Originally Posted by Bocajnala

It's a H&R Model 176. It's a beast and holds a nice pattern farther than I'm even comfortable shooting under hunting conditions. It dropped this bird at 46 yards and it never even flopped, just folded up and laid there. Was stone dead by the time I ran over to it, and I did run, I'm always afraid of losing one.

So I hunted tuesday morning, but the wife had plans for me at nine so I had to be out of the woods by 8 to be home by 830. On tuesday I had a hen out in front of me for a while, and got to listen to her talk. It was a good learning experience, as this is my first year calling myself. I didn't hear or see any gobblers though. On Wednesday morning I headed back to the same area that I saw the hen, but set up a little farther down the field edge near where she spent most of her time. Again, she was out in the field, and again I watched her for about forty minutes. After she left I decided I'd move to a different area of the property. I also wanted to set out a game camera on the way there.

So, I headed across the property, set up my camera and headed over to where my second set up would be. I set my decoy out, and started to call. Immediately I heard a gobble, which is the first gobble I've heard all spring. The bird was at the far corner of the field, and below my line of sight, but I kept calling and he kept gobbling and I could tell he was coming my way. I was a little exposed where I was sitting for the direction he was coming from, so I laid down prone in the grass, so just that long barrel end was sticking out into the field... I really didn't want to shoot that ten gauge from that position, but figured it would hide me better.

I saw the turkey in full strut working towards me, then I heard another gobble from my right. I looked up the hill, and perfectly outlined against the blue sky at the top of the field was three red heads. I called a little more, and they started a quick approach to me. Stopping to strut a few times. Every time they stopped, I'd hit the call and they'd start running again.

They hung up at what I thought was about 40 yards, and I decided if any of them started to leave, I'd take a shot at the closest one. The rear bird turned and started heading over towards the first tom that I had seen, so I shot, jumped up, and started running towards the bird. But he was down. Never even flopped. Paced it off at 46 yards. I shot him right about 830 am.

I had an absolute blast. And for my first real year of hunting turkeys, I think I'm addicted. I don't know much about turkeys, but I know he was a nice one. And I think scoring over 70 makes him a pretty good bird.

Extra bonus because it might help us to win this contest!
-Jake