Not a Parker, but my grandson scored this AM!!

[Mike of the Mountain]

To conclude my spring turkey saga, after I tagged my second bird I was focused on having my 8 year old grandson tag a bird. We sat twice in the last week with nothing to see. The week before they were all over. The last 5 days there were 4 gobblers hanging in the fields by Chuck Central but no opportunity to get him out as we were all very occupied. I brought Rex home last evening for a sleep over and a AM sit hoping to catch one of those birds cruising again. We're set up at 5:00 and listening as the sun rose. No gobbling at all. Around 7:10 we saw a turkey fly down from up the hill and flew down into the short course about 300 yards from us. I'm thinking "Game on!" I call and no reply. OK, we'll wait him out. A few minutes go by and I let out a few clucks and yelps. Maybe 50 yards behind the blind and to our left I get a reply. Now the bird is coming closer, I call, it replies. Now it's directly behind the blind and Rex eyes are bugging out of his head. The bird walks right next to the blind into the field. I see it's a hen BUT it has a long beard! Definitely "Game on!" I whispered to Rex "Don't move." His eyes almost fell out of his head!! She walked 10 yards out and turned away from us. I moved the sticks and he rested the single shot .410 on the yoke. Told him to take his time and when she stood still with her head up to put the dot on her head and let it rip. She was 12 yards and he shot. Stoned her where she stood. Bird hit the ground and never twitched. There was much rejoicing!! Congrats to Rex for his first hunting success. Now he's hooked!

The bird had an 8 1/4" beard and weighed 16 lbs. The gun was a single shot .410 with a red dot and he used 3" shells with 13/16 oz #9 TSS shot.