One of my turkey hunting magazines just had a funny story about a guy deciding to shed a layer of clothes. Right when he was taking his long sleeved shirt off a tom gobbled from close by. He did everything wrong. He had set his shotgun down a ways off to the side, forgot to unbotton the cuffs of his sleeves, and panicked and dropped down right on the road he was on. The tom came over the hill to see a topless fat guy sitting in the middle of the road with his hands handcuffed behind his back and no gun! :D
Man, I have been there! I've had a few of those moments. Most of my busts have come while sneak hunting and they were coming in silent. I don't feel too bad about those, at least as far as beating myself up, as I didn't know they were there. Here are a couple I've really given myself a good mental whipping for being so stupid:
- Tom was coming in slowly but surely, responded to every one of my calls, but went silent for over an hour. I was bummed that something pulled him away. I decided to take a bathroom break and had the wrong "gun" in my hand when he popped out!
- I had glassed a tom from quite a distance. He was on high ground in open fields. I surveyed the terrain and figured a path where I could work around close to him. What didn't look like all that much distance in the binoculors turned out to be a good 75 minute hike. Since it took a lot longer than I thought to get there I was wondering if he'd even still be there. Instead of sitting against the nearest tree and calling I decided to slowly and quietly crawl up the hill right in front of me to see if he was still out in the field and worth a continued effort. When I crested the top I was looking eye to eye at him just a few yards away (for the brief second it took him to decide to take off).
- Had a tom coming in silent while sneak hunting. I crested a hill and a tom was strutting fairly close but luckily facing away. I dropped down and crawled backwards until I was sure I had the hill between us to cover my movement. I dropped back to the woodsline but set up in front of some sparse thorn brush. I felt like I was sticking out like a soar thumb and couldn't push back in because it was thorns. Of course, I decided to relocate and stood up just when he crested the hill.
And I thought this was going to be about our arrest records. Whew!! :TooFunny:
God Bless,
David B.
This isn't about me, but it could have been.
One afternoon, one of my college roommates was hunting a popular National Wildlife Refuge in north central Mississippi. He had been prospecting down a fire lane and had gotten no responses. He put his box call back in his pocket, leaned his shotgun against a tree, stepped away a little bit and started to relieve himself on yonder pine tree. Just as he started, he heard a commotion and looked up to see a longbeard land on a limb directly above him. My buddy stood there motionless, holding the only uncamouflaged part of his anatomy as the gobbler craned his neck back and forth checking out the terrain for that hen he had just heard. Directly the bird got suspicious and left as clamorously as he had arrived.
What can you do in a situation like that? My roommate finished peeing, picked up his gun and went to the truck.
FC
Well,I literally got caught with my pants down once.Bird came in to my calling but did so silently. I never knew he was there.Walked past me at about 10 yards.
Quote from: BOFF on March 07, 2011, 07:53:43 AM
And I thought this was going to be about our arrest records. Whew!! :TooFunny:
God Bless,
David B.
:TooFunny: :TooFunny: :TooFunny:
As a newer hunter I have a lot of storys fresh in my mind of where I let turkeys work m instead of working the turkeys. Got made to look pretty silly a few times.
I'll update some stories when I'm at a computer and not on an iPod
Yeah, I thought you was going to talk about the other kinda' "busted".
Cause I had really killer story about getting caught with a gal in the back seat of my mint '66 GTO. The officer about cracked up when he walked up and we was sitting back there eating pizza....true story....... :TooFunny: :TooFunny: :TooFunny:
Sorry for the high-jack. Carry on.
I was doing some calling for a friend that had never been out before. I had him set up and I sat a little ways behhind and to his right. We had one come in that made no noise other than spit n drum. He never had been around turkeys at all and just sat there because he didn't know what that noise was. I could tell he was just over a little ridge right in front of us so I started chucking acorns at him to get his attention to get his gun up. He just sat there and looked up to see why the tree was dropping acorns. :P I finally ran out of acorns and just waited for him to make his mistake. The turkey came over the ridge and he thought he would be really sneaky and slowly pull his gun up. We all know how that ends up, no tuekey for him! We still laugh about that to this day.
I would have to say my most embarrassing story would be my first year turkey hunting years ago. At daybreak, I was sitting next to a small food plot and started off with a couple yelps. Had three gobblers hammer at me in three different directions. After hearing nothing out of two of the other gobblers after waiting a while, the one gobbler I heard was still sounding off. I recall thinking he didn't exactly sound like the other two....you'll see why at the end of this story. Well, problem was this gobbler was on my neighbors property, which I did not have access to. Although I wouldn't cross a property line to hunt a turkey, I had no problem walking down within fifty yards of the line and calling the bird to my side. ;D Well this gobbler kept firing off every time I made a yelp or cut, but never budged. Finally he quit gobbling. After a half hour I gave up and walked back up the food plot I started in. There stood two strutting longbeards within ten yards of my original setup, who of course spotted me and took off. I later learned that the gobbler across the property line who wouldn't budge was in fact my neighbor trying to call in a turkey using a gobbler shaker. So basically, I missed a chance at two big longbeards while trying to call in my neighor. :angry9:
Just because you got busted does not mean the gig is up. Unless you shot at him that turkey is going to settle down in 20 minutes. It depends on the cover you have but I have found in timber, if a bird makes you and runs off, quickly move 100 yards perpendicular to the direction he was headed and then 200 yards parallel to where he was headed. Sit down and wait 20-30 minutes then call. If it makes you feel better use a different call, but that bird has no idea what he now hears in front of him is what spooked him 30 minutes ago behind him.
I had a friends 16 year old son with me one morning. Well after covering about a mile and a half working in a circle. I finally got a bird to gobble one time about 9:30 in the morning. I set him up looking down a road towards where the bird gobbled. After about 15 or 20 minutes the bird is drumming just over a little rise not 15 yards in front of me. This is right when the young man with me decides that it is the right time to let me know that the orange safety flag is hanging out of the back of my vest. needless to say...gig up and no bird. Oh yea, that stupid orange ribbon got cut off right there in front of him.
Took a friend's college roommate out one morning. I set him in one spot, told him to stay put and watch this side and then I slipped off about 30 yards, sat down and started calling. Directly a bird starts gobbling at me and is coming in slowly. Finally he sounds like he is just out of sight in front of me, when I hear numbnuts start whistling for me. He thought I had left him in the woods, never heard me calling, never heard the turkey gobbling progressively closer. He had gotten up and was wandering down through the woods whistling for me. Needless to say, the gobbler split for quieter places. This clown wanders around whistling while I sit there whistling back at him making him completely confused. He finally just stands there and hollers "Where are you!?" I hollered back and we left the woods.
To my knowledge, no one ever took him back to the woods again.
FullChoke
My Dad and I took a friend of mine who had never been turkey hunting before one morning, we heard several birds at first light but none wanted to play. So we walk around the farm periodically stopping and calling when we finally get a bird to answer about 9 oclock. We set up and started calling, after about 20 minutes the bird sounded like he had hung up over the ridge in front of us. So I tell dad to sit tight I was going to move back about 50 yards and start calling again. After I got sat down I looked and for some reason Dad had decided to move closer, I bet you cant guess who they saw when they topped the ridge. dad still doesnt know why he decided to do that. Says he was super excited about getting my friend a bird and had a brain fart haha. I still give him crap about that.
Back in the early 70's I was calling a gobbler. He had to come from a long way off and finally he came into view at about 30yds. I was just beginning to squeeze the trigger when all of a sudden from the top of a tree about 10yds from me a gobbler sails down, hits the ground running no more than a yd. from the one I'm going to shoot and takes the other gobbler with him before I can get a shot off.
A couple years ago for the season opener I had roosted some birds, marked the location on my gps and was ready to head back there early in the morning. Well for some reason I woke up a little late so I arrived to the woods a little too late. I also forgot my gps but it was a pretty easy walk and I figured I could make it back without a problem. Well the birds weren't gobbling like they were in the evening and it was starting to get light. I thought I was close enough but I second guessed myself. I took one step on the other side of a hemlock and 3 gobblers took off about 50 yards from me. Seems like I get into the most trouble when I start thinking too much.
Those orange safety flags got cut out of my vest soon too basser. Like others have sad I have gotten busted a few times while relieving myself.
It was my 21st birthday at college.. After numerous shots I thought it would be a good idea to go streaking, well nobody followed except a cop.. He stopped me but let me go cuz it was my birthday.. So technically I didnt get busted..
I have sat down with no Face mask.. set the gun off to the side and then proceeded to yelp a few times like a Dumby.. and had a tom come right in on me silent.. I have also forgot to load the gun and clicked on a Tom at 30 yds .. on that one I had a buddy beside me so the Tom didn't get so lucky when he shot after he heard my click..
I've fallen asleep a few times and woke up to the putt putt of a running longbeard.
Buddy of mine spent a long, long day in his ground blind on a bowhunt for turkeys. Hadn't heard a bird all day, hadn't seen one. He decided to "take care of some business" outside his blind. He slowly unzipped the backdoor to see a nice fat tom all strutted up behind the blind, sucker never made a sound :gobble:
Other than leaving my gun at home and forgetting my favorite slate in a set up (2 mile round trip to retrieve it), last spring I decided to try a one man blind. While this wasn't embarrassing, it was frustrating.
Seated in it, heard some clucking off to the left. I responded and heard leaves rustling and the walking kept coming toward me, behind and left.
Boy was I ready. Leaves rustled right next to the blind, stopped and then, "bam" it hit the side of the blind. A little scratching on the material, then it dropped down a ran in front of me. ....a red squirrel! That little bugger must have thought that the "branches" on the Real Tree Woods camo were the genuine article!
At least my sinuses were cleared for a few hours!
reminds me of a time a mouse runs between my legs sitting in a blind. scared me to death I thought it was a snake at a glimps!
Elk hunting in Colorado I had a squirrel try to jump on my leg. I think he turned inside out when that log he was about to land on moved.
First time I used Walkers Game Ear I was in Fl. and set up with back against a big palmetto flat. All of a sudden I hear something right almost on top of me crashing through the palmettos that sounds like a bull or elephant charging towards me. I jump up whirl around and see a little doe loping across the flat about 75yds away.