The Turnbo Manuscripts
by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925
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A WILD TURKEY FLIES A SHORT DISTANCE AFTER ITS HEAD WAS
SHOT OFF
By S. C. Turnbo
One of the most remarkable accounts of hunting wild turkeys and shooting one’s head off was told me by my old time friend, William Trimble, son of Allin Trimble, who lived on the south bank of White River in Franklin Township, Marion County, Ark. Here is the way Mr. Trimble said it occurred.
"One day in the year, 1860, I and my brother, John (Jack) Trimble,
while hunting for turkeys on Trimble’s Creek, saw a turkey sitting
on the limb of a tree. Being in close rifle range of the turkey I aimed
my gun at it and shot and the turkey pitched off the limb and flew. When
it had got 100 yards from the tree it flew from we saw its wings collapse
and the turkey tell to the ground. On going to It we were more than surprised
at finding that it was minus of a head, The bullet from my gun had completely
severed the head from its neck and the neck bone was protruding from under
the skin. How it come that the turkey flew so far after its head was shot
off I am not able to explain unless it was in the act of pitching off at
the moment I shot and the action of the wings kept in motion after the bullet
struck it and was carried the distance named before the vital forces give
way. Mr. Trimble assured me that if he had been alone he never would have
told it for it seemed so unreasonable that no one would have believed his
story without other testimony to confirm it."
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