Limb Chicken
Active Member
The older I get the more I appreciate the time spent in the woods with people and the less I care about shooting a bird. I have taken enough birds in my lifetime that I really like to see people get excited about being successful in the turkey woods. While spending many hours with many people there are few people other than my son, daughter and my father that will be 69 in four days that I enjoy more taking to the turkey woods.
My Dad was unable to join me last year for the first time in 18 years and while I had one of my most successful seasons last year it wasn't fulfilled. I really missed him being there. Fast forward to the first day of second season. He was super excited, as was I about heading to a spot we had killed a lot of birds before. The day was filled with gobbling and good stories but came home with nothing in the bag. So, I have a spot that is almost as good as it gets that I save for my trump card. With the weather forecast being perfect turkey weather I wanted he head there. Gobbling light came and there were only two birds sounding off quite a ways away but I was confident if we waited it out something would show. Sure enough the bird that had been answering my calls all morning had emerged from the ditch he was gobbling in and sprinted to our set up. Now, I kept telling my Dad to wait because this bird had nothing but bad thoughts about what he was going to do to the intruders and when the bird got to about 10 yards while still running the 835 barked, the bird stood upright and confused and decided this was not a safe place to be and did an about face and after two more warning shots rang out there was nothing to show for it other than an upset 69 year old man.
I couldn't figure out what went wrong and then it all became very apparent when I looked at my blind and it was shredded where the pattern of the 3.5 inch winchester heavy loads had been...
.
I tried to cheer him up but he was just not in the mood so I let him calm himself down and told him one of our other spots hadn't been touched. So, he agreed to go try that but was still disappointed. We moved to a spot that is fantastic in the mid morning, we can sneak in and the birds are usually about ready to move back into the timber but are still out in a field close. We sat up and I waited the mandatory hour to start calling and got an immediate response but it was about 400 yards. Waited, called again 200 yards. Waited called again no response. I told him to get ready. Looked to the east and here they come shoulder to shoulder, 3 mature longbeards doin the mean walk towards the decoys. I told him to take his time and make sure the barrel was outside the blind.... The bird folded at 5 yards and the others stuck around. I tried to make a shot with a camera and tripod between my legs but it didn't work out but I was thrilled anyway. High fives and photos were next.
Spent the rest of the day enjoying some adult beverages while getting the bird ready for smoking. Threw him in the smoker and the rest is history.
I am blessed to have a father that is healthy enough to join me and I hope many of you that have the chance do the same. The old boys are only around for so many sunsets and you can never spend enough time with your family!
Here is Big Cese with his bird.
My Dad was unable to join me last year for the first time in 18 years and while I had one of my most successful seasons last year it wasn't fulfilled. I really missed him being there. Fast forward to the first day of second season. He was super excited, as was I about heading to a spot we had killed a lot of birds before. The day was filled with gobbling and good stories but came home with nothing in the bag. So, I have a spot that is almost as good as it gets that I save for my trump card. With the weather forecast being perfect turkey weather I wanted he head there. Gobbling light came and there were only two birds sounding off quite a ways away but I was confident if we waited it out something would show. Sure enough the bird that had been answering my calls all morning had emerged from the ditch he was gobbling in and sprinted to our set up. Now, I kept telling my Dad to wait because this bird had nothing but bad thoughts about what he was going to do to the intruders and when the bird got to about 10 yards while still running the 835 barked, the bird stood upright and confused and decided this was not a safe place to be and did an about face and after two more warning shots rang out there was nothing to show for it other than an upset 69 year old man.
I couldn't figure out what went wrong and then it all became very apparent when I looked at my blind and it was shredded where the pattern of the 3.5 inch winchester heavy loads had been...
.I tried to cheer him up but he was just not in the mood so I let him calm himself down and told him one of our other spots hadn't been touched. So, he agreed to go try that but was still disappointed. We moved to a spot that is fantastic in the mid morning, we can sneak in and the birds are usually about ready to move back into the timber but are still out in a field close. We sat up and I waited the mandatory hour to start calling and got an immediate response but it was about 400 yards. Waited, called again 200 yards. Waited called again no response. I told him to get ready. Looked to the east and here they come shoulder to shoulder, 3 mature longbeards doin the mean walk towards the decoys. I told him to take his time and make sure the barrel was outside the blind...
. The bird folded at 5 yards and the others stuck around. I tried to make a shot with a camera and tripod between my legs but it didn't work out but I was thrilled anyway. High fives and photos were next. Spent the rest of the day enjoying some adult beverages while getting the bird ready for smoking. Threw him in the smoker and the rest is history.
I am blessed to have a father that is healthy enough to join me and I hope many of you that have the chance do the same. The old boys are only around for so many sunsets and you can never spend enough time with your family!
Here is Big Cese with his bird.
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