Turkeys

[CowboyLeroy]

The run-on sentence made me chuckle but the tangerine “I MISSED” bit made me LOL!
Congrats!!!

Laugh at my pain, its what im here for lol

 

[Rack Daniels]

Short stories like yours are what I’m here for!!

Hey I gotta question for you guys that have ever had birds full mounted.
Do you bring a taxidermist the whole bird and let them tear it open so all the feathers are intact? How does that process work so that you get your meat right away and the bird isn’t shredded for a full mount? Lol

 

[Stocker]

Out with the only hunting partner who’s either crazy or dumb enough to still go with me. ~8 miles yesterday in the pines looking for Miriam's. A few close calls. Bow hunting turkeys with no blind is definitely not for the weak, or smart people.

 

[Lmartin5]

Opening day here. For the last five-ish years I've made a pet project of managing a small property for wildlife, but specifically turkeys. I enjoy all of our animals, but turkeys are just special for some reason. Ten years ago we had a booming turkey flock but within one year it was almost like you pulled a plug and they all just swirled down into a giant hole. A fitting comparison because the longstanding name of this property is "the devil's hopper" theres a MASSIVE limestone sinkhole on the back side of the place that is over 100 feet deep to the bottom of the bowl, with another 150+ feet of caverns that university geologists mapped years ago. The general danger of logging around something like that leaves this being one of the only healthy stands of white oaks for miles.

Last year was the first year since the disappearance that I felt like we had an actual recognizable breeding population using the property. I worried my self to death 'playing defense' by sacrificing the legality of my hunting rights by Corning the property, to as far as calling birds up to my neighbors line and jumping out of the bushes and screaming at them. Thanks to bothe willing, and forced cooperation by my neighbors all of the breeding age birds made it through unscathed. This year my personal ban was lifted. Hunting a population that you've invested time, money, blood, sweat, and possibly a tear or two is special but this year I decided to take my daughter with me for the first time.

The story of the hunt itself is short, mostly because it was a total of 47 minutes from the time we pulled out of the driveway until we shot the bird. Shes been possibly the only person as excited about turkey season this year as I am. All I had to do this morning was lean down and whisper "its turkey season" and she was out of bed, into her camo, and working on that cinnamon roll. The hunt was textbook,
stand on the edge of the field
Hear gobble
Close distance
Yelp
Get a little closer
Set up
Gobbler goes the other way
Damn.

There was a hen behind us in the pines somewhat mindlessly clucking and purring, so I picked a fight with her using the mouth call before immediately following the gobbler. As we stepped out of the old overgrown clear-cut and into the big hardwoods I gave a quick short cut and INSTANTLY got a reply

Thats when I peed a little bit

Hurryupsithereputyourmaskonputyourhoodupdoyouseehimwhereisheohlordhelpmebestillstopmovingohmygoodness

Naturally the whole time im excreting panic like the proverbial "long tailed cat in the room full of rocking chairs" my precious little four year old daughter is just as cool as a cucumber. We'd been still for about fifteen seconds so I gave some soft yelps for a confidence booster

For me, not him

Immediate gobble

There he is. A hundredish yards away looking like a cross between jurassic Park and the African savanna.

As he closed the distance over the course of what felt like seven hours I whispered that when he went behind the next tree I was going to get my gun up, she nodded ever so slightly, like an absolute veteran might I ad. Sure enough, the Gobbler steps behind a tree.

Shotgun to shoulder
Tiny fingers in ears


Where is he?

As they often do, this turkey used the last moments of his life to throw me a curveball. While he was obscured by a roughly two foot diameter magnolia tree, he continued to close the distance. Rapidly.

He stepped out from behind the tree, circling clockwise, at roughly thirty-five feet.

Oh Jesus.

I forgot the bayonet.

This particular shotgun is set up for field birds and at that distance has a pattern roughly the size of a blue ribbon tangerine.

Two deep breaths, down the bead,

BOOM



SHIT


I MISSED


PEED AGAIN

The second miss of my turkey hunting career and my daughter was there to see it. The shame. I did, however connect on the second shot and nearly collapsed from the adrenaline hangover.

Minus the one misfortune, the hunt couldn't have been more perfect. The birds I've put so much into, my grandpa's gun, my daughter, and a beautiful setting.

I hope you like the story, and I hope you got a little laugh out of it.


Good luck out there.

Congratulations!

 

[WildWill]

Congratulations @CowboyLeroy! What a great hunt to kick off the year.

 

[Bux_N_Beards]

Short stories like yours are what I’m here for!!

Hey I gotta question for you guys that have ever had birds full mounted.
Do you bring a taxidermist the whole bird and let them tear it open so all the feathers are intact? How does that process work so that you get your meat right away and the bird isn’t shredded for a full mount? Lol

Yes, take the whole bird. Do everything possible to keep as much blood off the feathers, including covering the head with a plastic bread bag or newspaper bag and tucking it under a wing. The taxidermist can save all the meat and give it to you, but be sure to tell them that’s what you want. If freezing, try not to bend the fan. There’s a lot a good bird taxidermist can do, but it all starts with providing the bird in as good of condition as possible.

 

[Wild Bill]

Good stuff.

As I was rocking the baby to sleep last night I ran a handful of my favorite hunts through cranial cinema.

Can’t wait.