WILD TURKEY SHOOTING. 349 



and I know of nothing that taxes the skill and patience 

 of the hunter more than the wild turkey. It is wild, and 

 no mistake. It is also wily. It has the keenest eye and 

 quickest ear of anything I have hunted. The hunter 

 must know turkeys as a pilot knows the channel, if he 

 succeed well. He must have a keen eye, quick decision, 

 and the patience of a statue. Besides, he must be able to 

 ''talk turkey" as well as understand it. 



For turkey-shooting, both the shot-gun and rifle have 

 their advocates; and it must be confessed that both have 

 their advantages. I like both, and often when I have 

 one I wish I had the other. The ideal turkey-gun is a 

 three-barrel, weighing nine or ten pounds. I speak from 

 experience. The rifle ought to take the 38-55 cartridge, 

 and must be an accurate shooter. The shot barrels ought to 

 be ten-gauge, and be loaded with 4 drams of powder and 

 1J ounces of No. 6 shot in the left barrel, and five drams 

 of powder and 1 ounces 00 shot in the right. They must 

 be extra-good shooters, or the user of them will be tempted 

 to say ugly words quite often. At all distances iinder 

 forty yards, the small shot should be fired, at the necks 

 of turkeys, just under their heads, and the large shot, at 

 their bodies, all distances over forty and up to sixty 

 yards; at distances beyond these, use the rifle. When I 

 have used a three-barrel, I seldom fired the large shot at 

 turkeys at all, except when running, flying, or on the 

 roost when it was too dark to shoot at their necks. If a 

 turkey was not near enough for the small shot, I gen- 

 erally used the rifle. The surest load ever sent after a 

 turkey when no farther than forty yards, is the No. 6's, 

 fired at the neck. 



As to "callers," I hardly know what to write, since 

 every hunter who has been successful with any particular 

 kind thinks that the best to be found anywhere. I have my- 

 self used seven different kinds of callers, always returning 



