Air Force member bags first turkey with help from heavenly family members!

Air Force veteran Tyler Pope of Clinton NC bagged his first gobbler this morning 4/24/2023. Thats just the headline of this amazing morning that unfolded on the edge of the Coharie river in Sampson County at his families hog farm. I was blessed enough to be asked to join and help call in this beautiful double bearded strutter, and this is how it went down ladies and gents!
We entered the ground blind that was tucked in the corner of the cow pasture behind his families hog farm around 5:50 AM waiting for a sound every turkey hunter dreams about. Around 6:15 he gobbled at a goose honking in the swamp nearby so we knew we were in a good spot. The 3/4 strut and lay down Dave Smith dekes were looking sharp in the pasture about 20 yds straight out from blind. He gobbled a few more times on the limb and once at my yelping on a glass over slate pot call by Sunrize custom calls. We felt like he knew our location at that point so i hushed up on the calling. At 6:30 Tyler spotted a hen that came in from 200yds away with big T in tow. It was a beautiful display of strutting and parading around the dekes as we waited for him to come out of strut as to not damage his fan once Tyler had the shot. This is where the roller coaster of emotions started. As i give Tyler the go ahead to shoot the 12 GA went “click” which i first thought he didnt have it loaded, but to my mistake after inspection of the shell the firing pin mark was not even close to the primer on the longbeard XR shell it was loaded with. As Tyler loads another shell quietly the Tom is still having his way with the decoys and not paying us any mind. This wash, rinse , repeat process went on another 4 times in a matter of about 20 minutes as each shell was struck, inspected and tossed on the floor of the blind with a few choice words along with it!! We were still amazed how each time we could slowly bring the gun back in blind, load another shell and slip it back out when his back was to us without him hearing the racking and loading of the shotgun, especially at 25 yds! So as we were very dissapointed we still were trying to stay positive by discussing what day we would be back to try again and how i would always bring a shotgun with me from now on even if im not hunting for a back up. I took several videos of the beautiful Tom as he strutted around and bred the hen TWICE! So at 7:08 i felt for another shell in my vest which i found and handed to Tyler with a silent prayer in my mind asking for a little help from above. As he eased the barrel out again i thought i was going to hear a “click” again but boy were we both surprised when the Stoeger roared and the longbeard went down! We were so caught off guard we couldnt believe what had just happened due to the 5 previous tries and failures. We exited the blind double time to lay hands on the 3rd bird ever harvested in the 200 acre farms history. As we set there re living this amazing morning we realized we were not alone this morning in the blind as we thought we were. As Tyler spoke about his gun never doing that i made a reference that it was his uncle Clay Pope ( passed in 2012) who was a jokester making the gun not fire and his grandpa Lindsey Pope (passed in 2021) that finally told Clay to “let them boys kill that bird” when the last shell fired.These two great men loved that farm and played a major role in the local farming community along with passing on life values to Tyler his brother Colby (who harvested a bird in exact same spot last sat which was his wedding day)and myself. I strongly believe they were there laughing and cutting up as they watched us in the blind fooling around with those shells. I am so thankful i got to be a part of a soldiers first bird and a double beard at that!! I know Jake Rouse taxidermy will do an amazing job as always.
thank you to the entire Pope family for allowing me to experience this with these boys!!

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Tag-A-Turkey

Congratulations to Pope, who is now entered in our 2023 Tag-A-Turkey Contest.

This makes him eligible for our grand prize, which includes a 3-year subscription to Carolina Sportsman Magazine, a Thermacell prize package, a Convergent Hunting Solutions Bullet HP Bluetooth predator call, a Millennium Field Pro Turkey Seat, and numerous other prizes.

If you’d like to enter your gobbler in our contest, click here.

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