Posted By: bamaeyedoc
Bird #1 goes down. (pics) - 03/21/13 04:05 AM
Sunday morning I meet a buddy of mine for a hunt on his place in Lowndes county. We get on a bird at daybreak but he's way across the line and we just sit there and listen to him answer us. A few minutes later, another bird opens up on our side so we hustle over to his location.
We make it to where we think we need to be and finally he answers a series of hard clucks! We dive for some trees because its a wide open hardwood bottom. To my right is a beaver pond and to my left is a pine thicket. Its a perfect bottleneck and this bird has nowhere to go except straight at us. My buddy is to my left about 10 yards. Guns up. Sitting on ready!
Well, about 15 minutes go by and not another sound. Where'd he go? Then, about 100 yards through the woods I see movement. It's him! He's just slipping in quiet. A few minutes pass and I see him again. He's closed the gap and is about 60 yards out. I tell my buddy "He's coming!" and he nods. He sees him too!
Breathing is heavy. Eyes are darting. Straining for any glimpse of that bird. Then...whoa....there he is. He suddenly steps up on a little rise about 40 yards away. He's in the wide open. I see that big ole red head and he's just staring me down. There ain't a twig between he and myself. He's like a statue and surveying rigth where I'm sitting. I feel like he's looking right through me. I ease my cheek down on the barrel and rest my tru-glo sight between his beak and wattles and touch the trigger! BOOM!!!
The next thing I see is a turkey fly up and light right back down and start clucking and going nuts. My buddy goes nuts and is pretty dang upset. I'm upset as well and I'm just staring at the ground. I can't believe I missed. How? He was in range. He was in the wide open. I feel sick at my stomach. Here I am as a guest and I make a bonehead mistake and shoot too soon and ruin a hunt. I'm feeling pretty low.
Well a couple of minutes go by and there is only silence in the woods. Neither of us are talking. Suddenly, I hear wings beating!! Holy crap! I look up and I see a turkey flopping on the ground! MY TURKEY! There were TWO gobblers that came in and I never saw the other one until he flushed at the shot! Oh man!! I jumped up and ran to my bird. I could tell when I picked him up he was a very nice gob. I couldn't be more excited!
After I got back to the tree, I figured out why my buddy was a bit upset. He could see both birds from his vantage point and was waiting for them to get in close so we could double. I felt bad for messing that opportunity up. I just took the first open shot that presented itself.
He's a nice 3, maybe 4 year old. 20.5lbs, 1 1/8 spurs, 10.5 inch beard.
We make it to where we think we need to be and finally he answers a series of hard clucks! We dive for some trees because its a wide open hardwood bottom. To my right is a beaver pond and to my left is a pine thicket. Its a perfect bottleneck and this bird has nowhere to go except straight at us. My buddy is to my left about 10 yards. Guns up. Sitting on ready!
Well, about 15 minutes go by and not another sound. Where'd he go? Then, about 100 yards through the woods I see movement. It's him! He's just slipping in quiet. A few minutes pass and I see him again. He's closed the gap and is about 60 yards out. I tell my buddy "He's coming!" and he nods. He sees him too!
Breathing is heavy. Eyes are darting. Straining for any glimpse of that bird. Then...whoa....there he is. He suddenly steps up on a little rise about 40 yards away. He's in the wide open. I see that big ole red head and he's just staring me down. There ain't a twig between he and myself. He's like a statue and surveying rigth where I'm sitting. I feel like he's looking right through me. I ease my cheek down on the barrel and rest my tru-glo sight between his beak and wattles and touch the trigger! BOOM!!!
The next thing I see is a turkey fly up and light right back down and start clucking and going nuts. My buddy goes nuts and is pretty dang upset. I'm upset as well and I'm just staring at the ground. I can't believe I missed. How? He was in range. He was in the wide open. I feel sick at my stomach. Here I am as a guest and I make a bonehead mistake and shoot too soon and ruin a hunt. I'm feeling pretty low.
Well a couple of minutes go by and there is only silence in the woods. Neither of us are talking. Suddenly, I hear wings beating!! Holy crap! I look up and I see a turkey flopping on the ground! MY TURKEY! There were TWO gobblers that came in and I never saw the other one until he flushed at the shot! Oh man!! I jumped up and ran to my bird. I could tell when I picked him up he was a very nice gob. I couldn't be more excited!
After I got back to the tree, I figured out why my buddy was a bit upset. He could see both birds from his vantage point and was waiting for them to get in close so we could double. I felt bad for messing that opportunity up. I just took the first open shot that presented itself.
He's a nice 3, maybe 4 year old. 20.5lbs, 1 1/8 spurs, 10.5 inch beard.
Just kidding Doc congrats on a pretty turkey.