Turkeys with my two favorite people!
05-23-2008 | 01:06 PM
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Nontypical Buck
Joined: Nov 2006
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From: Where the ducks don't come no more
Turkeys with my two favorite people!
2008 was the year of the guide for me. I took more people hunting, and hunted myself less than I ever have in previous years. Thats far from a complaint by the way!
I managed to take part in watching my girlfriend Rebecca kill her second longbeard back on April 16th, and some of y'all may remember that story and subsquent pictures. Here is a link for anyone who missed it:
http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=2773610
On May 9th, my best friend Kevin came down to the hunt club and we shared a hunt the next day. Kevin and I have been turkey hunting almost our entire lives, but this was actually the first time we had ever turkey hunted together. We set up on the other side of the swamp first thing, and got in good and early too. We heard a few gobbles a bit far off, then one bird gobble about 150 yards up on a bench and down the swamp from us. We advanced to the top of the bench and set up. We had a hen come down the swamp, yelping her little heart out too, and she hung around for about 10 minutes and got within 12 yards of us. With all that yelping, and her going away from where we thought the gobbler was going to be coming from, we decided to hit a nearby field. As we neared, I pulled out the binos and glassed through the edges of brush and saw FOUR (4) longbeards out in the field (its a VERY big field, over 800 yards across and 1500 yards long). Kev and I low crawled up to the edge, and let out one series of yelps and the birds started working our way. A short time later, we stole a glance and they were working towards the woodline. I hit the slate call hard one time, and a bird threw a gobble at us, and we held what we had. It took them about 15 minutes, but they worked closer and closer, and finally I was able to see one of the birds start walking infront of our small opening.
This is where things got interesting. Kevin and I both have some pretty serious turkey guns. They both will and have killed turkeys at ranges that I care not discuss. Just for perspective, our guns will put over 90 pellets in a 10" circle at 60 yards... and I know that because I personally patterned both of them at that range with Hevi-13 #6. When I saw the bird on the left (the first one) ease out in front of us, I knew he was too far (I don't like to shoot birds past 35 yards personally, but no matter the circumstance, I usually will not shoot past 50), and I told Kevin as much. I was sitting down, and Kevin had taken a knee bracing his gun againest a tree. Naturally he was higher up, which in my opinion and experience makes it much easier to judge distance accurately and he insisted they were not too far, not a step over 50 he said. The birds knew something was up. Kevin asked if I was on a bird, I said I was and he started the count... 1....2....3..... Boom.
Our timing was perfect... sounded like one shot. I was on my bird, and when I recovered from the recoil, I saw a bird's wings out and tail up... head on the ground. I thought it was the bird I had shot at.... Kevin said, I got mine! I said Me too! And we were pumped. The only problem was.... I didn't get mine! We did in fact shoot at different birds.... and Kevin killed his.... but mine.... more on that in a bit.
Anyway... when Kevin walked out to where his bird lay flapping and looked back at where we had been sitting.... he said something not fit for print.... long and short of it (though mostly just long) is that it was 69 steps to where Kevin's turkey was standing when he shot it. Mine was standing 10 steps further that his was. This turned out to be 63 yards for his bird and right at 70 yards for mine...... I told him they were too far, and Kevin must have appologised 50 times in the next 15 mintues.... not that I was upset at all, I was pumped that he'd gotten a bird.... fortunately, I cleanly missed the bird I shot at. Not a feather, not a drop of blood... nothing. Well.. so much for the statement that all the turkey's I've ever missed have been inside 15 yards. Honestly I felt like an amateur at that moment, because I had concluded that bird was too far for me to shoot at. But I was damn sure glad for Kevin. As we walked out of the field, Kevin found a gorgeous white arrowhead, pretty as you'll ever see, and handed it to me and said, "Thanks for the hunt brother." So I got a good momento from the hunt anyway!
When we made it back to the hunt club, I decided to shoot my gun one time, just incase something may have happened to it in the month and change of hard hunting I'd done since sighting it in back in late March. I honestly wasn't looking for excuses, but I had felt good about that shot, despite the range being far more than I would have normally shot. At twenty yards, with a high brass #6 phesant load, the left edge of my pattern was a solid 10" to the right of where it should have been, which put the center almost 18" right of where I'd sighted it in. I shot another one just to be sure.... oh yeah.... she was WAY WAY off. I can only suspect that the mass center of my pattern at such a range as that bird was must have been at least 4 feet to the right of it. That made me feel a whole lot better and more confident that I didn't so much as touch that turkey. I was also glad that the distance between the first bird (the one I shot at) and the third bird back (the one Kevin killed) was a good 7 yards.
Kevin's bird had an 11" beard and 1" dull spurs. We guessed the weight at 18#s.
I managed to take part in watching my girlfriend Rebecca kill her second longbeard back on April 16th, and some of y'all may remember that story and subsquent pictures. Here is a link for anyone who missed it:
http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=2773610
On May 9th, my best friend Kevin came down to the hunt club and we shared a hunt the next day. Kevin and I have been turkey hunting almost our entire lives, but this was actually the first time we had ever turkey hunted together. We set up on the other side of the swamp first thing, and got in good and early too. We heard a few gobbles a bit far off, then one bird gobble about 150 yards up on a bench and down the swamp from us. We advanced to the top of the bench and set up. We had a hen come down the swamp, yelping her little heart out too, and she hung around for about 10 minutes and got within 12 yards of us. With all that yelping, and her going away from where we thought the gobbler was going to be coming from, we decided to hit a nearby field. As we neared, I pulled out the binos and glassed through the edges of brush and saw FOUR (4) longbeards out in the field (its a VERY big field, over 800 yards across and 1500 yards long). Kev and I low crawled up to the edge, and let out one series of yelps and the birds started working our way. A short time later, we stole a glance and they were working towards the woodline. I hit the slate call hard one time, and a bird threw a gobble at us, and we held what we had. It took them about 15 minutes, but they worked closer and closer, and finally I was able to see one of the birds start walking infront of our small opening.
This is where things got interesting. Kevin and I both have some pretty serious turkey guns. They both will and have killed turkeys at ranges that I care not discuss. Just for perspective, our guns will put over 90 pellets in a 10" circle at 60 yards... and I know that because I personally patterned both of them at that range with Hevi-13 #6. When I saw the bird on the left (the first one) ease out in front of us, I knew he was too far (I don't like to shoot birds past 35 yards personally, but no matter the circumstance, I usually will not shoot past 50), and I told Kevin as much. I was sitting down, and Kevin had taken a knee bracing his gun againest a tree. Naturally he was higher up, which in my opinion and experience makes it much easier to judge distance accurately and he insisted they were not too far, not a step over 50 he said. The birds knew something was up. Kevin asked if I was on a bird, I said I was and he started the count... 1....2....3..... Boom.
Our timing was perfect... sounded like one shot. I was on my bird, and when I recovered from the recoil, I saw a bird's wings out and tail up... head on the ground. I thought it was the bird I had shot at.... Kevin said, I got mine! I said Me too! And we were pumped. The only problem was.... I didn't get mine! We did in fact shoot at different birds.... and Kevin killed his.... but mine.... more on that in a bit.
Anyway... when Kevin walked out to where his bird lay flapping and looked back at where we had been sitting.... he said something not fit for print.... long and short of it (though mostly just long) is that it was 69 steps to where Kevin's turkey was standing when he shot it. Mine was standing 10 steps further that his was. This turned out to be 63 yards for his bird and right at 70 yards for mine...... I told him they were too far, and Kevin must have appologised 50 times in the next 15 mintues.... not that I was upset at all, I was pumped that he'd gotten a bird.... fortunately, I cleanly missed the bird I shot at. Not a feather, not a drop of blood... nothing. Well.. so much for the statement that all the turkey's I've ever missed have been inside 15 yards. Honestly I felt like an amateur at that moment, because I had concluded that bird was too far for me to shoot at. But I was damn sure glad for Kevin. As we walked out of the field, Kevin found a gorgeous white arrowhead, pretty as you'll ever see, and handed it to me and said, "Thanks for the hunt brother." So I got a good momento from the hunt anyway!
When we made it back to the hunt club, I decided to shoot my gun one time, just incase something may have happened to it in the month and change of hard hunting I'd done since sighting it in back in late March. I honestly wasn't looking for excuses, but I had felt good about that shot, despite the range being far more than I would have normally shot. At twenty yards, with a high brass #6 phesant load, the left edge of my pattern was a solid 10" to the right of where it should have been, which put the center almost 18" right of where I'd sighted it in. I shot another one just to be sure.... oh yeah.... she was WAY WAY off. I can only suspect that the mass center of my pattern at such a range as that bird was must have been at least 4 feet to the right of it. That made me feel a whole lot better and more confident that I didn't so much as touch that turkey. I was also glad that the distance between the first bird (the one I shot at) and the third bird back (the one Kevin killed) was a good 7 yards.
Kevin's bird had an 11" beard and 1" dull spurs. We guessed the weight at 18#s.
