04/10/10 - Longbeard meets Flintlock

[roundball]

04/10/10 / 07:25am
21lbs / 10.5” beard / 1+3/8” hooks

View is from natural pines blind, tree line across little green field clearing is 75 yards away.
I didn’t ”˜roost’ any birds in there yesterday but I know from past years they often roost there.
Jake & squat hen at 25 yards, 3 feeding hens at 20 yards.
Set everything up in complete darkness, no flashlight.

Light enough to see at 6:20
At 6:30 a tom started gobbling straight across from me in those trees.
Must have gobbled non-stop for 10 minutes”¦so much that I began to wonder if it was another hunter on that property who was using a gobbler-shaker or something.

At 6:45 when he finally shut up to take a breath, I made 4-5 very light, soft yelps on the box and he cut me off immediately so I shut up and waited”¦dead quiet.
At 7:00 I made 4-5 soft yelps again”¦nothing.
At 7:15 I made 4-5 soft yelps again”¦still nothing.
At 7:25 I noticed movement out of the corner of my left eye and here he came, completely alone, in full strut headed towards the Jake.

The bright early morning sun on his feathers made a magnificent sight out there 25 yards in front.
When his head went behind one of the pines in front of me I raised the Flintlock.
When he got to the Jake he broke strut, and raised his head & neck back up.
When he did that, I shot him and he went down like he’d been hit with a sledge hammer.

T/C Hawken Flintlock
Green Mountain .20ga smoothbore barrel
Improved Cylinder PLUS Jug Choke
80grns Goex 3F
Circle Fly ½“ cushion wad + an OS card
1.5oz nickel plated #7s
Circle Fly OS card

 

[Robby]

Round ball, :hatsoff: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: Great pictures, I can almost smell the morning! Hope to duplicate that, in about three weeks, up here.
Robby

 

[paulvallandigham]

Congratulations. A good plan, a good set of decoys, good exercise of patience, and limiting your calling, and obviously, the kind of shooting skill we have come to expect from you. :wink: :thumbsup: :hatsoff: The pictures are icing on the cake. Thank you for that. :hatsoff:

 

[BillinOregon]

Roundball: Simply outstanding sir! Great start to the season and wonderful photos.

 

[Dave K]

That is great! Good going. When is the new fowler going to go hunting?

 

[Capt. Fred]

Sweet work! Heck of a bird right there. :hatsoff:

 

[roundball]

The new .20ga Virginia?? Anybody's guess...certainly won't be using it this year.



At any rate, I couldn't have dreamed up enough stuff to have written a script for a morning opener any better than this one:

Rain front passed through Thursday night/Friday morning and the rain washed off the unprecedented explosion of yellow pollen we'd had all over everything for a week.

After the front moved through the temperature dropped into the 30's so it was chilly but a clear, bright, beautiful fresh morning and sunrise.

The scouting/knowing the ground paid off;

The toms were not henned up yet;

I didn't over-call and queer the deal;

The set up worked perfectly bringing him to 25yds;

I timed my moves so he never saw me;

The T/C Flintlock worked perfectly as always;

The new load of #7s worked perfectly in the I.C.+ Jug Choked barrel;

Just a total, complete sense of satisfaction with everything coming together like it did...in fact, the only way I can improve on a day like this will be if I can get a repeat with the little .28ga smoothbore using a PRB for a heart shot at 25 yards...trying to close a deal with it will be the next challenge.

:wink:

 

[hawk]

that's the stuff ,a great hunt,story and photos.

:thumbsup:

 

[Bob J]

that's the stuff ,a great hunt,story and photos.

:thumbsup:

I agree!!!! Way to go, Roundball :hatsoff:

 

[Britsmoothy]

First class, I am very impressed, you done good there :hatsoff:

Brits.

 

[JayDee Flohr]

What a great hunt and outcome. Congrats! :thumbsup:

 

[lonehunter]

Grats!! :hatsoff: Ya cant beat those mornings that fall into place like that! Great Hunt! thanks for sharing! :v

 

[Skychief]

Thought I'd better get by here and congratulate you again RB.


Lucky dawg! :applause:

 

[Skychief]

HEY....I just realized that today was your opening day Roundball. You ARE a lucky dawg! :shake:





















:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :haha: :haha: :bow: :bow:

 

[dbutch]

[/quote]

Those spurs look as sharpe(pointed) as any I've seen!

Great Pictures ..Roundball What's it like to hunt in game heaven? Deer- Turkeys Man you are living right..Good on-Ya!

Great hunt! Good shot!..very interested in the #7 shot load..(penetration,pattern,etc)and how that came to be.I was thinking I'd see a gaping round ball hole in-one!

Flintlocks and turkeys--Life is Good! :grin:

 

[Maestro]

Nice! :thumbsup: Congrats! :applause:

 

[roundball]

"...interested in the #7 shot load..and how that came to be. I was thinking I'd see a gaping roundball hole in-one!..."

I had sold my GM Full Jug Choked turkey gun last year based on an expectation I'd have my .20ga Virginia in time to use this spring season.
Since I did not, the only other .20ga I had was Jug Choked fairly open, at Improved Cyplinder PLUS for things like doves/crows...felt the pattern would be too thin for a turkey head sized target, and also worried if I tried 7.5's they wouldn't give me the penetration...so I began all that exploration about a PRB out of a .28ga smoothbore instead.

Then I got looking at shot size charts, pellet diameters and weight, did the math, and adding in the nickel plated factor (aids in penetration) decided that #7 Nickel Plated shot would fill in the pattern enough and give the penetration at 25 yards for sure.

Ordered some from Ballistics Products and knowing I'd have no time for pattern / penetration testing, I did the calulations to figure out the shot charge size that would not exceed the same payload weight of the #6's I had the .62cal set up for...turns out I had to use 1/8oz smaller size shot charge, but still got 82 more pellets in the pattern from the #7s...and they worked perfectly this morning.

Now that I was lucky enough to have this guy come to the call this morning, I'll be using the .28ga smoothbore/PRB combo going after the second tag...it would have worked equally as well today.

 

[Skychief]

Did you happen to count how many pieces of shot got in the head and neck Roundball?

 

[scobrien]

SWEET! Spring time woods are refreshing after a long winter. They are even further enhanced by the sound of a tom at daylight. I offer you my sincere congratulations!!!!

Steve

 

[roundball]

Did you happen to count how many pieces of shot got in the head and neck Roundball?

No, sure didn't but his neck & head were jellied up pretty good...25 yards isn't very far and the 435 #7 pellets in a 1.5oz charge would have resulted in heavy saturation at that distance.

Their limitation would be their lighter weight / lower energy at longer distances compared to 6s or even 5s...but setting the Jake decoy as the 25 yard marker I was convinced if he came to the Jake the load would be fine.