Massive Morel Found during Turkey Hunt
OutdoorHub Reporters 05.02.16
What’s better than harvesting some spring gobblers with the family? How about unearthing a massive, possibly even record-sized morel? Missouri hunter Charlie Ware was out with his family near Old Mines last week when they discovered a treasure trove of morels. In fact, there were so many morels just ripe for the taking that Ware decided to abandon hunting altogether. If you know any dedicated turkey hunters, then you’ll know just how difficult that must have been.
“I was just walking along and stepped over this mound of dirt. And it was pretty much at my feet,” Ware told The Springfield News Leader. “I thought, ‘No freaking way.’ I was totally amazed.”
One of the morels was a solid foot tall, and 4.5 inches in diameter with a 13-inch circumference. To put things in perspective, that is roughly the size of a 2-liter bottle of pop.
“How big do they have to be to be a record setter?” Charlie Ware posted to the Missouri Morel Hunting Facebook page, along with a photo of his daughter holding the behemoth morel.
Over just the course of a few days, the picture garnered 20,000 shares on Facebook and 800 comments from some very impressed morel hunters. Eventually, the news reached the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC), which sent a few measurers to the Ware household to see if the mushroom qualified for any records. Officially, the department does not keep records for large mushrooms, but measurements from the MDC will go a long way towards any possible submission to a record-keeping organization.
Unfortunately, it was later determined that the morel does not qualify for any records.
“The Missouri Dept. Of Conservation visited the Ware family this morning to record the measurements of the morel found. The specimen could not be weighed due to it being soaked in water the last couple of days,” Missouri Morel Hunters announced.
No record for the Ware family this time, but they weren’t disappointed. After all, they still had a massive morel they needed to cook up. According to Charlie Ware, they are saving it for his 11-year-old son’s birthday next week.
