Turkey with Grandson
 

Troupe figuring out how to retrieve dead gobbler from prickly pear patch:
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These turkey filled woods border the course of the Clear Fork of the Brazos River and provide cover for deer and hogs too. There were three separate roosts within 200 yards and dozens of turkey, but they dispersed at sunup and only left the woods after 8 AM. First some hens and then this gobbler that was "looking for love in all the wrong places". One shot from the Orion 12 (sorry, but he started on an O/U and has not yet become a Parker shooter) and he was down and full of cactus spines.


Picture time back at lodge with proud grandpaw:

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Great job Troupe!!





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very nice gobbler...what a job it was to get that gobbler out of the cactus patch...charlie

Charlie, you are right. After grabbing the turkey legs with cotton gloved hands, he soon wanted to use my leather shooting gloves. As you seem to know, all critters that are native to this terrain have cactus in them, including hunters.

He was commenting on the stickers in the body as he cleaned the bird and has now learned something useful for Texas hunters. When he finished, the breast halves came out pristine and will soon be Sunday dinner. His mom used to bring home turkeys from fall and spring hunts and now he is. This was his
7th wild turkey , but the first with his new Orion 12.

Love it! Can't wait til next month.

Makes it all worthwhile:
Troupe and I have been hunting together since he was 4 years old:
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He will be 18 this summer and soon off to college, but on the way home he said two things to warm a bird hunter's heart:
1. Hunting turkey from a deer blind is fun, but I want to go into the woods to stalk a gobbler. (he has been listening to some of my tales). All true by the way!
2. As much as he likes turkey hunting, he loves upland bird hunting with dogs. Partly because of the experience and because he can talk and share the experience.

:)

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. That one sir = 10x that!!!
What a stirring shot! :bowdown: