Last Saturday my middle(14 year old) son was gonna head out on what would be his last hunt for the year. My retarded state makes you get a permit for a specific week or "season" of hunting. We always hunt the youth weekend but its hard to choose another "season" that includes a weekend so the kids can hunt .
Anyway . . . .
Beight down to 2 shells in a box we went and picked up a box . Winchester Supreme #5's pattern perfect out of my gun. I killed one at 40 yards just a few days before with this combo. When we get out of the truck the next morning I realize I bought Winchester LongBeards. The box looks the same. He loads up and long story short a shot was not fired that morning. I had wanted to shoot a few of these to see where they were shooting but time just got away .
Sunday morning we were back in the same spot. About a 100 yards from the truck I notice he is slowing down and stops. I turn around to see him puking his guts out. I ask if he wants to go home and he says "heck no lets hunt". The place we are hunting is a hardwood bottom with a river running north and south thru it. Off the river is a slough and the rest is hardwood bottoms. There is a field that runs along the north end of the property.
We hit the edge of the slough and stand there a few minutes. He starts puking again,but a turkey fires off CLOSE to where we are. I want to cut the distance in half . So we make another 50 yards and pick out a tree. He sat down and I rounded the tree sit down and look out thru the woods and see the turkey 50 yards from us in a tree. I didnt move or blink and let me tell ya it was tough. I didnt have the Therma Cell on and the skeeters have had a great hatch.
I watched him strut on th limb and gobble every 5 minutes. 2 more birds gobbled with him . My son is starting to puke every few minutes, I told him if this didnt work out we would leave. then it happened,a hen pitched down into the field 30 yards away.The 2 other toms hit the ground with her then a few more hens and a jake. The big boy left the limb and was 35 yards from the end of the gun. I told him to shoot and he couldnt tell which was the biggest. I told him the one farthest to the left. He couldnt see due to a small tree and moved the barrel to the other side. The tom was getting nervous and was walking away then stopped and turned Im saying shoot ! SHOOT NOW ! hes gonna bust us. I hear BOOM then RALF ..............
I didnt see the bird get hit,didnt see shot hit the ground,didnt see nothing !. The turkeys all walked quickly down the field like they didnt know what happened ! The tom didnt appear to be hurt at all,I mean it didnt touch a feather.
We went after 2 more that were close and some hens got between us and took them away. We went to the field and I could see his tracks,but no feathers no blood NOTHING. We walked down the field and into the woods to make sure he wasent body shot.
We got back to the truck and found a pizza box and I shot it at 30 steps. The pattern was terrible.
Word of warning. Be careful of which box you pick up. They look exactly the same. It was my fault for not telling him to use one of the 2 shells that we already had,but I didnt think it would have been that much of a difference. Never go to the woods with shells that you have not patterned . I cost him his first bird,and he was a dandy.
