Bamahunt?

[stagpanther]

One of my favorite aspects of TFL is reading bamaranger's turkey hunts. I figure you must be getting ready for the springtime hunts soon?

[Pumpkin]

I’m looking forward to the book he writes

[bamaranger]

Wow, I have a fan base. Thanks guys.

I'm getting ready. Season in my part of the state begins 1April-8May. I also hope to hunt a week or so up in PA about mid May. Trout fish a bit too while I'm up there.

I've scouted one morning, taken a few casual rides about the county and the local WMA looking for birds in the open. At 67 yrs this spring I have to watch pushing too hard preseason, lest I burn down before it's over. Overall I'm pretty fortunate to be as healthy as I am, and have time and ability to enjoy it.

Been tweaking turkey guns. The Rem 870, nearly 45 years old and with which I have done most of my killing, went into a local shop last week to be drilled and tapped for a proper scope mount. They've called, it's done, no more wonky saddle mount. On it will go the Leupold 1.5-5x20mm it has worn for about a decade.

I shuffled 'scopes on the Mossberg 835. I ended the season last year with a 30mm Bushnell atop it. The ocular bell was so large I could not easily run the tang safety. Another Leupold, this time a recently acquired (long story) 1.5-4x20mm Freedom will reside.

Finally, I hope to install a larger bead on the Lanber O/U. I cannot clearly make out the 3mm bead. Likely go with larger metal bead (for durability) and simply paint it white. I may get the shop to install a tiny mid-bead as well. Really like the idea of two loads and two chokes, even if the Lanber is just a 2-3/4" gun. The fact that I can break it open and amble down WMA public roads and be legal, or navigate obstacles like fence or creek safely appeals as well. A 26" gun, it is not too heavy or long and has taken just a couple of birds for me.

I'll keep ya posted!

[Colorado Redneck]

Looking forward to reading about your hunts!

[stagpanther]

I have an 870 with that sidemount scope base that uses the trigger pin--hate that thing. Good plan ditching that (if that's what you had as well).

[bamaranger]

Yeah, that's exactly what I had. First one was a poly-glass thing. Graduated to a Rem branded all aluminum version. Both put the scope way above the receiver and neither seemed all that stable. Attribute two misses to POA/POI shift (good excuse anyhow) to the wonky things.

I only spent about 5 hours in my den looking for the dang trigger group pins, removed and placed especially "where I could find them" about 10 yrs ago. How they got mixed in with a box of assorted lube and solvent I dunno!

I'm blaming 'bamadog.

[Pumpkin]

I must have a bamadog too!
Little bugger is always misplacing my stuff.

[Jim Watson]

Note, we now have a Bamagranddaughter.

[bamaranger]

Oh yeah.......'bama grand daughter, age 1 yr.

I'm working on her first words........gobble-gobble.

[stagpanther]

I bet you could get the whole bamafamily to go along on this hunt!

[bamaranger]

Thanks for the video, enjoyed it. Couple of classic points.

-the "periscope" trick is typical of a wary old gobbler . Pretty open area, he should see that hen and doesn't, she should have come to him, and didn't, so he's playing it safe......almost.

-typical celebrity hunt. The guide puts the sport on a fresh bird, never hunted.
Bird comes down hill 300 yds, crosses two ditches to get the caller.

None the less, a neat video and I liked the hunt......Hawaii, who knew? Bamawife is a beach girl, she'd love it. One of her brothers is out there now....more money than I have.

Roosted a turkey this evening, scouting, unknown if hen or gobbler. Going back in the AM to see if anything gobbles. New spot, close to home.

[stagpanther]

The turkeys I come across in Maine I swear know whether I'm target shooting or going after them. If I'm target shooting, they'll come out, sometimes walk between me and my target--sometimes walk up to within just a few yards of me. If I'm out there with a shotgun (even without firing it)--forget it, I won't see one all day.

[bamaranger]

I was hunting an old gobbler I'd named "Weird Harold" because my neighbor, (
(god rest his soul) who with I had some odd history, was hunting him also. Anyhow one morning, I felt like I had Weird Harold (the gobbler, not the neighbor) dead to rights. He had finally roosted where I could get to him, and was on the ground and on his way up a woods road. All he had to do was crest a little rise to my front and he was in range. I've got you now.......nope.

I heard a turkey flush and no more gobbles. In a few minutes a big coyote trotted up over the rise. As I'd rather kill a gobbler than a 'yote, I simply ran him off. Sat for 30 min or so, no gobbles, sounded like 'Harold had flown off back down the road, so I picked up and moved that way. I went about 60 yds and 'Harold flushed from a tree over the road.......arrgh!

So Harold knew he could escape a 'yote all he had to do was fly up in a tree. He also knew that a human (with a shotgun?) was a threat. I shoulda stayed put longer. I did eventually kill Weird Harold (again, not the neighbor) but that is a different story .

[stagpanther]

sounds like a dumb question (probably is) but do hunters ever shoot at flying turkeys ( figured since they shoot at ducks maybe)? I've flushed quite a few that flew off.

[bamaranger]

Bagging a spring gobbler SHOULD be a one shot deal. He gets (walks ) in range, you center his wattles and let fly, dead bird. You've filled his noggin' and spine with pellets and he's done. Shooting at an unwounded, healthy gobbler flushed away is risky business and SHOULD not be done old boy, bad form and all that. In a perfect world with disciplined hunters and cool nerves, you just don't. He saw you first, flushed, you lose, he won and you hunt him again another time.

Firstly, your shooting at the wrong end of the bird. There are a heck of a lot of big feathers, bones and guts between you and what you need to hit to cleanly kill a flushed away gobbler. Secondly, you stand a chance of breaking a wing, but that gobbler will out run you guaranteed. There's been many a lost foot race between a crippled gobbler and the aspiring sport on a spring morning. A cripple or wounded bird deserves every effort at recovery, I'm not saying that a bird hit already doesn't deserve a second shot if such is warranted and manageable. But pass shooting or shooting at flushed gobblers is something to be avoided and frowned upon.

Do gobblers get killed on the wing,.. sure. With his head and neck extended on a crossing shot, in range and unobstructed by brush, a gobbler is somewhat vulnerable, IF the head and neck get centered. And remember, your not shooting your IC choked grouse gun at a bird weighed in ounces. That gobbler might weigh 20lbs, can soak up #6 shot like an A10 fighter bomber shrugs off .30 cal, and your turkey gun likely has some type of special optic on it, not the bead you use on clay birds.

This reply has gone on enough, but I'll relate some odd instances about crippled and flying turkeys next time.......

Season begins, 2 wks, I've not heard a gobble.

[stagpanther]

Bagging a spring gobbler SHOULD be a one shot deal. He gets (walks ) in range, you center his wattles and let fly, dead bird. You've filled his noggin' and spine with pellets and he's done. Shooting at an unwounded, healthy gobbler flushed away is risky business and SHOULD not be done old boy, bad form and all that. In a perfect world with disciplined hunters and cool nerves, you just don't. He saw you first, flushed, you lose, he won and you hunt him again another time.

Firstly, your shooting at the wrong end of the bird. There are a heck of a lot of big feathers, bones and guts between you and what you need to hit to cleanly kill a flushed away gobbler. Secondly, you stand a chance of breaking a wing, but that gobbler will out run you guaranteed. There's been many a lost foot race between a crippled gobbler and the aspiring sport on a spring morning. A cripple or wounded bird deserves every effort at recovery, I'm not saying that a bird hit already doesn't deserve a second shot if such is warranted and manageable. But pass shooting or shooting at flushed gobblers is something to be avoided and frowned upon.

Do gobblers get killed on the wing,.. sure. With his head and neck extended on a crossing shot, in range and unobstructed by brush, a gobbler is somewhat vulnerable, IF the head and neck get centered. And remember, your not shooting your IC choked grouse gun at a bird weighed in ounces. That gobbler might weigh 20lbs, can soak up #6 shot like an A10 fighter bomber shrugs off .30 cal, and your turkey gun likely has some type of special optic on it, not the bead you use on clay birds.

This reply has gone on enough, but I'll relate some odd instances about crippled and flying turkeys next time.......

Season begins, 2 wks, I've not heard a gobble.

In other words a stupid idea--I thought so; but was curious if there was some super-echelon of turkey-shooting I didn't know about. You put it in well-defined context, thanks.

[bamaranger]

My good friend of many years and best man in my wedding "Jim B." Had an episode with a crippled turkey, the first he ever killed, as a grown man his 30 to 40's.

Jim called this bird up on his own and shot it with a 12ga and #6 shot. At the shot, it spiraled upward like a woodcock, and he shot it again. It thumped down about where it had been, and Jim arose to collect it. As he walked over, it got up and ran off! PA has a 3 cartridge rule for all small game and turkeys, and well, ....you just gotta know Jim.....he had only put 2 shells in semi shotgun and had not reloaded. The bird fled onto a piece of property Jim did not have permission to hunt. Always law and order sort of fellow, he did not pursue.

Jim, devasted, went on in to work. On terms with the local Game Warden, Jim called and appealed that he needed to search for that turkey the next morning, Jim felt sure it was mortally hit and could be recovered. The Warden could not , of course, advise him it was OK to hunt on property where he did not have permission, but allowed it seemed reasonable to conduct a search on foot without a gun and "improvise". Jim was at his spot the next morning.

He cut a pole switch about the length of a pool cue and began his quest. Sure enough, he did not go far until he crossed the wounded turkey. He missed his first lick at the gobbler, and into into a virtual briar thicket nearby, with Jim in hot pursuit. In the thicket, his switch was too long for a good blow, but Jim was able to pounce on the bird and wrung it's neck!

His first 'tom, Jim had the bird mounted. As many feathers were gone from the neck, it was done in full strut and the mount is in his den.

[stagpanther]

Funny story (sounds like something that would happen to me ) I'm guessing the local hunters devised some kind of award in his honor to give to others with similar exploits?

[Pumpkin]

Semiauto or pump switch

[bamaranger]

OK, the two scoped guns are zeroed.....they kick more every year! The O/U Lanber is not back from the shop, but I don't hunt it much anyway. Can't figure out why they can drill and tap four holes in a week (for the scope) but cannot redrill and tap one hole in two weeks for a replacement bead on the O/U, but it is what it is. I usually don't hunt the Lanber 'till late in the season anyhow.

I've finally heard some gobblers, but not nearly as many as in years past. I'm seeing a lot of turkeys, but few on property to which I have access. Heard a bird on Tues, he gobbled for 45 minutes straight. Hollering his fool head off in the predawn, it was barely light and I saw him sail down and continue to gobble. So....I counted for 15 minutes....he gobbled 50 TIMES!!!!!!!!!! As I listened to him for nearly an hour, he likely gobbled close 200 times total. Every dang hunter in the county will be in that hollow on first day.

[Jim Watson]

I saw a picture yesterday of some ballplayer or guitarist or some such celebrity who got a turkey on opening day in his state. Go gettum.

[bamaranger]

Yeah, I'm cranked. Will start a fresh thread as before when season starts. Heard 2 more this morning!

[stagpanther]

may the force be with you!

I return to Maine soon, and once I start target shooting I'm sure the local turkeys will come out and taunt me; they always do.