Cluck Cluck Boom
Member
This season is my 20th season chasin’ these Ol’ Longbeards. In those 20 seasons I’ve been blessed to make some great memories with friends, strangers, kids, adults.. you name it. I’ve had the opportunity to be able to introduce folks much older & much younger than myself to this passion that I have. Ultimately, though, the best memories I have chasin’ longbeards is the memories I’ve been able to make with family. 3 generations traveled the country together & killed our slams together. I’ve been able to double with my dad and grandpa, which is something very few people have the privilege to do. Man, we’ve made some awesome memories that we can carry with us the rest of our lives, & this mornin’ we were able to add a new memory to the files that will most certainly live with me for the rest of my life!
Papa used to hunt with a 12 gauge magnum Belgium made A5, and from the first day I saw that gun I fell in love with it & it started a love for A5 shotguns that has continued into my adulthood. I recently acquired a Belgium made 20 gauge A5. Knowing papa likes A5’s as well I went to show him my new purchase. While I was showing him the 20 I had an idea strike me, so I put in to shoot a bird with his 12 A5 that he used to turkey hunt with. I figured it may show him my love for the gun (in hopes it’ll one day be mine), plus I wanted to kill a bird with the gun that papa had killed so many with. I see it as an honor to take a bird with the gun that one of my biggest life mentors has used. So, fast forward a little bit and I end up leavin’ papa’s house with the 20 I’d just gotten and his 12 mag Belgium.. & by the way, he had the barrel threaded on the 12 mag so he could screw in a turkey choke.
With age papas not the most steady handed anymore and can’t exactly see perfect either, but I want to see him enjoy huntin’ with us for as long as possible, so I’m letting him use my little .410 with a red dot to hopefully help him be able to see where he’s aiming a little better than looking at the just a bead on the barrel. Since I’m lettin’ papa use my gun i decided it was the perfect time to break out his humpback.
I kicked off Easter weekend of my 20th turkey season gettin’ soakin’ wet sittin’ up against an Ol’ loblolly pine on a food plot with my brother in law.. who was the one supposed to be doin’ the shootin’.. Meanwhile, Papa & my little brother had gone to another food plot where a group of gobblers likes to hangout.. we started havin’ action earlier than I ever expected with the weather like it was & about 7:05 the first hen fed into the food plot, and fed on out the other end disappearing into the planted pines. About 5 minutes later another hen came the same route as the first, but got spooked by somethin’ and went back the way she came. Havin’ seen 2 hens somethin’ told me there should be a gobbler somewhere close by, he just had a serious case of lockjaw. So, we stayed put & i did a fly down cackle with a series of short yelps at the end. A few minutes after the calls I heard that familiar sound of wings beatin’.. my brother in law heard it too, but didn’t know what it was bein’ he’s just started to turkey hunt. As we hear the noise we both look in the direction it came from… and there he was… he looked like a jet airplane gliding thru the air as he glided over the top of a deer stand and landed about 20 yards in front of us. As he landed I could tell right then that he’d seen somethin’ he didn’t like because he hit the ground with a fast walk headed straight away from us into the trees. Before I could say anything to brother in law I had already reacted & he said all he remembers hearin’ is me say “gobbler” and hearin the shot…. I mean shots. I don’t remember aiming the first shot, which would make sense cause I missed him. That second shot.. that second shot didn’t miss, though.
And just like that, in a 10 second time-span, the whole hunt had turned around & on my first hunt with papa’s Ol’ humpback shotgun I managed to kill a longbeard.. and it’s gona finish the season with me ‘cause who can put down a gun when you killed with it the first trip you took it on?
to make the story a little bit sweeter… Papa told us before season started that he was gona go this season until he kills one. He’s goin’ to mount the bird he kills, put a plaque with the date on it, and that will wrap up his turkey huntin’ career, as he’s told us that’ll be the last gobbler he ever kills. It’s bittersweet to hear him say that, but I will forever cherish the mornin’ I carried his gun and he was there huntin’ to see the Ol’ Tom I harvested with his shotgun. And to top it off we were able to get a picture.. just papa, his Ol’ humpback, a dead longbeard and myself. Talk about a picture worth one thousand words…
& just like that, I killed an Ol’ Tom with grandaddy’s gun.
Papa used to hunt with a 12 gauge magnum Belgium made A5, and from the first day I saw that gun I fell in love with it & it started a love for A5 shotguns that has continued into my adulthood. I recently acquired a Belgium made 20 gauge A5. Knowing papa likes A5’s as well I went to show him my new purchase. While I was showing him the 20 I had an idea strike me, so I put in to shoot a bird with his 12 A5 that he used to turkey hunt with. I figured it may show him my love for the gun (in hopes it’ll one day be mine), plus I wanted to kill a bird with the gun that papa had killed so many with. I see it as an honor to take a bird with the gun that one of my biggest life mentors has used. So, fast forward a little bit and I end up leavin’ papa’s house with the 20 I’d just gotten and his 12 mag Belgium.. & by the way, he had the barrel threaded on the 12 mag so he could screw in a turkey choke.
With age papas not the most steady handed anymore and can’t exactly see perfect either, but I want to see him enjoy huntin’ with us for as long as possible, so I’m letting him use my little .410 with a red dot to hopefully help him be able to see where he’s aiming a little better than looking at the just a bead on the barrel. Since I’m lettin’ papa use my gun i decided it was the perfect time to break out his humpback.
I kicked off Easter weekend of my 20th turkey season gettin’ soakin’ wet sittin’ up against an Ol’ loblolly pine on a food plot with my brother in law.. who was the one supposed to be doin’ the shootin’.. Meanwhile, Papa & my little brother had gone to another food plot where a group of gobblers likes to hangout.. we started havin’ action earlier than I ever expected with the weather like it was & about 7:05 the first hen fed into the food plot, and fed on out the other end disappearing into the planted pines. About 5 minutes later another hen came the same route as the first, but got spooked by somethin’ and went back the way she came. Havin’ seen 2 hens somethin’ told me there should be a gobbler somewhere close by, he just had a serious case of lockjaw. So, we stayed put & i did a fly down cackle with a series of short yelps at the end. A few minutes after the calls I heard that familiar sound of wings beatin’.. my brother in law heard it too, but didn’t know what it was bein’ he’s just started to turkey hunt. As we hear the noise we both look in the direction it came from… and there he was… he looked like a jet airplane gliding thru the air as he glided over the top of a deer stand and landed about 20 yards in front of us. As he landed I could tell right then that he’d seen somethin’ he didn’t like because he hit the ground with a fast walk headed straight away from us into the trees. Before I could say anything to brother in law I had already reacted & he said all he remembers hearin’ is me say “gobbler” and hearin the shot…. I mean shots. I don’t remember aiming the first shot, which would make sense cause I missed him. That second shot.. that second shot didn’t miss, though.
And just like that, in a 10 second time-span, the whole hunt had turned around & on my first hunt with papa’s Ol’ humpback shotgun I managed to kill a longbeard.. and it’s gona finish the season with me ‘cause who can put down a gun when you killed with it the first trip you took it on?
to make the story a little bit sweeter… Papa told us before season started that he was gona go this season until he kills one. He’s goin’ to mount the bird he kills, put a plaque with the date on it, and that will wrap up his turkey huntin’ career, as he’s told us that’ll be the last gobbler he ever kills. It’s bittersweet to hear him say that, but I will forever cherish the mornin’ I carried his gun and he was there huntin’ to see the Ol’ Tom I harvested with his shotgun. And to top it off we were able to get a picture.. just papa, his Ol’ humpback, a dead longbeard and myself. Talk about a picture worth one thousand words…
& just like that, I killed an Ol’ Tom with grandaddy’s gun.
