The fog was heavy this morning, so I thought it would be a good day to see some turkeys out in the field. I could hear them gobbling from their roost trees, at 6:10, until they hit the ground around 6:35. I was wide eyed until around 7ish and then I started "cat napping".
My eyes popped open at 8:15 and as I looked around in the fog, I seen 3 toms strutting about 100 yards to the north, already out in the field. This is a picked bean field from last year, along a couple of small creeks.
I watched them as the approached my decoys from the north. I setup a half strut jake attempting to mount a hen and 2 other hens, about 20 feet away. When the toms get close to the decoys, I notice it's 2 jakes and a longbeard. The jakes walked right into the decoys and pecked the ground as the past by, but the longbeard kept his distance....a solid 25 yards further.
I waited him out, knowing the distance on this shotgun's patterns were approximately 25 yards.
After a good 40 minutes of him strutting around (he never gobbled once), he finally approached the decoys from the south, but I knew the distance was a bit more than I wanted. Even so, he was clear, so I put the bead on his noggin and squeezed the trigger. He dropped like a sack of taters!
....and the jakes instantly started pecking and spurring him.
I quickly reloaded, just in case he got up, but he wasn't going anywhere. I jumped up and started toward the downed tom and the jakes decided it was time to hit the road. ![ROFL :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
I'm very happy with the performance of this old family heirloom of a shotgun. This weapon was most likely made before I was born. A Stevens 12 gauge with a 2 3/4 chamber, a 30" barrel with a measured .695" constriction. One Federal 1 1/4 oz. of #6s, at 1330 fps, got the job done....at 33 yards.
8:55 a.m.
A 10" beard and 1 1/4" spurs.
I watched them as the approached my decoys from the north. I setup a half strut jake attempting to mount a hen and 2 other hens, about 20 feet away. When the toms get close to the decoys, I notice it's 2 jakes and a longbeard. The jakes walked right into the decoys and pecked the ground as the past by, but the longbeard kept his distance....a solid 25 yards further.
![Face with rolling eyes :rolling_eyes: 🙄](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/6.0/png/unicode/64/1f644.png)
![Thinking face :thinking: 🤔](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/6.0/png/unicode/64/1f914.png)
I'm very happy with the performance of this old family heirloom of a shotgun. This weapon was most likely made before I was born. A Stevens 12 gauge with a 2 3/4 chamber, a 30" barrel with a measured .695" constriction. One Federal 1 1/4 oz. of #6s, at 1330 fps, got the job done....at 33 yards.
![Hundred points :100: 💯](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/6.0/png/unicode/64/1f4af.png)
A 10" beard and 1 1/4" spurs.