GETTING LUCKY ON TURKEYS WITH BLACK POWDER
What To Do When All Else Fails
 EDITOR'S
NOTE: When hunting with my black-powder shotgun, I always
wait until the bird comes in 10 to 12 yards closer to
me than I do if I hunt with a conventional shotgun.
My killing ground becomes 10 to 20 yards. I've chosen
to play the game of hunting turkeys with black powder
this way because I've bagged enough gobblers that I
don't need to shoot every tom I spot. I consider playing
the game fairly more important than bagging a bird.
The rules I set up for hunting a tom with black powder
help to stack the odds even more heavily in the turkey's
favor.
Bo Pitman, the manager of White Oak Plantation near
Tuskegee, Alabama, and I had hunted for two long and
hard days to get a gobbler close enough to take with
my black-powder shotgun. On the morning of the second
day, we called in a gobbler and three hens within 30
yards. But they wouldn't come close enough to where
I needed to take the shot. At 10 a.m. on the second
day, Pitman suggested we start walking and calling on
some woods roads to cover ground and try to locate a
gobbler. We had traveled about 1/4-mile along a backwoods
clay road  when
the road started to climb. About 6 yards in front of
me, Pitman cut on his slate caller. Immediately, a turkey
boomed out a gobble. "Get down, get down,"
Pitman hissed at me in a whisper. "We're right
on top of this bird." But I couldn't find a place
to hide. I didn't see a tree to lean up against. I had
to sit I the middle of that clay road. Luckily the road
cut through a hill. The turkey stood above us and couldn't
spot us on the road. If we moved off the road, the tom
would see us. Pitman sat almost at the top of the hill
with me just below and about 8 feet from him.
No turkey hunter in his right mind would take a stand
without any back cover to break up his silhouette. Most
hunters would want some front cover also to help camouflage
them. But Pitman and I had no other option. "I
can see the bird," Pitman whispered. "He's
less than 20 yards from you. You can make that shot."
I whispered back to Pitman that I couldn't see the turkey,
although I heard the bird continue to gobble and drum.
In a few minutes, Pitman told me, "The turkey looks
like he's only 12 yards from you. Shoot him." "Is
he standing to the left or right of my barrel?"
I asked in a hushed tone. "He's straight off the
end of your barrel," Pitman whispered out of the
corner of his mouth. "You're right in front of
him." "I still can't see him," I said.
"Please kill this turkey, John," Pitman begged.
"I can't stand the suspense any more.".
 I
mounted my shotgun and waited. The turkey took two steps
up the hill toward me and stuck his neck up. "Now,
you can shoot him," Pitman said when the bird approached
at 10 yards. "No, I can't," I said as slowly
as I could. A small sapling about 1-1/2-inches in diameter
stood in front of the turkey's neck and head. Even though
I could see the gobbler from his beak to his toenails,
I knew if I squeezed the trigger, the sapling would
eat the lead intended for the turkey's head. The tom
finally had had enough of this game. He saw me as a
blob of camo sitting in the middle of the road that
had been vacant. The hen he had heard calling a few
minutes earlier now had disappeared. The gobbler putted
and took one step forward, cocking his head, preparing
to break and run. But he gave me enough time and clearance
to squeeze the trigger. The gun went off, the gobbler
went down, and Pitman arrived on the bank holding the
bird before I could get up.
"I can’t believe you waited that long to
take the shot," Pitman said. "I knew the turkey
could see us. I'm surprised we didn't spook him sooner.
I've never seen a turkey shot that close with black
powder. Although you might have shot him while he stood
behind the sapling, I think you did the right thing
by waiting and making the bird give you a clean shot."
 When
you've got a bird on the ground, you can smell the scent
of burnt powder, and you've played the game fairly,
then you've won. Pitman and I had worked the bird in
close. But more importantly, we got lucky. My black-powder
shotgun did the rest.
To learn more about turkey hunting, call Night Hawk
Publications, (205) 967-3830 or write 4112 Camp Horner
Road, Birmingham, AL 35243 to order John E. Phillips'
three turkey-hunting books, "Turkey Hunting Tactics,"
"The Master's Secrets to Turkey Hunting" and
"Outdoor Life's Complete Book of Turkey Hunting."
You can visit www.nighthawkpublications.com/hunting/hunting.htm
to read book excerpts.
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