Most embarrassing turkey hunt?

[deadhead]

Last morning in Texas, a bunch of years back, get out of the truck and ease a shell into a pump. Walked down a draw and setup on a bird that I hadn't been able to call up the morning before. Not 30 min. later he is standing 15 yard in front of me, pull the trigger, nothing. I had not closed the breech all the way,tried to close it nope, tried to eject that shell and load another, needless to say I watched that bird running away at 62 mph. Left that morning driving back to mississippi couldn't even talk about it the whole ride home. I now shoot a single shot 10.

[gobbler777]

A friend invited me to hunt a new spot for me; once or twice for him; he said he knew the area. We climbed an hour just to get to the top of a ridge to listen. The first and only gobbling bird was at the bottom. So in the dark we head straight down to him. After a couple of falls on our rear ends and tons of sweat we stop at the bottom ... still dark except for a couple building lights ?? hummmm??. My friend knew the area alright ha. We were standing at a fence surrounding a barn yard where the turkey was gobbling. Sheer embarrasment for him.

[jfair]

Took a buddy hunting to a spot deep in the woods off a dirt road.  Told him we had to get going early as it was 2 miles back in.  Sat in the dark at my secret spot for about half an hour when a truck drove by at about 20 feet.  I made a wrong turn somewhere.  He still laughs at me for that one.

[joshb311]

My second hunt. A tom had come in to my calling but was approaching from behind me without me realizing it. I heard him shuffling through the leaves and saw him out of the corner of my eye. I raised my gun slowly and he watched me with his head cocked to the side inquisitively. I pulled the trigger and click. No shell in the chamber. Well, he stood there watching me from about 20 yards as I tried to shuck a shell in and get off a shot. Click again. I hadn't even remembered to load up at all before leaving the truck.

I heard a good cluck from him as he stepped away in no huge haste. It was almost as if he knew I couldn't do anything, but figured he should go ahead and leave in case I tried to throw my gun at him in frustration.

[WFI79]

Hunted a bird for most of one season that would glide out into a field and strut with his hens. Gobble his head of on roost then shut up as soon as he touched ground. Tried every thing I could think of to get in gun range of him with no luck. Every hunter in town played with him at one point or another with no luck. The terrain of the field did not allow for a stalk so I was stumped. Finally second to last day of season I saw him head for a corner of the field that had a stone wall running beside it.  So I belly crawled for 250 yards to get in position for a shot.  When he got in range I poked up and put the cross hairs of right on his neck & let her rip!!!!! A huge cloud of white smoke, dust & shattered rock rolled up and blew all over me.... Scared to death I thought my gun had blown up.... I had shot a rock on the top of the stone wall at point blank range with my scope looking right over the rock and the barrel pointed right at it.  Oh I was bummed out... All the time I spent trying to get that bird and to finally get a shot and blow it.... It is just a reminder to me that every time you think its all over its actually just getting started. Now every time I walk by that rock I flip it the bird and smile!!!    

[Crutch]

A friend of mine was working a bird that went silent so he quit calling also. Twenty minutes later the Tom gobbled from 3 feet away behind him. He jumped and scared him off.

My hunting buddy walked past a Tom that was hiding, flattened down on the ground with very little cover. I had to talk him out of wrapping his gun around a tree.

I had a Tom strutting in my parking space beside a barn, I parked on the other side, crawled out of the truck, got dressed in camo, snuck up to the corner of the barn and took a peek. He was still strutting, so when he had his back to me, I leaned around the corner and took a pic with my cell. I sent it to him to rub it in then stuck my shotgun around the corner and clicked off an empty chamber.  Guess I deserved it.

[jblackburn]

Bowhunting spring gobblers for the first time last year.  I some how managed to miss a jake five times at 15 yards before I ran out of arrrows, stood up and scared them off.  I only found four of the five arrows and broke another broadhead.



I went and bought Magnus bullheads that week and killed one that weekend.

[Rockhound]

I personally witnessed two well known hunters that are frequently on the outdoor channel stalk and belly crawl to a bird about 400 yards that was an inflatable decoy

[CASH]

Hunting with my Dad in the early 70's.  We set up on a bird in Florida on our local WMA.  We always had predetermined shooting lanes.  The bird showed in mine and I dropped the hammer.  The bird fell onto it's belly with it's head up (I now know that means his neck ain't broke).  I walked over to get it and it started trying to get away so I grabbed it by a leg and picked it up. (I now know not to do that).   Back then we didn't wear gloves. Now this was a long spurred Osceola and he starts to spin in my hand.  First rotation puts a nasty cut in my palm.  I let go but during his rotation he got his other spur caught in my shirt and was cutting my belly up pretty good as he flopped and spun.  He was beating me with his wings and cutting me up with his spur and was working me over with his free foot as well.   After fighting for my life for about 20 seconds I finally got a hold of his neck.  I was a big Dusty Rhodes fan and I was desperate so all I knew to do was combine a big belly flop with a bionic elbow.   So there I lay on top of a 16 lb. bird that had just about killed me, bleeding and out of breath and afraid to get back up.  Then I remebered my Dad was sitting there.  I looked over my shoulder at him and he hadn't even gotten up.  He was just sitting there shaking his head with a priceless look on his face.   I can't remeber his exact words but he said something to the effect like "Boy you can't be mine"       

[TURKEYWHACKER]

Back when I started to turkey hunt and deemed myself almost pro material ( I had killed exactly 1 bird ) I was invited on some private land in north Florida. We heard a bird gobbling and was slippin' closer, lookin' down the cut rows of a crop field as we went. Suddenly a gobbler appeared...boom. He flies off. Another and another and another do the same, step into the open row, I shoot and miss and they fly off. After the last bird is gone, the guy who invited me turns and says "nice shootin' Tex, how 'bout lettin' the next one get closer than 80 yards". I was so excited as soon as the birds came into veiw...boom, with no thought of distance. Lesson learned, calm down and know your distance limitations. I did end up taking 2 jakes, up close by the time the weekend was over and have been hooked ever since.  

[RutnNStrutn]

I was hunting Rios in Oklahoma with a couple of friends. One afternoon, a nice tom came in with some hens. I crawled through the woods to get in closer when it hit me.  That familiar grumbling in my guts that had been with me all day. Apparently I had eaten something bad the day before, and now I was paying the price. Soon, I knew what had to be done so that I didn't soil my drawers. The bad part was the gobbler was only 80 yards away, strutting and gobbling.  I was able to ease myself up onto a downed tree, using a standing tree for cover. Down come my pants, and out came an awful mess.  And it kept coming and coming and coming. Every time I thought I was done, it started again. That's when turkeys came in from the woods behind me and roosted above me. Now I was caught, literally, with my pants down.
Finally the hens out in the field flew up onto the roost, and soon after the gobbler flew up and joined them. So I sat there with my butt hanging over a log until it was dark enough to clean up and ease out of there. On the way out, I was going down a cattle trail, but wasn't using a flashlight because I didn't want to spook the turkeys. Soon, I smelled a rank odor. No not me, this was even worse. In the darkness I can just make out a dark little animal coming down the same trail I am walking out on. SKUNK!!!!!
I sidestepped the trail and gave him a wide berth. The next morning I was planning on going back to get that gobbler, until I found out from the guide that we couldn't hunt that property the next day. Lost opportunity. But at least I did tag out before that trip was over.

My most embarrassing hunting experience though came when I was deer hunting. I am a self-taught hunter, and read all the books and magazines I could find, and watched all the TV shows. When calling deer first came in style, I bought a grunt call and hit the woods. I figured it would just be a matter of time 'til I grunted in a buck like they do on TV. So I went to my local WMA here in Florida and set out.
I would slip through the woods, stopping in likely looking spots to do some grunting and waiting. An hour and 4 different set ups had passed, still I hadn't seen a deer. I was wondering why it wasn't working like on TV.  Finally I slipped to a new, great looking spot, leaned against a tree and started grunting. A few minutes later I grunted some more. Still nothing. I was looking around, trying to figure out what I was going to do next when a voice spoke from so close that I almost jumped out of my boots!!
I turned and looked, and there had been an older gentleman, sitting in a chair in a palmetto clump about 2 feet away, watching me the entire time!  What he said still cracks me up to this day. "Are you through scaring everything out of the woods yet?"  Mortified, I muttered, "Yes sir. I'm sorry.", and I walked away as fast as I could.  I still laugh about that to this day.

[Eric Gregg]

Man, I can't even bring myself to talk about it. I still get flash backs.
All I can say is this will be my year of redemption