A Facebook friend of mine, Tim Humphrey, who owns Aspen Outfitters in northern Minnesota (black bears in fall and ice fishing for eelpout in late-winter!), recently posted a video of his 13-year-old daughter killing a big gobbler. It’s Jennifer’s fourth Minnesota turkey (bag limit is one per year), so she obviously got started early in life. She's also killed one in Nebraska.

What impressed me most about this encounter is how the group planned for a point-blank gun shot — literally 4 yards. I will often set decoys at 5-8 yards when turkey hunting from a pop-up blind with a bow, in hopes of shooting one with a Magnus Bullhead broadhead in the head or neck, but everyone I know places decoys much farther than that when using a shotgun.

Of course, regardless of choke selection in a shotgun, the pattern will be incredibly small at 4 yards. It would take some paper testing to verify, but my guess is as the pattern expands after leaving the barrel, the pellets are still confined to an area no larger than a tennis ball — and maybe only a golf ball — at this range. Whatever the case, the hunter better be aiming precisely as to not miss a turkey’s head or neck. A body shot at 4 yards would destroy a turkey’s breast meat, so that’s not an option.

You can’t see it in the video, but she’s resting the gun on the bottom of the Primos Double Bull blind’s window. Smart! The barrel is steady as a rock as she tracks the slowly approaching gobbler. And as you’ll see, Jennifer waits for the strutting turkey to stop before dropping the hammer. One thing is clear: Her dad taught her well.

Congrats, Jennifer!

(P.S. Be sure to click to enter fullscreen and turn up the volume for best viewing.)