Spring turkey season in Kentucky opened this past Saturday. My nine year old grandson and I camped overnight Friday at the farm, and were up and in the blind before sunrise. We saw a couple of gobblers early, but they wouldn't commit, and he doesn't have a lot of patience, so we left empty handed.
I went back out yesterday to try again. I saw a gobbler in a field a couple hundred yards away, got to the edge of the tree line, and tried to piss him off with the reaper decoy. He started my way, but hung up about seventy yards out, and then turned and went the other way. No luck yesterday morning. I went back out about sunset to see if I could put one to roost so I'd have a place to start this morning. I watched from about seven hundred yards as one went into the woods right at last light. That's where I planned to be this morning.
And so I was. Set up at the edge of the woods with my decoys out, forty-five minutes before sunrise. About sunrise, I heard three or four different gobblers fire up. The bad news is, they were a couple hundred yards away on the other side of the woods. They eventually flew down and I couldn't hear them anymore, so I just sat and waited, hoping one might come out on my side. I had a hen wander by, but there was no tom following her. Some deer came and checked out my decoys, not really sure what to make of them. As I was watching the deer, I heard a gobble that sounded fairly close. I let out a few yelps, and got a gobble in return. So I did it again, and he gobbled back. I did it again, and he answered, but this time he was further away.
I decided to grab the reaper decoy, and make a move to the corner of the woods to see if I could spot him. I got into a little ditch, with the decoy in front of me and made my way slowly around the corner. There they were, about half a dozen toms strutting and putting on a show for a bunch of hens.
They were about a hundred and sixty yards from me, but I moved the decoy and yelped a couple of times and got their attention. A big ole tom broke away from the group and made a beeline for the intruder. I was kneeling behind the decoy with the barrel of my gun stuck through the fan, waiting for him to get within range. He got to twenty-five yards, and I gave him a face full of TSS number 9's. Down he went and the hunt was over. I stayed behind the decoy for a couple of minutes while his buddies came to check him out. They had all just moved up a notch in the pecking order; he was a hoss. My biggest turkey to date at 25 pounds and 1 ounce. I'm going to be canning several quarts of turkey soup in the next few days.
My grandson on his first turkey hunt:
(https://i.imgur.com/jrxRvU3.jpg)
The reaper decoy, the Encore, and the victim:
(https://i.imgur.com/puwo53O.jpg)
Hero shot:
(https://i.imgur.com/TAAUfrf.jpg)
Looking from where he fell, back to the decoy where I was:
(https://i.imgur.com/OkFEoAf.jpg)
My biggest turkey to date:
(https://i.imgur.com/FRCssHT.jpg)
A good day to be out.
Pat
HOLY DINOTURKEY! Well I guess I am about to give up on my dream of turkey hunting with my Thompson contender .410 pistol. The morons at New Hampshire fishing game finally passed the law making it legal to use a 410 for turkey hunting with TSS shot but they couldn't resist screwing things up and now they say you have to have an 18 inch minimum barrel length. My contender has a 14 inch barrel. they only way I can see around it is possibly getting a 4 1/4 inch custom choke put on it not sure if that would be considered a barrel though. that place could screw up a wet dream! :doh2:
How Long is the barrel on that fine weapon?
Nnnice work! The little guy had to be stoked!
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That's a big one !! Congrats.
Congrats on the BIG turkey. Now that you know what you are doing :wink: get that grandson back out there and let him get one. Thanks for the story of how this came to be.
Great story and pics! Going along by reading your hunt tales is as close as I'm likely to get to ever hunting turkeys. Thanks!
Quote from: nastygunz on April 19, 2022, 03:13:58 PM
How Long is the barrel on that fine weapon?
The barrel itself is fifteen inches, but the choke adds an inch and a half.....so, sixteen and a half overall.
(https://i.imgur.com/ItG91Wq.jpg)
Pat
Its........beautiful!
are you using factory loads with that .410 or hand loads?
Quote from: bigben on April 20, 2022, 12:21:46 PM
are you using factory loads with that .410 or hand loads?
Ben,
I'm shooting Federal TSS #9's.
(https://i.imgur.com/WgQxypR.jpg)
Pat
I been wondering where the turkey has been hiding, but Pat don't disappoint. :highclap:
How much is a box of shells down there? Never have shot a number 9 shot.
im pretty sure thats the stuff I got as well for my stevens.
PITW the boxes I got which are a year and a half old I believe were 45$ for 5 shots.
Quote from: bigben on April 21, 2022, 01:20:44 PM
PITW the boxes I got which are a year and a half old I believe were 45$ for 5 shots.
And that is the reason you don't want to miss.
Holy sheeite. Hope ya guys get kissed when you buy them too. :innocentwhistle:
Two weeks ago I thought I may be running low on 410 ammo so went and looked in a couple places and found 29 box's of 3" and another 23 box's of 2 1/2". Best dang gun for skunks, cats and birds that don't belong in me yard.
This is what I paid a few years ago. It would be more now if I could find any. Fortunately, I only shoot one or two a year:
(https://i.imgur.com/H3CasfR.jpg)
TSS has been a game changer, and has made the market for .410 shotguns explode.
Pat
my first shotgun was a Winchester single shot 410 when I was six years old and I have loved them ever since :yoyo:
My favorite small game gun is my over under that has a 22 long rifle barrel on the top and a 410 barrel on the bottom, double triggers. A close tie is my Thompson contender 410 pistol.
Congrat Pat
Congrats, Pat! Glad you got the grandson out. Special time!
Quote from: pitw on April 21, 2022, 03:32:46 PM
Holy sheeite. Hope ya guys get kissed when you buy them too. :innocentwhistle:
Two weeks ago I thought I may be running low on 410 ammo so went and looked in a couple places and found 29 box's of 3" and another 23 box's of 2 1/2". Best dang gun for skunks, cats and birds that don't belong in me yard.
ammo isnt exactly cheap anymore. Prob why I pick up the bow if I want to shoot. but that TSS is a game changer for the smaller shotguns. My FIL used to use a 10 ga loaded with BB. now you can use a .410 or a 20 ga to do the same thing. I just picked up a box of 12 ga 7 shot tss it was 52$. but if you want it you have to pay for it. or reload. many buddies reload it and have built traps to catch the TSS while patterning because it can be reused as it is harder then woodpecker lips.
I do most of my target shooting with my BB gun or pellet gun now! I have been trying to pull the trigger on some TSS but my inner thrifty New Englander is stopping me cold :biggrin:
honestly longbeard XR is just as good if you don't mind the thump of a 3" 12ga. the tss doesn't shine till you get into the small guns. for a .410 to shoot the same groups as my 12ga is impressive and the TSS weight is equally impressive. There is a major push that is happening to not allow TSS in big bore shotguns because it is taking the sport out of spring turkey hunting with kills out to 100yds. its not entirely safe either for accidents involving wrong identification. we'll see.
I use longbeard, and shot a lot of turkeys before all these fancy expensive shells came out with a good old two and three-quarter inch high brass number #6 12 gauge shell, And I am confident I could do so again :yoyo:
Where TSS also shines is coyote hunting. #2 shot can take them down a long ways out. Here is a website with some good info.
http://coyotestuff.com/tss-shot-for-coyotes-the-secret-sauce/ (http://coyotestuff.com/tss-shot-for-coyotes-the-secret-sauce/)
Interesting web site!
Quote from: KySongDog on April 26, 2022, 08:35:44 PM
Where TSS also shines is coyote hunting. #2 shot can take them down a long ways out. Here is a website with some good info.
http://coyotestuff.com/tss-shot-for-coyotes-the-secret-sauce/ (http://coyotestuff.com/tss-shot-for-coyotes-the-secret-sauce/)
I think the first time I ever seen it was from jason grossclose and the boys from MFK. they were killing coyotes with I believe #2 or #4. prob patterns a lot better then T shot or #4 buck as well.
MFK put out some good stuff!
I think they still do don't they? Honestly I haven't done any predator hunting in a couple years now. I typically buy my license to go bobcat hunting if the weather is decent but the past couple years it has been pretty bad. so I haven't really been watching any of their videos on youtube.
Yes I believe they still are filming and hunting.
MFK is on youtube I believe