This is an article that appeared first in the March 2020 Issue of Muzzle Blasts Magazine.
Turkey Time by Darryl Quidort
My pickup coasted to a stop long before daylight on a clear spring morning and I quietly opened the door. Using the dim light from the open truck door, I carefully measured 95 grains of FFg black powder for each barrel of my 10 gauge muzzleloading shotgun. After pushing two over powder wads firmly down each tube, I dumped 1 5/8 ounces of #6 lead shot into each barrel. Two overshot cards topped off my turkey loads. I would wait until daylight to place a #11 percussion cap on both nipples of the shotgun.
The big Pedersoli 10 gauge magnum was an unexpected gift from an aging friend who wasn’t able to hunt anymore. The very best gift is one that you don’t expect and really don’t deserve. I really wanted to take a wild turkey with the gun, for his pleasure as well as my own. I had spent some time shooting various combinations of shot and wads at large pieces of tablecloth
paper to develop a good turkey load for the gun. The gun was equipped with interchangeable choke tubes. Studying the shot patterns on the papers gave me faith that, full choked, the big 10 gauge would cleanly take a wild turkey out to nearly 40 paces.
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Just as a pink glow developed in the eastern sky I slipped into my pop-up blind which was set up on the edge of a natural clearing in the still leafless hardwoods. Then I poured a cup of coffee and sat back to enjoy the morning. There were a few gobbles off in the distance at daybreak, then all was quiet. Some wood ducks left the nearby beaver ponds and whistled by overhead on their morning flight. A few deer bobbed heads and stomped feet at the sight of my blind as they passed by. Although there seemed to be no turkeys in the area, I used a homemade box call to periodically give out a few hen yelps. My calls received no response. As sunlight touched the tops of the trees around my clearing, songbirds began their symphony. A Red-Tailed hawk soared by close over head with his wings outspread. By cupping my ears I could actually hear the cool morning air feathering through his primaries. Early spring is a great time to be outdoors
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The NMLRA and Muzzle Blasts have been an authority on muzzleloading since 1933. This article was not sponsored or paid for, we feel it is our job to bring you the most up to date news as possible on the world of Muzzleloading, be it living history, competitive shooting, or hunting