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Thread: Have you ever “missed” a turkey?

  1. #1
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    Default Have you ever “missed” a turkey?

    I have always wondered how you “miss” a turkey with a shotgun. I have heard and read about people doing it for years, all my life. I never understood it. Well, last week my son and I were hunting and I had a long beard walk out about 30 yards to my left. He was moving pretty fast, but not running, crossing a logging road. I got on him and took a shot as he went into the brush. (12 ga, 3 inch #5 Winchester long beards) The shot felt good, but he flew, and I took a second shot…no response.

    We looked around where he went in, and made a few circles and found no evidence of a hit, so we moved and set up again, and hunted for a couple hours. All this time, I could not get that “miss” out of my mind, so finally we went back to where I last saw him, and started making circles in the 3 year thinned pines. About 200 yards in, we kick him up and he tried to run and fly. What ensued is a running gun battle with a wounded turkey. Six hundred yards, 5 rounds fired, and 90 seconds later we are finally standing over him wondering what just happened.

    Just makes me wonder how many “missed” end up with turkeys dying or becoming coyote food.

    How much effort do y’all put in to make sure a miss is really a miss?
    Last edited by JJ1965; 04-18-2022 at 09:11 AM.
    When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home. -Tecumseh-

    Quote Originally Posted by Griffin View Post
    You're also one of select few clemings with sense.

  2. #2
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    If you've never missed one, then you haven't shot at that many. I thought the same as you, until it happened to me. Unfortunately it will happen again. There are circumstances and things that contribute of course, but ultimately it's very possible to clean miss one with a shotgun. Red dots all but eliminate the possibility of not having your head down on the stock etc. Still possible to just pull one but a lot less likely. Moving targets are another thing.

    All that being said...any one I have ever shot at and missed I've exhausted long periods of time just like you did in searching to be sure. Thankfully there haven't been that many. It's a very sickening feeling for sure.

  3. #3
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    Hats off to you.

    I had one that totally blew my mind. I stopped in a pasture and went to a hedgerow and called. One cut me off. I went to where I thought he would go and set up.

    Five minutes go by...I call again...He hammered at 20 yds....behind me. I slowly turn and he's there, periscoped, eyeballing me. I was busted, but he was still trying to process what I was...I did the quick turn and shoot. He summersaulted backwards. Feathers everywhere. I tripped and fell on a grapevine. Trying not to lose control of the gun I lost eyesight with him. When I regain my composure I look for him and he's running across the pasture to the treeline. I looked for that son of a bitch for six hours. Left and got a dog even...nothing. Never found him. I know I hit him.

    That's been a decade or two ago and I've not opted for the turn and shoot since. I'll just tip my hat and hunt him again if he choses not to circle.
    "Rivers and the inhabitants of the watery elements are for wise men to contemplate and for fools to pass by without consideration" -Izaak Walton

  4. #4
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    The luckiest Turkey hunter I know is a member here. He shot "at" one and it flew off. Hat stomping, and cursing ensued. If he sees this he can tell the rest of the story.

    Damn Leprechauns.

    I've been at it for 44 years. I have shot and lost a few in that time. It happens , and sucks.
    F**K Cancer

    Just Damn.

  5. #5
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    Just like deer hunting. You shoot at enough of them and you will miss or worse yet cripple and lose one.

  6. #6
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    It happens. Hasn’t happened to me in over 10 years until opening day this year. Had a gobbler and a hen walking down a road angling towards me. The hen was further in front and when I raised my gun she bolted fast back down the road. I was worried they would cross paths as he was still in half strut so I pulled up a quick shot.

    After I missed I watched them run side by side down the road and fly off. Never found a feather nor did he fall. I’d assume it was a miss but still looked in the woods anyway. I’d definitely do loops like you did.

    Moral of the story for me at least is take your time on the shot

  7. #7
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  8. #8
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    Yup. It happens. I missed a LB an hour before I killed my first. I think I missed a jake the year before that.
    Quote Originally Posted by cajunwannabe View Post
    Man is merely a two legged locust, devouring wild lands, developing and prostituting wildlife and fisheries under the guise of "use of the resource" for tremendous profit and moving on. Will it ever end?

  9. #9
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    I have missed a lot of turkeys. Red dots have been a tremendous help for me, but man I used to miss them. I have learned over the years that some of those “misses” aren’t clean misses and I have found several turkeys in the manner that you did. I take a lot of time to look really hard, and pay attention to the reaction the bird has to the shot. One tip I would give, is that if they are hit, they don’t often go very far. If they fly, they are pretty close to where they landed. They will take the time to bury themselves in a log pile, briar bed, or the thickest thing they can find. Take your time, and check out all of the thickets around. And, have a gun.

    Good on you for making the effort to find him.
    Them that don't know him won't like him, and them that do sometimes won't know how to take him

    He ain't wrong, he's just different, and his pride won't let him do things to make you think he's right

    They don't put Championship rings on smooth hands

  10. #10
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    Not to highlight my screw ups, but I lost a dandy once at the Midway club.

    Set up with a certain fella in front of me, I had seen a bunch of birds in a food plot the day prior. Tore up with scratching and strut marks. Come next afternoon, my guest fell asleep on the job. I could hear his agonal respirations, as he had a long night the day before. Time was right, and sure enough , turkeys enter the plot from the swamp. Like 20 hens and jakes and a gorgeous strutter. I tried my best to wake up the young man. To no avail, so I took a fine bead and woke him up with a shot. Rolled the gobbler at 25 yards. He went to floppin and got airborne. I stood, pumped another Nitro into the chamber, led him and knocked him out the air. He hit the ground hard.

    Guest stood up, ears rung and dazed. Looked down the plot to see the Gobbler get his feet under him and proceeded to short stroke the third round and jammed the gun. He ran off into the swamp and was gone.

    Three days later, the Gobbler was seen strutting for hens in the same spot. Missing a few tail fan feathers , but back on the job.

    I left that evil bastard alone for the rest of the year and let him heal up. Hope he bred every hen possible.
    F**K Cancer

    Just Damn.

  11. #11
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    Had something like that happen before except I didn’t wait and walked straight to where I thought he went. Heard him flapping in a thick briar bed. If I wouldn’t have gone right away and looked I would have never found him. He made it about 200 yards.

  12. #12
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    I snicker like hell when I hear someone say they have never missed a turkey. Sling enough lead and stuff will go wrong. Thats all I have to say about that.

  13. #13
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    I have told it before, but this time of year, some nights I have the nightmare reel of the birds I fucked up on run through my head... it's troubling. Especially the ones I screwed up in front of a witness. ( Which is why I like to hunt by myself) ....
    F**K Cancer

    Just Damn.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by nitro5x6's View Post
    I have told it before, but this time of year, some nights I have the nightmare reel of the birds I fucked up on run through my head... it's troubling. Especially the ones I screwed up in front of a witness. ( Which is why I like to hunt by myself) ....
    In my missing experience, and I have plenty, it is better to miss with someone than alone. The ribbing you take sucks, but it seems to help you get over it a lot quicker. I have missed one alone, walked all the way back to the truck, then walked back to the scene of the crime. I guess I was hoping that the gobbler would give me a redo.
    Them that don't know him won't like him, and them that do sometimes won't know how to take him

    He ain't wrong, he's just different, and his pride won't let him do things to make you think he's right

    They don't put Championship rings on smooth hands

  15. #15
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    I cut a hanging vine with a shot about 10 years ago.. Set up in a thick area facing the last direction I heard him angled towards a power line. He crossed the power line below me and circled me in the thick. Probably my fault for calling again after I was cut off the first time. Anyway, took the first shot he gave me while circling me. Rolled him, feathers, the whole nine.. all I ever found was the wadding from the shot with two of the four petals ripped off and the 1” cut vine. Tunnel vision and calling too much are the lessons I learned that day.
    “Get out among the mountains and trees, friend, as soon as you can. They will do more for you than either man or woman could.” Theodore Roosevelt to John Muir after his wife's passing in 1905.

  16. #16
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    I’ve missed 2 thinking they were 40 yards and aimed high. Then step off and they were at 30. I’ve never been good at judging distances, that’s why now I wait til they are in tight or I’m not trying them. And I missed the first turkey I ever shot at as it ran away from busting me at 10 steps. I didn’t call that bird in, I snuck around a corner with a strutter decoy and he came running to me and stopped on the other side of a ditch. I panicked, And just froze until he started running away.
    867-5309

  17. #17
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    i've never missed, but if I did, I damn sure would blame it on a vine, too.
    Ugh. Stupid people piss me off.

  18. #18
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    and i got a new avatar. i'm so excited.
    Ugh. Stupid people piss me off.

  19. #19
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    is that a starfish turd?
    Ugh. Stupid people piss me off.

  20. #20
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    I've missed two bc of a redot site. But the fun of not missing with one makes up for it.

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