gobbler one

[charlie cleveland]

today i got to go hunting this evening at about 2.00 pm i started gathering up my decoys and camaflage..i went to grab a gun started to take the parker 3 frame 12 but my sling was on a ithaca double that i got from russ jackson it will shoot 3 inch shells ok...anyway grab the ithaca and a way we went...by 2.30 i was in the woods had 3 hens and a jake gobbler i put out...i then got in my blind and started yelping...i scouted the big field often with my binoculars but nothing seen...at 4.00 pm something happened that has never happened to me before all at once a turkey buzzard swooped down and jgot really close to my blind i m talking 3 foot away..i think this buzzard thought i was a meal...hai m sure he thought those decoys were other buzzards and he was checking out the minue...i finally stood up and waved my hat at him but all he done was hop over to his woould be buddies..after he was not excepted by the other turkeys he flew off... i continued to call about every 10 minutes useing one box call then alternating to another old call that was by dads best call a box call to...at 5.00 pm i called pretty loud i thought i heard a gobble but was not sure at 5.10 i yelped and i heard a gobble for sure...the turkey took about 15 minutes to come about a hundred yards he would gobble and strut then watch too see if them hens were coming to him..i had a small creek in front of me that runs the coarse of the field i was hunting..i think this slowed him up some... he flew over the liitle creek i thought yes a turkey had but there was 5 gobblers instead of one...first three ran right up to the decoys the 4 th gobbler would fuzz up but was not saying anythig the 5 th turkey was slowly coming in all fuzzed up and gobbling and strumming...when the 5 th turkey was at 30 yards i pulled the trigger and for some reason i pulled the rear trigger it had the load of no 2 shot in it..well the big gobbler went down like a ton of bricks....i meant to shoot the gobbler with the right barrel which was loaded with no 5 s...anyway hes soaking in cold water at the moment...i looked at my watch it was 5.30 when the gobbler went down...the gobbler was a young 2 year old it had 1/4 inch spurrs and weighed 18 1/2 lbs probably the fattest turkey i ve ever took....was a good hunt....charlie

[KCordell]

Charlie, great story thanks for sharing with us. I can't wait to go myself.

[J. A. EARLY]

Charlie,

Good going. Now get some of the remaining four gobblers with one of the 8s!

[charlie cleveland]

got the light 8 ready to go shells loaded up...a no 6 for the right barrel and a no 2 for the left barrel..guess i will go saturday morning for sure..had to work on a old 4 wheeler this evening....charlie

[Mills]

Good luck Charlie! I am carrying my 8 gauge and the shells you loaded for me until I get one. Hopefully two!

[charlie cleveland]

got my fingers crossed for you mills make that two fingers...charlie

[wayne goerres]

Great job Charlie. I still haven't made it out yet. Working on putting a lathe in. May be next week.

[Elk Hunter]

Wish we could use shotguns larger than ten bore here as I would love to shoot a gobbler with my old Belgium eight bore. Not many things we can shoot with one here. The only live birds I've ever shot with it has been pigeons, considered pests here. Must say two ounces of #4 shot did wonders for those birds than came in so high that an ounce of #8's only knocked dust off them.

[charlie cleveland]

did a little scouting this afternoon only thing i saw was a fresh hen track looks to have been made this evening....i ve got the lite 8 as i call it out and tried my new loads i made for it i loaded the winchester clear plastic hulls they really look good you can see every thing inside the hull except the powder...hope i get to fire one of these saturday morning...charlie

[Bill Murphy]

Three ounces of #5 at about 1000 fps shouldn't be too hard on a good eight bore. The powder should be very slow, like Blue Dot. Maybe such a load could be pressure tested for us. Nitro Company used to load a 3 ounce ten gauge load that was slow but safe. It was intended for dense patterns for turkey head shots.