I've been hunting the big birds for 50 years now. Believe me, I have so many stories of defeat it's impossible for me to write all of them down in one story. Sometimes I guide hunters. Most claim they are successful but sometimes have a little trouble getting a shot. Now, the nice guy I am, I'm happy to offer them help.
Well this season I had a hunter out with me. I could tell something wasn't right. He wore the most newest, expensive camo. He had a 10 gauge automatic with super fancy camo with a $200 choke tube. His boots were brand new, not a scuff mark on them.
So I set him up in a spot where my best friend and I have put the lead to the head of numerous longbeards. I set up 40 yards behind him in hopes to call a turkey past him. I told him don't move. Please stay there, don't move from that spot.
I let out some charming tree yelps. Nice and soft on my homemade slate. Then a nice purr and cluck. Now it's 7am. A Tom gobbles back. I wait a half hour and give 2 clucks and a beautiful purr. Here he comes, 100 yards away and slowly coming across an open field bordered by a brushy fence line on one side.
Now it's about 8:30am.
I look for my hunter and of course I can't see him with his state of the art turkey suit on. I get my binoculars and the longbeard is strutting, spitting and drumming, ever so slowly coming across the open field.
Something catches my eye on our side of the fencerow. It's my hunter, crawling to get closer to the bird. I admire him for his stealth and silence while on his belly. Besides that, it's not legal to stalk turkeys in the Spring and that infuriated me. What's he trying to do, I thought. All he has to do is wait. That gobbler had a ten inch rope swaying from his chest
Then kaboom, off went the magnum ten. The longbeard ran like a racehorse and took off like a jet bomber.
I meander over to this guy and ask him what the ¿?>~??¿ he is doing. " Oh, I got anxious and tried to get closer. My 10 gauge is good out to 50 yards but he was 65 yards so I aimed a foot over his head."
I had a sincere talk about ballistics, the law and of course not moving. He wanted to hunt more but I called it a day after being so overwhelmed and depressed over the spooked longbeard.
I guess the moral of the story is trust your first instincts, especially when someone is dressed completely in brand new, state of the art everything, including the 10 gauge. It was an awesome looking gun lol.
Just another day hunting turkeys.
