16ga.com ~ View topic - I pulled a dufus this morning . but the 16ga come thru

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This morning I got up at 5:30 hunted up my camo and pulled out the Ranger that I purchaced due to the help of this fourm, grabbed 3 shells the one Ben loaded for me 3/4OZ at 1370 fps and headed out the door , once I got outside in the driveway I hooted attempting to locate some roosting gobblers .

The gobblers behind the house in a small patch of woods had a fit , ( I dont hunt these birds the whole family watches these birds through the year they roam about a little and some one poaches them from the road once in awhile but usually they stay in the fields and couple of 10 acre tracks of timber behind the house ) I didnt hear any sounds from the north where I would go to hunt but took of for a little 10 acre field that always has birds around it .

I entered the field and hooted like an owl and got only one response up the holler from what I think was a Jake , he didnt gobble very well , so I headed that direction and he just shut up so I knew it was a Jake indeed then up on a ridge road I heard gobbling and lots of it so off I go .

Once up on the road leading to the backside of the place I was only 75-100 yards away from all the activity well due to the Ice storm we had over this past winter the timber is down all over and passage through the timber is difficult so I decided to stay on the road and sit beside an old Oak tree that is 60" thru but it had some cedars on the backside and was not the ideal spot but I thought it would not matter for the birds would come down the road to me .

Well the plan worked all too well the three gobblers came to my call in a hurry and the bad part of it was the small 6-8" trees in the way kept me from shooting them at 20 yards so I waited and the lead gobbler was running down the road looking every which way for the hen he just knew was there,

The gobbler got almost even with me before he seen me and I was not in a real good position with me leaning against the tree instead of having the tree at my back as I would have liked, the bird put on the brakes at seeing me and I pulled the trigger and guess what at less than 20 feet I missed his head compleatly , the bird went up in the air back the direction he had came from and the second bird went up and lit in the tree next to me a perfect 20 yard shot but I had a canopy of cedar to contend with I made a roll to the side and found an opening to the birds head and just as I was pulling the trigger the bird was perched on too small of a limb and rolled backwards , so I missed this bird as well . Oh well I suppose I did need to check the fences going to the back side of the place to see what was all down from the ice storm .

Having only 1 shell left I headed out for the backside of the place checking the fences as I go and boy oh boy do we have lots of cutting off and fence mending to do ( the place has better than 20 miles of fence so you see my dismay) I came up to a field that is only 100-150 yards wide but it runs for over 3/4 of a mile long it is a long narrow ridge field that always has birds around it and today was no differnt down tward the middle of the field is a little sway that the birds alway seem to be around and I spotted a hen exactly there so I got in the edge of the timber and made my way to that location crawling up along the edge of the field I got with in 100 yards of the hen and sure enough she had 3 gobblers with her of to the edge of the timber strutting up a storm , then a gobbler from the other side of the field came running across and chased the 3 back in to the timber where they gobbled up a storm but did not come back out into the field again .

The dominate gobbler then tried to coax the hens who were heading for the nest and would have none of it , all this time I had yet to make a peep , now I gave a low put and scratched on the leaves and boy did I get this gobblers attention but he headed back to where the other gobblers were having a fit in the edge of the timber ahead of me and out of sight but I could still hear him strutting and wing tips dragging the ground so I knew he was coming in so I gave a small put on the calls and placed them down and got ready and lowell and behold here he came at a trott half strutt at 16 steps I nailed him ( yes it was the old Ranger that I got off the net because someone on this fourm let me know about it)

The person that informed me has my gratitued and will receive 2 bags of wads as soon as the press stops running .I at this time dont recall who that was but I will look it up and if this is you please let me know about the time the mold is ready to run and I will get those on the way to you.

Well I pulled a duffus an still the turkeys and 16ga let me have dinner today .

Regards Charles

Member Joined: 08 Nov 2005 Posts: 3438 Location: Illinois

There's a tukey hunt you will never forget Very Happy

Anytime spent hunting is better than a day at work Twisted Evil

Here is my second bird now I am done for the spring season,

I purchaced the DARNE on Wensday of last week to compare to the Marlin and thought I would shoot a bird with it .

18lbs 10" beard and here is a strange one 1/4" spurs something wrong in the genetics there.

shot at 43 yards with 3/4 OZ 7 1/2 Shot at 1370 FPS with left bbl of Darne which has .028 choke .

Bird was coming across the creek with 9 others and when I shot him he hit the water that is why he is so wet looking .

Regars Charles

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Oh the first bird weighted in at 25 lbs , 10" beard and 1.25 spurs

Congrats on your 2 fine gobblers, Charles. Your season is already over, while our season here in Pennsy does not start until this Saturday, the 28th.

Awesome story, especially since I was the one who alerted you the the Ranger.