What makes a good turkey hunting story?

[Kevin6Q]

After reading tomstopper's post regarding Jim Spencer's Bad Birds, http://oldgobbler.com/Forum/index.php/topic,58990.0/topicseen.html , I got to thinking about what books were influential/enjoyable/resonated with me. Bad Birds is definitely one of the most fun books to read. Some of Jim's stories sound so outrageous they just might be true. I really enjoy tales where the author sticks to the truth but takes a bit of artistic license in telling the tale to make me laugh and keep me engaged. Stories where the author admits to getting bested by a bird are also interesting. Many of the good reads use turkey hunting as a vehicle for a tale of the human experience can be good too.

Just like a call, shell, deke, or gun has a certain appeal to individual hunters, what makes a good turkey hunting story for you?

[Happy]

It's all about the details to me. A good storyteller involves the reader and can pretty much make them feel as if they were there. A good sense of humor is a must if it involves turkeys 'cause let's face it. A turkey has a knack for making the best of hunters feel pretty darned inept at times. 

[Marc]

Even a mundane hunt can sound interesting if the right person is telling the story...  I agree with Happy in that a sense of humor is a must, and a little self-deprivation does not hurt either.

Telling a good story is all about presentation, and picking up on some of the details that other people might miss...  I have always called it the "writer's eye."

[catman529]

No decoys, no blinds, no fields, no fanning, no stalking, no long range guns or shells. A good turkey hunting story to me, involves someone sitting down against a tree, in the woods, and calling a gobbler to within 40 yards of the gun and then killing him. I personally don't pay attention to anything else.

those textbook hunts are fun, but some of the most memorable hunts I've had involved a lot of sneaking, stalking, sitting, calling, walking, even running, trying to set up on a difficult bird.


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[GobbleNut]

A good hunting story to me is one in which I get so completely enthralled by the tale that I am actually mentally there with the writer, picturing the hunt in my mind, and kind-of lose that consciousness that I am reading it. 

[ilbucksndux]

The details. I want to feel like I'm there when I read it.

[Marc]

A good hunting story to me is one in which I get so completely enthralled by the tale that I am actually mentally there with the writer, picturing the hunt in my mind, and kind-of lose that consciousness that I am reading it.

Sounds like some good alcohol will make for better reading in your case...

[WisTurk]

The details. I want to feel like I'm there when I read it.

^^This.  If I feel like I am there or can relate to what is going on, then that's what I love to read.  The details are what makes that happen in my opinion.  I just wish I was better at it...which explains why I was a C student in all my english classes in school