Missed My Turkey

[Huntinfool]

I went out the first day of turkey season carrying my 12 bore flintlock in her case. It was drizzling pretty steady and I was heading for my friends huntin' house he built some 10 years ago.

The turkey and deer both pay it no mind. I was determined to shoot a gobbler and capture it on tape. My friend Steve was running the camera.

We arrived in good shape I had sewn a case that kept her dry! I was fresh primed before first light. An hour passed and we heard nothing I slowly stuck my box call out the window and gave a few yelps. Almost immediately a gobble burst out of the woods above us. A few more yelps and gobbles and he was gettin' closer each time.

Steve said I see him comin' through the woods. I said don't move he was about 50 or 60 yards away. My 12 bore half stock flintlock has a modified choke. He angled down to the road and turned to come straight for us.

At about 25 yards Steve said take him but I held off in the hopes that he would turn towards my decoy and maybe strut for the camera. But he just kept comin' towards us 15, 10 yards. At about that point he must have saw the lens of the camera he stopped and stuck his head straight up in the air his neck looked 2 feet long.

I eased over about an inch and settled my bead at the top of his bright red waddle. When I touched her off she had about a half a second delay between the flint strike and flash and the actual firing of the gun.

That Turkey did exactly like a deer does when they jump the string on a loud bow. It dropped to leap away and in so doing dodged my shot. I've watched the video a hundred times in slow motion as well as normal speed.

Now I know I made two classic mistakes first I broke one of my own rules I should've takin' the shot at the earliest moment possible.

Second I was more worried with the video than killin' the bird.

These 2 errors let him get too close where I had a very tight pattern

So I got to thinkin' about all the game I've missed with that gun. Quite a bit more than I should've I took 4 rabbits one day but I missed as many as I hit. I blame inconsistency in lock time I started thinking of how consistent my rifle was and that maybe the flash hole was too small.

I stuck a tooth pick in both and saw that my .50 longrifle had a bigger flash hole than my 12 bore. It turns out no one had ever drilled it and it was one-sixteenth an inch. To make a long story a little shorter I drilled it out to five-sixty-fourths.

Last fall I can remember every once in a while it would go off with hardly a hitch then in the same day have such a delay that the squirrel would skinny around the tree by the time she finally went boom.

But now she goes bang quickly and much faster than with the sixteenth inch flash hole. I'm not glad that I missed the biggest gobbler I've ever seen in my 40 years of huntin' but I am glad to get my shotgun firing properly.

That rascal had two and one half inch spurs if he had any at all! He had about a 11.5 to 12 inch beard and a long neck!LOL!

I now have a new confidence in my smoothbore. I think I'll do better on doves this September than I did last year. And maybe I'll even be brave enough to take her waterfowling this fall (with the camcorder of course).

Chuck Goodall
"The Original Huntin' Fool"
&
Kanawha Ranger Scribe

 

[musketman]

Don't know who was more suprised, you or the turkey...

I always wanted to try turkey hunting, but I can't sit still long enough to get them in close...

 

[Huntinfool]

Me, I was definately more surprized that's the first turkey I've ever missed in my life and the biggest I've ever seen also! I wish you could see the video. If I knew what I was doing on a puter I could put it on the net. I shot it with a Sony digital camcorder!

Anyhow I hunted all season with that flinter and never did touch my 3.5 inch 12 guage Browning Gold Hunter. I probably won't until I get a gobbler with my flinter. Who knows I may never use a modern smoothie again now that I've got her firin' slicker than ever!

During the rest of the season I called in several hens and a nice gobbler for Steve but that another story 10" beard & 19 pounds worth!

Chuck

 

[The Baron]

Oh man - that's a heartbreaker! Sorry you had to be the one to suffer, but thanks for the great tip on flash hole size. I switched to an antique percussion fowler this year for turkeys and managed to fill both my tags. I want to get a flintlock and when I do, I'll make sure that flash hole is big enough!

 

[Plains99]

Muzzleloading for turkeys can be rough. So now comes my latest Tominator story. Found a flock of really dumb turkeys in the middle of a old milo field this season while hunting public land at Byron Walker Wildlife Refuge near Kingman, Kansas. No response to any calling that weekend. Figured out where they might go to roost and waited for them with my trusty TOM-IN-NATOR. Well, I figured right only they stayed about two hundred yards out in the open field rather than follow the fence line. So, I followed them. I followed them for nearly two miles, jumping behind cedars, glassing, cautiously moving when I could... freezing when I thought they might see me. Eventually,with the sun nearly down, they stopped at a set of catch pens and hang up. I can't get any closer than the same two hundred yards. So's the intreped turkey hunter decides to just walk up on them over open plain keeping the sun directly at my back.... AND IT WORKED!!! I get to within 40 yards before a big Tom finally spots me. And since he's doing the looking, I shoots him... BANG!... right in the head! Well, gloriacus! He falls down, he gets up, he flies up into a low looping circle, crashes back into the dirt head first, stands up, and staggers toward the others(Who are hastily making for the Rio Grande by way of the Ninnescah River). All the While I'm trying to reload my TOM-IN-NATOR for a second shot... Which means that I have to unscrew the *&^%ing choke, pour the *&^%ing powder, ram a *&^%ing wad, jam a *&^%ing plastic cup, pour *&^%ing
shot, ram a *&^%ing wad, rescrew my *&^%ing choke, cap the beast and then aim again. Of course by this time, my turkey could have been admitted to the local Kingman Hospital emergency room, treated and released! Well,
old turkey ain't doing so good... the whole right side of his head is blown away.... but he is still doing good enough to run when he can figure out where the others are going. So he runs to the Ninnescah River and flys out to a small island in the middle. And I, intreped killer of turkey birds, bails into the river and wades to the island, carrying my TOM-IN-NATOR above my head. I find him hiding
under a bush, wondering why he has such a damned headache and can't see out of his right eye no more. He flushes like a damned quail and I try to find him through my *&^%ing scope which I had screwed up to 4X before taking my
first shot and forgot about And he flys across the river to the far shore and heads into the willow brush making more noise than a boatload of Chinamen. And I, intreped killer of turkey birds, bails into the river and wades to the far shore, carrying my TOM-IN-NATOR above my head. But by the time I wade though 80 yards of waist deep water, that Tom has gone so deep into the woods that his own mother couldn't have found him. So I pack up my TOM-IN-NATOR and walk a mile back to my truck...that is after I figure out how to get my ass back across the river in the
dark. Go to the camper and get my butt chewed by my wife because it is nearly 11 oclock and I've never been that late before hunting turkeys and her in the camper with no truck and no telephone number but my Dad's... who's not home anyway. And I said that the Turkeys were dumb, didn't I?

 

[Huntinfool]

LOL!! Plains 99 I think you got me beat LOL! It's amazing how after you jump a fence or wade a river when in the heat of the chase and then later you say how in the hell did I get here.LOL!

I once jumped on and scaled a 7 foot high fence with barbed wire on top without a scratch while chasing a gray fox with a 1.5 trap and a broken chain on his foot! With mind you a big stick 3" in diameter and about 7' long in my hand.

Afterwards I threw down the stick tossed fox trap and all back over the fence, it still took me 30 minutes to figure how I was to get across that dang fence without all that adrenaline running through my veins!

But back to the 12 bore and it's flash hole in my defence I bought it from a guy who had never fired it he's a member of our club. I had my gunsmith friend redo the stock to fit me properly but failed to have him check it otherwise. It still had the factory standard 1/16" flash hole in the ss removable flashhole liner. The gun was new and never fired and custom built. I got it for the cost of the parts I'm not complaining trust me!

"The Chuckster" ::

 

[slicjack]

Huntinfool,
I am sorry to here about your encounter with the famous "West Virginias Gobblerius." I to have faced this noble creature. Thank heaven the ones in the eastern part of the state are easier to kill. They sometimes come in two at a time, strutting and gobbling begging to be the first one killed. That is the predicament I found myself in this very year. The lucky beggar that decided to go home with me had 1-inch spurs and a double beard, "Gods little gift".
That little 40-cal PRB right through his crawl convinced him pretty good. I know you will rebound from this slight setback and dedicate yourself to being that much harder on them next year.
Good Luck---SJ

 

[Huntinfool]

Thanks for the kind words Slicjack. You're right I can't wait to get back after em probably go this fall. I prefer the spring season but I'll take one this fall with my flinter and be happy.......till spring that is!!

Yea you guys got a lot of turks up that way for sure but they are startin' to get more and more down here also. I wish I'd have been usin' my rifle I'd a kilt that gobbler for sure. I believe I could've taken him with my longbow ARGGGG!!!! Oh well I got to quit cryin' and make ready for the next time!!!!

Keep Yer Powder Dry,
"The Chuckster"

 

Out of over 40 birds there is allways a miss once in while! Thats turkey hunting,missed one this last spring a boss!! Sometimes its not amiss ,,but the central nerve center was not hit. A bird can eat shot and run or fly to recover or die a slow death. Always folow up your shot to stomp or reload if your fast. I allways try to stomp and reload as fast as I can. With a single barrel Fowler make the best shot ,don't shoot like you have a back-up shot. Got a Jake next time around.