Double bearded gobbler with my 10 gauge 1873 Charles Daly and black powder loaded shells

Dultimatpredator

Well-known member
I bought the gun for $45 at a rummage sale back in the mid 90’s. The action was rusted shut, firing pins seized, and one hammer missing. I looked for original hammers for over two decades and finally gave up. I bought the closest looking hammers I could find from Dixie Gun Works and had my buddy who’s a gunsmith install them. I refinished the bluing amd wood over this past winter. About a month and a half ago I finally researched reloading 2 7/8” shells. I picked Fg DuPont powder to start with. I ordered nickel plated #6 BPI shot. I would have rather went with #5’s or #4’s but after trying RST #5’s and #6’s in 1 1/4 oz loads I wasn’t impressed. I wanted as many pellets as I could get in my load. I started basically with a square load of 1 5/8oz #6s and a 116 grains of Fg. Then I backed down the powder charge to 100 grains and received a lot better pattern. I never chronograph down my load but was told it’s probably around 900 FPS. First test I put 40 pellets in my turkey head target at 25 yards, 13 pellets at 40 yards, and 5 pellets at 50 yards. IMO beyond 45 yards #6’s run out of steam pretty quick.

Here is a pic from the day I tested it...


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25 yards...

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40yards...

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50 yards...

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These were our of the left barrel. The right mist be made for close shots as it wide spreads patterns at very close ranges.


And my first try a quad pin rolled hulls. I used a cordless drill and held the hull in my hand. That will get old quick.

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I went out opening day 2nd season on my property. I had tons of birds gobbling but all on the neighbors property. I figured since I removed over 60 raccoon and 17 possum last fall they might start migrating back over to my property to nest this season.

Gobbling started around 5:37am and quit at after about 7:15 am. I heard two shots a few miles away during the course of the morning. After about 8:30 AM I slowed down my calling and only called with a few light yeps once every half hour. At 10:45 AM I saw a bunch of turkeys fly into my woods edge from the field. I would assume a coyote bumped them like usual. I have shot 2 coyotes coming to my turkey calls in the same spot. When they landed I had one Tom gobble 4 times non stop abs another followed him up. I also had hens squawking everywhere. Must have been a good dozen and half or more turkeys less then 75 yards from me but I couldn’t see them as it was brushy and I was sitting down hill from them on the ground. The toms kept gobbling at a boss hen helping but would not answer me. This went on for 15 minutes. I still couldn’t see any birds. I finally gobbled with my diaphragm call and bingo! The Tom gobbled back immediately. This went on for another 15 minutes. Once over minute I would gobble and quietly Yelp with an instant response. I could hear the gobbling pacing back and forth following the hen. The stubborn hen would not come down by me no matter how much I tried to rile her up. In the meanwhile I had two other Toms coming from another direction! I had 4 Toms responding to my gobbling at once! I finally thought to myself to sound to good to be true and gobbled immediately following up with 2 yeps at the same time. One with my diaphragm and the other with my slate. Within 5 seconds Tom above me gave up on the boss hen and came on full strut. White head with blue spots. I picked up my gun, he picked up his head, I pulled the trigger, smoke cleared, and there he laid at 25 yards DRT. I waited 10 minutes for the other birds to leave and picked up my prize. When I did I had a Tom walk up within 20 yards from the other other direction. To bad I didn’t have 2 tags for 2nd season! I had out my brand new DSD decoys and neither bird must have saw them or had any interest.



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I knew this one was out there as I have had him on camera


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I already mounted it up with a picture frame I had laying around

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I have another season coming up next week but think I’ll use my browning gold 10 gauge this time around.
 
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