My dumbest stunts, my journey of learning to turkey hunt -post yours

[captpete]

About 15 years ago my and I decided to go on a late afternoon. It was getting late in the season and Morel mushrooms were really popping. We took are time walking through the timber looking for mushrooms and occasionally making a few yelps. We were in more of the mushroom hunting mood, but if the opportunity for a turkey came along we weren't going to turn it down. We gave a few yelps and got a gobble back about 75yds away. We found a big tree sit beside, gave a few more yelps and got another answer, but closer. About 5 minutes later here comes 5 Jakes at about 40 yards. Since we weren't to picky at the time we were going to take them if we got a shot. They disappeared down into a little gully and re-appeared at about 30yds. They stopped and we could tell they weren't coming any closer. We each picked out a bird and shot. Both birds dropped and started to flop. We high-5'ed on the double and stood up to go get the birds. That's when both birds decided it was time to leave. We both shot again. I dropped mine and he missed. As my buddy is running through the timber chasing the bird he yells at me to give him a couple of shells. I reach into pocket only find I didn't have more with me. we each only had 2 shells with us. He finally was able catch his bird when it was hiding in a brush pile. 

Now I always put at least 4 shells in the gun and take at least 5 more with me.

All-in-all it was good afternoon. We ended up with 2 turkeys and around 60 mushrooms.

000_0208 by K Pete, on Flickr

[aclawrence]

The first turkey I ever killed was an interesting experience. My friend am I started hunting on my deer lease and we didn't know what we were doing. We kept saying "there's probably some turkeys right over this hill" and we would march over the hill and yep, there they would be and there they would go. We finally decided to be a little more sneaky. One morning after an unsuccessful hunt we were sitting down in this little section of pines between two hills. Thinking back it was really a crappy spot to try to call a turkey but anyway. We were just sitting around in there bored and messing around with all our calls. We had completely emptied our vest and had all our calls scattered out on the pine straw. At some point in our cacophony of calling we see three turkeys come selling over our heads and land down in front of us. We got set up and called in the three Jakes and I killed my first turkey.  We spooked so many birds starting out but after that we were hooked and started giving them the lead!


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[NCL]

There are many but one I distinctly remember is do not under any circumstances sit on your wood box call it really changes the tone of the call.

[sendero558]

I had a 72 yr old man teach me how to turkey hunt and the 1st day I went with him he called me an old gobbler and bang down he went. He explained to me that you don't get that lucky every time you go. The very next day went back and snuck up on a flock behind a levee and got my 2nd in 2 days. I then made the mistake of calling him and bragging "I thought this turkey hunting was suppose to be hard" hunted religiously for the next 7 years before I called my next one up and killed him... Open mouth insert foot....

[Pluffmud]

I was self taught. I picked up the turkey gun in 1999 at the wise age of 9 years old. My dad went with me a year or two, but lost interest and let me off of my collar to roam our private property at the even wiser age of 11. I made a pile of mistakes... But the one that kills me, if you can even call it stupid rather than just being a rookie,  was when I had a handirifle break open single shot .410 with #8s, and had 2 gobblers at 10 yards. My dad has it filmed... You can see the wad and shot string as it goes straight over the birds head. I was shaking that bad lol and a .410 gives little room for error.

The other most memorable hunt where i did something stupid was actually last year. I knew I shouldnt do it, but I was overly confident because I was on a hot streak and I just knew I was going to finish my season early at that moment. I had a gobbler coming straight to me, full strut, wide open, straight down a natural pipe line opening in a hard wood bottom. He had covered 200 yards in a very short time frame. He got 100 yards away and decided to cut a 90 degree turn into the palm fronds to my right to swing around me, presumably because he didnt see a hen. I said, "not today sucker," and as he momentarily disappeared behind a live oak, I shifted 90 degrees to my right and called when I did it. STUPID. When I called mid shift, he poked his head out from behind an oak like a lightning bolt and busted me harder than Ive ever been busted before. I didnt see or hear from that bird again all season.

[eggshell]

I have a new all time dumbest thing I ever done.....I read and posted in the thread about Youtube hunters, holy cow that has got to be my biggest brain fart in a while. At least I can play the feeble minded old man card. 

[Happy]

I have a new all time dumbest thing I ever done.....I read and posted in the thread about Youtube hunters, holy cow that has got to be my biggest brain fart in a while. At least I can play the feeble minded old man card. 

At you tried to keep an even keel and have an honest conversation as opposed to unbridled emotion. So you got that going for you

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[Neill_Prater]

The scene was about 5 years ago in Alabama, late one afternoon. My buddy John and I picked up his brother, Gary to go check out Gary's lease for turkey sign. Gary is not a turkey hunter, but could get us access to hunt.

We pull up to a gate in my buddies truck, and I commence to open the back door and retrieve my shotgun, when John, already through the gate, says not to bother, we are just going to check out the food plot and it's "real close".

I think, okaaaayy, and shut the door, sans shotgun. Well, "real close" is a relative term, which, in this case, was probably 150 yards to a long, narrow clover patch maybe another 150 yards to the end.

As soon as we enter the food plot we begin seeing sign, and lots of it. There's a relatively open area of mature pine bordering the field on our right, and about halfway down the length of the field John and his brother drift over into the pines and immediately call me over and start pointing out all the scratchings, droppings and feathers. We were getting pumped!

As we were admiring the site, and already planning the next morning's hunt, I, who has a bit of a hearing loss, thought I heard a gobble. It's getting late now, and after hearing it again while they were talking, I told John I thought I heard a gobble.

Now, John is an excellent hunter, and far better with a mouth call than I am, but he's a little excitable, so instead of just listening for a minute, he immediately pops in a call and gives a 100 decibel string of cuts which were instantly cut off by multiple gobblers!

Now, John is 10 years younger than me, and in better shape physically, but I managed to pull off an entirely acceptable challenge as to who could cover the distance to the truck first. He beat me, but not by much.

However, on the return leg, youth won out and I began to lag behind. Winded, I kept whispering as loudly as possible "stop!", but John was in a zone and totally oblivious to my pleadings as he kept hoofing it down the food plot.

Eventually I just stopped. Eventually John spotted the gobblers in the pines at roughly the same time they spotted him, and although he had an opportunity for a quick shot, he missed.

We relive that every Spring now and have a good laugh, but at the time, it was only humourous to Gary, who was laughing his rear off at the spectacle! Well, and maybe to those 3 longbeards.

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