silent sniper
40 Cal.
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2008
- Messages
- 251
- Reaction score
- 3
I have been trying to get a turkey for the past 3 years. last year I went pretty serious but still never even had a chance at a tom. I was carrying a modern 12 guage to make it worse still. well this year i vowled it would be different. So I changed a few things. Firstly and most importantly I traded out that modern crapper for a english moore 10 guage double barrel shotgun. I shot it many times working up differnt loads. I finally decided on 80 grains FF, OP wad, 120 grains magnum #6 shot,1 OS wad. After loaded I lubed the barrel with barricade gun oil. This load gave me 8 solid hits in the brain and spine at 25 yards with the cylinder bore 10 guage. I also listened to alot of turkey sounds on the internet and fine tuned my calling skills. Instead of someone going with me, I wanted to do it alone. I woke up at 4:30 friday morning. it was around 40 degrees. I set up around 100 yards from the roosted turkeys. They flew down and went the other way. The big tom wouldnt leave his flock of hens. Well I tried sneeking up on them and busted the flock.I called it quits that day. I got to see turkeys plus lots of other wildlife including 2 pairs of wood ducks that landed in the hardwood trees nowhere close to water ? my guess is they have nests there or something. I debated wheither to go out saterday morning or not. I was extremely tired and I didnt know if I had the urge to go try them again. I decided I mideswell go out before work because I have nothing else to do other then sleep :haha: I prayed asking God to help me with my hunt tomorrow and I went to bed. I got to my hunting spot at 6 in the morning. I heard the big tom much further down from where he was the day before. I decided I would try to sneek within 120 yards of him on the roost and put some decoys in the field, hoping he would come to investigate, sense he was seperated from his hens. well I set the blind and decoys up and got all nested down and ready. under a minute passed before I heard a woosh to my left. I turned to see in disbelif the big tom flying out of a tree a mere 35 yards from where I had set up.I had greatly misjudged how far away he was and I ended up setting up pretty much right under it. It flew away and I was extremely disappointed in myself. my one chance to hunt the tom when he was away from the hens and I blew it ! I figured my hunt was over so I pulled out my slate and box call and answered the hens that were in the woods a few hundred yards away. after about 10 minutes I decided enough was enough, I was going to go home and go back to bed :rotf: i flip the blind over, and start walking to strech my legs a little. Thats when I saw the jake standing in the field 175 yards away. It was by itself and it was coming my way. It stopped and stared at me and I froze.I was forsure it was going to run away,but it didnt. i sulked down and grabbed my gun and the calls. there was a woven wire fence behind me and a few big trees. the jake was on the one side of the fence and I was on the other. I quickly made a few yelps on the box call. to my amazement the jake kept coming. he was coming diagonally in my direction and I was sure when he passed by me he would be over the hill or to far away. when he was 60 yards away I made a few quiet purrs on the slate call. I was laying on the ground with the barrel through the fence and my arm outstreched behind the tree with the calls where it couldnt see me move. at 40 yards I lost sight of it in the weeds. I thought it was coming right towards me so i pulled the barrels out of the fence and moved it to another part. just then I saw the jake in the original opening when I had the barrels at first. I very slowly pulled them out and moved them back. the jake was coming right at me now. I decided it was now or never. i put the bead on its neck and the next second everything was a thick white cloud. i didnt know if i had even hit the bird or not through the thick smoke. when it finally thinned I saw a turkey laying on its back ! i jumped the fence and ran to it. It was the first wild turkey ive ever been up close to. all I could say was that it was a beautiful bird !!!!! I was so proud of it ! I couldnt belive that I managed to do it. I killed my first turkey on a totally solo hunt with a cylinder bore muzzlelaoder ! I went back to where I had shot the bird and rangefinded it. the range finder read exactly 25 yards ! I couldnt be more happy. It weighted around 15 pounds or so and had little nubs for spurs and a 3 inch beard. I skinned it out and might either get it mounted or a wall skin. either way im definetly going to show off my beautiful trophy.I did everything from patterning the shotgun,deciding where to set up, all the way to cleaning and the butchering the turkey all by myself.It was exactly what I had wanted. I am definely hooked on turkey hunting. This summer I am going to build a tvm fowler with jug choke and sights to be my dedicated turkey gun. I cant wait for easter sunday's turkey for dinner !The only downfall was in all my excitment I forgot my very expensive brand new smartphone on top of my car while I was filling out the turkey tag. Well I didnt remember about it and drove away. It fell off and is gone. A replacement phone is a mear $600,which is my funds for my tvm fowler. So the choice was easy, I wont be having another smartphone for a while :rotf: I told my dad the phone is replaceable but memories arent. He was very proud of me for the turkey which overtook me loosing my phone. I was really mad cuz I had some beautiful pictures of the turkey right when I shot it that were on the phone. :haha: I still have 1 more turkey tag to fill so hopefully I can pull it together again. enjoy SS
