I wasin the woods right at sunrise and watched two roosting toms spook and fly off. I wasnt interested in stalking them or even looking for them anylonger since I was climbing in my tree stand to nail this stud I had been watching. About 5 minutes of getting settled into my stand and hoisting up my CVA the two birds did a wide circle around the field I was set up on. I had a reed caller in my pack, so what the hell, I made two purrs and one of the toms came in from about 200 yrds. He was running full speed and stopped directly at the foot of my tree stand, and looked around for the bird he thought would be there.

I couldnt resist! He was a 23 lb tom with a 10 inch beard, but I wasnt quite sure where to aim at with my .50 caliber hollow point. One shot at the base of his neck and he dropped like a rock. The slug went through and blew out between one of his breasts and a wing. This was my first tom with a muzzleloader and after dressing him for thanksgiving dinner not one bit of his meatwas affected by the .50 caliber.