Turkeys and Range Time

[roundball]

Or perhaps I should say NO Turkeys and Range Time!
Up at 4:30am, in the woods before light, back out at noon...heard one gobbler every 2-3 minutes for a half hour right after first light...wouldn't shut up, finally went silent and never heard another sound or saw a single turkey.

Drove over to the range I use, the owner sees me and walks over with this big grin on his face and says:
"I saw your truck on that little greenfield when I was taking my morning walk after daybreak...thought you'd like to know that field so & so (500yds the other way) was covered up with turkeys this morning...must have been 30 of them!!"

Anyhow, day wasn't a total loss...hard to beat a morning in the woods any time of year with nature waking up around you.

Then I ran 50 .440's down range with a .45 flinter I had taken with me...using up the last of the Pyrodex-P I had left over from 15 years ago (with a 20grn Goex ignitor charge under it).

Going to do it all again tomorrow morning...

 

[Halftail]

That's a tough life Roundball but someone has got to do it!
Sounds like your morning was a little like mine.Up at five am and standing in the trout brook just a little after daylight....Life is good! :thumbsup:

 

[roundball]

Those were some beauties!

 

[CrackStock]

This is the best news that I have heard all week. Just knowing that they are flocking and in view somewhere is good to hear. I have only seen 1 or 2 at a time and hens or jakes at that. I had just about given up.

CS

 

[roundball]

Yeah...the hens and toms are probably roosting together now...I'm going to continue sitting that small greenfield cause I very often see them there...the Toms use one particular edge as a strutting zone...and I don't believe turkeys go to the same exact places every day so sooner of later they're going to hit that small greenfield again and I'm going to try and be there :hmm:

 

[BS]

As I was checking my seventh shot, two hens crossed behind the 100yd target and just infront of the 150. I was shooting my 73 cal with 175 grain loads..........the blasts didn't seem to bother them!

 

[Rebel]

I went out this afternoon to the guys place that said i could turkey hunt this spring to get some powder, a .600 rd ball mould, some wads, and a spare hickory ramrod. On my way home from his place i saw a nice tom all puffed up with two hens nearby. Figure the least i can do since he is letting me hunt his place is to buy my stuff from him. He had some powder i have never heard of but decided to try a can since it was a $1 a lb less than Goex at $11.50. It is called Dragon Powder. Anyone ever heard of it before?

 

[roundball]

This morning's turkey hunt was a repeat of yesterday...nada...followed by another good range session...with one big difference:

This morning I heard that gobbler way off running his mouth for 30 minutes again, I decided to see if I could find him...worked through the woods and sure enough found him by himself out in a clearing strutting back and forth.

I was sure I couldn't close within 40yds without him spotting me in the thin trees and was worried I might spook him off his strut zone for tomorrow so I sat down and watched him for 30 minutes until he finally went back into the tree line...a hen may have come into his view that I couldn't see, or maybe he just got tired, dunno.

Going right to that spot in the dark tomorrow morning and set up in the tree's edge near his strut zone...if he comes back there tomorrow morning, it'll be the best chance I've had of getting a shot at a Tom with a Flintlock.

Of course, Murphy's Law being what it is, tomorrow will be the day he decides to go somewhere else, but I gotta play the cards I was dealt...

 

[roundball]

Of course, Murphy's Law being what it is, tomorrow will be the day he decides to go somewhere else, but I gotta play the cards I was dealt...

Exactly.

Beautiful morning...turkey gobbled a couple hundred yards back behind me...answered me back and forth a couple of times, then apparently flew down cause he stopped gobbling...I'm sitting in the edge of the woods facing the big clearing assuming he'll come out of the woods to my left and walk out to his strutting zone.

Unfortiunately I soon heard the distinctive sound of a turkey coming through the leaves on a straight line behind me, then stopped, then went back away.

After 30 minutes, picked up and went back to the small greefield I'd been sitting the previous days...and saw that a flock was just coming into the far end, foraging my way...before I could get settled good a small white pickup came along, slowed down quickly, and a shot was fired out the window across the field at the turkeys!!!!!!!!!! The truck hauled butt, the turkey's all scattered to the winds, I called it a day.

 

[Rebel]

Well, at least ya got out and went. It is pouring down rain and wind is blowing hard for the opener here today. Supposed to be like this today and tomorrow, and then clear up for a few days, so i guess i will wait until Monday to go. Good luck the rest of the season. Hope you are able to take one with the flinter.