Gary Reeder
I didn't shoot a turkey with a revolver so I will hav e
Wednesday, December 27, 2023, 15:59

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.