listening for the gobbler

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by charlie cleveland

theres always tommorrow....

Indeed there is.

[charlie cleveland]

got up at 5 am eat a bite got dressedand grabbed the 10 ga parker and 6 rem. nito no 4 shot and headed to the woods...was a 15 minute ride on the ole 4 wheeler and i arrived at the hunting spot for the morning...as i turned the key off on the 4 wheeler and steped off a hen turkey flew over me..i unzipped the gun case and loaded the ole 10 parker and had made about 10 steps when a large gobbler flew off his roost in front of me...i thought to myself this is what you deserve for being late.. walked on to my blind with no more turkeys seen im thinking youve done seen your gobbler for the day.... got to my blind and paced off 30 steps and put my 2 hen decoys out..i always like to pace off 30 steps because it lets me know most of the time how far im shooting..but i do fowl up sometimes and shoot to far... i was in the blind no more than 5 miutes when a turkey began gobbling...i yelped and purred to him and he answered any and all calls i made....10 minutes passed by and a large hen came from somewhere and took up with my decoys....my calls soft or loud never bothered the hen... but what better decoy can you have than the real thing...about 30 minutes had gone by with a lot of gobbling from the tom that was still slowly coming to me.. i ocasionly would check on the hen she was still out from my decoys about 20 steps...as i looked at her i noticed a large gobbler had slipped into the field ..i thought which one of these gobblers will i get a shot at first...the turkey that had slipped into the field had closed the distance to about 150 yards but he hung at that range for about 10 more minutes.. the other gobbler had gotten to with in 100 yards and was coming fast steadly gobbling..i laid the call down and got the old 10 ga up ready for action..what i didnt think about the old gobbler was across a little creek.. seen him finally he was looking for a place to cross the little creek he finally flew across andflustered up showing all of his pretty self..i had pushed the safety off and was fixing to pull the trigger when suddenly he dropped his feathers and took to steps..i had a good bead on his head so i pulled the front trigger and down came the old bird.... i steped the distance to the tom and it was 43 steps...put several of the no 4 shot in the head and neck ... i looked at my watch and it said 7.00 am from the time i head the old gobbler till he lay on the ground was 50 minutes...the old parker was a 10 ga ph twist steel barrel 32 inch...the ammo was the old remington green plastic rooll crimped 2 7/8 inch no 4 shot....this parker has killed a lot of turkeys for me and hopefully a few more....but if its not raing in the morning i will use a lefever 10 ga this is my dads old gun...i took pictures but i will have to wait till the wife gets back to post them...almost forgot turkey weighed 18 lbs 10 1/2 inch beard 1 inch spurs...a 2 year old in my opinion... hope some of yall are having as much fun as i am..... charlie ps that powder smelled pretty good to...

[ch]

Good job charlie! would of been fun to be there me and jett.

[charlie cleveland]

got a week left come on out...would enjoyseeing you and the boys again...turkey are gobbling good i had the best hunting ive had in years.... charlie

[Dean Romig]

Nice work Charlie!!
Nice work PH 10 ga.!!
You two are a good team.

[StubTwist]

Congrats Charlie. Season opened today and I was out there this morning. Gave them gobblers some nice soft pillow talk with my box call but couldn't get him close enough to take a shot.

[charlie cleveland]

try a soft low gobble been working for me when nothing else would interest the old toms...had a couple myself that stayed out range this year...good luck tommorrow if you go..im going in the morning suppose to be bad weather rain and stormy... charlie

[charlie cleveland]

got up at 2.30 am tried to go back to sleep but couldnt...got up at 430 dressed eat breakfast and put on my rain gear....it was raining cats and dogs that 4 mile ride on that 4 wheeler was not to appealing...at 5.30 cralled pu on the old artic cat and headed it to the hunting blind...had to drive slow rain was getting in my eyes and couldnot see to well.. by 6.00i was parked and walking to the blind i set up my hen decoys at the normal 30 steps and got into the blind.. after my usal laying out my calls and a extra shell i was ready....nothing happened for the first hour except a lot of high wind and rain...it was looking like it was going to be a start to a bad hunt no turkeys seen or heard yet.. my blind was in a field that i hunt a lot you can see about 300 yards any direction..but grass was about knee high now so cannot see as good as first of season...i spotted what i thought was a turkey sure enough it was a turkey...there was a hen that came into the field at about the same time i seen the other turkey...the hen by passed my decoys paying them no mind i think she was the same hen that helped me kill the gobbler yesterday..today she was no help it had slacked up raining so hard and the other turkey slowly made its way toward the decoys and the real hen..at about 100 yards i could see the old toms head it waswhitish blue..the tom gobbled twice and went into a full strut he then slowly came toward the real hen she showed no interest in him at all..i kept calling slow clucks and purrs to the tom he would onlytake a step or two then he would either go into a full strut or would raise that head high and stand motionless looking at the decoysit took a half hour to get this tom to with in shooting range...at 40 steps i made my last call i pushed the safty off on the old lefever 10 ga hammerless gun started to pull the front trigger when for some reason he whirled backtoward the real hen he made about 5 steps when i pulled the left trigger it had a load of no 2 lead in it...so the old lefever roared and down went the gobbler gave him the right barrel for some added insurance...had him loaded and back to the house and cleaned pictures took and in the deep freeze by 1130...so what started out looking like a really tough day to hunt turned into my killing my 3rd gobbler and that being the limit in mississippi is my final turkey hunt for this season...hope every one elses seasons that are just starting have as good and fun filled season as i have...the gun used to kill this turkey was a lefever hammerless serial no in the 12888 range damascus barrels 32 inch shell used was the old paper remington nitro longrange load no 2 lead..distance was 45 steps when shot... turkey weighed 18 lbs beard was 8 1/4 inches spurs were 3/4 inch inches...a young 2 year old in my opinion... got to go brak down the old lefever give it a good cleanup..i wiped it down when i came in but desereves a little more .... charlie

[Dean Romig]

Charlie, you're a turkey killin machine and we'll need to do some serious hunting to catch up to you! Congratulations.

[Autumn Daze]

Charlie, Congratulations...You are one dedicated hunter. A freezer full of wild turkey....Very nice!