doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 2024 Spring Gobbler Season

I hunt them a lot, including 5 minutes from now. I'm just not killing them. In other words, I seem to suck as a turkey hunter.

I live for turkey leg carnitas, but it's been so long, I have forgotten what they taste like.

I hunt turkeys in northern California but missed this season because my partner (and landowner) hurt his knee. I use a Damascus barreled Smallwood hammer ten choked full and full, brass shells, black powder, and 1.5 oz. of bismuth #4's. Perhaps next year I'll emulate galaxie and carry my Smallwood 8, 4" chambers, 2.75 oz. and 8 drams BP.

Last year we called in two and fired simultaneously. That's my friend's CZ SxS behind me:

Why shouldn't there be a tom here right now?

There was one from 2- 6 pm on Wednesday. But not since. In honor of John, I put out a decoy, but I have never killed a bird with one. Maybe this afternoon.

My first Minnesota turkey, at last.  



45 minutes before sunrise, today, and they are gobbling hard.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/ixrIAE6.jpg[/img

As he lay.  He took a long time to cover the last 25 yds or so.  I could not see him until he was 24 paced yards away, but I was ready with gun up.  I let him step into my fist-sized window, exactly as planned, and then took him down with a 1.25 oz of #5s and 26.7 grs of Longshot.  My basic pheasant load.  


Grandpa's and his brother's 1897 Winchester does it again from 1917 to today.  

Congratulations Brent! You worked for that bird.

Yep. Nice bird!! I am impressed!!

One of my cell cams was very close by and this bird and his buddy managed to get themselves photoed. The bird in the foreground was about 3 minutes and 15 ft from where I shot him, but invisible to me at the moment of the photo. The bird in the back, I never saw. I'd spent maybe 25-30 minutes talking to them as they made their way from way off the property.

Congrats Brent, nice job coaxing him from adjacent property. Do you by chance use Hank Shaw's recipe for the turkey leg carnitas? A great use of something that many discard.

Yes, I do use that recipe. It is certainly a game changer. Now the legs and thighs are the best part of the bird.

Should have been out after my second Iowa bird this morning. Late night storms led to a perfect morning. I know they were going at it on the roost this morning, but I wanted a day off and better night's sleep. I've already had my first dish of tag soup with my first season tag. I've got about 10 days now to close the deal on really wary public land 4th season birds.

As much as a busy schedule will allow I have been trying to get these guys in front of the kids...

I'd love to get that recipe, I always use the legs, usually mexican style, I look for new techniques.