My Thanksgiving Turkey

My father entered me in a turkey shoot when I was just a tyke, probably about 10-12 years old. It was held at the old V.F.W. on Dun Swamp Rd. I remember all the men that entered the competition had nice full choke Brownings and/or similar high-dollar guns.


I had an old 12ga. Topper, single shot, cylinder open-ended muzzle, that cost around $25.00 brand new at the hardware store. Yep, the Lankford And Cutler hardware store. I was just as proud of that old gun as if it were a hand crafted Belgian made Browning. (Does anyone remember the old Lankford and Cutler hardware store?)


Anyway, I probably bought the old Topper with grass cutting money that I had saved. (think a young boy can walk into a store today and walk out with a shotgun?)

My father signed me up for the shoot and if I remember correctly I had to use the shell(s) that they provided. When it was my turn to shoot I was very nervous, as a young'un I had to get down on one knee to shoot because that old Topper was so light and it kicked so hard it would knock me back a couple of steps (or down) and every-time I did shoot it, it would always leave a bruise on my shoulder.


I got down on that one knee, I was shaking from anxiety so bad that the end of that old gun must have been moving an inch in all directions. I aimed down my 'open' sights and took my best shot at that tiny card, and when I pulled the trigger you could see the trees behind the target pole rock back in what looked like a 20 foot diameter circle from that old gun with no choke.    


I watched as the competitors cards came in to the judging table, they were all peppered with shot, most dead on the money with hardly any paper left on the target card. As the judges examined the cards some were visually discarded, they were hit but the BB holes were not close enough to the tiny center dot of the target.


There was a small pile of cards that the judges saved back. The judges then took those cards and with a nautical chart divider, and a ruler, they would measure from the tiny dot in the center of the target to the closest BB hole left by the shooters shell. As I stood and waited I had still not seen my target. Did I miss completely with my old Topper because I was shaking so hard? because the old gun was not choked? Did I shoot the wrong target? All sorts of things were running through my head. I really wanted to bring that turkey home for my mother.


Now I've gone from nervous to confused and then to just sad because my target was nowhere to be seen. They must be saving me the embarrassment of missing completely.


Now after waiting patiently my father spoke up and asked where my target was. One of the old fellers started rummaging through the piles of targets and finally he found mine and held it up for my father to see and the old guy said "sorry he missed" and he tossed my target in the trash. My head just dropped in disappointment, I was a pretty good shot, I knew that I was nervous when I took the shot but I missed the whole target?

My father did his best to console me because he knew I wanted to bring that turkey home for Maw. We were about to leave and for some reason I decided that I wanted my target to take home with me. I made my way over to the trash can and asked one of the judges if it was ok if I took my target home with me. "No problem young man" said one of the judges, so I rummaged through the empty bottles, and the rest of the garbage until I found my target. I picked up the completely intact paper target and doubled checked that it was my target by reading my name on the back. When I flipped the paper target over to the back, low and behold there was one BB hole in it. "Dad, Dad, I didn't miss" I was ecstatic, I handed my Dad the target and a great big grin came on his face. He looked at me and said "good job boy" and he turned and started walking towards the judges table.


My father was standing in front of the judges with my target in hand, he reached it out to one of the judges and said "my boy didn't miss, you better take a better look". Now here we go again, I'm confused one more time. It just so happened that the judge that through my target in the trash is the judge that my father handed it too. You could see the blood fall from that judges face as he peered at my target with one tiny hole in it. The judge then handed my target to the other judge and again he just stared at it. I still had no idea what was going on. Then, the second judge took out his trusty nautical divider to measure the one single hole in my paper target and my father said "I don't think you'll need that"


After a few short minuets of my father giving the judges a quiet lecture we took my target and headed home.


When we returned home I was met by Maw and she of course asked me how I did. I handed her my target with one tiny BB hole right smack DEAD CENTER OF THAT TARGET and my father handed her my/her turkey.

sorry for the long rambling.


Happy Thanksgiving everyone.