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

[eggshell]

I had to dial the "Way Back Machine" a long ways to start this thread. My illustrious turkey hunting career started in the early 70s and I was a green kid with nothing but desire and a gun for gear. Actually, I kind of remember someone telling me, "son someone is pulling a cruel trick on you, there are no turkeys around here". I knew I wasn't on a snipe hunt, I had seen the beast with my own eyes!

My my very first act of stupidly was not even knowing what my quarry would look like. The very first gobbler I ever called to came right in and a friend and myself sat and discussed whether it was a gobbler or a hen and if we should shoot it, uhh it walked away unharmed.

I will start this thread with a couple of my boners and then add more later after y'all get it rolling. My very dumbest stunt and one that haunts me to this day and makes me cower in shame is this one, but I was a 17 year old kid with no supervision. I had heard a gobbler on this hill and he ignored my calls, so I decided to sneak up on him. As I peaked over the bench edge I see a white spot at the end of a neck and a dark body. I didn't know much but I knew gobblers had a white top nod. So I aim and shoot and nothing happens. Then I stand up and realize I was a dumbarse. I had shot a white trillium at the end of a stump. Honestly I never told this story before right now. What it did do is make me realize how important identifying your target is, I have never made a similar mistake in the many years since.

The next one is pretty simple. I learned to never lean my gun against a tree and walk off 30 yards to take a dump. I was moving to set up on a gobbler and the "oh my gods" hit me. So I leaned my gun against a tree and went over the bank to do my business. I was just wiping when something caught my attention, the gobbler had come to the sound of crunching leaves. He stood just 30 yards from my gun. So I half pull up my pants and stumble my way towards my gun. I get to it and he still there laughing his gobbler butt off. I get my gun and drop my drawers and just as my  gun hits my should he puts and runs away laughing.

[CALLM2U]

Good times!  I'll throw one in that comes to mind. 

I was 16 or 17 and was solo hunting before school.  Had a gobbler pretty fired up on top of a ridge early one morning.  I slipped out the top and got to within about 75 yards from him and squatted against a tree to start calling.  The problem was I literally squatted down vs. sitting on my butt. 

The gobbler had a couple hens with him but I finally pulled him into range after about 30-40 mins.  I dropped him and stood up to go grab him up.  Yep, you guessed it, my feet and legs had fallen asleep due to the lack of circulation.  I didn't even make a step-just flat on my face.  It took me a second to figure out what happened but it's one mistake I've never made since.   

[Happy]

A few years ago I got on a gobbler and made some of the stealthiest and most calculated moves I have ever made. I was in the zone and knew I was going to kill him. I actually snuck by him at 50 yards to set up behind him and call him back over the lip of the mountain. I heated him up to the point of him gobbling every few seconds. Then dropped the silence on him. I had the gun on the opening I knew he was going to pop his head into to sneak a peak. After a few gobbles he went quiet and I got real attentive on the gun knowing he was gonna give it a quick peak and then retreat. Sure enough his head popped right into my  sight and I squeezed the trigger...  but it didn't move. Safety was still on.

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[SD_smith]

I was blessed with a father that let me "learn on my own" or either shoo'd me away from him...they may be one and the same or something like that, but I have no clue and will go with the first one.

I was about 10 years old and hunting in a grapefruit block that backed up to a big swamp in South Florida. For some reason I was confident in my ability to call them with just my mouth. Have no clue why. Birds gobbled on the roost and I began trying to yelp and cackle with just my mouth, no mouth call, and managed to scare every bird off the roost.

Can honestly say being able to run around as a kid on my own, do dumb things and attempt to ambush animals made me the hunter I am today. My theory is that I've figured out every way not to do it so now I'm left with the good ideas!


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[hotspur]

I messed up and told the game warden where I killed the turkey. On a mandatory check in 

[MO_HUNTER]

Early on... worked a bird for about 3 days (in MO you can only hunt til 1) off and on. I finally found the birds comfort zone, but it was across a fence on the neighbors place. I spent full, half days, trying to get that bird to come across the property line. 

Gave up on afternoon of day 4, drove a few roads I was unfamiliar with to get to the property owners house, was gonna plead my case for hunting that bird that ruined my week. I pulled up to his house and that old Tom was sitting on his porch... apparently it was a tame eastern he had raised from an abandoned nest.

[Greg Massey]

My first ever public hunt, i hunted all morning and was so tired for getting up so early to beat everyone to this spot and back to the truck for lunch and back to my spot calling ever so often like i had done all morning and i was napping off, i look about 30 yards form me and see this pretty red bird on top of this stump , as i'm watching this bird on this stump all of a sudden the stump and the red head just walk away. I was like in a trance..omg.. it's a hunt i will never forget..

[Tom007]

My first ever public hunt, i hunted all morning and was so tired for getting up so early to beat everyone to this spot and back to the truck for lunch and back to my spot calling ever so often like i had done all morning and i was napping off, i look about 30 yards form me and see this pretty red bird on top of this stump , as i'm watching this bird on this stump all of a sudden the stump and the red head just walk away. I was like in a trance..omg.. it's a hunt i will never forget..

That's a good one, I can see that happening when your dozing a bit.....

[Gobble!]

First turkey I ever killed. Two came in gobbling and got within 15 feet of me but I couldn't get on them to shoot. They got out to probably 30 yards, I squeezed the trigger and nothing happened. Decided the shell was bad. Pumped in another shell. Birds moved but came into another opening. Squeezed the trigger again and nothing! Thankfully it didn't shoot because I was on a hen at that point. Birds worked off and I pumped in my third and final shell. Made some yelps on the ol Madd Calls Hatchet and the two jakes came back gobbling. Third shell went off and got my first bird, a Jake.

After looking over the shells I determined I was so nervous I didn't pull the trigger far enough. The 870 trigger creep and adrenaline got the better of me.

[Brian Fahs]

 Picking up the camo hanker chief someone "lost" in the middle of the trail. Thats a lesson you only need to learn one time.

[MO_HUNTER]

Picking up the camo hanker chief someone "lost" in the middle of the trail. Thats a lesson you only need to learn one time.

Hahaha! I've sat down at the base of trees before and wondered why there was a little fabric sitting there. You are right... Only takes once!

[Neill_Prater]

OMG, there's so many dumb things I did. First turkey hunt I didn't even have a call. Friend of mine, older guy, who also didn't know anything about turkey hunting, owned some land and told me a big gobbler roosted on the hill behind his house, and it would be no problem to sneak up on him and kill him.

Opening morning found me on the hill behind his house before daylight. Sun was just beginning to light the sky across the field in front of me, when I began hearing a strange noise. After hearing it several times, it finally registered with me that it was a gobbler.

I looked across the field, and sure enough, silhouetted against the morning sky perched on the limb of a big oak in the fencerow, was a gobbler. I can still see that dangling beard. I tried to put the sneak on him, and, of course, failed. Drove the 20 miles to Springfield that evening and bought the only turkey call I could find, a Ben Rogers Lee box.

Killed my first bird across the road from this place a couple of years later. I hunted the area for about 6 or 7 years, and never heard or saw a gobbler on my friend's farm again!


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[guesswho]

I had killed a couple turkeys before but never a longbeard.  I was 8 years old and sitting between my Dads legs.  My Dad gave me the little nudge to shoot when the turkey was about 20-25 yards away.  After the shot the gobbler started the rolling flop away from us.  I rushed to the gobbler and grabbed a foot, big mistake.  A big battle ensued, I never managed to get the other leg, and in fact lost my grip a couple times on the one I did have.  But like a seasoned fighter I managed to finally inch my way up and get a hold of its neck, which turned out to be a worse decision than my initial decision to grab a foot.  Now he was working my midsection over with both feet.  I finally won the battle and he expired.  I still think he got the best end of the deal even though he lost his life.  I did get scratched up and spurred a time or two.  After I finally had my prize I look at my Dad and he's still sitting with his back against the tree with his head tilted sideways just staring at me.  No smile or nothing.  Finally I see him kind of chuckle and shake his head.  He then told me you know all this could have been avoided, we have more shells.  I still have a scar to this day on the knuckle of my middle finger on my left hand where either a toe nail got me or a spur. 

I plan on killing one this year with that same gun, but I'm using two shells if needed.   

[Swampchickin234]

Still catch myself acting out incredible stupidity every year.  Some fools never learn. First bird I ever killed by myself is shining bright tonight though.  To this day, I have never heard anyone call to a turkey as much as I did to that turkey. Funny thing was it worked. I was 16 then.


Decided I would get nice and tight one morning.  Had em roosted and had my plan.  Problem was I got too close.  When he fired off the first time I realized this as I had a heart attack when I discovered he was above me.  Moral of that story he spooked. 


Also don't leave your gun on a tree and walk out with your dead turkey.  What's bad is that been pretty recent


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[redleg06]

I was completely self-taught, before there was an internet and no turkey hunting books that were easy to find so I had no idea about ANYTHING related to turkey hunting...

First few turkey I shot, I body-shot them and had no idea that wasn't right   Looking back, I was really lucky to kill them.  I finally figured it out but I started off with an old push pin call, no turkey choke, pheasant loads, and body shooting the first 3-4 turkey I killed. I came from a deer hunting family so that's also how I hunted turkey, for the most part, in my early years.