Claude Strother isn't just talking turkey.The 82-year-old is living his own tall tale. Strother has been hunting turkeys since 1975 and he thought he had seen it all — a new chapter is being written in his hunting story this year.Being attacked by a bobcat wasn’t something he saw coming.“Just a fluke deal," he said of the recent incident near his Alabama home. “I always sit by a big tree. This time I didn’t. I sat by two little trees about as big as your arms. About 18 inches apart,” Strother said.The native of Selma, Alabama, was setting up for a big day of hunting when he said he took a hit from behind.“I set the perfect storm for it. There I was, perfectly camouflaged in a gap, and all he could see was my head, and all of a sudden, I was knocked over, and I turned and reached back. I assumed someone had hit me with a baseball bat. It was that hard. Dazed me, but it was nothing there. I looked back around, and the bobcat was trotting down the road. It could have been a lot worse.”The bobcat had just missed clawing Strother’s eyes. The bobcat did bite into the back of his head.Strother took selfies to show his family right after it had happened.In his nearly 50 years in the woods, this was a first.“He thought I was a turkey. My yelping is real good," Strother said, with a laugh. "He assumed I was a turkey with a wide head, I guess. So he tried it. I don’t blame him at all. I got no grudge against that bobcat, I wouldn’t have shot him if he let me.”While Strother, his wife and their daughter are now laughing about the bizarre occurrence, at the time, Strother did take it seriously and went to the doctor to get checked out. “My dad has so many unbelievable but true stories that it’s not surprising,” said his daughter, DeAnn McGilberry.McGilberry shared her father's story on social media. She said reading the hundreds of comments on has helped her father take his mind off his recent cancer diagnosis. Nothing, not even a bobcat or cancer, is going to keep Strother out of the woods.“Next morning, I went to the same spot,” Strother said.Strother said he’s killed 247 turkeys in the past 50 years.He said he’s hunted in 18 states, including Mexico.He said Alabama turkeys are the most challenging to hunt.
MOBILE, Ala. —
Claude Strother isn't just talking turkey.
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The 82-year-old is living his own tall tale.
Strother has been hunting turkeys since 1975 and he thought he had seen it all — a new chapter is being written in his hunting story this year.
Being attacked by a bobcat wasn’t something he saw coming.
“Just a fluke deal," he said of the recent incident near his Alabama home.
“I always sit by a big tree. This time I didn’t. I sat by two little trees about as big as your arms. About 18 inches apart,” Strother said.
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The native of Selma, Alabama, was setting up for a big day of hunting when he said he took a hit from behind.
“I set the perfect storm for it. There I was, perfectly camouflaged in a gap, and all he could see was my head, and all of a sudden, I was knocked over, and I turned and reached back. I assumed someone had hit me with a baseball bat. It was that hard. Dazed me, but it was nothing there. I looked back around, and the bobcat was trotting down the road. It could have been a lot worse.”
The bobcat had just missed clawing Strother’s eyes. The bobcat did bite into the back of his head.
Strother took selfies to show his family right after it had happened.
In his nearly 50 years in the woods, this was a first.
“He thought I was a turkey. My yelping is real good," Strother said, with a laugh. "He assumed I was a turkey with a wide head, I guess. So he tried it. I don’t blame him at all. I got no grudge against that bobcat, I wouldn’t have shot him if he let me.”
While Strother, his wife and their daughter are now laughing about the bizarre occurrence, at the time, Strother did take it seriously and went to the doctor to get checked out.
“My dad has so many unbelievable but true stories that it’s not surprising,” said his daughter, DeAnn McGilberry.
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McGilberry shared her father's story on social media. She said reading the hundreds of comments on has helped her father take his mind off his recent cancer diagnosis.
Nothing, not even a bobcat or cancer, is going to keep Strother out of the woods.
“Next morning, I went to the same spot,” Strother said.
Strother said he’s killed 247 turkeys in the past 50 years.
He said he’s hunted in 18 states, including Mexico.
He said Alabama turkeys are the most challenging to hunt.
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