I acquired a 12 bore sxs Pedersoli about a month ago and started with load development. I settled on a load that my single shot 12 bore likes. 70 grains of FFFg, 1.5oz of cornmeal by volume and 1.5oz by volume of #6's with a thin overshot card. it produces a very good pattern that i feel confident with from 25-30 yards. this gun is cylinder bore .730 on the right barrel and .670 tight full on the left.
April 9 brought rain in the morning and cloudy skies in the afternoon. 1 pm found me transitioning to an afternoon hunting area. The turkeys in this area were still winter flocked up and were very weary of the decoys.. I had a group of three 2 year old gobblers see my decoy spread look for a couple minutes and then walked away. Finally a flock of 26 turkeys came into the end of the field and started feeding . two jakes popped their heads up and then started my way, they got the attention of a gobbler and he wanted a part of my jake decoy who was standing over a laying hen decoy. all three got to about 17 yards and i thought they had totally committed and then they hit the brakes. the gobbler turned to my right and started out and the two jakes turned straight around and started out. I saw my opportunity starting to disappear so i framed up the closest jake between the hammers and dropped the hammer on the full choke barrel. When the smoke cleared there was a jake on the ground stone still. The field cleared in seconds and the walk to the jake was one of thanking God for the blessings. This is the first turkey with a muzzleloader shotgun after hunting for three years without a shot. New gun and success on the second hunt of the year.
Season 4 of the Iowa season found me with a second turkey tag and in the timber once again. May 3rd brought sunshine and light winds after 2 days of off and on gully washer rains. The timber i decided to hunt public land that is comprised of about 75 acres of trees along with 200 acres of mixed CRP and iron weed patches. This timber is about 200 yards wide and 600 yards long. There are several ravines that cut through the timber that this year are flowing with water. It was breaking pink light when i started a 3/8 mile walk to the timber. The hoot owls did my leg work for me as they fired up two gobblers that i wasn't going to be able to get closer than about 100 yards from their roost with the daylight coming fast. I set up a 3/4 strut jake decoy 17 steps away and settled in at the base of big cottonwood. I waited till a couple minutes before legal shooting time to make a few tree yelps. This brought the two gobblers into a gobble fest trying to outdo the other tom. this lasted for about 20-30 seconds before a break in the action. they kept each other going for about 15 minutes and 3 other gobblers chimed in. 5 gobblers in the same timber had my hopes very high. The first gobbler pitched down, shortly followed by his buddy then a third. The three musketeers kept gobbling until two hens pitched down and walked them out of my life, or so I thought. I got agressive on my calling and fired up the boss hen, five minutes later she brought the gobblers with her. She closed the distance to about 14 yards the gobblers came up out of the ravine about 35 yards away and was closing the distance when a doe came out of the ravine behind the hen a spooked her to turn left. The gobblers turned left to cut her off and walked behind a brush pile leaving no opportunity for a shot. They all walked out of my life.
While I was contemplating my next move, I caught a black shape out of my peripheral vision at my 7 oclock. A slow swivel of my head produced a jake at about 12 yards. I determined i could swing on the jake and hammer him before he got very far. I put the plan in motion and when the 12 bore finally barked the jake was 29 yards. He was flopping when the smoked cleared. Another God praising moment as I walked to the Jake. I checked my watch and it was 7:07 am. This was the most exciting hour and a half hunt that I had experienced in my 20 years of turkey hunting. Doing it with the muzzleloader shotgun was even sweeter.
April 9 brought rain in the morning and cloudy skies in the afternoon. 1 pm found me transitioning to an afternoon hunting area. The turkeys in this area were still winter flocked up and were very weary of the decoys.. I had a group of three 2 year old gobblers see my decoy spread look for a couple minutes and then walked away. Finally a flock of 26 turkeys came into the end of the field and started feeding . two jakes popped their heads up and then started my way, they got the attention of a gobbler and he wanted a part of my jake decoy who was standing over a laying hen decoy. all three got to about 17 yards and i thought they had totally committed and then they hit the brakes. the gobbler turned to my right and started out and the two jakes turned straight around and started out. I saw my opportunity starting to disappear so i framed up the closest jake between the hammers and dropped the hammer on the full choke barrel. When the smoke cleared there was a jake on the ground stone still. The field cleared in seconds and the walk to the jake was one of thanking God for the blessings. This is the first turkey with a muzzleloader shotgun after hunting for three years without a shot. New gun and success on the second hunt of the year.
Season 4 of the Iowa season found me with a second turkey tag and in the timber once again. May 3rd brought sunshine and light winds after 2 days of off and on gully washer rains. The timber i decided to hunt public land that is comprised of about 75 acres of trees along with 200 acres of mixed CRP and iron weed patches. This timber is about 200 yards wide and 600 yards long. There are several ravines that cut through the timber that this year are flowing with water. It was breaking pink light when i started a 3/8 mile walk to the timber. The hoot owls did my leg work for me as they fired up two gobblers that i wasn't going to be able to get closer than about 100 yards from their roost with the daylight coming fast. I set up a 3/4 strut jake decoy 17 steps away and settled in at the base of big cottonwood. I waited till a couple minutes before legal shooting time to make a few tree yelps. This brought the two gobblers into a gobble fest trying to outdo the other tom. this lasted for about 20-30 seconds before a break in the action. they kept each other going for about 15 minutes and 3 other gobblers chimed in. 5 gobblers in the same timber had my hopes very high. The first gobbler pitched down, shortly followed by his buddy then a third. The three musketeers kept gobbling until two hens pitched down and walked them out of my life, or so I thought. I got agressive on my calling and fired up the boss hen, five minutes later she brought the gobblers with her. She closed the distance to about 14 yards the gobblers came up out of the ravine about 35 yards away and was closing the distance when a doe came out of the ravine behind the hen a spooked her to turn left. The gobblers turned left to cut her off and walked behind a brush pile leaving no opportunity for a shot. They all walked out of my life.
While I was contemplating my next move, I caught a black shape out of my peripheral vision at my 7 oclock. A slow swivel of my head produced a jake at about 12 yards. I determined i could swing on the jake and hammer him before he got very far. I put the plan in motion and when the 12 bore finally barked the jake was 29 yards. He was flopping when the smoked cleared. Another God praising moment as I walked to the Jake. I checked my watch and it was 7:07 am. This was the most exciting hour and a half hunt that I had experienced in my 20 years of turkey hunting. Doing it with the muzzleloader shotgun was even sweeter.
