Angus Scores! — Hello, My Honey! – Genesis9:2-4 Ministries

I have been experiencing a complete dearth of huntable gobblers all through the first week of season. Oh, I’ve been hearing them, and hearing hens as well. It has just been one day after another of the gobs hopping off the roost and disappearing off the property. It has been exceptionally warm this week. A front came through yesterday, dropped a load of rain and then blew out over last night. The rain was well gone when we got up this morning. Moose, Angus, and I were hoping this might spur the turkeys a bit. Moose went to Garbage Pit, Angus went to Dead Skunk, and I returned to the Honey Hole. It was much cooler – 45F instead of 62F yesterday. My luck was pretty much the same as it had been. Moose at least got to play with a hen. Angus was having similar bad luck. Sunrise came and went just before 0700. By 0800, he was getting disheartened.

Suddenly a hearty gobble from the north and east broke the silence. It was distant and seemingly well off our property. That was it. Zip. Nada. Angus was just sitting there, thinking of what to do next, when he heard a single deep cluck from just behind his head.

Angus was caught flat, looking the wrong way with barrel pointed the wrong way. He slowly moved his head enough to find a gobbler just behind his left shoulder about 10 yards out. As he moved his barrel, the gobbler panicked and ran out into the abandoned food plot just to the left of Angus’ blind. The gobbler was running about in a snit, putting as he went. Angus blew him a cackle that stopped him dead at 15 yards and made the bird go into a strut. Angus got the gone up and fired a round of 2 3/4 OZ Remington Buffered Magnum. The gobbler went down and barely twitched.

Angus noticed the bird’s leg was wobbly. When he examined it more closely, he discovered a deep wound at the knee that was festering, probably a slash from a fight with another gobbler. He picked up the bird and his kit and was walking back to camp. Just as he was passing the pond, another gobbler popped out and stood there for a moment. Angus waved his gobbler at him and the bird departed for the woods.

Angus noticed the bird’s left leg was wobbly. When he examined it more closely, he discovered a deep wound at the knee that was festering, probably a slash from a fight with another gobbler. He picked up the bird and his kit and was walking back to camp. Just as he was passing the pond, another gobbler popped out and stood there for a moment. Angus waved his gobbler at him and the bird departed for the woods.

Back at camp, Angus found his gobbler was sporting 3 beards. The longest was 8 1/2 inches. He had 1 1/8-inch spurs. He weighed 23 pounds. He started to work on cleaning the bird. The skin was incredibly tough. Start to finish, it took him close to two hours to clean the bird and most of that was skinning. The innards were very jaundiced. Angus threw them out on the ground and started breasting the carcass. When he looked down, he saw the intestines on the ground were starting to move on their own. There was a 6-inch tape worm trying to get back in. Angus said it reminded him of a scene from Spaceballs.

Angus is still debating what to do. He was seriously thinking of changing his order to soup. Moose prepared a grand second breakfast of fried corn mush and sausage gravy. That put him back on his feed.

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