Spooked bad?

[RiverRoost]

Called in a bird this morning for my dad and the bird gets to 30 yards and sees my dad move. No putt just turns around and hauls azz. I know he is spooked but think he's still huntable in that area?

[fallhnt]

Ya....they are bumped almost every day of there life.

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[guesswho]

Oh yeah, no harm.  Now if y'all had jumped up and started chasing after him it would take him a while longer to get back to normal.  If he just saw something he didn't like and ran off I wouldn't hesitate to go after him the next day, I just wouldn't set up in the same spot.

[RiverRoost]

Nah we stayed there quietly for a few more minutes and moved out opposite way towards other birds still gobbling

[guesswho]

He ain't boogered then.

[Rzrbac]

He will be fine.  I've missed them and called them back in twice. That's not gonna happen a lot but they can tolerate quite bit. They are a spooked critter by nature, heck if they were scared of hen calls from one spooked experience they would likely never breed.

[Farmboy27]

Just read the "life of a gobbler" thread. He's going to remember this his whole life!  And also talk about it. Lol. In reality, it's fine. No such thing as an unhuntable bird (as long as you can get at him).  I have seen birds that were shot at one day get killed the next. They don't understand that they are being hunted. They might get warier, but they are still animals.

[catman529]

If switch calls and try him again later. Might not even need to switch calls, its just for peace of mind


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[rockymtngobblers]

I agree  you have nothing to worry about, once I eased over a knoll on all fours  checking the flocked up gobbler I was following only to be busted by about 5 jakes about 10 feet away all looking at me and clearly seeing i  was human, I shot that gobbler about an hr. later   

[GobbleNut]

The bottom line in this situation is that you will never know what lesson might have been instilled in that gobblers little mind until you hunt him again and see.  He might come right to your calling again,...and he might not.  Regardless, he is still killable in some fashion.

That "fashion" may be that you have to rely less on calling,...and more on positioning and patterning.  I will state that to assume that any gobbler that you shot at (or otherwise scared the bejesus out of) will have completely forgotten about that negative encounter and will just stroll right back into the same kind of calling and hunting tactics is usually a mistake. 

I won't just flat-out say that never happens, but from my experience, a gobbler that is shot at and escapes is generally a wiser and harder-to-call bird.