Poof he was gone!!

[Paulmyr]

Hunted a bird off the roost yesterday mourning for about an hour. He went quiet so I got ready. Finally see him coming in quick, half strutt at 30yds moving left to right. He goes behind a clump of trees and my bead is waiting for him to step out. Suddenly my stomach growls real loud about 3 times over a period of about a minute. Never see or hear from the bird again.
Stomach must have remembered them turkey nuggets last weekend and growled in anticipation.

[WV Flopper]

Unfortunately, I can say I have had that happen a couple times. A buddy of mine had it happen two weeks ago. Amazing birds some times. It incredible to me that they know exactly where you are setting.

[hotspur]

Hunted a bird off the roost yesterday mourning for about an hour. He went quiet so I got ready. Finally see him coming in quick, half strutt at 30yds moving left to right. He goes behind a clump of trees and my bead is waiting for him to step out. Suddenly my stomach growls real loud about 3 times over a period of about a minute. Never see or hear from the bird again.
Stomach must have remembered them turkey nuggets last weekend and growled in anticipation.

  don't tell me turkeys are stupid

[Southerngobbler]

The bad luck is always right there, waiting to creep in.

[Sanders153]

Yes, they are smart and cagey more times than not. The Lord God, our Creator placed in them some extraordinary senses

[Yoteduster]

Sometimes I think they are equipped with radar

[bbcoach]

If they had a GREAT nose, you would only kill one when they were Breeding or Really wanted to Fight!  It's GREAT trying to Match Wits with them and that walnut sized brain!

[bigriverbum]

happened 3 times yesterday. frustrating and exciting at the same time

sat til 10. didn't hear anything. move and call at parking spot. bird gobbles 200 yards away across the road on private. i slip into the woods. he's coming in like a dead bird. i can almost still see my car. instead of  coming in the way you'd think he came in on the other side of a ravine. i had my gun up, never moved an inch with just my head sticking up over the 4 foot wide log between me and him. as i'm waiting for him to show up "here" i hear putting "there" to my left and the other side of the log. i don't know what he saw. as he puts and retreats i call aggressively and he gobbles again. thinking maybe a hen spooked and not him i sat a bit longer. but he was gone

i walk 50 yards up hill and let my jeff lacey longbox rip down the valley. bird gobbles 200 yards away. i was in a thicket and moved out the ridge(and to the right of the bird) into more open area. moved maybe only 50 yards and barely closer to the bird. i must've spooked him. he never gobbled again

go to another property. winds whipping. last ditch effort. call at car. nothing. call 50 yards downhill. 3 birds scream back on the next knob over. i run up the hill(it's a ravine between us) thinking they'd rather take a longer, but flatter route to me.  sit down and call. all three going crazy. then i hear a hen call near them. no way its a hunter unless he walked in from a weird spot. then a doe walks in front of me at 20 yards and stares at me for 10 minutes before i spook her and she runs towards the turkeys. then i hear hens fighting and never hear the toms again. 

wanted going to go back this morning but couldn't. i'll hit all three spots up tomorrow

i'll take that day of action any day

[TRG3]

It's good that you got all of your bad luck out in one extended dose. Now you can relax because things are bound to get better!

[bigriverbum]

It's good that you got all of your bad luck out in one extended dose. Now you can relax because things are bound to get better!

i hope so, but it's definitely better than sitting/walking around all day without a hint of talking birds

[FLGobstopper]

Last week I fooled with a bird on S GA public that's been giving me fits since mid season that I'd left alone for about a month. Went back to him and it was like we were right back to where we had left off. Long story short, I spent 3 more days on him before season ended and still couldn't kill him.

Had another spot I went to late morning the hottest day of the week. It was near 90 and this spot is where an old tram road runs through a swamp. There's lots of good shade and it's a great travel area so I thought it would be a good spot to catch one slipping through. Got to a spot where I was set up and I could see 300++ yds or more along the tram where it's bisected by creek drain and then paralleled on both sides by the swamp, then on one side about 75 yds down there's about a 30-40 acre section of thinned planted pines that follows the road. That's a spot that's more open and gets some good sunlight and has lot's stuff growing along that side of the tram.

So, I sat with my back to the creek which was full of water that overflowed to the swamp side and ran the length of the tram and was probably knee to waist deep water in most spots. Both sides of the road are fairly steep banks and on the other side of the road about a 20-30' wide ditch runs down past the planted pines. I was kind of in a nice funnel area and had seen gobblers in there in the past when the woods were much more dry.

I hadn't been set up too long and ran a few series of calls when I caught sight of a really good looking longbeard feeding and walking down the road towards me about a far away as I could see. Took me a while of watching him through 10x40 binos to figure out he was a longbeard and over the course of 45 minutes to an hour I watched him close the distance 250-300 yds or so. This was my last GA tag and as finicky as that other bird was if I got the opportunity I was going to be happy to shoot this one for sure. I was calm and comfortable with a good hide in the shade and I was getting pretty excited as he closed within 100yds.

When he got to 60-65 he was feeding back and forth on the side of the road without a care in the world. Then he moved over to the ditch side in some tall grass and just vanished!

Now I do remember hearing several crows on that side raising a ruckus but I didn't think much of it because they were more in the bottom where there was some dry ground. I know he didn't see me, and I know for sure 3 of the 4 directions he could of gone he didn't. The other direction would of required him flying over or wading water up to his neck and I didn't see any water movement or hear any wingbeats. I had a decent view of the dry ground through the open creek bottom on that side and he didn't come any further towards me that way. I really think I should of seen him after that but he just did the POOF thing and was gone.

I just had to laugh at that one!

[albrubacker]

Same thing happened to me on Tue morning in PA. Thought foe sure I was going to be walking out with my first PA bird.

[Gooserbat]

Remember to eat your Honey Bun and drink your coffee before you leave the truck.

[Paulmyr]

Remember to eat your Honey Bun and drink your coffee before you leave the truck.

I hear yah. Was running a tad late. Set my alarm for 3 pm the day before to wake up from a nap and forgot to change it back to am when I set it for 4 that mourn. Woke up at 5. Good thing I was sleeping in the truck just didn't have time for the double chocolate chip muffin. I don't think the chilli cheese fries from A&W the evening before help either.

[Tom007]

Hunted a bird off the roost yesterday mourning for about an hour. He went quiet so I got ready. Finally see him coming in quick, half strutt at 30yds moving left to right. He goes behind a clump of trees and my bead is waiting for him to step out. Suddenly my stomach growls real loud about 3 times over a period of about a minute. Never see or hear from the bird again.
Stomach must have remembered them turkey nuggets last weekend and growled in anticipation.

And that great hot sauce...lol