Ohio’s Lloyd Lynch still punching hunting tags at 101 years old

Lloyd Lynch, of Dayton, Ohio, is a lifetime deer and turkey hunter who annually hunts in three or four and sometimes five states. One year he harvested nine turkeys across five states. From the mounts on his living room wall, he has done a lifetime’s worth of trophy hunting homework.

Repeatedly using a keyword in the same paragraph would draw criticism from Mrs. Bassler, my Portsmouth High School creative writing teacher. She would say it wasn’t poor writing, but it did indicate a writer’s lack of imagination considering how many words Mr. Webster has snared for us.

However, “lifetime” takes on a special meaning in describing Lynch because he is currently 101 years young. And he’s drawing a bead on a target that has 102 in the 10-ring. If he’s aiming with his trusty Winchester Model 50 Featherweight 12-gauge, plan on a wingding of a birthday party!

Lynch grew up near Hazard, Kentucky, in the southeast part of the state, the heart of coal country. His father worked in the coal industry as a miner, then a coal mine foreman, and finally as a federal mine inspector.

Lynch grew up during the time when fathers taught their sons to hunt, and he is no exception to that rule. He still remembers the most valuable hunting lesson learned from his father.

“I started hunting when I was 11,” he said. “My father took me quail hunting. We were moving a covey on a hillside when we came to a beech tree that was at least 30 inches in diameter. I went to the left and Dad went to the right. A quail jumped to my right and I swung my gun for a shot.”

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The young hunter eager for a shot forgot his father was in the line of fire until an arm brushed the barrel of Lynch’s shotgun, preventing a tragic accident.

“Dad said, ‘Hunt’s over, let’s go to the house,’ and that was all he said. Didn’t have to say anything else,” he said.

That 90-year-old lesson burned a permanent bookmark in Lynch’s lifetime of memories.

However, the near fatal incident as an 11-year-old is not the only brush with an accidental shooting Lynch has experienced. This time he was not the instigator, he was the victim.

“We were deer hunting with friends when a deer jumped and took off at a 45-degree angle up the hill. Dad was ahead of me, so I didn’t shoot but my friend down the hill from me did,” said Lynch. “Next thing I knew something hit me on the left side right on my belt line.”

The bullet from his friend’s rifle found its mark, killing the deer, but bullets do not always stop where a hunter intends it to do so. In this case, the bullet went through the deer, hit a rock or tree, and ricocheted, hitting Lynch. He still has the mangled bullet in a tray next to his recliner.

“I got the bullet and I kept the deer too!” he laughed. “It didn’t break the skin, but it did leave a red mark on my side for almost a year. That’s the only time I was ever shot,” Lynch said as he nodded his head, remembering the close call, “Except for in the war.”

Those five words stole our conversation from the Kentucky hills to a World War II battlefield in Holland. The lighthearted conversation about youthful hunting trips reversed its direction and became as heavy as a five-gallon bucket of lead.

“We were in a foxhole on the front line, six of us, when I got hit,” he said.

Lynch’s words struggled to escape his lips. His eyes were on a faraway battlefield.

“I got hit in the lumbar area of my lower back and it’s still in there. It happened on Oct. 5, 1943,” he said.

Whether the shell was from a German 88 cannon or a mortar round that sheared the top of the tree behind them, Lynch never found out. Four of the six soldiers in the 38th Armored Infantry, 7th Armored Division in that foxhole were hit. Crouched on the far left end of the foxhole, Lynch remembers that the two soldiers at the far right end of the line were not hit.

“The guy next to me … this far from me,” said Lynch, signifying an arm length if not closer. “He was …” the memory was as sharp as the shrapnel still in Lynch’s back, but the words would not come. Finally, he managed a solemn, “He didn’t make it.” Lynch’s last words about that day 83 years ago were heavy with a guilt that only a combat veteran feels. “I never even knew his name,” he said.

After three months in an Army hospital, Lynch was assigned to the unit with the assignment of taking the bridge at Remagen on the Rhine River. This historic battle took place from March 7 to March 25, 1944. The heavily damaged bridge finally collapsed on March 17, killing 33 Army engineers. Lynch’s assignment was manning an anti-aircraft gun. Once the bridge collapsed, he was tasked with recovering the bodies of the soldiers killed in the catastrophe.

When the conversation returned to present day, Lynch told of how he had shot two turkeys this year. Both were out-of-state birds. Kentucky seems to be his favorite hunting grounds, but he also travels to Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and sometimes to Kansas in pursuit of wild turkeys. In his younger days, southeast Ohio’s grouse-rich habitat called him like a siren’s song. Hunting with his English pointer bird dogs may have been his favorite outdoor pursuit at that time. With this section of the state being home for me, the conversation soon turned to the restrictions on Ohio’s grouse season looming in the future.

That topic led Lynch to answer my question about what are the biggest changes in hunting are from when he started to the present day? Without hesitation, he cited the loss of habitat.

“It’s a shame kids today will never hunt in the wilds because there aren’t any. I can see a house about everywhere I hunt except the places that have become malls or neighborhoods,” he said.

Automobiles were next on his list of major changes as he recalled seeing Model A cars. “I even saw the Model B,” he laughed.

The biggest challenge of putting the interview crosshairs on this young man disguised as a 101-year-old hunter was finding a day this spring when he was not hunting turkeys.

“I’m leaving town on Friday through Tuesday,” he said. “A buddy of mine in Tennessee got a good bird the other day and wants me to come down for a turkey hunt.”

Lynch explained that Tennessee’s turkey season runs through May 24. When asked why he is so successful when it comes to turkey hunting, his answer was as sharp as his shooting.

“I let ’em come to me. Once you make that first call, a tom has you pinpointed,” said the veteran hunter. “And everything except my eyeballs is covered in camo.”

Lynch said that the longest time he has spent in his turkey stand in one day is 13 hours, but “I had snacks.” From his photo album, it appears that Lynch is also an excellent angler.

Pictures of him holding trophy steelhead and stringers of smallmouth bass are evidence that his outdoor skills extend well beyond the deer and turkey woods to the water.

“You know, I did some scuba diving, too. That would have been from 1954 to 1960,” he said.

From Key West to “every mud hole” in Ohio, Lynch has donned diving gear. For a while he worked for a local fire department recovering drowning victims, but clarified that he had never been the diver who found a victim.

Lynch’s wife passed away 18 years ago, but family members in the Dayton area play a huge role in his life on a daily basis in the form of Wednesday night and Friday night cookouts.

“If you had come a little later today, you could have stayed for T-bone steaks from Dot’s,” Lynch offered.

This avid hunter describes his passion for turkey hunting as being a disease, but he’s wrong. For Lloyd Lynch, turkey hunting just might be his elixir. If deer hunting for him could be described as an appetizer, then the main course would no doubt be a heaping helping of turkey hunting.

Beyond hunting, one of his proudest accomplishments occurred once he returned from the European theater of World War II. He was talking about the war with his father when Lynch mentioned that his unit had help take the city of Verdun from the Germans.

“My dad was with the 42nd Army Division and he told me that his guys took Verdun in World War I. Then he told me I was going back to school. I graduated from high school when I was 22 and there were guys older than me doing the same thing,” he said.

What a generation of Americans that calls Lynch one of their own. I have conducted interviews with athletes, professional anglers, governors, fire and police chiefs, and community members in all walks of life. Every single interview has been a rewarding and learning experience.

Interviewing Mr. Lloyd Lynch was a privilege.