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.

Hopefully this was your fall bird...
especially since you have a dog with you... and you purred a bird in at 200 yards....?
Thats pretty cool

Man... I almost forgot...

Well unless he was hunting a male horse to breed a mare I would presume the "stud" he was trying to "nail" (which could imply carpentry, slang hunting terms or lewd conduct with an animal depending on how you take it) would be a large racked deer... which of course would be hunting in the fall....

Congrats on the bird Hoyt! Welcome to the forums!

Welcome to the forums... (but please see above posted photo...)

Actually the bird met its fate on November 9th, the last day of early turkey season in VA. The late turkey season came back in december something and lasted until gun season ended Jan 6th.

As for the dog in the picture, thats my buddy, Yogi bear. The only thing he knows how to hunt is a rawhide bone and his food bowl. The picture was taken in mybackyard.

I am no expert turkey caller, and just happened to have a mouth call in my backpack. I was really worried what the .50 caliber hollow point would do to it at 20 yds, but it ended up really pretty on the dinner table Thanksgiving day.

As for the "stud" I mentioned, he was a nice 10 pt typical that I had seen earlier in the day. Inever got a shot at him the rest of the season, but I know he will be there this season. Just finished tilling the two new food plots that will have the piece of clover that will cost him his life!

You guys can smell all the BS you want, but pictures dont smell!

Jeff

welcome, i hope its legal to shoot em with that where your at

That isa great story. Congrats.