My season has been busted up this year. Our car started losing it's transmission out on the road returning from a trip to northern Mississippi. It officially perished in the driveway after somehow getting it home. This left us without transportation for a week while I scoured the ads for a reliable low-mileage vehicle. Finally found a Volvo in great shape and bought it. I took a few days fixing things on it to make it street legal. I was finally able to get back to the woods today. The morning was beautiful with an incredible display of 4 planets aligned in a straight line in the eastern sky. Unfortunately, the turkeys were not impressed with the heavens and kept their opinions completely to themselves. I started running and gunning, trying to rouse one's passion, but was ultimately met with silence. I ran into town for a bite and headed back out for the afternoon festivities. I set up in the same brush pile that I had had the nerve wracking episode a few weeks ago with 5 hens feeding within 10 yards for 20 minutes and not getting busted by any of them. I camoed up with leaves and sticks and waited. After about an hour, I started hearing a slight sound off of my right shoulder. I cut my eyes as hard as I could and could just make out a dark moving shape coming from behind me. The shape kept coming and I could finally see that it was a gobbler with a pretty decent beard on him. He stopped several times to periscope up his head and check out the field. I saw that his path would put his head behind a tree for a moment. As soon as he went behind it. I raised and swung my gun over to the right and held on the left side of the tree trunk. After what seemed like entirely too long a period, he finally stepped out from the tree and I lit up one of 3Season's #9 TSS handloads and ushered the dearly departed into the loving arms of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He was rather light at 15.43 pounds, but had a nice 10.5" beard and about 1" curved spurs. As far as I could tell, he had not gobbled all day, but that would not prevent him from being featured as the guest of honor at a dinner celebrating the wild spirit this weekend at Casa de FullChoke.
BTW, I never thought in my lifetime that I would actually drop a gobbler in the trunk of a Volvo for the ride home, but I did!
Cheers
FullChoke
