Then I would put my rifle up aside the tree to see if it was light
enough for me to see the sights on it. If it was not I would have to take
it down and wait a few minutes for it to get lighter.
I felt very uneasy and impatient, while waiting, and wanted to take that
turkey, by the legs, and carry him home over my shoulder. When it was
light enough so I thought it was dangerous to wait, as the turkey might
discover me or fly off his perch then I would draw up my rifle, by the
side of the tree, and shoot at him. Sometimes the old turkey would retain
all his feathers, fly away and leave me, to wade back to the house,
thinking to myself I had had a hard job for nothing. The great trouble in
shooting wild turkeys on the roosts, in the spring of the year and in the
early morning, is in not being able to see the sights on the rifle plain
enough. Of course, I was sometimes rewarded, for my early rising and wet
feet, by a nice turkey to take home to father and mother for dinner.
This style of hunting for the wild turkeys was known by the settlers in
an early day. Another way I had of capturing the turkeys by shooting
them, was by the use of a small instrument that I almost always carried
in my vest pocket when in the woods.
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