WILD TURKEY SHOOTING BY MOONLIGHT. 



Captain C. J. Crane, U. S. A. 



{See Frontispiece.) 



The wild turkey is surely the king of 

 game birds. To shoot him at 

 night means, of course, to find 

 the bird on his roost, preferably asleep, 

 and then, without giving him a chance 

 for his life, to kill him in cold blood, 

 usually with a shot gun. 



This does not sound sportsmanlike ; 

 it is more after the fashion of the 

 Indian who hunts for meat and will 

 take it, however and whenever found. 

 He considers himself lucky to find the 

 turkey on its roost. To hit, at night, 

 even so large a bird as a wild turkey, 

 perched among the top branches of a 

 tall tree, must not be considered an easy 

 matter, by any means. In the earlier 

 stages of my turkey hunting, I have 

 missed eight such shots in succession, 

 and then, when I found the ninth bird, 

 called my companion to do the killing, 

 which I was sure I could not do. Of 

 course, with bright moonlight, no leaves 

 on the trees, the turkey exactly in the 

 right place, so that when looking at him 

 along the gun barrel the front sight 

 is also visible, the poor bird would have 

 no more chance for his life than had 

 Davy Crockett's coon, and, like him, 

 might just as well come down and sur- 

 render. 



The almost certainty, however, will be, 

 that even in moonlight it will not be 

 possible to see the turkey and the front 

 sight of the gun at the same time, and 

 no actual aim can then be taken as in 

 daylight shooting. For a sure, quick 

 wing shot, it would be easy to bring 

 down a large bird from the tree tops, if 

 the light be strong enough to expose 

 the bird to good eyesight ; that is, it 

 ought to be easy on account of the little 

 use made of the front sight in either 

 class of shooting. I have never been a 

 good wing shot, and, as already stated, 

 found great difficulty in hitting the 

 turkey after it became so dark that I 

 could not make the proper use of my 

 front sight. I have killed many turkeys 

 in day time ; but a good deal of my 



hunting was done for meat, not for 

 sport, and 1 wished to get it the easiest 

 and surest way possible, so I tried hard 

 to solve the night shooting problem, 

 and at last succeeded to my satisfac- 

 tion. 



Day after day I sat in my room and 

 pointed my gun at some object on the 

 wall, my purpose being to get as accurate 

 an aim as possible without using the front 

 sight. After doing my best each time I 

 placed the gun to my shoulder, I would 

 incline my head forward as in shooting, 

 and, using the front sight, see how my 

 aim was. Before taking down the gun 

 I would always correct the aim and 

 notice how the stock felt. The diffi- 

 culty was with the elevation, and after 

 much practice, I would, while correct- 

 ing the aim, raise the sight above the 

 object, then drop it below, then raise 

 the muzzle, not so high as before, lower 

 it not quite so low as before, and so on, 

 till a good aim was obtained — all the 

 time noticing how the gun felt against 

 my shoulder and cheek. 



Many times thereafter I put into 

 practice my room-acquired knowledge 

 of night shooting, and with good re- 

 sults. Sometimes I fired with both 

 eyes open. This was in order to follow 

 better the movements of the turkey ; 

 for the bird does not always, when hit, 

 fall straight to the ground, and falling 

 from the highest trees and striking the 

 ground seldom disables him. 



Though a most wary bird in day time, 

 the hen turkey and the younger cocks 

 patiently await while all this searching 

 and aiming is going on, especially in the 

 autumn and early winter. The wise old 

 gobbler, with long spurs and long black 

 tuft hanging from his breast, is not so 

 easily caught napping; but even he does 

 not always become frightened at slight 

 noises under his roost. Unless he has 

 been hunted recently he is also slow to 

 take alarm at night. Where night hunt- 

 ing is seldom practiced the turkeys will 

 allow talking under the tree, and even the 



