One of my long time friends and hunting buddies Randy Steele of Cason's Oldfield, in the Southern part of Anson County, NC near the Chesterfield County, South Carolina line invited me to hunt with him opening day and week on an excellent track of land that he and his brother are co-owners of and I readily took him up on the offer.

I got to his home around 6AM and we got all of our gear loaded up into his vehicle and it didn't take long before we were in the turkey  woods and heard three different gobblers all fired up.  Those ole boys were across a good sized creek from our position and due to the heavy rain the night before, the creek was swollen and there was no place we could ford the creek without getting water at least waist height and it was a little too cold about 50 degrees to walk around wet   Thirty or forty years ago, I would not have hesitated in the least to challenge the swollen creek going after those Long Beards, but time has a way of correcting impromptu judgment flaws; grin if you must!  Another thing, those birds would absolutely not answer a single call from either of us but simply gobbled when they got ready.  However, they shock gobbled to crows squawking and hawks screaming but were immune to our best seductive calling! 

After deciding those ole long beards were untouchable by not being able to get closer to them, we set up at another location at the edge of a field and did get a chance to see three jakes and a hen come in front of the Doghouse blind we were in and it certainly was enjoyable watching the biggest one of the three jakes act like an ole boss gobbler.  In a few years, he should be a big boss gobbler for sure with all the posturing and bulling that he was doing to the other two jakes.  When he first came out and saw the jake decoy, he immediately ran up to him and puffed up and displayed a few aggressive tactics but the jake decoy held his ground  and the jake finally figured out, the jake decoy was no threat to him or whatever goes through a turkeys brain.  A few pixs inserted of what we saw from the doghouse blind:  Note the hole in the screen netting of which Randy had shot through the netting a year or two back and harvested a jake.  I forgot to ask him about a zipper on the opening....grin if you must!

We enjoyed watching the three jakes feeding and would mess with them with a few soft yelps and clucks and watch the blood flow into their wattles and the color on their heads change to a bright blue with reddish overtones, however they would not make a sound.  Below pix of Randy Steele catching himself a nap. He had a piece of small trash under one of his eye lids and was experiencing some serious pain and later that afternoon went to the emergency room and they found and removed the small spec of "trash" that was bothering him. 

We will be back tomorrow if the weather permits and see if we can get set up on one of the ole long beards.  Below pix of Randy with his gear as we headed back to the truck.  Continued story.................................

TURKEY HUNTING 04-13-09

Above pix taken on 04-13-09 of the hunt location for today.  Prior to daybreak, we had one gobbler respond to an owl call and a few minutes later he responded to a crow call and that was all the gobbling we heard from him.  He was located a couple hundred yards (guesstimate)  in fairly heavy woods and not feasible to attempt to get any closer to him and opted for a set up along the edge of the field and wood line where we had the three jakes and hen come to the decoys on 04-11-09.  I tried a different higher pitched box call and a lower pitch raspy box call but could not get a response from him.  I tried a mouth call but the same results.   Randy stated that this was about the norm for the long beards on this track of land.  Every 15 or 20 minutes, I would cluck a little and rotate between clucks and yelps but still nothing would respond. 

At about 0945 Randy said, "Look to the left" and a very nice mature long beard was about 50 yards or more out walking down the edge of the field in full strut heading toward the decoy set up.  I took a pix of him through the blind netting but the infrared auto-focus on the camera locked in on the netting instead of the turkey.  See pix below:

The ole long beard put on a show for us but he soon got out of my view from the small opening in the Doghouse blind and strutted right up to the decoys,  Randy eased his Belgium Browning A-5 12 gauge out the opening in the blind and fired, however the long beard did not go down according to him but was still standing trying to figure out what had taken place.  I advised Randy to shoot again and all we heard was a snap sound from his gun.  I excitedly handed Randy my Remington 11-87 3 1/2 inch Super-Magnum loaded with Remington Hevi-Shot #5 shells and by this time the ole long beard had walked off at least 40 yards and I could see him from the small window on my side of the Doghouse blind and at the loud boom of the Remington Super Magnum, Mr. Long beard went down.  Talk about pumped up and anxious all at the same time  with bad luck and good luck all happening so fast, it was nearly unreal.   Murphy's Law is still awake!  We surmised that Randy had some old shells #4 size shot shells and the round that fired didn't have enough energy to eject the spent shell but allowed the bolt to travel rearward enough to cock and engage the sear/trigger yet the spent shell stayed in the chamber and the gun snapped on the once fired shell.  Apparently, not a single pellet hit the long beard since he didn't jump, run or fly outright.  Below is a pix of Randy with his first ever long beard:

The long beard weighed 20 pounds and sported a 10 1/2 inch length beard and had spur lengths of 1 inch and 1.125 inches.  You could see the wear on the tip of his wings from all the strutting he had been doing.  Should be some good giblets and gravy or deep fried golden turkey nuggets.  PS:  Randy gave me permission to give the details of this hunt as it happened even though we both did a little grinning and this is a real world example of turkey hunting uncut, unedited!

This certainly was an exciting hunt and will have to do it again this week, the weather permitting.  Hopefully, more to follow.

Bill aka Mickey Porter 04-13-09.

TURKEY HUNTING 04-14-09

Our local area weather prophets did some serious forecasting of rain and thunderstorms for April 14, 2009 blanketing our Anson County area, however we decided to chance another morning hunt since so far we have dodged the bullet for any serious weather issues.  We arrived at another hunting area well before daylight and heard a distant gobbler or two but nothing on the land we planned to hunt.  Randy has heard numerous birds gobbling close by on earlier scouting and we decided to set up and give it a try "Cold Turkey" as the ole cliché goes.  Below pix of the set-up:

We both yelped, clucked, etc. but only heard a gobbler a couple times very far away off this hunting track of land.  We saw a total of 19 deer, all does come across the end of the field and they could not quite figure out the decoys.  I finally got the little digital camera on three of them, the last ones to enter the field and took a quick shot before they exited the field; pix below:

We stayed a couple hours but did not see or hear anything close by and decided to go back to the first location at the doghouse blind since the weather was getting overcast and heavy clouds rolling in.  Hey, I believe the weather prophets are about to nail this forecast on the head today.  The mosquitoes left there mark on my hands with over 17 bites.  I definitely will have some insect repellant with me on the next hunt.....my bad on this one for sure!

We set-up again in the doghouse blind with the decoys about 20 yards into the field and it wasn't long before the sky turned dark with thunder rolling and some serious rain started coming down.  The several year old doghouse blind did pretty good holding back the rain although some water did get in around the zippers and a few seams but nothing serious.  The rain finally let up and about an hour later a single hen entered the field and was soaking wet herself.  She did extensive grooming straightening and cleaning her feathers and put on a pretty good show.  After her grooming session, she "spied" the hen and jake decoy set-up and walked toward them in an aggressive posture clucking the entire time and did give some purrs also.  Below pix as she approached the decoys displaying a spread fan, wings somewhat outstretched, back feathers ruffled and neck extended with body lower to the ground than normal:

I thought for a second or two she was going to attack the hen decoy but finally calmed down and went back to feeding and continued to feed in the field for at least an hour.  Every 10 or 15 minutes I would hit a few notes on several box calls and it did not faze her and did not get a response from anything else.  I got an ole trusty slate call out and purred and clucked and she came to the left side and rear of the blind clucking the entire time and do believe she would have came into the doghouse blind if there was an opening. 

Randy and myself had an enjoyable hunt even though we didn't see or harvest a long beard today, but it was and is great to be in the outdoors again enjoying what God has created and thankful for the opportunity to be able to do so.  More to follow.

Bill aka Mickey Porter 04-14-09.

TURKEY HUNTING 04-15-09 

Today April 15, 2009 found myself up as usual before daybreak around 0520 with my regular pit stop to the bathroom and then on to the kitchen to brew a fresh pot of Decaf coffee and while the coffee was brewing, got dressed and consumed  a quick bowl of cereal to knock the edge off the hunger just in case I would be in the woods until high noon.  With the quickie breakfast consumed, I checked the weather forecast and it was around 50 degrees and going to be a beautiful day with some occasional clouds.  After getting my gear loaded, I headed toward Randy Steele's home again to hunt another location with him today.  I talked to Randy yesterday afternoon and he saw a long beard in the field where we planned to set-up this morning and he also stated that he has seen four (4) long beards in the same field earlier. 

I arrived at Randy's home around 0615 and we loaded my gear into his truck.  I had my usual stuff like a portable aluminum stool with fabric netting  which helps tremendously when having to sit a while which is the norm for me turkey hunting.  I had an extra box call to in my hunting vest to do a little experimenting with also.  We drove to the hunt location which was very close by and after getting to the second gate where he parked, I heard a long beard sound off.  It was getting close to daylight by now especially with the moon half full and we eased toward where we heard the gobble come from.  It sounded like he was close to the pasture fence line which was mostly planted pines but a good portion was void of any planted trees at this location.  A fantastic place to set-up and "guesstimated" the distance to the fence line at about 100 yards.  See pix below:

After quickly setting up the jake and hen decoys,  I took a position at the base of a tower tree stand and had my back against one of the rear support utility poles of which I didn't stick out like a sore thumb and by now the long beard was hammering away.  I gave a soft tree yelp but he did not immediately respond, however he continued to gobble.  I gave a series of soft yelps but again he did not instantly gobble.  I put the call up and let him continue to gobble at his own pace and could tell he was seriously interested in those earlier yelps but I remained silent on the call.  Since he had a fix on the yelps, I decided to let him do his thing.  He was either coming our way or not!  After daybreak, I could make the outline of the long beard in a large sweet gum tree and he was positioned about three fourths the way up the tree which was a little ways back from the edge of the pasture fence and could see him stretching his neck looking around.   It didn't take him too long before he pitched down into the edge of the pasture clearing and  went into a full strut.  He did not gobble any more and was strutting at a very fast pace walking directly toward the decoys which was about 20 yards to my right.  When the long beard advanced within about  30 yards of my position,  the Remington 11-87 3 1/2 inch Super Magnum's Tru Glo sights were already fixed on his head and neck area and the long beard rolled at the mighty thunderous sound emitted from the Super Mag. and flopped around trying to get to his feet but unable to do so.  Normally, the Super Mag kicks like a briar eating mule but I didn't feel a thing and had missile lock on the long beard flopping around.  Randy and myself ran to Mr. Long Beard and Randy pinned his neck to the ground until the flopping ceased.  This was a classic text book example of Turkey Hunting How To 101 and it doesn't happen like this too often, or at least in my case.  Below is a self-portrait of myself and the long beard.  Naturally, I had to do a little promo for my Porter Dual Hens box call and don't think a comb has been through my hair in a few days as evidenced by this pix....grin if you must!

Pictured with the long beard and yours truly is the Porter Dual Hen's box called used which has a one piece Honduras Mahogany base and walnut lid with RB4 wood marquetry inlays.  This identical call is featured on my Sound Page which has a pix and sound file of this call.  The long beard had a 10.25 inch beard, 7/8 inch spur lengths and weighed 20 pounds.  He was harvested at 0645 hours at a distance stepped off of 35 yards.  I used Remington Hevi-Shot # 5 shot 1 3/4 oz. at 1300 fps velocity through the Remington 3 1/2 inch Super Magnum 11-87 general purpose shotgun with a Briley .675 diameter choke tube.  I plan to replace the choke tube in the very near future with a Black Diamond Strike choke tube since I am not totally pleased with the shot grouping at 40 yards with this set-up; hopefully the BDS choke tube will perform much better.  I would have switched over to the Hevi-13 shot but had 67 rounds of the #5 Remington Hevi-Shot in stock and a little too frugal at this time not to shoot them up.

Below pix showing where the long beard (far right in pix) fell and the large sweet gum tree can also be seen from this camera position where the turkey pitched down from.

I certainly do appreciate it when a plan comes together like this morning.  Randy Steele was just as elated as myself and we plan to go back into the turkey woods tomorrow morning.  Below a few pixs taken filleting the breast meat from the wild turkey harvested.  I didn't take near enough pixs but will try and do a little better next time.

The long beard ready to give up the breast filets.

An incision is made along the center of the breast bone only skin deep to pull the skin away from the breast meat exposing the breast.

This pixs shows the entire skin pulled back exposing all the breast meat.  Using a thin bladed knife, make a cut at the top of the breast bone following the curvature of the skeleton and cut as close to the bone as you can not to waste any meat. 

This pix shows one half of the breast removed from the breast bone and skeleton.  Very little if any breast meat is left to go to waste.

Pix of the turkey breasts removed and ready to soak in salt water to remove as much blood as possible.  Each breast filet had a single pellet in it and the salt water solution will help remove any blood rendering beautimous breast filets ready to be vacuum sealed and frozen until ready to cook.  The antique Old Timer 4 inch length blade folding hunter has field dressed many, many deer and works equally well on Mr. Long Beard!

Wild Turkey breast filets after salt water soaking and paper towel dried ready to be vacuum sealed.

Food Saver vacuum sealing machine pulling the air from the bag and heat sealing!

Wild turkey breast filets ready for the freezer.  I will fix some wild turkey nuggets from these beautimous breast filets in the future.   See the wild turkey  nuggets recipe on the main recipe page of this website.

A most enjoyable hunt and I was back home by 0720.  Randy Steele and myself will be in the turkey woods tomorrow morning, the Lord willing and the creek doesn't rise!

Bill aka Mickey Porter 04-15-09.   More to follow!

TURKEY HUNTING 04-16-09

The weather prophets called the weather right on the money today....cool start, brisk breeze and clear skies!  Randy and myself set up at the same location we hunted on 04-14-09, the early morning hunt.  The sky was clear as crystal with the moon still half full and getting smaller and we heard three gobblers sounding off as soon as we got to the lower field we planned to hunt.  One of the long beards sounded like he was fairly close and on our side of the creek which was a good thing. 

Somewhere around 0640 a long beard entered the field and saw the decoys but the wind was moving the decoys around pretty fast and believe this put him on full alert.  Something wasn't just right to him and he surveyed the decoys a while and spread his tail feathers for a full strut but would not commit to coming any closer.  Next time the wind is blowing like today, I will stake the decoys in place with a couple sharpened sticks to keep them from spinning around in an unnatural manner.  He was probably 75 yards from our position and finally skirted the edge of the field heading toward a small low point at the edge of the woods.  He gobbled at least one time but would not answer to a yelp, purr or cluck and left the area.  We stayed about 2 hours and the wind finally got strong enough to where both of us were getting pretty chilled from the wind that was gusting heavy at times.  An additional layer of clothing would have been great!

We relocated to another prime hunting spot but the wind continued to get stronger and nothing else was heard or seen and decided to call it a day.  That is why they call it turkey hunting instead of turkey harvesting but we certainly did have an enjoyable time and did see an ole long beard and heard at least three different long beards sounding off.  We plan to try the same place again tomorrow morning but change our set-up to the other side of the field and see what happens.

Randy Steele, my turkey hunting guide and host for this week has taken me to some great hunting spots and we have seen and heard turkeys each day regardless of whether we harvested a bird or not and that is really not the main reason for hunting to either of us.  The successful harvest of a mature bird is the culmination of taking in all the peripheral elements of enjoying and being a part of nature watching the sunrise, listening to the whippoorwill sing, short fast gobble of a close or distant turkey, industrious woodpeckers hammering on dead trees, the overhead passing of a flock of geese heading North, the smell of fresh plowed soil, the beauty of new plant and floral rebirth, frogs and insects harmonious early morning melody, squawking crows, owls hooting;  the list can go on and on for one who enjoys and understands nature.  For those that do not hunt, many cannot understand anything but simply the killing a helpless defenseless animal, bird, fish, etc. and do not realize it is hunters such as Randy and myself that help support the management of our natural resources by hunting license fees collected, taxes on hunting and fishing equipment and a multitude of supplemental, secondary revenues to expand and sustain our State and Federal economy as well.  Many of the Animal Rights groups (not all) have the pretense of helping animals but for the most part usually spend about ninety (90) percent of the donations and monies received on administrative costs which translates into personal income and wealth with only ten (10) percent mandated by law that actually will be spent on some type of support/aid camouflaging their real agenda and issues.  Lets not forget those individuals who do the campaigning for animal rights yet will consume veal that is produced in countries that have the young calves pinned up to where they cannot move much at all and fed an iron deficient diet that makes them anemic so the meat will be white; eat lobster tails whereas the lobster is placed into boiling water alive; consume Almas caviar produced from a 100 year old plus Beluga Sturgeon from the Caspian Sea that was harvested just for the roe (fish eggs) and consume imported ducks that are force fed whereby yielding a much higher fat content........do you see the picture I am painting?  Those type of organizations and individuals are far from being alone and prey on our human nature of wanting to help others of which those traits of giving are noble and worthy but we fall victim and are exploited and I myself are guilty as well for not researching those organizations and individuals to see what type of stewards they really are!  Visualize and symbolize a wolf in a lamb's skin! 

After returning home around mid-day and a much needed "power" nap, the afternoon was simply fantastic with nothing pressing on the agenda but continuing to enjoy a week away from the work place; not that I mind going to work to earn a living but this type of rest and relaxation is good for the body and the soul!  Too many people are caught up in the mainstream of earning a living to enjoy basic and simple pleasures of life failing to "smell the roses" along life's highway.  I can understand those that do not have the opportunity to do so with our country and world in a serious depression  even though for the past five or six years, economists and the news media have toned down and veiled the real issues using such terms as a "new economy", "mild recession", etc. for political reasons and to help deter national panic among those of us that help support the "Fat Cats" of our political establishment via taxation.  Well, enough of VENTING because I believe our Country is still the best in the entire World offering freedoms that others wish they had!

As I have stated many times throughout this website, "Two of the Greatest Ships that ever sailed, Friendship and Fellowship", of which Randy and myself have exemplified that phase very well this week so far.

After a leisurely afternoon, I prepared my bride and myself an evening meal, supper aka dinner consisting of: Chicken Fried Chicken, same recipe as Chicken Fried Steak but used chicken breasts instead, herbed mashed red potatoes, green peas, white sauce and home made French garlic bread with butter and parsley.  I saved the white wine for a later date and enjoyed ice cold Culligan filtered water instead.  As most of you know by now, I love taking pictures of preparing meals but today was a re-run of recipes already posted on my recipe main page!

My "bride" and myself will finish off the supper aka dinner with a good hot cup of cappuccino brewed from fresh ground Starbucks  espresso beans topped with frothed half and half milk!

Bill aka Mickey Porter 04-16-09.  More to follow! 

 TURKEY HUNTING 04-17-09

Randy and myself returned to our first hunt location of yesterday and immediately heard a gobbler sounding off.  He appeared on be on our side of the creek and had hopes of at least seeing the ole boy since they have been immune to our best calling efforts so far.  I hurriedly set up a single hen decoy about 25 yards out and the long beard continued to gobble but would not answer to a call and at about  0650 we heard him fly down with several heavy wing beats.  Mr. Long beard did not show and apparently flew off in the other direction.  We heard several hens passing through the woods on the far side of the field giving there normal clucks.  The temperature was about 10 degrees colder than yesterday,  however the wind was fairly calm and the cold didn't seem to penetrate my normal layers of clothing.   Below pix of the set-up for this location:

We stayed at this location for a couple hours and decided to go back to the doghouse blind set-up.  We heard two different gobblers sounding off and one was on another track of land.  There is not any food for the turkeys on this very large cultivated field and I am sure this hurts our best efforts for this hunting location.

We went back to the doghouse blind location and put out the hen and jake decoys and a single hen came into the field around 1055 and dusted herself several times before feeding.  Another hen entered about 20 minutes later and came very close to our doghouse blind giving an occasional purr and cluck.  I continued to use my box call and slate but did not get a response from a long beard.  We stayed until around 1315 hours aka 1:15 P.M. and will go to another location in the morning and see if we can get our communication line established with an ole long beard.  Couple pixs of the hens feeding:

Pix of Randy Steele tucked in tighter than an Alabama tick waiting on Mr. Long Beard::

Again, it was a pleasurable hunt and the weather conditions was fantastic with the various birds feeling their "oats" this morning.   Everything around us is alive of which the Spring season is a time for rebirth and the various hues of green is totally awesome!

Bill aka Mickey Porter 04-17-09.  More to follow!   

TURKEY HUNTING 04-18-09

Randy Steele and myself had high hopes this morning of seeing and maybe connecting on another long beard.  We arrived at our hunting location we were at on 04-15-09 and heard a distant gobbler sounding off.  I gave a short series of yelps and a long beard immediately gobbled straight across from where we planned to set up and quickly set the decoys out and positioned the camouflage netting around the base of a deer hunting tower tree platform.   I gave another serious of yelps but the gobbler did not respond.  At about 0620 when heard and saw him fly down but he was headed in the direction of a 4 to 5 year old cutover and we did not hear or see anything out of him the balance of the morning.  That turkey might be one of the long beards Randy has seen in this field on numerous occasions and he might have had some hunting pressure from the adjacent  track of land.

To our left across the field that had planted pine trees bordering Randy's property, we heard some of the most awful sounding yelps imaginable and figured it had to be other hunters in there.  After a few more yelps from whoever it was, they gave a horrible sounding gobble call from two different sources; one sounded like a tube and the other sounded like a duel sided box call with rubber bands on it.  After they continued to call, a hen about 75 to 100 yards from us began clucking and cutting and came out into a clearing and we watched her for about 15 minutes before she meandered out of view.

I continued to call every 15 or 20 minutes with a couple box calls and a slate but did not get a response or hear another long beard.

Randy and myself both have some "honey do" projects scheduled and decided to call it a day.  Randy said he would probably go back to the location he harvested the long beard on Monday and stay a while.

I presented Randy with a host gift of one of the box calls used this week; a Porter Dual Hens field grade model mahogany base with a walnut inlaid lid and planned to photograph the event but my little digital camera was on my computer desk where I left it last evening.  So much for the pixs...grin if you must.  Archived pix and sound file of this call from the Sound Page:

  The call has aged a couple years and has a deeper pitch and mellower tone now. The right sound board has a real raspy old hen type sound and the left sound board is a younger hen and is what you hear on the sound file. 

In summation, this has been one fantastic week with both of us harvesting a two year old plus long beard and we have some lasting memories of this weeks hunt and certainly did enjoy one another's company and plan to hunt some on the upcoming weekends, the weather permitting.

Bill aka Mickey Porter 04-18-09.  More to follow.

TURKEY HUNTING 04-25-09

Randy Steele and myself hunted today getting a much earlier start due to the days getting longer and were in the turkey woods around 0600 hours which was not none to early either.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous with the temperature in the mid to high 50s with the wind very still and just a little fog in low areas.  However, we did not hear a single long beard gobble at either of the two locations we previously harvested a bird at.  We did see one lone hen feeding about 0900 and that was it for the morning.  I left the little digital camera back at home for the second time in a row and guess that comes with not double checking my hunting gear and a mild case of CRS (Can't Remember Sometimes) disease.  I planned to take a pix of the new Cabelas Gobbler Lounger recently purchased and very impressed after my first usage of the lounger.  It has all the comfort one needs and weighs six pounds and not bad unless you plan on walking around most of the hunt.  It sits very low to the ground and has a good tilted back support.  There are not any supporting members that will cut your circulation off and a well thought out design, however a permutation of the carrying stray will be done in the near future to beef it up and lengthen it as well!

Pix below of the Cabelas Gobbler Lounger:

With shipping the cost was around 38 bucks and worth every penny of it too.  If anything, you might get too comfortable and doze off....grin if you must!  It is rated at 225 lbs. and I exceed that amount by 10 to 15 lbs. and did not have any trouble with it but I didn't crash flop down onto it either.  I am sure if you did that a few times you would break a rivet or something loose.

Yesterday afternoon,  I pattered my new Indian Creek Black Diamond Strike choke tube that has a .665 restriction (inside diameter) and very pleased with the performance at 40 yards shooting Hevi-Shot-13 # 6  1 3/4 oz. shot.  My Remington 11-87 shoots about 3 inches POI (point of impact)  to the right from POA (point of aim) even with the Tru-Glo rear sight adjusted about as far left in the track as it will go without hanging out of the track;  (note: I shoot left-handed), and it appears that I am not alone in some Remington guns especially the 870 Empress shooting a little to the right from the point of aim out at around 40 to 60 yards!  My Briley choke tubes shoots to the right of POA and peculiar to this gun/barrel combination.   I fired two rounds and adjusted after the first shot and there were enough pellets in the turkey target head/neck area at 40 yards not to be overly concerned about the point of impact being a little to the right of point of aim.  I will simply have to shoot a little Kentucky windage at the longer yardages unless I put some optics on the rig or opt for another shorter turkey barrel.  There was also a noticeable reduction in felt recoil using the new choke tube just as Indian Creek advertises and I looked up their patent number 5317825 and the patent describes in detail the construction and claims which was very interesting as well.  Below target fired at 40 yards and there are plenty of pellets in the darker area of the turkey neck that did not show up with the scan taken. I certainly did not fire enough rounds for any conclusive evidence but enough to get me more or less on paper with that particular load and choke tube and confident that it will perform well enough out to 40 plus yards to harvest turkeys. 

Target courtesy of www.ammoman.com .

I plan to fire a few rounds of the new Hevi-13 #6 shot size with a 2.25 oz. payload next week and see what the pattern looks like.  That will be a lot of pellets going down range for sure hopefully with a good margin of error!

Bill aka Mickey Porter 04-26-09.  More to follow.

Randy Steele and myself hunted one more time and didn't hear a single gobble that morning but did see a lone hen visit the field at the Doghouse blind set-up.  Several of my friends and co-workers harvested mature long beards using my field grade Dual Hens box call and will post their pixs of their harvest on the Photo Gallery page when I receive them.  It is time to get back going in my basement workshop and finish up some overdue calls!

As always, "Two of the Greatest Ships that ever Sailed, Friendship and Fellowship."

Bill aka Mickey Porter 05-10-09.