History Of The Turkey!

DC Pages ^ | 11/19/2005 | DC Pages

[Tijeras_Slim]

There's a guy who raises heritage turkeys near us in Soccorro. We're getting one next year... that is if Slim can't get close enough to a wild onw with his old Model 12.

[PoorMuttly]

A) they're smaller (though a LOT more delicious) than store-bought turkeys, so the more the merrier

2) BUMP Model 12 !!!!!

[Tijeras_Slim]

Got 2 Model 12's. A 1953 16 ga. and the replica Browning made in 1991 in 28 ga.

[PoorMuttly]

Nice guages. Does the Browning one have the original-style function trigger, the tromboning, trench-gun type? These were the top choice for dangerous game, since one could hold the trigger back and keep pumping, as one can do with a Single Action Army revolver.

I never fired a 28, and look forward to it. I am told they are still in use for quail in the Southeast. Perhaps for woodcock, too....but I can hardly imagine hitting one solidly without at least a 16, which is also a classic, real gentleman's guage.

[PoorMuttly]

...O.K., a 20 would work fine, but I'm hungry now. Hunger makes me distrust hunting technology!

If only choke tubes were invented when your 16 was made, because XX-Full turkey chokes are great. As you certainly know, turkeys are very hard to anchor. The Marble's Poly-Choke may have been around though. Does yours have a FULL choke?

A friend shot a wild turkey last season, with a '94 .30-30. It flew away, far and quite high, and another fellow shot it the next day. It was wounded through the legs, but we couldn't locate it. Tough animals. For some reason, many birds are hard to stop unless multiple hits are achieved. Dinosaurs. Tasty though!

[gnarledmaw]

"...that is if Slim can't get close enough to a wild one..."

Then Slim needs to spend some time on my farm.

When I moved to this farm various kinds of poultry were the first things I moved in after the family. I began noticing that my birds were apparently consuming far too much too fast and the problem only worsened as time went on. I couldnt figure out where all the feed was going. Then a neighbor stopped by and during our conversation he said,"So, what do you think of all those turkeys?" and he then goes on to explain that he counted 21 wild turkeys coming out of my barn one day. It wasnt long after that that I began seeing them. The damned things arent afraid of me any more and hang out behind my barn. One day I counted 68 individuals (I didnt count those that were in unidentifiable clumps of bird/weeds) just watching me doing my chores and I presume waiting for feeding time.

[Tijeras_Slim]

The 16 is full. I could always send it off to Briley and tubes put in it, but that would cost more than the gun did.

[PoorMuttly]

FULL is perfect.

Nevermind.

[Fraxinus]

In response to the long tale of how the turkeys name was derived, I was under the impression that there was a history in England, and possibly the rest of Europe, of referring to large game birds as turkeys.

[SunkenCiv]

Online Etymology Dictionary
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=turkey

[snip]

1541, "guinea fowl" (Numida meleagris), imported from Madagascar via Turkey, by Near East traders known as turkey merchants. The larger North American bird (Meleagris gallopavo) was domesticated by the Aztecs, introduced to Spain by conquistadors (1523) and thence to wider Europe, by way of North Africa (then under Ottoman rule) and Turkey (Indian corn was originally turkey corn or turkey wheat in Eng. for the same reason). The word turkey was first applied to it in Eng. 1555 because it was identified with or treated as a species of the guinea fowl. The Turkish name for it is hindi, lit. "Indian," probably via Fr. dinde (contracted from poulet d'inde, lit. "chicken from India"), based on the common misconception that the New World was eastern Asia. The New World bird itself reputedly reached England by 1524 (when Henry VIII is said to have dined on it at court). Turkeys raised by the Pilgrims were probably stock brought from England. By 1575, turkey was becoming the usual main course at an English Christmas. Meaning "inferior show, failure," is 1927 in show business slang, probably from the bird's reputation for stupidity. Meaning "stupid, ineffectual person" is recorded from 1951. Turkey shoot "something easy" is World War II-era, in ref. to marksmanship contests where turkeys were tied behind a log with their heads showing as targets.

[Designer]

"I just never see one during hunting season."

Isn't that just how it goes?

Sweetie bumped into one while deer hunting.

[SunkenCiv]

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