St. Paul daily globe., 1889-06-17
A BIG WILD TURKEY.

A Thirty-Eight-Pou Killed by
a Man Who Had Never Seen q
Live One Before.
New York Sun.
Owing to the frequent visits of pot
hunters, wild turkeys, formerly abun-
dant around Pineville, KY, have be-
come rather scarce in the last year or
two, but it has been known for some
time that flock was feeding near Bea
Wallow gap, in the mountains, five
miles from here. Hunters frequently
attempted to bag the birds, but. rem
dered wary by their proximity to the
settlements, the turkeys evaded them.
Last Saturday young Bob Mason, of
this place, armed with dOuble-barreled
shotgun, started to hunt the turkeys.
He had never shot wild turkey in his
life, and he was laughed at when he
said that he would not come back until
he had killed the finest bird in the flock.
Mason left Pineville long before day
light, as the best time to shoot Wild tur-
keys is at early day, when they are
perched upon the bOugh of tree and
are more easy to approach than at feed
gObble with which they salute the COM
ing day, and signal to each other, also
guides the hunter to the flock. Young
Mason had been wandering for nearly
an hour around the Bear Wallow Gap
when he heard a distant gObble. 1t
must have been mile away, but the
clear morning air of the mountain side
rendered the sound distinct. Mason
was novice in hunting, but he knew
that it meant wild turkey, and he made
his way as cautiously as possible
through the forest in the direction of
the gobble.
After an hour of half-walking. half
crawling, to prevent noise, Mason,
guided by the gobbling of the wild tur-
keys, reached the edge of glade In
its center grew large blackjack tree,
and upon a Dough not more than ten
feet from the ground were perched
about twenty wild turkeys. Mason's
had not smelled or heard him as he lay
hidden in the bushes. The monstrous
size of one of the flock at once caught
his notice. 1t was an immense gobbler
with flaming red wattles and much
darker i'm plumage than the ordinary
wild turkey. Mason had seen many a
wild turkey brought in by mountaineers
to Pineville, but never one equal to this
in size. The gobbler he selected as his
target. and cautiously raised his gun to
his shoulder. He was Immediately
seized with such violent trembling
that he could not take aim with the gun,
and nearly dropped. He was suffer-
ing from the "turkey ague," exactly
similar to the 'buck ague." Almost all
spOrtsmen have it the first time they
at wild turkey. Mason made half
dozen attempts before he could steady
aim his muscles sufficiently to take good
aim at the great gobbler. When he sue
ceeded in doing this he blazed away
with both barrels at once. The big
turkey Topped off the bough and tum-
bled to the ground, while the others
flew away. There was great futter-
ing among the leaves and undergrowth,
and Mason, greatly excited at his sue
cess, dubbed his gun, rushed up, and
began to belabor the struggling bird
with the stock of his weapon. But there
was no danger Of escape, for the tur-
keys head had been torn by several
shot, and it died in few minutes.
Mason triumphantly dragged his tur-
key all the way to this place, and all
who saw it said it was the biggest wild
turkey ever killed in Bell county. Stood
upright, it measured four feet three
inches from the ground to the top of its
head, Its feet looked like those of an
ostrich, and Its weight was thirty-eight
pounds.