Several years ago I killed a 24 1/2-pound long-beard gobbler while hunting in Iowa. My firearm of choice was a Knight muzzleloading shotgun with 150 grains of Pyrodex and two ounces of copper-plated No. 5 shot.

My first day of hunting with Tony Knight found us spooking a pair of roosted gobblers while opening a rusty and squeaky farm gate. Later, as we proceeded to look for unspooked birds, we stopped and began calling.

A nearby gobbler answered, walked right down the edge of an open field in broad daylight, gobbling his brains out, and one shot at 40 yards took care of filling my Iowa turkey tag.

Mind you, 150 grains of Pyrodex and a two-ounce load of shot, produces a substantial bit of felt recoil. It wasn't excessive, but 100 grains of powder suits my moods and right shoulder  much better.

This gobbler would provide an easy shot for a Knight muzzleloading shotgun.

The load isn't the issue here. I'm trying to decide in advance whether to try with a muzzleloader again this spring during my hunting period. It was great fun, and the Knight muzzleloading shotgun is very tightly choked, and it works like a dream.

Well, it does, except when hunting in a steady rain as I did three years ago. I sat down, began calling an hour after daybreak, and 15 birds filed past me. Two big gobblers were in the bunch but both had hens between me and the Toms.

They disappeared from sight, and I waited another 30 minutes for those birds to move off, yelped once, and here comes a single gobbler across an open field. He ran every step of the way until he was 30 yards out, and then he stopped, raised his head and began looking around.

Uh-oh! A mis-fire on my muzzleloader. Damp powder.

I had a red-dot sight on the muzzleloading shotgun, and put the dot where his head and neck met, and pulled the trigger. A sharp pop sounded, and the gobbler ran off like the hounds of hell were chewing on his tail feathers.

The old adage of "Keep Your Powder Dry" came to mind, and I walked out to the car and drove 10 miles home. The muzzleloader was taken apart, the saboted shot cup and shot, and the black gooey stuff that used to be Pyrodex pellets, were pushed out. I had forgot to put a rubber thumb from some rubber gloves over the muzzle to keep the rain out.

I really want to take another gobbler with the muzzleloading shotgun, but I have a Remington Model 870 pump 3-inch magnum 12 gauge shotgun that looks as it has been used to pound fence posts, but the shotgun is over 30 years old, and it shoots copper-plated No. 5 shot well. It's killed numerous birds for me.

It comes with a sling, as does the muzzleloader, and it has produced gobblers from Alabama to Michigan. When the trigger is pulled, the bird dies. With it, my choice is to shoot birds at 30-35 yards. It has a full choke, but not the extra-full turkey choke found on many newer shotguns.

Sight in that muzzzleloading snotgun or regular shotgun before hunting season.

It is like an old friend. The stock fits well against my cheek, and nestles comfortably against my shoulder, and my good right eye lines up easily with the fiber optic sights.

The 12 gauge is a bit lighter than the muzzleloading shotgun to carry, and on a cross-country hike to find gobblers after the initial dawn action, that can be a point in its favor. However, the muzzleloader has an extra-tight choke, and can easily kill birds at 50 yards if I choose to take a shot at that distance (which I never do).

Either one is fine by me, and in all honesty, shooting a gobbler isn't what tugs me gently into the turkey woods. It is the opportunity to attempt calling another bird within easy range. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but for me, being there and having a gobbler circle me at dawn is what the hunt is all about.

Pulling the trigger and killing that bird is nothing more than frosting on my turkey-hunting cake.