Somebody cut my off my shirttail please


buckbuster11

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Yup.....for the first time in my turkey hunting career I completely missed. And it was a big ol longbeard too. :(

Actually my first miss was this past Monday morning at 10 yards (long story) but I was able to follow up with a killing shot at 40 yards as the bird was trying to get away.

Fast forward to Saturday morning.......

No birds gobbled off the roost but one starting ripping off gobbles in a field behind me about 250 yards out. I set up in the woods below about a 100 yards from where I last heard him and with a couple minutes had him going bonkers. Not a few minutes after my first yelps I saw his big red head heading coming my way. All the sudden he threw on the brakes and hung up at about 60 yards before eventually turning around and heading back out into the field.

Long story short, I ended moving around to 3 different setups all the while he was strutting around in that dang field gobbling his head off at my calls but not coming in close enough for a shot.

Finally after a hour and half...maybe two hours.....of this game I was on my way to my fourth setup which was a little flat bordering the field. I felt really good about this one, as I had a feeling this was how the bird was going to eventually exit the field anyhow. Apparently I was right because as I was moving from setup #3 to setup #4 this big old boy decided to meet me right there.

He spent a good hour and a half in the field and at the exact same time I decided to move to this small flat.....so did he. Just as I was getting me decoys out I hear a gobble rip not 40 yards away. I just dropped to me knees and got the gun up. Seconds later I see him cresting the small hill in front of me.

What came next was frickin awesome....you just had to be there. He jumped up on a long dead log that ran from ground level on one end up to about 10 feet lodged in another tree. He jumped up on that sucker and walked up and down on it strutting, spitting and drumming for a few minutes. I've seen a lot of birds put on a show but this was about as good as it gets.

Finally he jumps off of the dead log and takes a few steps my way. The smart half of my brain is telling me that he is going to come closer.......just be patient, the dumb half is telling me to shoot even though he's pushing 40 yards and there is a little brush in the way. Well I listened to the dumb half, and pulled the trigger. Looking back there is almost no doubt I was going to get a better shot if I was more patient. So, I watched the biggest bird I have ever called in take off like a rocket.:(

So somebody get the scissors out, and cut my shirttail off please.:(

Gotta love turkey hunting.:D

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It happens...it keeps us humble,lol. I missed one last year...3 days into the season, big old gobbler came in following his hen and I missed him! Couple small branches but also I think I pulled my cheek off the stock. My first spring hunting...missed a big one also! I swear I can hit the jakes but miss the big ones,lol

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With the adrenelin running rampant through the veins it is hard to remember to aim that shotgun like a rifle and squeeze the round off. If we never missed it would be called shooting not hunting. My score has gone up dramatically after I put the tru glow sights on my turkey gun and adjusted the sights to the pattern.

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