A national passion to bag gobblers

Tony Hudak didn’t intend to set out on such a quest.

The Noxen resident stumbled upon the endeavor in 2000 when he became the 100th person in the country to complete the Royal Slam of gobbler hunting – bagging each of the five wild turkey subspecies that inhabit the United States.

From 1999 to 2000, Hudak, 44, shot a Merriam’s gobbler in the Rockies, an Osceola turkey in Florida, two Rio Grande gobblers in Texas and Oklahoma, a Gould’s in New Mexico and an Eastern wild turkey back home in Pennsylvania.

A professed gobbler-hunting addict, Hudak – who guides turkey hunters in Pennsylvania, followed up his feat with successful gobbler hunts in Georgia, Virginia, Wyoming and Montana.

And that’s when the thought occurred to him – to become the fifth person in the country to bag a gobbler in all 49 states (wild turkeys don’t inhabit Alaska).

Soon after he began to kick around the idea, Hudak hunted three days in three states – Kansas, Missouri and Iowa, and tagged gobblers in each one.

With successful hunts in several states already under his belt, Hudak’s quest looked more and more like a real possibility. But it would still take a lot of work.

“It’s strictly longbeards that I hunt, either in the spring or fall, and I try to hunt four or five states each year,” said Hudak, who is self-employed. Having just wrapped up a successful hunt in Louisiana, Hudak has now bagged 26 gobblers in as many states. He also shot a bird in Mexico, which expanded his quest a bit.

“I’m going to try to get one in Canada also, which would give me gobblers in 49 states and three countries when I’m done,” Hudak said.

There is more to luck involved in Hudak’s cross-country success. During the winter he travels to each state he will hunt that year to locate state land and scout it religiously.

After the homework is done, Hudak applies for the appropriate tags and hopes to get drawn. Aside from calling a longbeard within range, drawing a tag for some states represents the biggest hurdle in Hudak’s quest. It took him three years to draw a non-resident gobbler tag for Utah and Arizona. He has applied for a tag the last four years for Illinois and has yet to be drawn.

And then there’s Nevada – a state with few wild turkeys and even fewer non-resident gobbler tags.

“Only 1 or 2 percent of the tags go to non-resident hunters. For the zone where I have a place to hunt, Nevada only issues three non-resident tags for that area,” Hudak said. “That’s going to be a challenge.”Still, when the scouting is done and a tag is obtained, there is one more obstacle facing Hudak – calling a longbeard in and making the shot count.

It doesn’t always work out. “I missed one in Maine so I have to go back. I’ve had to go back to several states because I missed,” he said. “You don’t always get them and it’s not a sure thing.”

Besides the challenges of the hunt itself, each state presents other aspects that make Hudak’s hunt difficult on occasion and unique every time.

In Texas he encountered a large number of diamondback rattlesnakes while hunting for a Rio Grande gobbler. Mississippi was full of Merriam’s gobblers, and venomous cottonmouth snakes.

And then there was this year’s hunt in Louisiana for an Eastern wild turkey where Hudak had to wade through gator-infested swamps just to reach the dry land that the birds inhabit.

“I had to wade a lot of it in the dark, and you don’t know what’s in that black water,” he said. “I saw well over 100 alligators from three feet to 12 feet in length.”

Hudak said the National Wild Turkey Federation has documented only four hunters that ever achieved the feat of bagging a gobbler in all 49 states that turkeys inhabit. He knows of another hunter from Florida who is on the same quest and a bit further along, so Hudak hopes to become the sixth hunter to accomplish the quest.

Among the states he has yet to hunt is Hawaii, a place with a surprisingly large population of a subspecies of the Rio Grande turkey. The state offers a three-bird limit with no special tag, leading Hudak to believe the prospects for a successful hunt in Hawaii are excellent.

Hudak has hunted turkeys since 1977 when he turned 12. At the time turkeys were fairly scarce in Pennsylvania and Hudak learned the value of scouting to locate birds.

“It was a tough learning experience when I started hunting turkeys with my father, but it really instilled in me a passion for hunting,” he said.

Hudak does most of his out-of-state gobbler hunting by himself and relies primarily on a mouth call because it keeps his hands free.

Although he is more than halfway to his goal, Hudak knows he still has a long road ahead.

“You can’t put a time limit on it,” Hudak said. “Each state is a challenge, but it’s also very rewarding when you do pull it off.”

26 states down, 23 to go

States where Tony Hudak has bagged a gobbler in his quest to successfully hunt for turkeys in 49 states and three countries (he’s bagged a gobbler in Mexico, and wants to get one in Canada):