Color me frustrated

[Duckdogdad]

Knocked down nice long beard today. He flopped for 30 seconds, then stopped. Walking to get him, glanced at other tom running away, when I looked up the bird I shot was running and twenty yards away. I shot at him twice, but between having a red dot and his crazy motion due to having been shot, he got away. Haven't ever had that happen in 40 years of hunting

[Turkeybutt]

Sorry to hear about your situation  today. Tough day of hunting. Come Monday you will get another chance.

[owlhoot]

Guess you could have body him or caught him on the fringe of pattern?
What you shoot him with and how far?

[WV Flopper]

 Sucks to lose a game animal.

[BDeal]

Do red dots not work well for moving targets? I've never used one but just bought 2. Sorry about the bird!! I had it happen to me last year and it still bothers me.

[Duckdogdad]

Shot him with 20 gauge, apex tss 9's at 35 yards. Not sure what happened other than he didn't ride home in my truck.

[strum]

 Sux.   Sorry that happened. 

[Turkeybutt]

Shot him with 20 gauge, apex tss 9's at 35 yards. Not sure what happened other than he didn't ride home in my truck.

Just wasn't his day to die.

[HookedonHooks]

I've had this exact situation happen one single time, and was sick over it for awhile. It's why I will never archery hunt turkeys, because that's a common occurrence in that scene.

[Greg Massey]

If you hunt them long enough anything can happen. Don't give up.... We have all had disappointing hunts...

[HookedonHooks]

Shot him with 20 gauge, apex tss 9's at 35 yards. Not sure what happened other than he didn't ride home in my truck.

Just wasn't his day to die.

Tomorrow will be that day though most likely.

If he was anchored for 30 seconds he'll be coyote food before long.

[Paulmyr]

Shot him with 20 gauge, apex tss 9's at 35 yards. Not sure what happened other than he didn't ride home in my truck.

I dropped my gun 3 days ago. So after the rain yesterday I had to check see if nothing moved. 1st shot I seen the dot move right just a hair at trigger pull. The main body of the shot was atleast 10" wide. Just a smattering of pellet holes in the kill zone. Unless a magic pellet hit the spine or brain that bird was getting away. Shooting tss 9 at 35 steps. From a 20. The bulk of the pattern was still pretty tight at that distance. Second shot I made sure the gun was anchored well and not moving. Dead center. It doesn't take much movement at trigger pull to throw that pattern off. My 12 with copper plated 5's is much more forgiving.

[Spitten and drummen]

The truth is , if you hunt them long enough and shoot at them enough , this will happen. I have missed a few and lost a couple over the 45 years I have hunted them. It's just part of it. I know how devestated you feel when things like this happens. You just have to dust yourself off and get back in the saddle. It's really easy to get over confident only to be humbled by these great birds. Go get them and good luck.

[Tail Feathers]

Man it sucks to wound one and lose it.  Been there, it leaves a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach.  Hate that it happened.

[Paulmyr]

The big question is did you go look for him? From what it sounds like you hit him well enough for him to go hide in a nearby deadfall, brush pile, or something until he recovered well enough to move along or died.