I went to the lease Friday, and stayed till Saturday afternoon. Got a nice turkey on Friday evening about 6:15 pm. Was surprised to see a gobbler that late. Was behind a tree calling, and some hens came out pecking around, and lo and behold, here comes this gobbler strolling out strutting his stuff!! Boy was he ready to party!! I got a shot off at about 100 yds with my .30.30, and hit him in the wing. He rolled over and flopped a couple of times, and then was still. I was happy, and got up and started walking towards him thinking about getting him ready for the freezer. I went ahead and put another bullet in my chamber just in case, and then he jump up and started running into the woods 180 degrees to me…..I ran at an angle to try and intercept his path, and had this fear that I would lose him. I found him in a ditch watching me….took a quick shot and hit him with a glancing blow to the neck. That was just enough to shock him to give it up…come to find out, I had hit him the first shot about his elbow, and blew most of his wing off….I imagine that was enough shock to his system to stop him initially. I was luck not to lose him in the woods. I didn’t want to shot him a second time, unless I had to for fear of losing meat….and I almost lost him.:o

I have never seen so much fat, and breast meat on a turkey before. I’ve shot bigger turkey before, but never seen this much white meat on one. And this ones feathers are the prettiest that I have seen….sort of a brighter gold and enhanced browns…The beard was about 9” long…Texas Turkeys are cool...:cool:

Some pictures now.
http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll180/bypoo007/100_7949.jpg
http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll180/bypoo007/100_7957.jpg
http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll180/bypoo007/100_7962.jpg
http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll180/bypoo007/100_7966.jpg

great times had by all.I saw four this morning,had them coming in and they just shut uo and left.maybe friday,we can only hunt till noon in ohio

Great pics. I am heading to the woods in just a bit.

:D:D:D Congrats on that beautiful bird.....you've got my mouth watering! Wish me luck....our season starts in the Morning.

Nice going. I wish we could legally use a rifle here in KY to hunt turkey with. I hate shooting up a good piece of meat with a scattergun. Easier to draw them into range with a rifle.

Congrats on your bird.

Congrats OneShot! And that looks like a fine plucking and butchering job too.

I went this past weekend in North-Central Idaho and the luck wasn't with us. Saw a whole lot of turkeys, but they were not talking and were not coming in. So, we set up in their general direction of travel, and the decoys repelled them (got the 'put-put-put' from the hens) rather than drawing them in. As my friend put it, the toms were all 'bred out" (not the exact language he used!) and didn't need (or want?) any more hens. We saw turkeys everywhere, but not able to legally shoot them (on roads and private property where we didn't have permission), and weren't able to call them in to shotgun range. A rifle would have worked just fine, but not legal! Also, there was still a lot of snow in our regular haunts so the turkeys just weren't there where they usually are.

Good luck to everyone!