So yesterday I got a call around noon from a good buddy. He owns a sizable chunk of land in lowndes. He left work Friday and went to hunt and was able to call up 3 gobblers that were in a pasture. He killed one and the other 2 wandered off sort of confused but not too spooked. He was able to kill another one yesterday morning on the opposite side of the property. On the way back to his cabin, he checked the field and saw a gobbler out there. He gives me a call and asks if I want to give a go at the bird in the pasture. I couldn’t saw “yep” fast enough!

So I get to the land about 2pm and we load up on the golf cart and head out. We park a good ways from the blind and slowly make our way to the blind. We got settled in without spooking anything we knew of and at 2:27 I text Mrs. Bamaeyedoc to let her know all is well.
About 5 minutes later I pulled out a new aluminum cell that was a gift from patient and sent some yelps out. A few minutes later a lone hen pops out about 200 yards away but didn’t seem to interested in coming to investigate and finally disappeared.

About 10 minutes later my buddy suddenly says “there’s a gobbler!” Sure enough about 150 yards to our left, a longbeard was standing in the pasture. We both hit him with some cuts and yelps and to our astonishment, he immediately started easing our way. He was steadily coming, pausing occasionally to drop into a half strut and continue his angle toward us. When he got about 80 yards out we realized that I would not be able to get a shot if he kept the same path. So we had to switch positions, which ain’t the easiest thing to do with a gun, unstable chairs, and tight quarters. Somehow we managed to do it and when I peaked back up he was still coming and closing the distance.

As the gobbler got closer, as they normally do, he didn’t come right up the woodline and stayed right at the edge of my range. He finally got to the opening and I had a decision to make. We quickly conversed on “to shoot or not to shoot” and just have a couple of seconds to decide. A quick yelp got his attention and with the red dot halfway up his neck, I touched the trigger. BOOM!! He hit the ground like a ton of bricks had dropped on him!! I quickly exited the blind and got to him! Man I was so stoked!!! And as usual, I got my customary adrenalin dump and went to dry heaving, coughing, and my usual ritual and dang near throwing up after every turkey kill! The first pic we took was at 2:57. Talk about a quick hunt!!

After I calmed down, I was able to really admire this bird and he was a really good one. 20lbs 5oz, 1 1/18 spurs, and 10.5” beard. Great way to break the ice. Oh, and I’m a big believer in TSS. Those Federal #9s out of my trusty NWTF 20gauge dropped him at 55 steps. Here are some pics!

Congratulations. First with tss?

No. Just the longest distance I’ve shot one and the damage it did. I would have never taken the safety off had I’d been using my old shells. Not planning to do that again but good to know it can reach out there.

Buddy of mine shot at pasture birds and missed 3x yesterday at 42 yards

He was out of shells, so gave him 2 of my 3” 2oz #8 hand loads.

his son crushed the same pasture gobbler at 59 paces with one of them this afternoon out of the same gun

He couldn’t believe the performance at that range!

he’s sold on TSS lol

Congrats doc!!

Congratulations

Congratulations doc! Glad I’m not the only one who about pukes after a kill.

Congratulations!!

Congratulations

That’s awesome Doc. Congratulations!

congrats

There's the old pipe, congratulations on a fine bird!

Congratulations!

Congrats, Benji. That’s a dang fine bird!!

Good bird congratulations partner

Awesome, Congrats!

Love your stories! But you need to quit smoking :-)

Congratulations Nice bird.