No need for an apology. I did come across pretty hard. I rarely get hot and most of my friends have never seen me get mad. But there are two things that I am passsionate about, wounding game through not caring and abusing dogs. I respond to both pretty aggressively if I see it.

My comments were not aimed at you Dean, but in general.

Dan, I agree with you about modern bowhunting. When I was working, I stopped bowhunting about 30 years ago because it interferred with my bird shooting. I got back into it this year since I am now retired. I didn't use my Bear recurve bow. I went to a compound bow because I am 71 years old and I can shoot a compound better than I can a recurve. For me its all about not wounding game. I limit my shots to thrity yards where I am absolutely consistent. Also my upper muscles are not what they used to be and I can hold for a much longer time making my shots more consistent than with a recurve.

But taking a deer with a compound is not the same as taking them with recurve. We had to do an awful lot of time practicing back in the day. Taking a deer wth a recurve is real bowhinting while taking a deer with a compound is semi-bowhunting, in my opinion.

Tom we are a technology society and not a bad thing. I am the same on the draw of a compound, it helps this aging skeleton. Wounding is to be avoided no matter what but it will happen. That was the most extreme example i could think of at the time.

Wounding is a major issue for me and is the main reason for going with a compound. I don't trust myself to get good enough to shoot a recurve anymore. If it wasn't for the compound bow, I would have never got back into bowhunting. I always scoffed at compound bows an claimed it wasn't really bowhunting. Then for Christmas, the owner of the land I hunt bought me a compound bow. He wanted to see me get back into bowhunting. As a young kid, he remembered me bowhunting the property which was owned at that time by his father and before that by his grandfather who was a close friend of my grandfather. Between my grandfather and I, we have been hunting the property for 87 years.

I have not lost a deer since I was in my teens and then only two. My grandfather taught me to be meticulous about the shots I take on deer and game and it has paid off. Between regular hunting and crop damage permits I have taken over two hundred deer, five bear and many moose. I wish everyone could grow up under the tutelege I did.

These are modern times and we all strike our own balance with technology. However, it seems to me a good bit of hunting is now about image and identity. In that vein hunting can be about getting the shot, and I mean the photo after. It might be worth pointing out this thread is about photos of successfully bagged turkeys, but still there are hunters doing it right and hunters who mostly care about "success". Whether you learned from your grandpa or from tv and instagram, if you want to brag up your success at some point you will push the limits with your bow, gun, access or whatever. I think the responsible hunter learns more from the mistakes while the hacks learn mostly from their success. If super shot or a compounds (or shudder-xbows) gives you an edge, the responsible hunter will bank that as insurance for an ethical kill and the photo hog will leverage it into the occasional success and discount the error on the margins.
I enjoy this group because there arent many online forums where the majority of participants share my hunting values. Now ill go find a photo of an old tom I got.

Well the turkey proofs must have predated my Iphone because I cannot find them. As I recall the toms in eastern Massachusetts were plentiful and not particularly wary and the 10 ga was more than enough gun. We had some good times but i passed it on some years ago. No regrets. These shots date from 2011, I was just over 30.

I enjoy all posts with hunting pics. This particular image immediately caught my eye with the closely matching case and gobbler colours. Great pic. Cheers Jack

Great time that week Phil.Sure hope I don't run across another 8ga like yours.

One of mine from a few years ago here in Florida.
VH 12ga 30" barrels.

Just broke in my Charles Daly 10 gauge this morning! I never weighed the bird. It has one and a half inch spurs and two beards. The main beard is 10 1/2 inches long and the smaller one is 7 1/4 inches. First time shooting anything with this gun. The shell was black powder reloaded from yours truly. The Tom came in full strut around 11 AM this morning. Once the smoke cleared the bird was on the ground. I would say it was about a 25 yard shot. I used 100 grains of Fg and 1 5/8oz of BPI nickel plated #6’s. When I skinned it the neck was all jelly inside. The load did a great job.

https://i.imgur.com/3qLmo1K.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/dgVvPkl.jpg