doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Turkey season is almost upon us.

Rich, Ben Lee was one of the rock stars of hunting turkeys back then. He and others, such as Dick Kirby, popularized the 10. Lee and other Southern turkey hunters taught a lot of folks up north how we hunted down here. I met him in 1976 along with Neil Cost and a few others. I stayed in touch with Neil over the years and showed him around our woods at one time. Gil

Gil, sounds like we hung out in the same circles, i guess since we've been In the game for over 40 years our paths have most likely crossed. I picked up a couple of Niels calls as well.
Most Of the pro staffers used a 10. With large shot. I alway thought why and what for, since most birds are killed within 40 yard. I can attest I took the road to perdition from light loads, to super heavy loads, and killed birds with those loads and missed a few with the same. But find myself back to 1 3/4 oz of 6s from a 3 inch 12.

I bought over a dozen or more from him. In 1978 I bought 4 for $25 a piece and gave 3 of them to friends. I have two left; one from that year and another from 1994. Two of the men still have theirs. I don't know what happened to the other man. I don't use them as much as I used to, but will carry them several times during the season. Dick Kirby told me a story about why he stopped shooting #2 shot. He was hunting from a lodge that had access to private property and it was fall. He was told he would be the only person in the area. He had scattered birds and was calling. He heard the shuffle of leaves below the rise in front. The land was contoured. He knew it was a turkey so he pointed the big 10 in the direction with his head on the stock aiming and waiting for the bird to pop up. He saw red and white cresting the hill. He waited for the neck. A human face was under the colors. It was a lodge guide in the wrong area wearing a DU hat with the wood duck logo. He cussed the man out for being there and for being stupid wearing the colors on his head. He said had he shot, and he was close to shooting, the #2's would have killed the man. Gil

Thanks for telling us the story. I once shared a booth with Ben at a trade show and spent the morning listening to his stories, and he had a lot of them. He was one of the first to figure out how to make a living from the turkey hunting world. I'm sure it was fun to hunt with him.

He didn't mention decoys that day, and I've never heard if he used them or not. He was from AL and most turkey hunters from here share those opinions about the sport. Go to another state and the really fanatical hunters will have a different list of complaints, but every turkey hunter I've ever known had a list.

[quote=HomelessjOe]




This photo says a lot about a person. The ignorance and stupidity it takes to do something like this is mind boggling, but the gall it takes to put it on the internet and act proud of it is beyond comprehension. One of most repulsive, abhorrent photos I've seen here, ever. Just a sick act.
JR

Ben Rogers Lee was on the Mike Douglas show back in the '70s. Maybe others as well.
http://www.jesuskidzfilm.ml/database/get-the-mike-douglas-show-episode-16139-movie.html
His stories were hilarious. How he and his dad would listen near this home; a bird would gobble, and his dad said "son there's one too many of us here." And the story about calling a bird up by making the wire fence squeak when he moved it.

Explain what is sick about it John Roberts ?

One shy of a legal county bag limit... A nice Longbeard 3 jakes and a hen...and I missed one that day. First two the hen and one jake (and the miss) came earlier that morning from a pretty good bust (flush of a flock by a the dog) first one came to the calling pretty quick took about and hour and a half before I could tell the gig was up.

Took those to the truck and went back to hunting.

The last 3 kills, the 18 lb longbeard and the two 15 lb young gobblers came from a second bust in the afternoon about 3/4 mile away from the first hunt...

I had just sit down on a big log to rest and Buster came in and sat at my feet. I played a few notes on my trumpet call...I didn't hear a thing. After a short time I got up and started walking the long ridge finger to the east.

Buster disappeared then I heard him barking like mad about 200 yards ahead....I got on up there and he was running around and around this knoll...(this was before I had a tracking collar).

I picked out a spot beside two trees where he would kinda be hid beside me....leashed him to the tree and started calling and in short order here comes a jake....boom.....the woods is alive with turkey talk. I got another one within range and boom...they were circling my calling like sharks of a feeding frenzy yawwk yawwk...boom the longbeard. Once I saw him I could've shot another jake and still be legal but held fire hoping for another longbeard. A big woods turkey hunt of a lifetime...lucky I didn't get another my turkey tote was tested when I got those 3 to the road. 48 lbs of turkey is a load.

Splendid bag for a single turkey hunter in big woods with his dog...(do eYe detect a little jealousy ?)

Any hunting with a dog makes for more sport.

I guess you holier than thou hunters never shot a legal doe ?

Not many a Mississippi or Alabama bOy that ain't shot a doe deer over a pack of hounds or stuck a hog caught by pit bulls...

Such a sheltered life....where you'unz really from New Yawk city ?



PS....it takes a sorry jealous sOb to make a comment about a picture with my best friend in it.

I am total neophyte turkey hunter, and don't really have anyone to teach me the finer points. So a few ignorant questions:

Are decoys unethical because they make it too easy to bring the bird in close?

I posted earlier in this thread about my delight in taking my second turkey with a 10 bore hammergun, brass shells and black powder. Would I be a criminal, or merely a scumbag, if this year I used my 8 bore hammergun and BP? Just to have done it? Turkeys are not migratory, right? Close range, of course, and we need to use nontox in California as of this year, so it would be #4 bismuth.

Be gentle, please. Thanks.

Well, I don't really hunt turkey. But I will post this photo and the story. My Twin Brother and I had both just gotten back from Vietnam in time for Thanksgiving 1968. All the young cousins came up from Mobile....7 of them. Thanksgiving morning the women shooed us out of the house. I outfitted 8 of us ranging in age from 12 - 24 with every shotgun I could find went out to some woodland in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama...put them all on line and walked through the field. I didn't have a gun and was rather acting as the Sergeant behind the line making sure no one shot each other. Twin brother didn't have a shotgun either but carried an old M-1 Carbine (the gun with the blond stock) just to have something in his hands. (Check out the CIDG Montagnard tiger stripes).

Suddenly a 22 lb Cock got up and flew right down the line. All were using 8 shot and nothing touched the bird. My brother and I had been experimenting with a 5th Special Forces Group technique then being taught in Vietnam for snap shooting an M-16...much like an old gunfighter technique and he'd gotten really good at it. As the gobbler disappeared he snapped a shot off with the carbine at 125 yards and dropped him on the other side of the creek. The kids thought it was the greatest Thanksgiving ever and may have changed some of their lives (and to this day think he's a gunfighter).

Decoys are now legal in every state, so no way would I say they are unethical. They do make it easier for many hunters to kill one, but I've been told they can also scare birds away.

Watch a TV show about turkey hunting and they will probably be sitting in a blind and watching decoys, and that method of hunting is becoming all that many know how to do. It's a much different form of hunting than calling one up, and that chance to talk to the turkey is what keeps many of us so interested.

Good luck whatever legal method you wanna use.

Argo44, that was a cool story and pic. It wouldn't be legal today, but it was at the time.