Trooper makes good on another flock
Last Friday, I took out Trooper for an evening run for turkeys, and it ended up a short evening. We headed up to our north end, and trooper started ranging nicely for me. Once we came up around a corn field, trooper caught scent, and started to work it hard, moments later, he took off in a straight shot. Just as he disappeared from view, turkeys start putting, and clucking, then wing beats. Two birds flew over head, no shot with the trees in the way. Best I could figure, 10-12 birds in the flock. Trooper has amazing speed when motivates.
Trooper came back a few minutes later, and we set up along a side bank, against a big old maple tree. For a rambunctious Wiem, I was surprised how quickly he settled down behind the blind. Ten minutes later, he perked his ears up, and I began calling. Shorty after, I could start hearing turkeys kee-keeing, and yelping. A single jenny came in on my hard right, and slightly behind us. Trooper saw her before I did, but never made a sound. He was starting to get excited, but stayed put. As the bird cross out in front, I switched the shotgun, from my offside to my preferred right side, and shot, when the bird stopped to take a better look. The turkey started flopping, and I commanded Trooper to get the bird. He come out of the blind like he was on fire, and pinned the bird down to the ground in a manner of a few seconds. By the time I got there, the bird had one remaining tail feather left. Since this was the second bird shot over him, I let him get all the scent he wanted. Trooper definitely got the idea now. I was out less than 30 minutes, and I was walking back to the house.
I took him down to the ice cream stand (very nice warm day in NY), as they have what they call a dog treat *(small dish of ice cream with two dog biscuits.) Young girl at the stand saw the birds flush from across the road, and she confirmed that it was 10 birds that she saw fly up over the corn field.
Trooper has the talent and the instincts, I just have to take advantage of it, and train him properly. Very happy that I filled both tags over him this fall.
