Hunting Turkeys With A Sixgun
It was the opening day of Turkey Season in Arizona and I was out in the hills with my friend Dale, looking to bag my first turkey. Dale had never hunted them or shot one before this either. We were both newbie turkey hunters.
Dale and I had scouted and looked for them. We read magazine articles about hunting turkeys ... there was no internet in those days. You had buy a printed book if you wanted to read about something. We also bought some turkey calls and tried to practice what we thought would sound right. The books gave us a few clues and we tried to follow them.
We had found the are where a flock was and where they went to roost at night. The books said one good way to start hunting turkeys was find where they roost. Then sneak in before day and bust 'em off the roost. The turkeys will scatter. As soon as it is light, start giving the lost turkey call and while it may not fool the older wiser birds, the young ones will run to you. They hate being alone!
Opening Day found us ... well before dawn ... sneaking up a wash and scaring the turkeys where they were roosting. Between Dale and I and the turkeys we made a lot of noise! Then we settled down, Dale watching one direction while I watched the other. We were in a small patch of brush, camo'd and quiet. When it got light enough to see the sights I started calling.
Dale had a Browning Auto 5 and I was hunting with my Ruger .45 Colt sixgun. Yes, it was legal for Turkeys. I had it loaded with the old Colt bullet by Lyman ... #454190 .. 255 gr. roundnose .. over 8.5 gr. Unique. I did not want to tear up the bird if I got a shot. I figured the heavy roundnose bullet would just "pencil" through.
I had been calling for a few minutes when all of sudden there was turkey running toward me! I stopped calling, picked up my pistol and cocked the hammer. I went to put the sights on the bird but something was wrong! I was shaking badly and could not hold the gun steady. I jerked the trigger and missed the bird. It just stood there staring at me and I cocked the hammer and fired again, shaking like leaf. The bullet hit the bird on the right leg and it suddenly took off, flying directly overhead. I pulled the gun up and snapped a shot that went directly into the bird's breast. It flew right into the hillside about 30 feet from us and crashed like a shot-down fighter in WW1.
I couldn't stop shaking! We got over to the bird and found it was dead. It turned out to be a young female, legal for this part of the Season.
I eventually settled down and we packed up and went home. I took the bird to a shop and had the meat smoked and we ate it for Thanksgiving dinner. My wife made a display from the tail which we had for years but somehow lost in one of the times we were moving.
I never did get out to hunt turkeys again. We moved to Missouri a few years after that and I couldn't hunt turkeys in Missouri with a handgun, so I never went.
I also never experienced that rush of adrenaline that gives "buck fever" again either.
It was about 1985.
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I didn't shoot a turkey with a revolver so I will hav e
to give Jim a big hug on that, plus he shot it while it was doing about 45 MPH over his head. All in all Jim is one of the best shots with a handgun I have ever had the pleasure to know.
In all my years of hunting I have only shot 2 turkeys with a handgun. And both were maybe 25 yards max. Doing like Jim, I hid in a brush pile because I was actually hunting deer. I hate tree stands so I normally just position myself in a brush pile and it seems to always work.
While waiting for some unlucky deer to come by I heard about a dozen turkeys gobbling on about daylight and by the sounds I knew they were maybe 50 yards from me. I had no turkey call and nothing to get them to come to me. I tried making what I thought was a pretty sexy sounding turkey but ended up just slobbering down the front of my jacket. The turkeys kept carrying on and I figured they must have a party going on so why not join them.
I had a 44 Auto Mag that I had carried for the deer that were all over this area southeast of Nashville Tennessee. I had taken several whitetail deer with this handgun along with a few wild feral hogs and figured maybe I could get a turkey with it too.
After my slobbering session I decided to try something else. I put the pistol in a crossdraw holster and started crawling toward them. I had heard that as long as you weren't walking toward them they would stay somewhat still. If that was true then crawling should work fine.
As I got to within maybe 20 to 25 yards some of the young turkeys spotted me and started scratching the ground like a bull challenging me. The owner of the land I was shooting on told me to shoot 2 or 3 turkeys and that the Jakes would be better eating. Now I had no idea which one was Jake and it was obvious that one of them was going to charge me any minute now. I was already on my hands and knees so I just eased down into the leaves. This really made a couple of them mad so I figured I needed to shoot now before the whole flock decided to charge. I got down on my belly with the Auto Mag in hand. One of the turkeys was really acting up so I figured he must be the one named Jake. He was facing me head on in a charging stance. Holding the front sight on Jake's throat area I pulled the trigger on the Auto Mag and at the blast dirt and leaves went everywhere. After things settled down I looked for Jake and saw him lying in the leaves maybe 20 yards from me. I waited a few minutes in case one of the others might still be around and in the mood to avenge Jake. After a few minutes I got back to my feet, brushing about 50 lbs of dirt and leaves off me. It was amazing how much dirt and leaves that Auto Mag put in the air at the shot. Anyway, I walked up to Jake with the gun cocked and pointed somewhat near where he lay in case he was just playing dead. He was surprisingly a lot smaller than I thought he would be, especially with most of his breast missing.
About that time my hunting buddy walked up to see what all the racket was. He had been deer hunting about 75 yards to one side of me and said it sounded like somebody was choking to death and then a shot and more screaming and calling names. He figured the deer hunting for the day was about gone so we called it a day.
When I got back to my friend's house, he asked me why I shot the baby of the flock. I tried to tell him about Jake's threatening me but figured I would let it be. My friend told me to go back to that same spot that evening and the rest of the flock would be back that evening just before dark. I did and sure enough there was about 40 turkeys hanging around having a wake talking about what a great turkey Jake was. Anyway after things began to break up I ruined the wake and shot one of Jake's buddies that evening. I shot him side to side with the big 44. It sure didn't seem to be much left of this turkey too after the bullet went completely through him. I had my hunting buddy with me that evening with his camera as he kept mentioning he wanted to see what caused all the screaming and such that morning.
Sitting down a few yards from where Jake bit the dust I didn't have long to wait before the rest of the turkeys began to drift in. I picked out a turkey and shot Jake's buddy about 20 yards from where Jake ended his threatening days. Since then I haven't shot any more turkeys. It just doesn't seem to be much challenge to that turkey hunting.
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You have more fun than the law allows!
It's too bad there was no video. 