yep. here's the story.
I arrived at Clark State Fishing Lake the day before firearm opener, dressed down into my camo and climbed atop the ridge and did some scout calling. Nothing responded after about 30 minutes of calling, so i figured i'd go pitch camp & a fire and have some dinner and get to sleep early to get an early start the next morning. well, i'm tending my fire and catch something out of the corner of my eye...lo and behold, it was a Tom wth about 6 hens! as soon as i turned around i spooked em and off they went. i watched them walk across the same ridgeline i was on earlier and watched them dissapear into a sand plum jungle at the inlet to the lake. perfect, i thought, now i know where they are sleeping.
I get up at 4am and set my blind/decoys out and start calling after i hear the first gobble. one gobble set off the entire lake area with about 10-11 seperate gobbles. Immediately i hear big tom crashing through the sand plum jungle towards my decoys and putting on one of the best shows i've ever seen from a wild animal. he's in range, so i take the shot...BUUUT....well, i missed, TOTALLY! After that shot rang out i packed up and went and ate lunch and figured i'd move around a bit and make a try on the other toms i had heard but it seems after that shot rang out, ALL of them just shut up, even the hens went quiet for the entire rest of the day. I wanted to stay another night but tomorrow is supposed to be windy as heck and i'd just rather not deal with it. kinda wierd seeing as how im from kansas and the wind blows here all the time. I figured what the heck, i have untill may31st so i'll just come back out later.
welp, thats my failure today :)
Everyone here has missed. It will just make you hunt harder.
Happens to the best of us. I missed a bird last year when I misjudged the distance. Worst feeling in the world. But like they say, if you havent ever missed, then you havent hunted enough!
i missed 2 birds a few years age and i still think about what i could have done to make the shots count.
I missed once. I still have no idea why. Go to the range(archery/gun). Get your confidence back and move on. GOOD LUCK!
Probably will not be the last time. It happens.....hang in there
Been there....done that..... Had two strutting toms at 30 yards and got over anxious and missed. Something I discovered is that if you lift your head to see if you hit them....you usually don't. I fixed that with a FF2 sight this year.
Just get back after them. Shake it of to a learing experience because we have all done it.
I have three this season. Just stay after them...
i missed a few mornings ago and that day in the evening i hit a nice tom. point is just shake it off! remember what ya did or didnt do wrong and chalk it up as a learning experience!~
i dont care what anyone says, experiences like that make you a better hunter period. :anim_25:
That hurts to the core. Its history now, just keep after them. I got so excited the other day I forgot about buying that new choke. Missed at 20yds. Just plum forgot to aim.
Tomorrow's another day so get back out there and aim for the wattles, keep your head down and bring the next bird to bag! :anim_25:
:fud: :newmascot:
Bummer - missed mine yesterday -miss judged the distance - hard to judge distance when your sitting down!
Missed one last year 5 minutes into season,moved 4 miles and killed a nice long beard 2 hours later.Shake it off and go kill another