Page 43 - 2019 MAR/APR Outdoor Oklahoma

as an avid turkey
After nearly 40 years hunter, Audrey
Balentine has definitely seen some changes in the sport. These days, most tur-
key hunters want to wear a tricked-out vest, carry an assortment of calls,
tote a special “turkey only” gun with a screw-in choke, and rest their behind
on a cushy ground seat or hide in a
pop-up blind.
“Of course, now everybody’s got a WILDLIFEDEPARTMENT.COM
vest and they tout having a truckload
of calls with you,” Balentine said.
“Back then, there wasn’t any vest. I
would just wear a dark shirt and blue
jeans and a cap.” And he’d simply
grab his box call and trusty ol’ shot-
gun as he headed out to the woods.
Balentine, who has lived in the
Wister area all of his life, was born
in 1943. “I’ve hunted ever since I’ve
been big enough to hunt.” He sat
down recently to share some of his
memories about those earlier days
as a way to let today’s hunters learn about how things used to be. Camouflage clothing for turkey hunters
has advanced over the years, from
In his childhood, deer and wild turkeys were pretty much unheard of in his basic military-like printed patterns on
neck of the woods. “Now back when I was a kid, if you saw a deer track, that cloth to ghillie suits that blend into the
surrounding habitat.
was big news.” As for turkeys, Balentine said there were always a few birds
in the woods of southeastern Oklahoma, but they were rarely seen or heard.
For him, it was quail hunting where he cut his teeth. “A neighbor, who
was an older man, used to take me hunting and fishing. On Saturday morn-
ing, a lot of times I’d be down there “Back then,
DON P. BROWN/ODWC superintendent at Fanshawe and did there wasn’t any
knocking on his door.”
Balentine’s father was school

not participate in hunting until later vest. I would just
in life. But the boy’s two uncles were
avid quail hunters, “and I used to wear a dark shirt
go with them and carry my BB gun and blue jeans
and walk all day with them.”
For Balentine, a hunting trip was and a cap.”

pretty much a quick walk across
the road. “Here, we are blessed
with public land, and that’s where
I started hunting.” As he grew
older, he started hunting for rab-
bits, squirrels, ducks and crows.
“Along about 1960, we started hav-
ing deer.”
He began deer hunting in the
Longtime turkey hunter Audrey Balentine
has been saving spurs from his harvested mid-1960s. And it wasn’t until
birds for years and created a string of spurs he was about 25 years old when
as a reminder of his hunts.
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