The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1898-11-25
A ROYAL SPORT.
WILD TURKEY SHOOTING AS ii USED
TO BE.

Always Called Good Gnme-A slv nna
knowing Bird-Tricls of the Trade.
min FranlSlin's Idea of the Turkey
The turkey, like Thanksgiving dav.
with which he is inseparably associated
in the American mind, is, in the lam
guage of proud Yankee, lone of the
institootions 1t had been domesticat-
ed and bred in the old world before the
pilgrim fathers landed on Plymouth
Rock, presumably by the spaniards, who
captured specimens in Mexico and trans
ported them to Europe. In every part Of
the American continent except the frig-
i'd regions of the extreme north the
earliest settlers found the turkey in it's
wild state. The species of fowl which
was regarded as SO toothsome at the first
American Thanksgiving was the bird of
today in his unenlightened condition.
The pioneers of all parts of the Unit
ed States where there were extensive
tracts of forest found wild turkeys in
great abundance, and even in the DAYS
when deer were plentiful no hunter
scorned this bird as unworthy of his
prowess. Wild turkey hunting was and
yet is royal sport wherever the bird
exists. He is considered noble game
and, like the deer and the buffalo, has
rapidly disappeared from many of his
former haunts before the march of civil
lization. He is now seldom found in his
native state except in the larger forests
90
brush lands of Arkansas and the Indian
territory and the jungles of semitropical
Florida.
Within the memory of many sports
men turkey hunting was considered
great sport in southern Indiana and Illi-
nois, and the writer, who is lone of the
trade, I" has brought down more than
one of the proud birds by the skillful
useof his father S ancient, long barreled
rife. The methods of taking the turkey
all require the exercise of ingenuity.
The bird is timid and regards man as
his natural enemy 1t is and has been
since the turkeys of the country first
observed that man with gun pro-
duced great noise and much slaughter
amoug them impossible to get near
enough to render shot certain of re-
suits without approaching the game I'M
der cover.
When turkeys were plentiful in the
great wooded tracts of the Ohio and the
Mississippi valleys, the hunters in the
daytime sought for their roosts, which
were easily found by means of the
faces. Then he concealed himself with
in easy range of the place and awaited
sunset, when a large flock would APP
proach the place and one by one fly up
to the almost horizontal branches on
which the birds prefer to roost. A shot
at that time would put an end to the
sport. The hunter must wait until the
last of the flock has mounted the perch
and the twilight has SO deepened that
he can but just fix by his vision the
muzzle sight of his rifle in the little
nick of the one nearer the breech If he
remains out of sight, he may be able to
secure two or even three birds ere the
darkness puts an end to his sport Then
he gathers up his game and goes home
to return long before the cock crows,
for at break of day his turkeys will
is careful, he may get two more of the
flock as result of his early morning
visit.
Then comes another ruse of the hunt
er, by the skillful exercise of which he
may be able to inveigle two or three
moro of the turkeys to their death In
the wing of each turkey is hollow
bone that can readily be transformed
into whistle, the note of which, when
properly blown, very closely resembles
the call of a turkey Not far away and
we'll concealed lies the daylight muir
derer's accomplish . AS soon after their
flight from the perch as the turkeys dis
cover that all has become quiet and the
!, gobblers have mustered up little cour-
age, they begin calling for the purpose
OF collecting the remnant of the flock
preparatory to permanent departure
from the scene Of the massacre The
second hunter softly answers with his
whistle, and the chances are great that
he will by often responding to the in
: curing cry lure the turkey within
range of his gun. A sharp report. re-
i peated over and again by the echoing
h1llsldes, a futter OF wings III u death
struggle on the ground, and the forest
is again wrapped in silence.
! After an hour of waiting the hunter
sounds his call, then listens for fain,
e response Ii mono is heard, he ventures
+ again. A third effort is likely to elicit
an answer unless the turkeys have be.
come SO terrified by the last shot tina,
= by common impulse they have fled pre-.
= cipitately alone or in very small groups.
: If they have hidden themselves in
clumps of bushes or the tops of fallen
trees to which the withered foliage il
c still clinging the hunter may get an.
# other shot
The third method is to entrap the
birds. A strong pen of logs or rails is
erected in the wood, and a trench with
! an easy descent beneath the foundation
piece is dug deep enough to admit the