[LtCol Henderson Marriott]

Steve:
I agree with your last sentence 100%.
The VA. turkeys are Eastern of course, and I have hunted them successfully. But they do not measure up to those found in the deep south. Maybe it has something to do with being hunted literally for centuries by the likes of D. Boone, Holt Collier, and Ben V. Lilly. I have probably slain at least 35 gobblers in my lifetime, and suggest that you try some of these rebel birds.
The Devil and Daniel Webster may have included some of these fowl under the tutelage of the former. At any rate, they are a different strain of Eastern turkey and those who have hunted them at any length, like Tom Kelly-agree. I have never felt under-gunned or out-thought with any Merriams variety, or even close.(Elk hunters in NM/Colorado are encouraged to take up turkey hunting.) But the last gobbler slain here weighed 21 pounds and sported a 10.5 inch beard. I would not have slain him with anything less than a double 3 inch shotgun, because he was both sly and outdistanced me at 51 yards. But for an immediate second LC Smith Long Range barrel, he would have escaped to tell the tale. In essence, and admittedly, he turned tables on me.
But this turkey was nothing compared to the 4-5 yr old sly mossback who has deceitfully sent me to the monkey house the last couple of years. A will-o-wisp denizen of swamps who haunts cemeteries. He has beaten me on at least two major meetings: chess is an easier game. (But not Rocky Mtn elk hunting.)
A 3-in Parker and an HE Super Fox have been employed without firing a shot at this old gobbler. But this is the Eastern Alabama variety that makes turkey hunting such a grand challenge.