ShortMountain91
WKR
I'm 33 and have been hunting turkeys for about 20ish years and have killed plenty in that time. It is my favorite hunting in my home state of Tennessee. Today I had something new happen over the course of my turkey chasing career. I shot a gobbler in full flight, had him fall out of flight but unfortunately did not recover him. I have only shot at them in flight a couple times but those times have been clean misses. This is the first time I have hit one where he came down hard.
So this got me wondering from my fellow turkey nuts, have you ever shot one flying and recovered him?
The backstory:
So I had my 4th kid in late February and am blessed to get a 12 week paternity leave from work. This has allowed me to chase the turkeys hard this year and have had a fun season. In TN we get 2 birds per season and I was able to call one into my lap last week flopped him clean at about 8 yards. Today was not as pretty a story. I'm hunting a 30 acre open field this morning. This property has a bush hogged bottom between a creek and bluff behind the field I'm set up on. I hear one single gobble first thing in the morning on the neighbors wooded property. Give it a few minutes and start my calling sequence. No response. Call some more throughout the morning and still no response. We had some rain rolling in around 10 today so at 915 I decide I'll see if I can peak down into the bottom behind me and see if the gobbler that sounded off at daybreak is strutting around down there. I stand up from my hiding spot and some movement catches my eye to the right. It's 3 turkeys running away from me about 200.yards out. I'm sure they heard my calling sequence and had I just sat there 10 more minutes I believe I would be tagged out right now. So once I'm done cussing myself for screwing this hunt up I give the turkeys about 20 minutes to get out of the field so I can slip out and head home. As I'm walking back to the truck I catch movement again. The same 3 turkeys are still standing in the field about 350 yards from where I first spotted them. I duck down for a minute or 2 then slowly ease up. They're still there and didn't seem to get spooked this time. Up until today I had been using the flextone full strut decoy which can double as a reaping rig. Wouldn't you know that the day I have the perfect opportunity to reap, I switch it out to use the Jake hen combo. So I drop my pack, put the Jake on a stake and start belly crawling towards these 3 turkeys, Jake decoy in one hand, gun in the other. At this point the rain is here and it's pouring. Get to a little rise and before I have time to think I have a tom right on top of me running up for a fight. I drop the Jake decoy and shoulder the gun. The tom flies up and I fire off the first shot. He doesn't seem phased. I squeeze off the 2nd and he crumbles up like a stoned mallard then crashes into the neighboring woods. I take off running after him which sends the other 2 toms running in the opposite direction. Get into the woods and it is thick everywhere. Didn't see him and couldn't hear anything because of the rain. I spend the next hour and a half looking for him in the brush while getting soaked in the rain but to no avail.
The reflection:
Looking back at this and the other couple times I have shot at flying turkeys I have always said "why did you do that?" afterwards. I think my instincts take over and I can't help myself but shoot but it has to be a very low percentage shot. Had he landed in the open field I think I would have had a good chance to run him down and finish him off with an additional follow up but that's not what happened. I know that's hunting but man do I hate shooting a gobbler, knowing I hit him and not recovering. Really puts a damper on what has been a very fun season so far. Gonna take a few days off before I head afield again. We have more rain heading in and maybe that will give me some time to get in better spirits.
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So this got me wondering from my fellow turkey nuts, have you ever shot one flying and recovered him?
The backstory:
So I had my 4th kid in late February and am blessed to get a 12 week paternity leave from work. This has allowed me to chase the turkeys hard this year and have had a fun season. In TN we get 2 birds per season and I was able to call one into my lap last week flopped him clean at about 8 yards. Today was not as pretty a story. I'm hunting a 30 acre open field this morning. This property has a bush hogged bottom between a creek and bluff behind the field I'm set up on. I hear one single gobble first thing in the morning on the neighbors wooded property. Give it a few minutes and start my calling sequence. No response. Call some more throughout the morning and still no response. We had some rain rolling in around 10 today so at 915 I decide I'll see if I can peak down into the bottom behind me and see if the gobbler that sounded off at daybreak is strutting around down there. I stand up from my hiding spot and some movement catches my eye to the right. It's 3 turkeys running away from me about 200.yards out. I'm sure they heard my calling sequence and had I just sat there 10 more minutes I believe I would be tagged out right now. So once I'm done cussing myself for screwing this hunt up I give the turkeys about 20 minutes to get out of the field so I can slip out and head home. As I'm walking back to the truck I catch movement again. The same 3 turkeys are still standing in the field about 350 yards from where I first spotted them. I duck down for a minute or 2 then slowly ease up. They're still there and didn't seem to get spooked this time. Up until today I had been using the flextone full strut decoy which can double as a reaping rig. Wouldn't you know that the day I have the perfect opportunity to reap, I switch it out to use the Jake hen combo. So I drop my pack, put the Jake on a stake and start belly crawling towards these 3 turkeys, Jake decoy in one hand, gun in the other. At this point the rain is here and it's pouring. Get to a little rise and before I have time to think I have a tom right on top of me running up for a fight. I drop the Jake decoy and shoulder the gun. The tom flies up and I fire off the first shot. He doesn't seem phased. I squeeze off the 2nd and he crumbles up like a stoned mallard then crashes into the neighboring woods. I take off running after him which sends the other 2 toms running in the opposite direction. Get into the woods and it is thick everywhere. Didn't see him and couldn't hear anything because of the rain. I spend the next hour and a half looking for him in the brush while getting soaked in the rain but to no avail.
The reflection:
Looking back at this and the other couple times I have shot at flying turkeys I have always said "why did you do that?" afterwards. I think my instincts take over and I can't help myself but shoot but it has to be a very low percentage shot. Had he landed in the open field I think I would have had a good chance to run him down and finish him off with an additional follow up but that's not what happened. I know that's hunting but man do I hate shooting a gobbler, knowing I hit him and not recovering. Really puts a damper on what has been a very fun season so far. Gonna take a few days off before I head afield again. We have more rain heading in and maybe that will give me some time to get in better spirits.
Sent from my SM-S936U using Tapatalk
