Another failed turkey hunt

[Burnston]

I've gone after everything Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Ohio have to offer by way of game, yet I've only ever taken one turkey. This was in the company of a saddle partner of mine who happened to be an excellent caller, and did all the hard work. Suffice it to say, I am a poor turkey hunter, today being no exception. 

While no gobblers were seen, I did happen upon this young bore in a creek bed. As a rancher, I cannot pass a hog without dispatching him, being witness to the extensive damage they do. Of course, his death came at the price of a ruined turkey hunt. Thus is life. 

The old model Ruger .45 Colt is as stock as the day it was shipped from the factory; one of a few guns I will never have modified in any way. I attempted a neck shot from 47 yards and came in a little low, but he did not notice and fell just as dead. Weighing in at 141 (now a little lighter without loins and a head,) he has ruined his last hay field. 

[Fowler]

I’d shoot a pig over a turkey any day. In fact they are high on my list of animals to hunt. Not a lot of opportunities for them here in Colorado but that is for the best for sure.

[Rimfire69]

I would have done the same thing, as great as the turkey hunt would be, a cleanly dispatched hog would top it for me. Nice shooting.

[bigmuddy]

We’re into the last week of, for me at least, the toughest turkey season in 35+ years of hunting them. Still enjoying every second of it though. Don’t have any hogs in my area so wouldn’t have to make that choice. Not sure how well a shotgun would perform on one. 😀

I did pass on a coyote opening morning with 3 roosted gobblers behind me.

I sure do like the OM 45. Great guns for sure. Mine is also all stock too.

Dan

[jfs]

You busted that bandit with style....

[wgg]

Good job, I know they are destructive but I sure do like to hunt them.

[x101airborne]

They destroy turkey nests down here. If you want turkeys and quail (both ground nesting), gotta shoot hogs.
Good job!

[willicd]

Very nicely done. I've been cutting and baling lately and I figure the hogs get me for at least a 1500# bale (5x6 round) an acre and cause a ton of unnecessary wear and tear on equipment. Hitting a hole you can't see at 10mph can be quite a ride!

[boolitdesigner]

Today was the last day of Spring season... gobblers only.... and a month long for land owners. I have a relatively new neighbor and he is a decent guy, BUT he camped out for a week early in the season, his kids ran and screamed their little heads off. He ran the turkeys off for a week and a half. They started coming back in and I had several hens within 15 yards of me for two days. Back he comes for another three days of camping. 6 days left and it has to storm for three of them. This last morning I go out and nothing. I come back in thru the brush and a gobbler starts hollering at my best spot on my ground. I get set and call... the darn thing was all ready two hundred yards away. Then another was hollering within 50 yards standing in a brush line (I know exactly where he was, I couldn't see in and he had a grand view of everything) and positively would not come out since he couldn't actually see a hen. Yep he left and so ends the Spring turkey season in Illinois..... but I did see four nice deer that will be welcome this October.

[weiler]

very nice! where in Ohio did you hunt (I hunt Richland/Knox county)

[Burnston]

I do enjoy hunting them, and eating them, but had I the choice between the enjoyable hunt and never seeing then again, I'd choose the latter. Like several of you, I've accidentally found their rootings in a piece of equipment, and experienced agricultural loss to their self-righteous, cocky rudeness too many times. They're like having boolitdesigner's bad neighbors all the time.

I crossed the Mason Dixon and went to college up north/east in Cincinnati. While there, I lived in Clermont County Ohio where I learned to hunt with another "hunter" almost always within 200 yards. At the time, slug guns were the only legal means of taking whitetail. This has since changed I believe, though it has been ten years since I graduated college and returned home.

[cas]

The last two turkey seasons I shot... a porcupine. No turkeys.

My turkey hunt this season ended on Wednesday. No turkey. Tuesday evening I was walking back to the house and from behind my truck appears a BIG porcupine! My hand went to my pistol and my brain went "I don't want to ring my ears to shoot a stupid porcupine." So my hand went in my pocket for my ear plugs. Plugs in, gun drawn, I circled around the truck to come up behind him.... and he was gone. He must have gone under that cabin. Had I known that's where he was living, I'd have rung my ears.

There goes the streak, could have been three years in a row!

[foxtrapper]

Hey cas you hunt the fall turkey season on LI?

[cas]

No, I'm always away.