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Started by GobbleNut, February 10, 2024, 08:44:01 AM
Quote from: Happy on March 09, 2024, 08:42:21 PMWell, here is my best effort typing with hooves.One morning many years ago, I was headed to one of my favorite spots to turkey hunt. This was my first hunt of the year and I was about to learn a lesson the hard way. Typically I would sneak in quietly and be seated about 125 yards from where the gobblers liked to roost if they were in the area. I was in position when the first gobble cut loose and it caught me by surprise. Not only was it behind and across the field from me but it sounded like about a half-dozen of them. It was already getting light but I reacted in my typical cat-like manner and made a graceful 300 yard dash across the wide open field to get on the same side as them. This is a big field. Probably 1000 yards long by 300 yards wide. It would have taken me a while to stay in the woods and go around. Somehow i made it undetected and was now on the same side as them and about 250 yards away. Cutting the distance to about 125 yards I was running out of cover and was going to get picked off if I continued. They were still in the tree, roosted in a little peninsula of trees that jutted into the field, just tearing it up. with the landscape being what it was and the amount of turkeys I was hearing, I would have swore I was in Texas. Except these were manly gobbles and not the typical Rio whimpy gobble. Taking a quick survey of the landscape, I backed up a tick to use a slight swell in the field to my advantage. They would have to crest that swell to see my calling position and it would put them at about 40 yards of my mossberg loaded with 3.5" #6 hevi-shot. As soon as I got situated I started calling and I gave them everything I had. I could hear hens in the mix and knew that my only hope was to sound like I had a party going on as well. When the turkeys started coming out of the trees, it was a sight to behold. I just caught flashes of them between the trees and the swell in front of me. It was a typical early-spring mixed flock and I could hear plenty of bickering and jockeying among the flock with an occasional gobble thrown in. I kept picking away and soon I had at least one gobbler responding. I caught two fans breaking the crest of the hill and got my gun up. Here is a flashback....A few days before this I was checking the zero of my red dot. I fired a round and it was a tick further left than I liked so I gave it a few clicks to the right and called it good. I never fired a confirmation shot. This is round 1 of where I got to pay for that mistake.The two gobblers crested the hill in full strut and then deflated, stretching their necks up and looking for that hen that they knew they should see. I settled the red dot on the neck of the gobbler on the right (thank goodness) and took my shot. He hit the dirt, flopping and a just sat there for a second and then stood up and started to collect my pot call and striker, as well as put my seat cushion back in place. For some reason, I glanced behind me to check on him and was very startled to see him getting his legs under him and starting to make a break for it. I quickly racked another shell and proceeded to roll him again just as he was getting a good head of steam. Thinking it was over I finished my initial task and started walking towards him. This is where he got his legs under him again. Racking my final round, I belted him once again with my final round. Taking no chances, I started to him quickly and he once again got his legs under him and the race was on..I discarded the gun gently for the situation, as it was useless for anything other than blunt force trauma, and hit top racing speed. It was a fantastic hundred yard dash that ended with me making a diving, open field tackle that then resulted in a wrestling match. I managed to get my hands around his neck while getting spurred and beat in quite a lively fashion. I wound up winning the fight but he definitely made a good accounting of himself. You would have thought after this that i would have gone home and checked the zero of my gun. Nope, It took me missing another gobbler a few days later at 25 yards to realize that it was shooting way right and I was lucky, or unlucky, enough to get a few pellets from the left side of the pattern to connect at all. So in closing, please verify your guns are sighted in. This may save some suffering on the turkeys end and keep some dignity on the shooters end.
Quote from: Happy on March 14, 2024, 05:10:27 AMI hope you weren't up till 2am thinking that up. Good-looking and Platinum level member of the Elitist club
