Missed another one today

[101st501]

Well, I missed another one today in Swainsboro.  That makes two this season I have missed.  We were up visiting some friends and went to their family farm and struck one up.  I don't know if it is my nerves or what.  I thought he was close enough and fired.  He jumped a little and then walked off like nothing ever happened.  Any suggestions from you folks on how to calm down, or have more patience, or whatever it is I need to do to fix the problem?  Thanks in advance.

[FL-Boss]

Are you sure it's not the gun?  Have you spent some time patterning your gun and all that stuff?

[101st501]

I am 100% confident in the shell and choke combo.  I am using the LR #6.  With two different chokes that shell is dynamite at 40.  I am sure that it is me. 

[MK M GOBL]

Are you hunting fields? timber? I have seen way too many people "misjudge" distances on turkeys that were in "range" one thing that I have seen that helps is a simple stick with yellow marker tape tied to it. Buddy does this and carries it along, does a quick 25 paces and place it. Gives some pretty quick range estimations knowing what 25 yards looks like from on the ground. I have a scope on my gun that gives you the "it's in range" circle of death. I also place decoys at a specific range and work from that too.

MK M GOBL

[Marc]

Get rid of the turkey choke, put a good full choke in, and shoot them under 40 yards.

I'd bet he was on the edge or just past the edge of range.  Everyone tends to stretch things out a bit when we get frustrated.

Some advice my father gave me for duck hunting that holds true for turkeys...


"If you see a bird and think 'I think can get him,' do NOT shoot.  You should KNOW you can get the bird when you shoot."

[owlhoot]

You maybe just shooting too far or got a bad box or a few in it .
Is it the same box you patterned from?
LR 6.  If that was meant to be LB 6's shake the shells to see if resin is broke up, loose shot will rattle in the shell, has been some reports recently and they did not pattern the same as others the fella had .
You might pattern again and check your poi , you may be a bit off with a real tight pattern.
Good luck

[MouthCaller]

I'd just mark it up to a slump... few seasons ago I missed 3 times on the same bird before carrying him out of the woods... you'll get back on track

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[Bowguy]

I believe your "I thougt he was close enough" says it all. Thinking it might be a makeable shot isn't good enough. You should be so positive its impossible to miss without being totally shocked. Know your distance, know your gun n it's effective range which may even be less than 40. Keep your head down n aim for the wattles. Aiming for the head puts half the shot over the top of bird. Keep your head down as that also makes pattern go high.
If you're body rolling em you may be flinching away as you shoot, you're face on gun yet pulling gun away so butt end is raised.
Hope some of that helps, if you can't judge yardage we'll get a rangefinder n prerange your set ups

[dejake]

Keep your head down.  Most misses are caused by looking up.

[Dr Juice]

Are you hunting fields? timber? I have seen way too many people "misjudge" distances on turkeys that were in "range" one thing that I have seen that helps is a simple stick with yellow marker tape tied to it. Buddy does this and carries it along, does a quick 25 paces and place it. Gives some pretty quick range estimations knowing what 25 yards looks like from on the ground. I have a scope on my gun that gives you the "it's in range" circle of death. I also place decoys at a specific range and work from that too.

MK M GOBL

I concur. I have the diamond of death in my scopes strictly for the range finding. Once it is filled as required, I lower the boom! Good luck.

[KYFrid]

Your not alone man. I'm 0 for my last 3 attempts that started out of state in Virginia the year before last. I shoot before season and practice and everything looks great.

I'm just in a slump as I'm sure that is the case with you. hopefully I'll break out of it this weekend. And I'm sure you will to soon. It only takes one bird to turn it all around.


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[Cottonmouth]

You may be flinching. Turkey loads can have some serious recoil. Try this- get a target set up and get a friend to either load or not load the gun behind you at his discretion behind you where you can't see if it's loaded or not. Then you will either fire the gun or snap it but you will assume it's loaded. I have seen some serious jerking on an empty chamber from a friend of mine that had grown up shooting hard hitting guns. The trick is you will assume it's loaded every time.

[TRG3]

I missed one before I decided to put front and rear sight on my shotgun's rib rather than just use the front bead. I didn't miss any after that. Now that these older eyes don't focus as well as they used to, I'm strongly considering a red dot scope.

[Hookinembig]

If your gun is patterning good and the bird is in distance you should be good. Sometimes people miss the close shots because there pattern is to tight at 10 or 20 yards and gives you a very small margin of error. As far as getting the turkey shakes as I do. Sometimes visualizing the turkey before it comes in and exactly how you are going to hold the gun and take the shot. Slow deep breathes also helps me calm down as well. This coming from a guy who dreams about turkeys and them stalking through the woods. I know I have a disease its not good.

[grayfox]

Missing a turkey to me was devastating. The first one I missed he strutted in with his fan spread out all the way to within 30 yards. First one that I had to do this & it was what I had dreamed about for a long time. I was just waiting for him to take a few more steps to be more in the clear. This was late season & a there was a lot of green leaves. Just before he got to where I needed him a hen ran up to within 5 yards of me. She never saw me but ran back toward the gobbler. I had completely forgot about her yelping just as the gobbler first gobbled about 20 minutes earlier. I panicked, raised up & tried to shoot over the hen & missed the gobbler. I was so sick I didn't even hunt the last weekend of the season. Missing a few times in a row can mess with your head & make you lose confidence in your shooting ability. Like others have stated make sure your pattern is good & hits where you are aiming. Another good thing is get you a good range finder & when you set up, range a few objects to go by so you will know when the turkey is in killing range. Another thing that helped me more than anything was using a red dot. My older eyes was having trouble with blurry sights so this took care of that. After you kill your next bird & get that monkey off your back things will get much better I promise.