Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1878 — Hunting Wild Turkeys. [ARTICLE]

Hunting Wild Turkeys.

The number of wild turkeys that we saw at one of our encampments on the banks of a creek, very appropriately called Turkej’ Creek, was incredible. So plentiful were they, aud so appreciated was their flesh by the whole party, that no less than 150 birds were shot" in the 3pace of ten days. More could undoubtedly have been obtained had they been wanted. They., were magnificent birds, and would frequently weigh from twenty-five to thirty pounds each. So epicurean did we get in our tastes that we seldom condescended to eat any part but the breast of the turkey. As a rule, the time to shoot them is just after dark, when the poor unsuspecting birds are roosting in the branches of the trees; but shooting theim thus by moonlight or dusk is, in my opinion, very poor sport—if, indeed, it can be called sport at all. There is also a difficulty in hitting them when the light is dim and obscure. I know one officer who fired fifteen times before he bagged a bird; yet in the daytime he was accounted a very fair shot. And I have also known the same gentleman to shoot at the same bird eight times without even frightening it away; at the eighth shot the bird it getting monotonous, with the fun all on one side, so flew away. In the daytime, hunting these birds is by no means bad sport, for the wild turkey is usually very shy, and will lie closely concealed in the long4>rairie grass until actually kicked tip, when they fly off with such a whirring and flapping of wings as would be sufficient to startle any young and inexperienced sportsman. On one occasion 1 succeeded in bagging po less than five turkeys with one discharge of my gun, without even taking the trouble of dismounting from my horse; alarmed at my approach, the birds raised their heads above the grpss, craning their long necks round to discover the intruder, and so close together were they that they all fell victims to their curiosity. When found on the open prairie at some distance from their roosts they can be run down on horseback, for after the first two, or at the most three flights, none of which are beyond 100 yards, they get so exhausted as to be unable to fly any more, and are then easily overtaken and killed. They invariably go about in-flooks or droves, numbering from ton to as many as forty and fifty birds.— Good Words. 9,' 0 » ■ Antmtobacco crusaders may find a useful hint in the item which announces that a Californian was cured of tobac-co-chewing by his horror on finding the finger of a man pressefi in the tobacco he was using.