Lewis

Back in the day there weren’t any turkeys in Oregon Territory except whatever domestics might have been carried here in boxes in the backs of covered wagons. And even those probably didn’t make it much further west than a buffalo chip barbecue on the Nebraska prairie.

Thanks to the foresight of Oregon hunters and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), we have an expanding turkey population in Oregon. Now, if a person wants to explore their Oregon Trail history, one of the great ways is with a fall turkey tag and a muzzleloader. And we can do it right here with an Eastern Oregon fall turkey tag.

If there is a muzzleloading shotgun-shaped deficit in the gun cabinet, there are some options. Somehow I have gathered three such guns and they have all accounted for wild turkeys in the now turkey-rich Beaver state. My two current favorites are reproductions of shotguns that served on the prairies: the Traditions flintlock blunderbuss I built last year and a DGW 28-gauge single shot often called a long tom.

The blunderbuss, procured from La Grande-based muzzleloaders.com, was the result of a summer project build. I set my expectations low and when the turkeys showed up, in my haste, I overloaded the frizzen with too much powder. What could go wrong?

Lining up the flared muzzle on the one bird separated from the others, I could not see it as the muzzle covered up the target. I held steady and squeezed. Instead of BOOM, the gun went THUMP!

The leather wrap on the flint had struck the steel. I rolled back the leather and re-cocked and re-sighted on the noggin of another nervous bird.

The flint struck sparks and the powder fizzed for over a full second before it ignited the charge in the barrel. BOOM! A white cloud of burnt powder hung in the air and the big gobbler flopped over in the sunlight. A full load of No. 6s did the trick at 16 paces.

My big beautiful gobbler weighed 22 pounds, its beard stretched the tape to 9 1/4 inches and the longest spur measured 1 1/4 inches. Fanned out, the feathers were perfect golden and bronze — one of the biggest, most beautiful turkeys of my career.

My friend and fellow outdoor writer Troy Rodakowski used the long tom on the next hunt. Loaded with 80 grains of FFG, tamped down with a disc-shaped card, 1 1/4 ounces of No. 6 shot held in place with a fiber wad.

Rodakowski laid in wait with the hammer back. When a bachelor group of gobblers came into view, he slipped a cap on the nipple, put the bead on the biggest bird’s head. BOOM! Turkey dinner.

Single-shot blackpowder shotguns show up time to time on websites like gunbroker.com and gunsinternational.com. Made in Spain for Dixie Gun Works and sold for many years in their popular catalogs, there are certainly a number of these guns in collections around the country.

The guns are simple and serviceable, and are a slice of history that harkens back to the days when a hunter would load a long tom and go looking for small game for dinner.

A recent search of muzzleloader shotguns on gunsinternational.com showed prices ranging from $450 to $5,775. On the other hand, a Dixie Gun Works single barrel 28-gauge is likely to bring little more than $100 if you can find one.

This year, paying for the privilege costs $26.50 (payable to ODFW). Don’t expect to save money on this deal. What a wild turkey hunt won’t do for your budget, it will do for your culinary experience. Wild turkey, when it is not overcooked, is the best tasting Meleagris gallopavo bar none, and Eastern Oregon has more Rio Grande gobblers than you can shake a turkey baster at.

The Eastern Oregon Fall turkey hunt runs through Jan. 31, with a bag limit of one turkey, either sex. The Fossil, Heppner, Mt. Emily, Murderers Creek, Northside, Ochoco, Sled Springs and Wenaha units are the top producers.

If you’re the pilgrim in charge of bringing home the bird, a front-stuffing smoothbore can get the job done. Extra points if you roast it over a buffalo chip fire.