My Turkey hunting trips still smell like skunk !!

[roundball]

Got skunked again this morning...as it got light enough to see a little, I heard one gobble several hundred yards away on the next farm over.
Sat a place in some hardwoods that I flushed some in last Saturday until 10:30am...enjoyed a beautiful brisk morning with some of nature's creatures but never heard or saw anything else resembling a Turkey!

So I went to the range to try a new TC .45cal Flint barrel that I'd stumbled across at a real steal...their standard 28" x 1:48" Flint barrel...(TC no longer makes them in .45cal)...looked like it was brand new, I cleaned it with steaming hot soapy water, plastered it with Natural Lube 1000, and installed one of TC's new style fast vent liners in it.

Used Goex 3F, 3/4" black English flints (held in place with a big heavy piece of leather) ran 50 Hornady .440's through it, didn't wipe between shots, never had to retighten the jaw screw, never had to knapp the flint, never adjusted windage so bore/sight alignment is perfect...extremely accurate barrel...will have to christen it on a good buck this fall...a .440 in the heart will do nicely. :grin:

 

[KyFlintlock]

At least you got out!! Congrats on that.

I hope to get out on Thursday after week of being strapped to my cell phone with work!

Good luck next time

 

[The Baron]

Don't give up roundball!

Are you trying a bit of calling while you are out there? Do you use a decoy? Have you scouted the area to figure out where/when the birds will be there in the day?

IMHO, knowledge of the property and the birds' travels on it far outweighs any skills in calling when it come to turkey hunting. As long as you know the birds are there, you'll cross paths eventually. But, a little sweet talk on the call never hurts though. :hatsoff:

 

[roundball]

Don't give up roundball!

Are you trying a bit of calling while you are out there? Do you use a decoy? Have you scouted the area to figure out where/when the birds will be there in the day?

IMHO, knowledge of the property and the birds' travels on it far outweighs any skills in calling when it come to turkey hunting. As long as you know the birds are there, you'll cross paths eventually. But, a little sweet talk on the call never hurts though. :hatsoff:

Very familiar with a small farm that I hunt, it has a resident flock, I generally know the two or three main areas they frequent, and have located (this year) two strutting zones on a couple of field edges.

I ues a Lynch box call and week before last was sitting in the edge of the woods facing a strut zone in a field where I'd seen a Tom strutting the morning before...heard him gobble on the roost back in the woods from the strutting area, exchanged calls a couple times and he flew down and went quiet...next thing I know he's come right up behind me and I'm facing the open field...my error...assumed he'd come out of the woods 30-40yds down the field's edge where I'd seen him go in the previous day...not so...must have zeroed on on the call location like radar and would have walked right over me if I'd have been still.

So, I've got a place, got birds, got the equipment, just still coming up the steep part of the learning curve right now...when the season closes in a few days, turkey stuff will go on sale and I'm planning to get a jake/hen set to use next spring in some field edges.

Heck, if the worse thing that happens is that all I do is enjoy the spring woods a half dozen times in April/May, that's not a total loss...
:thumbsup:

 

[The Baron]

It certainly sounds like you know where to be and when. It's just a matter of time until you connect! Turkeys can be awfully frustrating at times - even after you've cleared the "steep part of the learning curve". :rotf:

You are absolutely right about enjoing the spring woods. It is always a great place to be (well - until the mosquitos start).

 

[roo shooter]

what do you mean you got skunked?
Sounds like that .45 barrel is a good buy,did you load it with the lube in the barrel or wipe it out before loading?

 

[roundball]

what do you mean you got skunked?
Sounds like that .45 barrel is a good buy,did you load it with the lube in the barrel or wipe it out before loading?

I run a dry patch down & back mainly to be sure no bore butter got packed down into the patent breech...listen to hear air rushing out of the vent so I know it's clear...at the same time the patch pulls out any excess lube that might be in the bore