Misses

[Marc]

Funny how I remember some of those misses better than the ones I killed...

I can vividly picture that turkey...  Had a good shot at him at 30 yards, but he was coming closer so I let him come.  He walked right behind a little knoll and stuck his head up and I missed...  Even to this day, I try to replay it in my mind, but with a flop instead of the whoosh of a miss...  Still comes up a miss though.

There are a few ducks and geese, as well as some pheasants that get replayed a few times as well.  I swear, they are smiling during these recollections.

[wvmntnhick]

Funny how I remember some of those misses better than the ones I killed...

I can vividly picture that turkey...  Had a good shot at him at 30 yards, but he was coming closer so I let him come.  He walked right behind a little knoll and stuck his head up and I missed...  Even to this day, I try to replay it in my mind, but with a flop instead of the whoosh of a miss...  Still comes up a miss though.

There are a few ducks and geese, as well as some pheasants that get replayed a few times as well.  I swear, they are smiling during these recollections.

Maybe not during, but certainly after. Not much waterfowl hunting to be had here but there's been more than a few deer have a chuckle on a random hillside after an arrow or bullet missed its mark.

[Farmboy27]

Don't even get me started on deer! Lol!  Some years back I missed a nice buck with the bow. Chip shot. Hit a limb I didn't see. Kicked myself for a week.  Drove the same patch in rifle season and he came running past me. Missed him 4 shots!  Sure he was running, but I have shot the majority of my deer running and have made way harder shots than that!  Every shot I was waiting for him to fall or at least stumble. Talk about being embarrassed. 3 other guys witnessed it!

[LI Outdoorsman]

Missed the first one I ever shot at 20 some odd years ago...a big bird called up on the last hour of closing day after a long duel and he must have gobbled 100 times coming in..thats what out did me...too much gobbling and strutting on his way to me that I was just plain dumbfounded when he finally got into range...rolled him and then he got up and ran off..looked hard..never found him..missed a few more in my time of chasing birds...and yes the ONLY way to get over a miss is to flat out kill a bird on your next trip out.
By the way I still get over excited and hyper ventilate when they start gobbling and gettin' close..
Hope that feeling never gets old!!

[Cut N Run]

I've missed two in all my years of hunting.  Both haunt me. 

The first was 17-18 years ago.  Several years before, I'd found a slight saddle in a ridge the turkeys liked to use to get from one side of the ridge to the other.  It was a great place to call turkeys to because they already liked go there.  One gobbler answered my calls and headed towards the saddle.  I had measured distance from my tree and tied a short section of black rope on a small tree 40 yards away to gauge the range.  The gobbler did just like several before him had, he walked the higher ground just across the low saddle.  I had the gun up, ready to go.  Just as I squeezed the trigger, he stepped behind a tree I thought he was going to walk in front of that was closer than my rope marker.  Bark flew and he cut out of there in high gear, running straight away from me.

The next was a great big gobbler at my old lease that I'd seen a few times and he never would get close. I named him Gobzilla.  It seemed like he had a sixth sense about avoiding hunters.  One day near the end of the season I managed to sneak to the area he liked to roost, except he was roosted elsewhere.  I was set up in some heavier cover that overlooked a fire break next to some mature pines.  I heard a gobble in the distance and got an answer back from my calls.  As sly as that bird was and as late in the season as it was, I decided to stay quiet and be patient.  About 20 minutes later a hen came down the fire lane and scratched around the pine straw across the fire break from me less than 25 yards away.  She meandered around for 10 minutes and worked her way back and forth before she returned the way she came from.  Two minutes after that I saw her coming back out of the corner of my eye.  I didn't even pay close attention as I figured it was that same hen still scratching around.  WRONG.  It was Gobzilla walking less than 15 yards from me in the wide open middle of the fire break. All I can guess is my eyes must have about bulged out of my head when I realized it was him, because he turned & bolted through the big pines as I gave him a couple of after burner boosts that never touched him.  I lost sleep over that one.

Jim

[RutnNStrutn]

I've been turkey hunting right at 50 years.  I can honestly say that I've never missed.   However, I have been known to fire a warning shot here and there.   The one that instantly comes to mind was way back when I was 11 or twelve.  We hunted a South Central Florida WMA.  Back then you could camp where ever you wanted to.  We always camped at an area known as Burnt Hammock.  My Dad woke me up and said its time to get up.  I had killed one the previous weekend and convinced myself I'd just stay in my sleeping bag and kill one later.  My Dad told me as he was zipping the tent back up that you can't kill them in bed.   Naturally when the sun started breaking I wished I had went.  I laid there for 30 minutes and thought I need a donut.  I unzipped the tent and one gobbled, I know now he probably gobbled at the loud zipper sound.   We used to hunt without camo but by now we had moved on up.  I threw my oversized camo pants and shirt on and grabbed my home made face mask my Mom made for me out of a pants leg and elastic.  Grabbed my gun and stepped outside.  A short time later I made a racket on a old box call, a Roger Latham I think.   He gobbled again and I knew about where he was.  I eased down a sandy pig trail/two track towards him. I've always been pretty good at Bobcat'n aka sneak and peek.  About 60 yards from the tent there was a curve, I eased and peeked around the curve and he was walking right down the pig trail towards me.  I remember thinking "yeah you can't kill them in bed".   I was going to show my Dad I can!    Should have been a slam dunk.  I got maybe 15-20 yards off the pig trail and just waited.   Even forgot to put my mask on because that was something new to us.  Anyway it wasn't long and he was right in front of me. As soon as he cleared the curve he picked me up and stopped dead in his tracks.  Perfect, head up, standing still.  I have know idea what happened but I decided to fire a warning shot to give him a fair chance.   Then I decided to fire two more warning shots back to back in case the first one didn't scare him enough.   I'm not sure but I think it was the second two warning shots that finally convinced him it was time to go.  Then before I could reload and shoot him fair and square he was gone.  No feathers, no nothing!    I still have that gun and my Mom uses it quite a bit.   A Remington 11-48 in a 16 gauge.  Every time I see it I think of the time I fired three warning shots to keep from proving my Dad wrong.    And for the record I have fired numerous warning shots with that old gun, and all my other guns.  But I have yet to miss one.  Missing would just suck!

[RutnNStrutn]

Fortunately, I haven't had many misses. Last season when my green dot scope failed to hold it's zero, it cost me one, and almost 2 gobblers. I called in one straight off the roost. Took him about 45 minutes to work his way in. He gobbled over 300 times. Finally came strutting up over the ridge, walked down the trail towards me and I proceeded to shoot a tree. I was furious at myself, until I called in another at noon, and it took 3 shots to hit him. That's when I realized it was the scope.
Needless to say, that Truglo hunk of junk went back to Cabelas. Now I have a Trijicon Dual Illumination RMR scope. Love it!!