Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Thanksgiving turkey

Not much of one. Deer hunted the last three days. Only saw does. My fork horn from the first of two days of muzzle loading did not come back. I was hoping the hunt clubs would be out with their hounds since it was the day before Thanksgiving and get things moving. But they weren't. And I again had this 900 acre tract to myself. I took my slug gun Monday and Tuesday. Turkeys were legal today so I loaded up with buckshot for the opportunity. All three days were cold in the morning warming into the 60s. Not a cloud in the sky. Everyday as bright and sunny. I can tell the turkeys have moved back to the pine thickets for the winter on my side of the swamp. The toms were gobbling like crazy around 7am all three mornings, with the hens doing their tree calls. I heard them fly down around 730 on the back side of the hill I was on. They were working the leaves for beech nuts (her crop was full of beech nuts). They just kind of meandered off. About 1pm something spooked them and they came running over the hill directly at me from behind. I was aware of 6 of them, but there may have been more. Three went to my left, two my right. This one nearly ran me over. It saw me and leapt into the air so close to me I felt the wind. Directly over my head. Lifted my shotgun and hit her in the groin. She cartwheeled down like a Japanese Zero that just had its wing blown off by AAA. She hit the ground dead. Shot went up in the groin and out the riight side. It put a fist sized hole in her belly and nearly severed her right wing, but didn't damage much meat. Believe it or not, the only meat lost was a little of the top of the right thigh. Was able to get perfect breasts, all of the left thigh and leg, much of right thigh and all of the leg, even the heart and liver.

Since it was in the mid 60s, after 1pm, and because I had a near mile long walk back to my truck through chest high weeds, I decided to come home right then. I was kind of happy I was carrying her out instead of dragging a deer. I'm hoping for some cold overcast days on my next days off. Dressing for the cold only to have the temp go up 25-30 degrees by noon and starting to sweat and overheat isn't much fun.