Coulda, woulda, shoulda......

[Tail Feathers]

I can't say you made any mistakes.  Some "coulda, shoulda, woulda" but an outrigt mistake?  Only one maybe there.  The gobbler lounger is great but I think sometimes can keep us planted when we should move. 
It's a blessing when you need to stay still for sure but sometimes it may keep us planted when we need to move some.
But congrats on the one you took and on what sounds like a GREAT hunt.

[mountman62]

only 4 mistakes, sounds like a normal hunt for me, i mess up all the time, most of the time they win, every once in a while you win, i probably would have tried to turn around the first time he gobbled behind me

[guesswho]

Mistake #1 - The woods to my right were somewhat thicker, but very negotiable & frequently visited by turkeys. The creek bottom to my left was wide open. The way I faced, had the creek running from behind me to in front of me. In retrospect, I believe I should have set up with the creek running left to right, with the open creek bottom in front of me, and the thicker woods behind me.

Agreed!   I probably would have been in the thicker cover facing the more open.  I try to set-up to where the gobbler will be in range before he gets to where he should be able to see the hen.  Hard to explain without actually being there.

Mistake #2 - I believe I should have gone without a decoy, since that would have made the gobbler keep coming and looking for the hen he heard.

Agreed again.  In our part of the country I've had more negative effects with dekes than without, so I go without.  Deke's may or may not spook certain gobblers, but no deke's spook zero.   I thinks it's more important to have a good set-up than deke's, and in some cases dekes will ruin a good set-up if your not careful.

Mistake #3 - I think as soon as I heard the first gobble, I should have turned around to face it, instead of being overconfident in my set up. I think because I was sitting in my Gobbler Lounge, I thought there would be too much noise and commotion to turn it around. But I could have laid the chair down, and just sat on the ground.

Yep!  I'm consantly rotating around the tree based on his last gobble.  I lay a stick on the ground pointed towards his last gobble to keep up with which way he's moving.  Sometimes you can get a good idea where he's going to show by doing that and looking at the set-up.

Mistake #4 - I think when I heard the drumming getting faint, I should have risked turning around and trying for a shot at the edge of my gun's effective range.

Not me.  I would have let him walk off and then reposistioned off to one side or ahead of him without the deke.  Then I would have broke out the secret call and killed him!