Turkeys and crazy weather

[James Jones]

I got my first bird this morning less than an hour after good daylight. The weather here has been kinda crazy , 4 days agao the temps were in the mid 80's and this am it was 42 and only got up to 58 !! it diden't seem to bother the birds much in fack I thnk it may have had them a little more vocal. This turkey gobbled around 20 times in the 30 mins it to to locate him and kill him he came strait to me after flying down. I wasen't gonna take this bird as he looked a little young so I thought I see how close I could get him. at 9 steps I could see that his spurs were prett good and his beard was a little short but very thik so I let him have it. Now hes resting comfortable waiting to be injected tonight and fried tomorrow for Easter dinner
weight 16.5 lb-ish
beard was 8 7/8" long
spurs were 1 5/16" and 1 9/16 both very think and curved he would hang from is longest spur.

the shot was at 9 steps and my steps are a little long so about 10-12yds. the gun is a Rem 870 that is actualy a duty gun that goes on patrol 21" barrel with a Rhino choke at .695" this guns barrel was back bored and the forcing cone lengthened by Shawn Carlock and shoot awsome , at this range the bird was completly decapitated with a 3" mag load of #5 shot.

I can't wait till tomorrow , fried turkey and candy !!! , I'm gonna spend an extra hr everyday on the stair climber but I can splurge for easter !

[Buffalobob]

There is now a small game forum but I guess at 9 steps he didn't qualify as "long range" small game. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

This is the first time I have heard of Shawn's shotgun work. That is a nice report.