So the gun folks over at Benelli Tweet a hunting story. Check out this whopper of a turkey! they advise. So I linked over to prohuntersjournal.com expecting to see a photo trophy with a few technical details and some self-congratulation. The article’s title—Joy and Anger—flagged the fact that Hadpole’s account had a twist in the tale. “I pulled up and let the Mossberg crack and hit him solid and rolled him down the hill and I went running after him.” No, it’s not the fact that Benelli linked to a story about a Mossberg shotgun—although that’s frighteningly magnanimous. It’s this: “I got my hands on him and started to walk back up to my setup when the neighbor guy is standing there and says ‘You shot our bird’. I looked at him for a second and asked how that was possible when the bird was on my property and I killed the bird on my property. He then started to accuse me of not even calling at this bird and thus ‘stole’ it.” Uh-oh.
By this point in time my blood pressure was up because you NEVER walk onto my property and start accusing me of any wrongdoing. I told him in not so many words to not accuse me if you don’t know what you are talking about and besides no one owns the animals that roam this area. He then said that no one can kill a turkey on 6 acres of land so naturally my response was yeh you can and I held up my bird. I then started seeing red and told him that he needed to leave or there was going to be issues and I took my gear and started to head down to my house where I showed my boys and wife. The bird had a 9 inch beard and weighed 19.5 lbs. and I killed him at 6:20AM. I took him to the taxidermy since I have never had a mount done before and I was proud of the bird even if the neighbor guy ruined my mood.
If I was wrong I am man enough to admit it and I certainly would never take a bird that I didn’t feel I didn’t “earn”. I am not going to go on and say anything more about the guy since this is the internet and I am far from and “internet tough guy”. If I have an issue I will just go and knock on his door and “discuss” the issue.
At the end of the day I got my bird and I learned another lesson of life and hunting. But talk about a roller coaster of emotion.
Someone really ought to offer these guys a little friendly neighborhood pro-active arbitration. STAT, IMHO.
