AAAAARRGH!!! @*#$%&?+!!!!! My season of misery just got worse!!
Struck a gobbler on the roost with my owl call. He was HOT!!! He gobbled at everything, owl calls, hen calls, gobble calls, trucks on the road, crows, song birds, loggers a couple of hollers over, you name it. I fired him up on the roost with hen talk. He flew down and headed to his strut zone near where I was sitting. He gobbled at least 300 times, often triple, quadruple and quintuple gobbling!! Maybe the hottest bird I've ever worked.
Finally he broke strut and started coming in. I gave him a few soft clucks and he came in on a string. At 20 yards I dropped the hammer.........
AND SHOT A FRIGGIN TREE!!!! 
I have NEVER done that before,
ever!!
Not realizing what I'd done, but realizing I'd made a bad shot, I jacked another round and went after him in case he was wounded. In the process, I lost my aluminum striker that I'd stuffed in my boot.
I searched to no avail, went back and looked, no feathers. So I suddenly realized what may have happened. I went back and looked at the small tree I tried to shoot around. Sure 'nuff, there was the proof.
Totally my fault!! If I'd have just let him keep coming, it would have been a slam dunk!! But this was the first opportunity I've had in a month of hunting, and I rushed the shot.
It was an incredible hunt, and what a gorgeous bird!! But I am stick to my stomach, and still birdless in this season of misery.
