Your closest Shot?

[Mossberg90MN]

About 10 yards. He was on a private ridge point, after doing the dance he came in from the left and the second he crossed a foot onto the public land it was go time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sixbird]

About that close


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[GobbleNut]

A quick recount of my closest bird:  The year, 1976.  Had finally figured it out enough to have killed my first (called) gobbler the year before, but was still in the "if it is a male turkey with a beard, it's down" phase.  Me and another novice buddy were hunting the Black Range Primitive Area,...a segment of the Gila Wilderness in southwestern New Mexico. 

Calling from a ridge overlooking a gorge-sized canyon, we got multiple gobble-responses from the very bottom close to a mile away.  We bailed off into the canyon, eventually reached the bottom, and set up to call.  Responding gobbles came from a couple of hundred yards down the canyon from us and after a few minutes we could see four turkeys working their way slowly towards us.

As they closed the distance, it appeared they were all gobblers, but it soon became apparent that they were all jakes.  At that time, a legal bird was defined as a turkey with a beard that extended at least two inches beyond the breast feathers.  We didn't want to shoot an illegal bird, so we waited as they closed the distance, walking in single file straight at us, which made their beards very hard to see in the deep shadows of the canyon.

They kept coming, and we kept trying to evaluate whether they were legal or not.  We were sitting side by side in a downed tree, guns up and ready as they came on.  At just beyond the end of my gun barrel,...or so it seemed,...they turned and walked single file right in front of us, giving us a good look at their short, stubby beards.  All of them met the "two-inch" requirement, so we each picked a bird,...and that was that.  Looking back, I suspect the birds were probably a bit further than it seemed at the time, but I am pretty sure they were less than five yards away when we pulled the triggers, and maybe half that. 

I've shot a few others that were not much further than that, but that jake was definitely the closest.

[Ozark Ridge Runner]

I've killed 4 that I can remember at less than 5 yards.  I can assure you that those were not by choice.  The closest made a 270 degree loop around me and ended up on the other side of a 4 foot tall cedar tree.  I had my barrel resting on the limbs of that tree.  When the shot went off I suspect the turkey wasn't over 6 feet from me and 4 feet from the muzzle of the gun.  Wasn't pretty at all.

[Tom007]

Great stories, thx for sharing....

[g8rvet]

Had one come by me at about 4 yards.  Another bird had gobbled, so I had gun up, but this one came sneaking in to my hard left. I heard a noise and just knew it was a bird.  As he cleared into my vision, I realized he was a longbeard.  He was quartering away feeding, so I let him keep going a little ways.  At about 15, I quietly clucked and he stuck his head up.  Still looked like he had been hit with a ball bat repeatedly in the head. That was in my 12 gauge days.

[RED NECK]

I had a longbeard gobbiling one evening on my own property, in one of my food plot fields, maybe half the size of a hockey rink, I thought I'll go setup on him in morning, he landed about 2 feet from me when he lit,  I've never been so shocked and so pissed after he flew away when I missed. I tried to be slick but he seen me soon as he landed and started to run, like they say, setup is the most important thing, If I would have only sat where I originally thought I should I would have had a 15-20 yard shot but I went and changed my mind. It's still one of my favorite hunts and memories, we laugh about it now but I was mad at myself that morning. I probably fired my first shot at 4-5 feet, and my last at 30 feet as he was taking flight. what an adrenaline rush though!!  I much prefer them at 25-30 yards personally.

[Tommy Strutsalot]

Great thread, really awesome stories. 

My closest was about 10 yards on a field edge.  I was still pretty green to turkey hunting and today wouldn't have been positioned in such a foolish way on this turkey, but he was up on a ridge about 150 yds behind me and 30 degrees off my back right shoulder, and I was down in the bottom hiding in a bush on the point of a curved field edge.  Had a hen decoy directly out in the field in front of me, thinking he would see it and just fly down and take a straight line to the decoy.  Instead, he entered the field and followed woodline around the curve until he was basically staring me right in the face.  I had realized he was doing this as soon as I saw him, but it was too late to move, and ultimately had to swing and shoot when time ran out and the gig was up.  When I shot, he did 2 full backward rolls and never moved.  Turns out I shot him right in the waddles, had an entry wound the size of a quarter right where the waddles meet the neck, but I could've stuck a volleyball in his back.  Wild hunt.  Whole ordeal was almost an hour too- he was strutting and twirling around the whole time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Turkeyman]

Several years ago I called a hen in with tom in tow. Could not get my gun up as they passed about five yards to my left. She kept yelping looking for me. When they got off a bit I got my gun up to the left and yelped. Back she came. She passed the bead walking by. When his head met the bead I shot. Six feet or so.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[Cut N Run]

Hunting at the small horse farm in 2015, it was the last day of the season.  Mid morning I thought I heard a gobble over the breeze.  He answered the cutts from my long box and was definitely coming. He gobbled again on top of the ridge around 100 yards to my right, so I clucked on the slate and he answered even closer.  It got quiet for too long. I couldn't hear him walking over the breeze and figured he'd walked down the horse trail 20 feet behind me. I softly yelped on a mouth call & he'd already walked past me by about 35 yards on the horse trail.  I saw him turn and go into strut, heading back up my way.  Now, I was set up between two big downed hardwoods and he was walking right towards me.  I shoot left handed and he was coming up from my left, so I couldn't move.  He hopped up on the downed tree I was set up beside about 8' away and blew up into strut.  It was awesome!  I was handcuffed, and still couldn't move on him.  The gobbler hopped down and crossed behind the nearest standing tree 6 yards away.  As soon as his head cleared the trunk of the tree, I rolled him @ 8 yards.

Jim

[Jim K]

My closest was two days ago at about 12 yards. I don't have any real close ones like you guys. Some amazing stories. I enjoyed them.

[Marc]

In my early days of hunting, I had a bird crossing a creek behind me and the large tree I was sitting against.  As he crossed, I turned around with the gun pointing on the side I thought he would come.

As I was getting set to shoot (at very close range) and he hopped/flew not in front, but under my barrel!  I had net gloves on, and the netting got caught in the trigger.  When I attempted to disengage my finger from the trigger, the netting was still caught in the trigger and the gun fired (with the bird under the barrel).

While I did not hit the bird (as he was actually under the barrel), I did ring his bell...  The bird drunkenly stumbled out several yards, and I used this opportunity to fire a second shot taking his head pretty much off.

The incident startled me, as having your gun "accidentally" go off is distressing.  I no longer use any net gloves for shooting, and the incident further ingrained how extremely important muzzle direction and safety is!

[runngun]

The closest one that I recall right now was in April 2018. Called him to roughly 3 yards, maybe closer from the end of my barrel, he was walking right to left. My son was sitting about 10 yards from my right side and I said 3 times, shoot him, he did not so I eased up and shot him as soon as I saw him flick his wing. Thing is it should have made a mess, but I almost missed him!!!! But I didn't!!! That was close!!!! He definitely put on a show for us. After we walked to him, my son said "what just happened" and I told him I said 3 times shoot him and you didn't, so I did!!! We moved about 200 yards and I called up another one for him. That was a great morning!!!

Y'all have a good one and May God bless, Bocephus

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk