On April 14, 1991 my wife, Shirley, and I were visiting our old friend Luther Graham at his Honey Creek Ranch in Hunt, Texas. We had hunted with him many times and taken many record class exotics. This trip we weren't hunting, just visiting and seeing if he had any new animals that I might want to hunt later.

He mentioned that he had been seeing quite a few Turkey on his place. He hadn't seen many birds in past years. He offered to take us for a look see, just for fun. Even though no hunting had been planned, we did have a couple of guns along, because you never know what might come up. We had Shirleys Remington model 700 in .243 caliber, loaded with 100 grain Remington soft point ammo, and a Tasco 3 - 9 scope on top. Also in the truck was my Remington model 1100, 12-gauge shotgun. I had Remington #4 shotshells for it.

As we drove around the edge of a pasture we spotted a gobbler thru the binoculars at 200 plus yards. We pulled over and I got a rest on a stump. I missed twice with the.243 and Shirley told me," it shoots a little high and to the right". "Thanks dear". My next shot miraculously, got him. This was my first turkey ever and it had a 4 3/4 inch beard. By the way, did I mention that we were hunting during the Texas spring turkey season? We decided that turkey hunting was fun, so we figured to come back the next weekend to try for more. The next weekend we were back in full camouflage, same two guns, and perched in the fork, a big one, about 15 feet off the ground under the canopy of an oak tree whose circumference would cover two or three pickup trucks. Our host told us he had seen lots of turkey in the area.we was hunting in. Right after daylight we had nine turkey hens pecking the ground around the base of our tree. About an hour of barely breathing passed agonizingly slowly. We saw a nice turkey tom strutting his stuff about 120 yards away, but for some reason wouldn't come any closer to us. Shirley decided to take a crack at him. Think about trying to position yourself for a long rifle shot at a gobbler with nine usually vigilant, spooky hens not five yards away. She got him though and now Shirley had her first ever turkey. He had a 9 1/2 inch beard. We decided to let the area rest and try again that evening.

Late that day I was back in that same tree hoping for a big gobbler. Shirley had decided to pass on hunting that evening, so I had both guns with me. I beat all the odds and at about 80 yards creased the top of the big bronzed back of a gobbler. Remember it shoots a little high!! It flew about 50 yards and down into a creek bottom. Shirley, who had been watching through her binoculars from a ways off drove up to see what I had. I explained to her that the bird was down, and I was going after it with the shotgun. As I descended the rocky bank of the dry creek bed I saw it laying, not moving on the ground. I turned back to Shirley and yelled to her, "I've got him, he's on the ground". Yes you guessed it, as soon as I said it, there was a loud flutter of wings and off he went. Talk about miracles, I experienced two of them that day. Number one was seeing a dead turkey coming to life and flying away. Number two was I swung around and made an instant killing shot from the hip with a shotgun at 30 yards. Talk about beginners luck!

Written by Steve Mahurin on April 22, 1999.