Letters To The Editor: July 2024

Reader Contributed | June 30, 2024

Ben Spears, of Metter, thought his days of turkey hunting were over after a terrible battle with cancer. He’s very thankful he was wrong, evidenced by this Burke County longbeard.

Thought I Had Chased My Last Longbeard…

Dear GON,

I was diagnosed with an extreme case of renal cell cancer two weeks before the 2020 turkey season. After surgery that removed my right kidney and included some major complications for the first year, I thought I had chased my last turkey. I went from 272 pounds to 131 pounds in eight months and honestly thought I would never again put the shotgun bead on a longbeard.

With the help of the good Lord, the fine doctors at Emory and a fire in my belly, I was able get back in the woods for a successful season and close the 2024 season with an old Briar Creek swamp bird that I had been chasing for the last two years in Burke County. I have had him so close that I knocked the safety off three times this year only to have him vanish like a ghost. On May 13, at 5:23 p.m., we faced off for the last time. He had an 11.5-inch beard, weighed 20 pounds and had 1 11/16-inch hooks.

Y’all keep the issues coming. They helped me keep that fire alive when there were some dark days. I thank y’all for that.

Ben Spears, Metter

Thankful For Duncan’s Editorial On Boy Scouts

Dear GON,

I read Duncan Dobie’s editorial in the June issue. I have known him for many years back when I talked to him about muzzleloading for deer back in the 1970s. We have talked about outdoor stuff, especially deer hunting, and I have read a lot of his articles.

Until now I did not know he was a Boy Scout. I agree with the points he brings up about happy memories in scouting and belonging to a group that gave him his “moral compass” growing up. I rate my scouting experience right up there with learning outdoor things from my dad when I was a boy.

Reading his experience, I can relate to his good memories in scouting. I first learned to shoot as a scout when seeking a merit badge. I was influenced by my scoutmaster and later was a scoutmaster for a troop. I tried to teach all those things he writes so poignantly about.

I share his hurt regarding how Boy Scouts has changed. With the scouting experience now so different, we as parents, grandparents, neighbors and relatives must teach the youth and be a moral compass to steer them to all the outdoor things we love.

Even to this day in my old age, when I run into a former Boy Scout I taught and he greets me with a smile and says, “Hello Mr. Al,” it touches me. I treasure that legacy. To me that is priceless. I salute Duncan for his scouting, as well as for his writing, which has reached so many sportsmen.

Alton Powell, Chattahoochee Hills