I took this, my second Mississippi gobbler, on April 5. God really smiled on me that day. Only about one Smokey grey hatches out of a hundred eggs, and 95% of those are hens, making him , by my calculations, about 1 in 2000. I had seen this 2 year old about two weeks earlier, about 1/2 mile from where I killed him. I told my wife then that I had seen a bird of a lifetime. He haunted my dreams for the next two weeks. Thanks to my Mississippi Scratch Box and a 20 gauge load of #10 TSS, he is now residing at Stanford Taxidermy in Saltillo, MS. waiting to be immortalized with his 9 inch beard and 5/8" spurs, gobbling on a limb. I will post again when I get him back! As most hunters in North Mississippi can attest, it has been a long, frustrating season, but this is the bird turned it around for me!
Thank you, Lord!