Box call draws 22 toms during spring turkey hunt

Fun, food, fellowship and turkey stories are the norm at thousands of National Wild Turkey Federation Hunting Heritage fundraising banquets held annually across the United States.

For the second consecutive year, I had the pleasure of attending the Turkey Creek Longbeards banquet, held recently at the Joplin Elks Lodge.

One of the highlights was hearing a turkey story by Terry McGinnis, who was born in Joplin and raised in Webb City. He currently lives near Diamond.

Terry approached and said that I looked familiar. In no time, he and I bonded. We are graduates of Webb City High School and, of course, avid turkey hunters.

He noted that he and his wife, Honie, had “a heck of a hunt” for longbeards last spring in Southwest Missouri.

On the opening morning of spring turkey season, the couple was well-concealed, sitting in a blind in a brushy fence roll.

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