Hurricane Sandy had our weather disturbed for the first few days of our early turkey season, but it was back to a more normal pattern this morning, so I hit the woods. I know a spot where turkeys tend to funnel between the edge of a woods lot and a small island of trees and brush about 60 yards from the edge, and I thought I might be able to ambush one there. I don't know how to hunt fall turkeys, never have a lot of confidence when I try them. My hunch paid off, this morning, though, and I hadn't been in my spot in the little island more than 45 minutes when a whole flock, at least 15, came feeding by. We can take either sex in the fall, so I took the first one which came into shooting range. It was a young jenny at about 20 yards, and I was pleased to see her go down in a heap and begin the death beat.
I was shooting my Jackie Brown flintlock smoothbore, 46", 20 gauge, loaded with 80 grains of FFg Goex and 1 1/2 oz. of #6 shot, using tow wadding.
It's hard for me to think of anything I'd rather do on a beautiful fall day in Kentucky than kill a wild turkey with a flintlock. The woods were stunning with fall color, the sky that special blue it gets at this time of the year, the air had that sharp bite which says winter and deer season isn't far away. On top of all that, to see turkeys up close and personal over the barrel of a flintlock, while dressed in colonial rig, well, it doesn't get much better.
Spence
I was shooting my Jackie Brown flintlock smoothbore, 46", 20 gauge, loaded with 80 grains of FFg Goex and 1 1/2 oz. of #6 shot, using tow wadding.
It's hard for me to think of anything I'd rather do on a beautiful fall day in Kentucky than kill a wild turkey with a flintlock. The woods were stunning with fall color, the sky that special blue it gets at this time of the year, the air had that sharp bite which says winter and deer season isn't far away. On top of all that, to see turkeys up close and personal over the barrel of a flintlock, while dressed in colonial rig, well, it doesn't get much better.
Spence
