Took the old muzzle loader to Iowa for the 2016 first season. Had been practicing with it all year with a killing pattern at 25 yds. The best thing about the gun was that it shot where it was pointed. I was over run with jakes in 2015 so thought there would be plenty of mature birds to go after. Day before the season opened I set up in a favorite spot on the South side of some timber that rolled 200 yards behind me and placed Lee and Tiffany's stakes 20 yards out in the short grass of a green field. Reports were that there was not much gobbling going on during the previous week. First morning, set the decoys on their stakes and waited for the surrounding world to wake up. About 5:30 songbirds started and I got ready for the first morning gobble - none came. Sun was ready to break the horizon and still no gobble. Then about 6:30 far to the East came a faint gobble. I put a loud commotion of turkey talk into the air and hoped. Nothing! 10 minutes later did the same routine and a gobble came from half the distance of the first. Now the Old Geezer's heart started to pound. A few minutes later a gobble came from the North side of the timber and I gave some jake yelps from my Roanoke Trumpet, some hen talk from the 1930 and shut up. It was not too long before I heard a second bird with the first, it sounded like they were stuck in the same location on the North side. What was happening, was when I finally saw them an hour later, they were taking two steps, spit, drum and turn from side to side, then two more steps and repeated the process. They proceeded up through the green foliage, sunlight reflecting off iridescent feathers, white heads looking like they were pasted to the fronts of their puffed up bodies, reaching the decoys, they strutted and twirled. I sized them up; beard length, posture, both looked and behaved the same, neither one taking on Lee or jumping Tiffany. I would like to meet the gobbler that put them in their place. I decided that the first gobbler to come out of strut at my "Hello" would get the lead. Bird on the left did, and went down at 8:15. 23lbs, 11" beard and one spur 1 1/8" the other broken off. After getting home I was putting the tail fan on the drying board and noticed that feathers on each side overhung the boards edges which was unusual. Measuring proved it to be a 30" wide fan! A first for me.
Ralph