Talking Turkey

[J. A. EARLY]

I have been blessed as a turkey hunter. I retired in 2016 so no boss could tell me I could not have off in the mornings to turkey hunt. I pulled my old license back to 2015 and I have been lucky. Turkey hunting is to me just a gamble. You go to the right place on the right day to a turkey that cooperates. It may take a week for some, and minutes for another. The limit is three per season in Virginia and I won't even shoot at a gobbler in the fall. I save them for the best time of the year. The best spring ever was three years ago; three long beards in three mornings. But this year it took four weeks. Not as many birds and I am positive the ice that stayed on the ground for weeks took away a lot of turkeys. Anyway, I subscribe to the Charlie Cleveland philosophy: carry enough gun. Yes, I have killed them with Parkers. I've killed them with 20 gauges. But now I use different 3" and 3.5" guns with TSS. One this spring with a Winchester Super X2, carried a Franchi 912 Variomax for two weeks and decided it was bad luck then switched for the last two with Beretta A391 Extrema.