Carson Cushman, a senior at Central Aroostook High school in Mars Hill, is a dyed-in-the-wool fishing and hunting enthusiast. With his two younger brothers, Ethan and Connor, and at the side of his father Garrett, the family has been immersed in all aspects of Aroostook woods and waters for years.
Starting with partridge and rabbits at age 10, then duck and goose hunting, Carson’s goal soon turned to big game. By the end of last year, he had bagged three deer, two bears, three turkeys and dozens of upland birds, waterfowl and small game animals.
During the winter, Carson decided that, between his school studies, a regular part-time job and intramural sports, he would learn to use the diaphragm-style, wild turkey mouth call. He practiced every spare minute.
Carson and a couple of friends were scouting for turkeys in early April, often before school started, even though snow and mud still hadn’t given in to spring. The hunters located several flocks of turkeys and pinpointed the birds’ feeding schedule and travel trails to favorite fields.
Gobbler numbers are growing throughout the Crown of Maine, but nowhere near the population there is in the southern part of the state.
In the true spirit of sportsmanship and family first, Carson put his own desire for a long beard on the back burner and took his youngest brother Conner out for an early morning youth day hunt.
If a youngster’s first turkey isn’t memorable enough, Connor’s bird turned out to be a 16-pound bearded hen, and the beard was eight inches long. He shot it shortly after daybreak.
Two days later brought open season for all gobbler gunners and Carson was up and out of the house at 3 a.m. to meet up with classmates Cassidy Blackstone and Wyatt Allen. The teens had their decoys set up by 4 a.m. and they hunkered down in a hedge row between two fields where recent scouting showed birds had been feeding regularly.
The trio heard birds fly down from roost trees. Some birds responded to calling, but none showed themselves or checked out the decoys.
They decided at 6 a.m. to drive around and find other birds and were successful just 15 minutes later. They spotted six toms and two hens in a plowed-over tillage radish field. With the flock 500 yards away on the other side of a knoll, Carson pulled the truck out of sight up the farm road and the three excited classmates hatched a plan to get within shotgun range.
Carson had a Scoot and Shoot decoy as part of his gear; this is a larger than life silhouette of a fluffed up and fanned out tom turkey on a stick. Everyone loaded their guns and donned camouflage attire before hunkering down and sneaking to the hidden side of the knoll. The hunters belly-crawled across the field behind the decoy and stopped at 70 yards distance from the birds.
After a 12-minute stalemate, one of the hens started forward to check out the decoy. Within seconds, the entire flock was on the move.
The lead hen kept approaching and the shooters were afraid they were going to be spotted, but finally she moved aside, offering a clear shot at the toms. Carson’s countdown had everyone fire their guns on the count of one.
When the smoke and feathers cleared, three turkeys were down. Cassidy bagged a 16-pound bird with an 8 ½-inch beard and 5/8-inch spur using a 12-gauge shotgun. It was her first wild turkey. Carson used an over and under double-barreled 20-gauge shotgun to drop his 16-pound tom, which had an 8 ½-inch beard and ⅝-inch spurs. Wyatt used a single-shot .410 turkey gun to kill a 20-pound, 8 ½-inch beard with 1-inch spurs.
I’ve never heard of a triple on tom turkeys in all my years, and these three friends accomplished the memorable feat, took photos and still made it to school for classes.
Ethan, Carson’s middle brother, went on his own hunt that same morning and outsmarted a 20-pound tom, which had a 9-inch beard. Later that week, Carson went with his father and called in his first turkey, a hefty 17-pounder.
Aside from participating in a phenomenal triple on trophy turkey, in Aroostook’s limited population no less, young Carson Cushman, his family and friends proved to be prime examples of the next generation of true sportsmen and women. This, and stories like it, support the future of Maine’s outdoor heritage and family traditions.
