Spring Gobbler #1 for 2024

[Mike of the Mountain]

So it's not a Parker but it's my go-to turkey gun. Remington Super Mag with a red dot, XF turkey choke and it feeds on 1 1/2oz of TSS (I reload these too). Bad medicine for our tough PA turkeys. On 5/4, our opening day, around 6:05 a hen came into the food plot on the far end from me. She was "grazing". About 15-20 minutes later I see two black bodies come into the clover. "Game on!" They were not quite 300 yards away and just followed that hen around. I heard no gobbling all morning and the Toms did not strut. They all three disappeared down toward the creek valley and I didn't see them anymore. 7:15 I catch a glimpse of a red flash out of the corner of my eye. Then another. Then the hen walks around a chestnut tree 40 yards out. Then one gobbler "periscopes" my decoys. That's all it took, pulled the trigger and he was stoned at 40 yards. He weighed 19 lb 13 oz and had a 5 1/4" beard. Probably the smallest Tom I shot in a while. His crop was full of dandelion heads, clover and gravel. Tomorrow I take my 8 year old grandson out. Would be nice if we both tag a gobbler in the same morning.