero growing up. I've got a pic of him in my living room with a nice buck. People who see it think it must be a pic of a relative. Hope to find one of those calls someday. Thanks for posting that pic. I could quote that thing backwards and forwards when I was a kid.
Why'd he have a buck in your living room? Lol
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LOL. This pic is a copy of a big pic that hangs in Bass Pro at Springfield. I once told my wife I was gonna try and buy it so somehow she did this.(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170213/f5dcb417fdce29199c99c31a3ae2601f.jpg)
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first turkey tape I ever listed to...still remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard that he had passed away....no telling what he would have done if he had lived longer.
Remember those days well... thanks for posting
:icon_thumright:
An interesting question is whether he would reap or not.
Old Ben Lee was a turkey hunter, he would do what he had to do to kill a bird within the confines of the law and his ethical standards.
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At one time I had a couple VCR tapes with Ben Lee. He was bowhunting deer in one and turkey hunting in the other. I really liked listening to him back in those days.
I used to have the deer hunting video. The background music would play Taps before the shot. He only killed one nice buck on that video, the rest were dinks. I believe he was using a Bear Whitetail 2 bow. Did we all start out with one of those! ???
Sure wished I could have hunted with him.
Quote from: davisd9 on February 15, 2017, 10:48:04 AM
Old Ben Lee was a turkey hunter, he would do what he had to do to kill a bird within the confines of the law and his ethical standards.
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Many confuse legal with ethical. It is legal to have sex with your best friend's girlfriend, but it is very unethical. Something to think about when choosing one's method of hunting.
Quote from: silvestris on February 15, 2017, 01:11:06 PM
Quote from: davisd9 on February 15, 2017, 10:48:04 AM
Old Ben Lee was a turkey hunter, he would do what he had to do to kill a bird within the confines of the law and his ethical standards.
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Many confuse legal with ethical. It is legal to have sex with your best friend's girlfriend, but it is very unethical. Something to think about when choosing one's method of hunting.
If you are married then it is illegal here in SC.
I think there is a huge difference in your analogy and what is being talked about.
Sleeping with a friend's girlfriend is overall looked down upon as immoral and wrong universally, where as crawling up on a gobbler with a fan is just something some people do not care for and do not think it should be allowed, not a universal immoral act by the population of the world.
I have never fanned a gobbler, but I also try not looking down my nose at those that do it. I personally am not a fan of blinds but if that is your thing and it fits within the law and YOUR standard of ethics then more power to you. If you are on property we can both hunt I will just circle the field you are set up on, at a safe distance for us both, and try to call in the bird and look him in the eye when I shoot him.
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He was definitely one of my favorites
Quote from: silvestris on February 15, 2017, 01:11:06 PM
Quote from: davisd9 on February 15, 2017, 10:48:04 AM
Old Ben Lee was a turkey hunter, he would do what he had to do to kill a bird within the confines of the law and his ethical standards.
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Many confuse legal with ethical. It is legal to have sex with your best friend's girlfriend, but it is very unethical. Something to think about when choosing one's method of hunting.
silvestris,How you can make that leap and use it in response to what you quoted davis as saying puzzles me. Puzzles me further that you could be so unethical and offensive by doing so. You owe an apology. Stick to the subject, this has nothing to do with someone supporting reaping or not. You asked a simple question so don't be surprised to hear folks say Ben Lee would reap. I am about 99% sure he would and I base that on stuff I heard him say and write about doing while turkey hunting. The man liked to kill turkeys.
And I wouldn't be surprised if he had done so. If you and others here think reaping is the first time folks have tried crawling with dekes then you are about 25 years behind things.
Sure wished Ben was around to answer for himself. If he was I would drive to AL to ask him in person.
Quote from: davisd9 on February 15, 2017, 10:48:04 AM
Old Ben Lee was a turkey hunter, he would do what he had to do to kill a bird within the confines of the law and his ethical standards.
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Hmmm ever see his seminars or ever hear what he talked about in em?
I still remember hearing him on that cassette. There is a section where he spoke about shooting turkeys with rifles or other means. I'm pretty sure he believed in calling the bird in.
Hmmm.....A quick search I just did yielded comments from several sites as such with Ben Rogers Lee quotes (in bold red italics):
"Some of Bens favorite quotes..."I love to hunt deer, and I hunt them with all legal weapons, all legal seasons. When they open up a deer rock chuckin season, I will be doing that to.""
"I never met a greater turkey hunter than the late Ben Rodgers Lee of Coffeeville, Alabama. Lee made one of the best, most-true quotes I ever had heard about hunting beat-up turkeys when he said, "When you try to hunt a turkey like this, you usually have to make one of two critical decisions. Do you want to call to the turkey, or do you want to kill it? Most of the time, you get the option to do one or the other, but not to do both. If you call to the turkey, you probably won't kill it. If you plan to kill the turkey, you probably don't need to call to him."
"
"Lee also believed that two men had a better chance at taking a tough tom than one man did, especially if the hunters wanted to take one of those sent-from-hell gobblers that would gobble his head off as he walked-away from you. "Once I know I'm hunting a gobbler like this, I'll hoot to him early in the morning to keep-up with his location," Lee explained. "Then I'll run through the woods and try to get ahead of the bird. I'll leave my buddy where we've heard the turkey gobbling. I'll ask him to give me 10 to 15 minutes to get into position before he starts calling to the turkey. Because the turkey will gobble as he walks to me and away from my buddy, I can get in the position to have that gobbler walk right in front of me, even though I've never called to him."
"
I remember the rock chunkin' comment. I don't remember the others but I don't dispute them. I'm just going off memory from when I was about 13! I can tell you this back then I would have tried anything he would have suggested.
May have to see if I can find a download of that cassette, sure wouldn't mind hearing it again.
I ain't worried about it one way or the other, just being argumentative. I do think he was like most of us, the harder the turkey the harder and more stuff he would try to do to kill it. I ain't tried reaping and was flat repulsed when I first saw it. Even so, I doubt I would but can't say for sure I wouldn't ever try it at least once and under the right safe circumstances, simply for the thrill of it. I know for a fact that some folks were just as repulsed by gobble calls and 60 yard guns/loads when they first became popular.
The reaping thing wouldn't be my cup of tea either. I'm not sure what to think of it. Probably no different than Indians wearing a deer skin over them. I just like calling them. I'm honestly not disappointed on days I don't kill as long as I can hear some good gobbling. IMO that's the best part of a turkey, his gobble!
Quote from: Bowguy on February 15, 2017, 04:46:48 PM
Quote from: davisd9 on February 15, 2017, 10:48:04 AM
Old Ben Lee was a turkey hunter, he would do what he had to do to kill a bird within the confines of the law and his ethical standards.
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Hmmm ever see his seminars or ever hear what he talked about in em?
Also read his book.
Quote from: davisd9 on February 15, 2017, 05:46:13 PM
Quote from: Bowguy on February 15, 2017, 04:46:48 PM
Quote from: davisd9 on February 15, 2017, 10:48:04 AM
Old Ben Lee was a turkey hunter, he would do what he had to do to kill a bird within the confines of the law and his ethical standards.
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Hmmm ever see his seminars or ever hear what he talked about in em?
Also read his book.
Not to say much negative but the seminar I watched him give was a little-if you don't get caught it's legal. Even laughed about it. I was told he was just trying to be a good old boy. Prob is in a seminar w mixed folks we gotta watch what we say. I never went to see him again. No disrespect to folks who love him. I was just very shocked
Did he only have 1 book? The 2 tapes I had when I was a kid were copies, not originals. My Dad didn't hunt and we didn't have much money so I wasn't exposed to a lot of stuff like that. Just listened to his tapes and had one deer hunting VHS. I was pretty much self taught but I listened to those tapes for years even after I started killing birds consistently. They finally broke.
Quote from: Rzrbac on February 15, 2017, 06:05:09 PM
Did he only have 1 book? The 2 tapes I had when I was a kid were copies, not originals. My Dad didn't hunt and we didn't have much money so I wasn't exposed to a lot of stuff like that. Just listened to his tapes and had one deer hunting VHS. I was pretty much self taught but I listened to those tapes for years even after I started killing birds consistently. They finally broke.
Sounds like we had similar raisin.
I only know of The Turkey Hunting World of Ben Lee. Could be another though.
Quote from: Bowguy on February 15, 2017, 05:54:57 PM
Quote from: davisd9 on February 15, 2017, 05:46:13 PM
Quote from: Bowguy on February 15, 2017, 04:46:48 PM
Quote from: davisd9 on February 15, 2017, 10:48:04 AM
Old Ben Lee was a turkey hunter, he would do what he had to do to kill a bird within the confines of the law and his ethical standards.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Hmmm ever see his seminars or ever hear what he talked about in em?
Also read his book.
Not to say much negative but the seminar I watched him give was a little-if you don't get caught it's legal. Even laughed about it. I was told he was just trying to be a good old boy. Prob is in a seminar w mixed folks we gotta watch what we say. I never went to see him again. No disrespect to folks who love him. I was just very shocked
He shot his first turkey out of a tree, but one has to remember he killed it to eat not sport. I am sure Ben Lee did some things he should not have, I know I have. He was a character and a turkey hunter. A turkey hunter will do what he has to do within the law and his own ethics to kill a bird. There is always one that just gets under your skin and the poetry antics that many try to dream up have to be thrown out the door to kill him.
Wasn't anything about shooting birds outa trees. I was enjoying the seminar until he started w some of the stuff. I was a kid, never bought anything w his name on it after that. The way you guys love him maybe I misread him but maybe the seminar I saw taught him how to tell/not tell stories. Coulda been attempts at redneck funny too.
Whatever, Ben Lee was a great caller. And you can be too if you will put out the effort.
The Indians also ran buffalo off of cliffs. The Indian killed to survive. We hunt for sport. When the Indian failed he went hungry. When we we fail we go to the grocery store. Just something to think about when discussing ethics. I love the clean meat of wild animals but I will not break my code of ethics to kill one. If he is better than me he deserves to live. If I fail I guess I spend a few extra dollars at the local store.
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Going back 40 years here...bear with me....
Ben Lee was a hoot and a well known story teller. A lot of the things he said were off-the-cuff. At seminars he clearly yanked chains and got laughs. A lot of that stuff is real easy to take out of context today, 25 years later.
I really do not think Ben would have fanned a turkey. If so, he would have done it and publicly talked about it. He talked a bunch about gobblers from he** and never mentioned creeping with a decoy as a tactic that I can remember. Other factors probably came into play and it probably would go down a little like this if he was asked:
Q: "Ben what do you think of fanning and would you ever try it" ?
B: "He** no, too dang fat, can't crawl that far on my belly and the fan ain't big enough to hide me" !!
That's the Ben Lee I remember from 40 years ago....just my .02 ;D ;D ;D
You can tell spring is near and hunters are antsy, lol
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Quote from: silvestris on February 15, 2017, 06:35:07 PM
Whatever, Ben Lee was a great caller. And you can be too if you will put out the effort.
How many of us have you ever heard call?
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Boys...take the debate somewhere else.
I started this thread because it brought back alot of good memories of my dad and I learning to hunt turkeys 30 years ago. We would drive down, camp and chase turkeys all over Sumter National Forrest in upstate SC every spring. Neither one of us knew anything about calling turkeys, but I fell in love with it and would list to this tape over and over again. Dad's gone now, and alot of our later memories weren't so good. But finding this tape brought back some of the best ones. I hoped that it would do the same for some of you.
Be safe and good luck this spring.
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Quote from: PEHunter on February 15, 2017, 09:39:40 PM
Boys...take the debate somewhere else.
I started this thread because it brought back alot of good memories of my dad and I learning to hunt turkeys 30 years ago. We would drive down, camp and chase turkeys all over Sumter National Forrest in upstate SC every spring. Neither one of us knew anything about calling turkeys, but I fell in love with it and would list to this tape over and over again. Dad's gone now, and alot of our later memories weren't so good. But finding this tape brought back some of the best ones. I hoped that it would do the same for some of you.
Be safe and good luck this spring.
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SNF has some good hunting in it, hope to make the hour or so drive to it a few times this spring.
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It sure did. Kind of makes me sad to, I pretty much hunt by myself anymore. Wished I could hunt with my grandpa some more, those are great memories.
Quote from: PEHunter on February 15, 2017, 09:39:40 PM
Boys...take the debate somewhere else.
I started this thread because it brought back alot of good memories of my dad and I learning to hunt turkeys 30 years ago. We would drive down, camp and chase turkeys all over Sumter National Forrest in upstate SC every spring. Neither one of us knew anything about calling turkeys, but I fell in love with it and would list to this tape over and over again. Dad's gone now, and alot of our later memories weren't so good. But finding this tape brought back some of the best ones. I hoped that it would do the same for some of you.
Be safe and good luck this spring.
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Same experience as I had but maybe a few years earlier. Camped at Fire Tower hunt camp. There was a marked increase in turkey hunters about '84 in that area. Not sure what did it, maybe marketing or magazine articles but there was a wave of interest for a few years and a bunch of new hunters around. As a young teen I walked up on two hunters around mid morning (whom I might add had parked beside our truck and came in after us). I spoke to them and they mentioned a lot of hunters around. I said "yeah, it's all these dang NC hunters coming down" what I had often heard from my hunting friends. Then they curtly informed me they were from NC. ::)