How close?

All this talk about tss and super tight patterns got me thinking. I am guilty of shooting the setup but have not shot but one of the last 20 or so past 35 yds. Okay now for the question. How close was your closest kill WITHOUT decoys or fanning? I guess around ten yards or so on several different birds, all in steep terrain.

10 ish as well

5 feet. Shot a hole in his neck about the size of a Silver Dollar.

9 STEPS

I try not to let them get close, but to answer the question about 10 yards. He got behind a tree about 5' infront of me and walked straight to me and peeked around that tree and took of running, he screwed up and got out from behind that tree

Less than 10 yards

About 5 yards is the closest. Killed several around 10. Missed one closer one time.

He was coming up a hill and the first thing I saw was his tail fan as he went into strut for a few seconds. I got on the sights good and he then raised his head for a look. I saw his head right above my sights and squeezed the trigger. He couldn't have been but 3 yards when I saw him, just a little below me because of the terrain.

I then saw dirt flying and the bird soon after.

The first one I ever got to come my way got about 8-10 yards before I had a clear shot and I missed, everyone who gave me tips on turkey hunting never told me not to let them get that close, I was able to redeem myself about an hour later and got my first longbeard. Killed one last season at about 12 yards that nearly run over me

Killed one when I was a kid that my dad called up. The bird was on us so fast that I kneeled down in some bushes on the edge of the road. The turkey walked into the road and right in front of my gun barrel. I am guessing his head was 8 inches from the barrel when I pulled the trigger.

Never had a kill that close again although I did have a hen step over my legs one time.

I shot a rio in Oklahoma last year at about 3 yards.

I missed one in self defense. Swear he was about to breed my gun barrel. After that day I've never let one get any closer than about 20 yards if I can help it.

five er six feet with a Heavy Duck Model 12, made a hole you could stick yer thumb thru in his neck.

My first bird. Walking across a sage field at daylight, a bird gobbles on the edge of the field. We dropped flat. Called once and he pitched down. Shot him at 5 foot with a .410.

Killed another a few years ago that I let get to 6yds.

Our woods used to be really thick and I've killed a dozen or so at less than 10 yards. I think my closest was about 5 steps. Looked like you took a cookie cutter to the top of his head. I was half an inch from completely missing.

I killed one a few years ago at about probably 10 steps. I set up facing a bird gobbling in front of me and was working him. I had heard 2 birds behind me gobbling earlier but they were a good ways off. The bird in front of me was working to me pretty slowly and was about 70 yards out. I purred real soft and the two birds behind me gobbled and about blew my hat off. I don't know how they didn't see me jump. They eased by me on my left side at like 5 steps and once they got on in front of me, I swung and shot one of them.

I've also missed a couple inside of 10 yards due to poor set ups. I try not to put myself in a situation like that anymore.

if he gets inside 20 yards on me...i set up wrong

It's easier to just blame your gun, I set up wrong last season 2 times and it cost me each time . One bird came in running after being hung up for over an hour, when he came to a stop we wer eye to eye. He's still alive but the tree isn't. The next bird I had hunted him for over a week and it was his time one morning, came in on a string and I crippled him up. I even got a tracking dog to try and find him but no luck. Not my guns fault though really its just turkey hunting .

I agree, if he crosses the 35 yd mark, boom. Sometimes it's impossible to set up where u can see that far though. While in tn a few years back I killed one of a pair in terrain so steep that it surprised me when that head popped up!

8 steps.

Ive shot a couple at less than 10 yards. Completely decapitated one of them with nitros but im with most of you, I dont like them inside 20.

8yds last year.

My last three were under 15 yards. Closest was about 8 or 9 yards

I've got one bird that comes to mind from 25 or so years ago, he had to be inside of 10 yards.

However, I had the conversation just yesterday with a friend that the last few birds I've killed were 50+ though. Don't think there's anything but coincidence to it, but I'd rather split that difference to be honest. If one gets too close for comfort, I try to tell myself to hold a little lower, maybe where feathers meet skin.

We used to do a lot of Fall hunting, and we'd run into a bunch of birds to bust them up, and sometimes those goofy things would let you run TOO CLOSE! LOL

up close I always aim a bit lower, just below the top of the feathers.

About 12 yds. I hate letting them get that close, but he came in perfectly lined up behind some trees and that was the first shot I had at him. I don't like letting them get closer than 20 yds - the chance of bad things happening goes way up when they get close.

Yep, no point in risking it. I called in, what would have been my buddies first bird, and he missed it about 3' of his gun barrel.

3yds?!?

There are some on here that have shot them at 1 yd, that had to be nerve racking. 3' is really close!

I can't even imagine pointing my gun at a turkey 3ft away from the end of the barrel.

I missed a big bird inside 10yds once. I guess my closest kill was around 15-20yd range. I'm a nervous wreck when they get inside 25yds or so.

the one I shot at 5-6 FEET came from my right thru an area of small saplings, no tree big enough to hide my movement to turn the gun. So I just let him come...and he kept in a line to run over me. I figgered at a few feet I'd have time to shoot three er four times before he got out of range. I swung and fired near from the hip and centered his neck as he tried to veer off me. DRT.

I killed another Wilcox bird at maybe ten feet that came from the left side under a cut bank beside a hundred+ year old graveyard in the woods. I was standing on a grave when I saw a white spot move right beside me, his head as he looked over the bank. As he took a step his head went down, gun swung left, and as his head came back up I shot him. Took his head near off, held by a thread.


20-25 yards is a good range, any closer and I get nervous....

Killed one on Little River WMA many years ago closer than my liking but it was a crazy morning. Another set of hunters moved in on us, I couldn't get set up like I wanted & the bird came in behind a tree and didn't step out until he was right on top of me. Killed him at 7 steps.

7 yards.

I killed a one at about 5 yards when I first started hunting years ago in college. But the most memorable would have to be one that I didn't kill one time. I had a young 2 yr old get to close one time and he took a ride home with me without shots being fired. I guess he just was really hormonally challenged or couldn't figure out how that tree was making such sweet sounds. :-)

Are you saying that you called up a wild turkey and caught him with your bare hands?
Please tell the story if so!

X2

I would love to hear that as well.


A buddy of mine and I caught a wild jake one time. It would come out of the woods in the afternoons and eat with my grandmamma's tame turkeys. Then he would roost on my granddad's old flatbottom which was leaned up against a peach tree vertically. We snuck out one night about 11 pm and snatched that joker off that boat. That turkey about killed both of us but we caught it. I will have to tell that story in detail again one of these days.

I killed one by hand, but a shot was fired that didn't hit him.


I used to hunt with a double barrel muzzle loader, black powder, for turkeys. This will become important in this story. One morning I was hunting in Greene Co at Stagshead Lodge. I heard nothing on the property gobbling. Late morning as I was headed back to the lodge I heard a bird way off the property in some adjoining pastures. Stagshead was pretty thick back then and a big honeysuckle thicket ran along the property fence by the pasture.

I slipped thru the thicket and knelt at the fence. I spotted a gobbler and hens several hundred yards across the pasture. I decided to make him gobble, absolutely no hope/plan/idea of actually calling him off half dozen hens.

My gun was in my left hand, leaning against the fence. I called loudly and the bird gobbled. Cool. I hammered him again and he gobbled. On my third er fourth call a gobble blasted out, loud and close. I could see all of ten feet behind me because of the honeysuckle.

Just to my right a bird walked out of the honeysuckle thicket at maybe ten steps. To my right!!!! Gun in left hand, butt on ground, on my knees in the open!!! Damn. Bird walks behing a 2" sapling and I swing the gun up as he tries to spin..and blast one off. Remember...black powder...wet, heavy air morning...HUGE cloud of white smoke covers everything up. All I see/hear is flapping and flogging IN the honeysuckles to my right....I drop the gun and run ten er so steps and POUNCE on the thrashing bird under the honeysuckle where he got tangled in all the cloudy confusion....

I finally get a hand on his neck and twist it around maybe 575 dozen times till it breaks. Dead bird, ugly kill, but dead bird. I head for the lodge and and tell my story to three other hunters. One of em says he dosen't see any pellet holes in my bird. I had assumed I did hit it, but....

We skin the head/neck out and there are no holes in the skin/meat....complete miss by my shot. Hand only kill. It was ugly..but funny.

10 feet. Bird spooked and flew right over my head. Looked like a feather bed eexploded.

12 feet, but it wasn't a clean kill. He was walking up a road to me, but a downed tree had me completely blocked. I pointed the gun so that I could shoot him the instant he cleared the tree at 12'. I first thought I had taken his head off, but I only nicked the back of it. He flew off like a woodpecker, but was getting away. 2nd shot grazed him, 3rd shot killed him.

It was real hard on my nerves.

10 feet. Snuck in behind me and got to close. Called in my uncles first bird the next day and he cut his head OFF at 6-8 feet, real rocky in that area.

7 steps. 2 toms came up a steep hill, and behind a big poplar tree. When they cleared the tree they were 7 steps.

9 steps, as he wouldn't come outta strut working his way towards me. Finally had to shoot him in full strut, which I hated to do, but he just wouldn't come out. This was about 100 yards from where HighVoltage has his closest kill.

First turkey hunt ever, last day of season 2 seasons ago, only long beard I've killed. Maybe 10 yards, shot him with my mossy 500 20 gauge. Took the choke out not to long ago and it was a modified choke.

Closest I have pulled the trigger on one is about 10 yards on three different occasions.

Had to sit down a few yards out in the bushes off a logging road and let one walk past me in the road one time. Shot him at about 10 yards with Hevi-13 6's.

Had another bird come in dead behind a large pine tree and a clump of bushes right next to it. Could not see him at all until he veered out around them at 10 yards. Shot him at that distance with a 3.5 inch Nitro duplex load. It wasn't pretty.

Possible closest kill I just remembered may have been a two year old that slipped in behind me while I was fooling with 3 other birds that had hung up out in front of me. Had to switch and shoot him left handed through a small opening in a thicket behind me. He may not have been 10 yards. Shot him with a 3.5 inch Hevi-13 number 7. When I walked up to him I thought he had a wet grey leaf stuck to the side of his head. Turned out it was his retinas from behind his eyeballs.

Had one go silent and loop around behind me one time. He walked past me out to my left at less than 10 yards. But I let him wander on out in front of me before I moved to get on him. Shot him at about 15 yards.

Normally I will not let them get that close if I can help it.

Okay, I guess I should have told the story earlier, but really didn't have time at that moment. So here goes, I had been hunting for most of the morning that day, with little to no luck. The only action had been a loud mouthed hen that got in a shouting match with me and ended up coming in to within a few feet before she had had enough and let. Fast forward several minutes, and I'm still sitting leaned back on that old water oak. I'm dozing in and out, just kinda resting and planning my next moves, when I hear the leave really close behind me and the tree crunch a little. I made one really soft yelp, and this obviously blind, deaf, and dumb gobbler comes quickly walking around the base of the tree. That's when I became the dumb one, because I reacted before I thought. I had one hand on the ground on his side, and just reached and grabbed his closest foot. That is when he went to whipping my butt with his other spur and wings. We wrestled for what seemed like 30 minutes, but was probably only 30 seconds before I got a hold to that other weapon of a leg. As if that wasn't funny enough looking, I drove from the place I was hunting, a little over an hour from the house, all the way home holding that bird. I challenge anyone to drive a 5 speed while holding a not so happy bird in your lap. Got him home and put him in a large pen I had and he lived there for several years. Never could kill him, ended up turning him loss. Before anyone bashes me, I know I wasn't suppose to keep him, but I did and have now learned from my awful ways.

4-6 steps... I had just called my g/f's first turkey in and the hunt ended early, 20 minutes later or so while waiting for her granddad to pick us up, a turkey gobbles in the bottom right beside us.. I leave her there and end up calling the whole flock to me, bunch of hens and two strutters..bang flop, and back to her in 20 mins.. perfect morning in my eyes

I was having an in the woods box call teaching class with my wife one day, trying to learn her the proper calls. A bird answered down a steep ridge, we were on a small knob on top, not much room to move. We moved away from the bird maybe 25 yards and set up in a stump hole. Gobbler appeared at maybe 25+ yards, steady walking to us. I told her to shoot....ya need to shoot....come on shoot ...shoot NOW. She finally pulled the trigger at maybe five steps, bird went down, flopping. I picked it up, looking at the neck/head. ONE, ONE dang hole. She completely missed the bird and ONE flyer pellet centered the neck bone.

I shot a gobbler at 2 to 3 feet a few years ago. We were hunting a tough old pasture bird on a friends place and had hunted him a few mornings. He was roosting in the woods off the place and was pitching into the pasture. We get set up early and my buddy decides he is going to move about 30 yards back up the fence from me. I told him to stay put, but he was determined to move. About the time he moves the bird gobbles off the roost and he is about 40 yards behind us and is between the two of us. When he flies down, he hits the ground running and is headed towards me. I keep waiting for my buddy to shoot him and he hasn't for some reason. The gobblers stops about 30 steps in front of me and I shoot him. He rolls and pitches up flying out into the pasture about 100 yards. He squats down and I can tell he isn't going anywhere. I walked up to him and he's just sitting there looking at me. For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to tap on the back of the head with my gun barrel. When I did he jumped up and started running in a circle. I take a step back and shoot him point blank. A 3.5" #5 will put a fist size hole through a turkey at that range.

About 5 yards, snuck up on me, came in quiet. I had to wait for him to put his head down and walk behind a stump, before i could raise my gun. When i first saw him, i was in lala land, i thought, man thats a realistic decoy, and then remembered i didn't have a decoy out.

Shot one in Tennessee a few years back that I am fairly certain the percussion killed him. I guess he was 7 or 8 feet away and I didn't find the first hole in his noggin. He spurred the chit out of me too when I put my foot on his head.