The Baron
45 Cal.
- Joined
- May 10, 2004
- Messages
- 927
- Reaction score
- 15
Well, I was finally able to give the birds another try with the ol' smokepole. I got out a few times, with no opportunities, then a good friend invited me to try some of his spots with him. I was excited as he has access to some great areas.
We had a dead quiet morning setup and then moved to another farm and spent a few hours shadowing an invisible Tom and had a run-in with a pack of 5 curious jakes who all got a free pass. Just before noon, we hit property #3 and things got good. We slipped in along the edge of a long wheat field and got setup just off one corner, about 25 yards in the woods. We were set at the intersection of two woods roads, which then ran to the field. A perfect spot, we figured.
We got situated and both made a few calls with no reply. About 5 minutes later, my friend called softly and was cut off by a gobbler not more than 100 yards out. About 1 minute passed and my friend clucked softly, only to be gobbled at hard from the bird at less than 50 yards! A few seconds later, I saw the bird walk past the mouth of the road, in the field. I jumped on the mouth call and he stopped cold and went into strut. A few purrs and clucks kept him happy, but after what seemed like a half hour (probably about 3 minutes) I started to doubt the bird was going to come into the road. I had my 20ga. Caywood Type "C" levelled on a spot in the road about 15 yards from me, but I had to slowly move to cover the edge of the field. The bird was obscured by a bush, but I could see he was alternately strutting/looking down our road. If I'd had a modern gun, I'm sure I could have cut through that bush with ease, but with only one shot at my disposal I figured I'd better not risk it. Finally, the bird started to drift to the right, toward the spot I had picked, some 21 paces away. Just as he moved into the clear, a hen walked past him about 30 yards further out in the field and, seeing he was not alone, I knew for sure I had to seal the deal before he walked away from the road opening and disappeared. As he came clear, I cackled on my mouth call and when his head came up I set the ignition system in motion. There was an very minimal, but perceptable delay in ignition and then the outside world disappeared behind a veil of white smoke. I jumped up and started to run to my trophy. I saw the hen flush and thought I caught sight of more wings flapping where my bird was. For a half second, my heart sank as I wondered if I had blown it. But, as I advaced I spotted my trophy had gone down hard!
There was a lot of back-slapping and high-fives. What a rush!
Here's a couple of photos. The leather on the stock of my gun is a rain cover I rigged up, to protect the pan/frizzen during the light showers we'd had earlier in the day. It slips forward to cover the lock or back onto the stock, and is secured with a piece of leather lace. It is just something I figured out the night before, but it worked great so I might post up a few pics of how I did it.
Once again, the load was 80gr. FFFg, 2 overpowder cards, 1 pre-lubed wad (circle-fly brand), mixed 1 oz. #6 and about 1.2 oz. #4 then 1 overshot card.
My personal mission this year was to carry my flintlock every time I went out for my local turkey season. The results couldn't have been any better, as I filled both tags with mature Toms. I really like that gun now. :grin: All it needs is a name...
and another...
We had a dead quiet morning setup and then moved to another farm and spent a few hours shadowing an invisible Tom and had a run-in with a pack of 5 curious jakes who all got a free pass. Just before noon, we hit property #3 and things got good. We slipped in along the edge of a long wheat field and got setup just off one corner, about 25 yards in the woods. We were set at the intersection of two woods roads, which then ran to the field. A perfect spot, we figured.
We got situated and both made a few calls with no reply. About 5 minutes later, my friend called softly and was cut off by a gobbler not more than 100 yards out. About 1 minute passed and my friend clucked softly, only to be gobbled at hard from the bird at less than 50 yards! A few seconds later, I saw the bird walk past the mouth of the road, in the field. I jumped on the mouth call and he stopped cold and went into strut. A few purrs and clucks kept him happy, but after what seemed like a half hour (probably about 3 minutes) I started to doubt the bird was going to come into the road. I had my 20ga. Caywood Type "C" levelled on a spot in the road about 15 yards from me, but I had to slowly move to cover the edge of the field. The bird was obscured by a bush, but I could see he was alternately strutting/looking down our road. If I'd had a modern gun, I'm sure I could have cut through that bush with ease, but with only one shot at my disposal I figured I'd better not risk it. Finally, the bird started to drift to the right, toward the spot I had picked, some 21 paces away. Just as he moved into the clear, a hen walked past him about 30 yards further out in the field and, seeing he was not alone, I knew for sure I had to seal the deal before he walked away from the road opening and disappeared. As he came clear, I cackled on my mouth call and when his head came up I set the ignition system in motion. There was an very minimal, but perceptable delay in ignition and then the outside world disappeared behind a veil of white smoke. I jumped up and started to run to my trophy. I saw the hen flush and thought I caught sight of more wings flapping where my bird was. For a half second, my heart sank as I wondered if I had blown it. But, as I advaced I spotted my trophy had gone down hard!
There was a lot of back-slapping and high-fives. What a rush!
Here's a couple of photos. The leather on the stock of my gun is a rain cover I rigged up, to protect the pan/frizzen during the light showers we'd had earlier in the day. It slips forward to cover the lock or back onto the stock, and is secured with a piece of leather lace. It is just something I figured out the night before, but it worked great so I might post up a few pics of how I did it.
Once again, the load was 80gr. FFFg, 2 overpowder cards, 1 pre-lubed wad (circle-fly brand), mixed 1 oz. #6 and about 1.2 oz. #4 then 1 overshot card.
My personal mission this year was to carry my flintlock every time I went out for my local turkey season. The results couldn't have been any better, as I filled both tags with mature Toms. I really like that gun now. :grin: All it needs is a name...
and another...
