coming clean
Gotta get this off my chest. Its all ive been able to think about for the last three days. The subject of the trespassing thread was me, but the original post wasn’t exactly accurate. redhead wasn’t there so he was going by what he was told. I would like to describe what happened and take my lashings. a man has to admit when he’s wrong and own up to it.
I started off at another location Saturday morning. Not hearing anything, I left and stopped back by my home turf. A piece of family land that ive hunted for 10 years, and usually kill a bird or two there every year. I walked around the perimeter of the property hoping to strike up a bird. Two sides of the land are bordered by thick cutovers. So any birds that would be there would be on my land. The third side is bordered by some older pines, but really still pretty thick for a turkey. On the very back corner, our two firelanes meet up with a logging road that kind of curves around at a 45 degree angle and goes both directions. When I got to that corner I made a few yelps and didn’t get a response, so I turned to head back in the direction of my truck. When I rounded the corner on my land, I looked down the logging road (neighboring property) and spotted a red headed turkey about 175 yards down the road. Hmm. I thought it might be a jake being as it didn’t gobble, but I figured I would set up and call a few times just to see. I eased about three rows into the pines on my property about 20 yards from the property line. I called a few times and just sat. I could only see a small gap where the turkey was, and when he crossed that gap he was coming straight to me. it took maybe 20 minutes for him to make it 175 yards. When he got to 45 yards I spotted the beard and realized it was a gobbler. It was walking straight to me down the neighbors road. My heart goes into overdrive just like it always does when a turkey gets within range. That’s when I let my nerves get the best of me, and I shot the turkey 10 yards over the line. Hindsights 20-20, but I should have let the bird walk the extra 10 yards and hopefully come on to my property, but my nerves took over, and I didn’t. the first time I stepped foot on their property was when I walked out and picked up the turkey, and that’s when Andy’s guys saw me and came down to me. they were set up on the edge of their road atleast 150 yards on the other side of the turkey. And atleast 300 yards from me. I apologized to the two fellas about 30 times, we talked about property lines and such for 5-10 minutes, I shook their hands, and they left.
That’s what happened. I wasn’t belly crawling down a ditch to bushwack a turkey out from underneath a cripple kid.
I totally understand and admit that I was in the wrong. It was preventable and shouldn’t have happened. But it was a tough situation to be in. when I parked the truck that morning, I didn’t get out with the intent to go hunt someone elses land to kill a turkey.. I spotted a turkey from my property and called him in from my property, just didn’t wait long enough to make the shot. Im not a trespasser, a poacher, outlaw, renegade, or anything else associated with those. Just an honest guy that let his nerves get the best of him. Nobodys perfect and everyone makes mistakes. I was going to let this just blow over, but I cant stop thinking about it. out of about 30 or so birds that I have killed this is only the second one that’s ever been killed across a line. And the first was a similar situation when I was young and dumb in highschool and didn’t know any better. Everyone knows somebody that is labeled as an outlaw, and I don’t want to be one of them because that’s not what I am. My reputation is something I value, and I would like to keep it intact. hopefully coming clean about the events Saturday will make me feel better about it if nothing else
Andy (redhead) and I talked on the phone for nearly 30 minutes Monday morning. He understood, and accepted my apology. He admitted to making some bad decisions as well before and understood how it happens. There are no hard feelings between us, and now that I know the neighboring hunters we will both be better off for it. I mentioned a deer stand that they have 25 yards onto their property facing our property. if one of their guys was hunting that stand and had a nice buck walk by on our land it would be really tempting for them not to shoot. He agreed, and said that that guy wouldn’t be hunting with them anymore anyway. I feel like he really does value his reputation as well with neighboring landowners and I really respect him for that. I told him that I wouldn’t post it in the turkey contest because of the situation and I asked if he minded if I posted some pics of the bird since it was such a nice bird I figured it needed to be shared. He had no problems at all with that.
And to make it even worse, it was a hammer of a bird. I had no idea how big he was before I shot, but I did have a history with this bird too. I had looked at him through a spotting scope in the field on the front side of my property before the season started, and had seen him in the neighbors field a few days into the season. I could see he had big spurs, but thought he had a bigger beard. I hadn’t seen him since and figured he had gotten chopped. Such a nice bird to have a bad halo surrounding the kill.
Hopefully yall can understand and not dogpile me like on the trespassing thread now that you know the whole story.
Thanks,
adam
Reply With Quote
i fuggin knew it was you.
Originally Posted by Dook
Bookmarks