It's complicated. Ended my GA season this morning. No shortage of turkey sandwiches around my house now.

I normally hunt turkeys with a 12ga single H&R. I swore off repeaters years ago, the last time I had to tote 60 lbs. of grown gobblers a mile and a half out of the woods. Bad as dragging a deer! I realized I just can't be trusted in the turkey woods with a magazine full of ammo.

Due to health problems, I've been hunting all Spring season with a Nitro Special .410 and some of Gil Stacy's fairy dust tungsten #9 loads. Hadn't seen a bird. Turkeys were probably laughing at me for showing up with a pop-gun! I decided my problem was a bad luck gun and decided to go to a 20ga gas automatic this morning to change my luck and because of the reduced recoil.

My luck had been so bad that I spent the afternoon last Saturday driving the firebreak roads through planted pines looking for tracks. I checked every road intersection for strut marks and found a likely spot.

That's where I hunted this morning. The birds started gobbling about 6:30 and were answering every sound I made on my calls. Some were close. I heard one fly down close behind me at 7:00.

Shortly after I spotted a group of 7 birds come out of the hardwoods below me and step into the firebreak road. Six jakes and a hen. I clucked one more time and the whole bunch ran up and stopped in front of me. One of the jakes was pretty big.

I decided that due to the turkey meat shortage around the house and because I'd experienced such poor luck all season so far, that I would take the biggest jake. He dropped in some grass when I fired and all the rest of the birds either ran or flew off.

I called a few times to see if anything was dumb enough to come back, and another pretty good jake returned and began to strut over his dearly departed brother. Not seemly, I felt. Shooting an automatic of course I had two more shells in the gun. Somehow I justified it in my mind to shoot him as well as the one I had down. No problem, I would still have another tag to carry though the season waiting on a long-beard.

When I stood up I saw the two birds I'd shot and a third young gobbler on the ground as well. I must have shot the other bird along with the 1st. When I went over to inspect the birds, one jumped up and ran so I used my third shell to finish it off.

At any rate I closed out my Georgia Spring Turkey season with a limit of three jakes. Sort of like kissing your cousin, not just what you wanted but not bad either!

Glad I live on the Florida border and their season's still in!...Geo