Taking the safety off...spook a turkey?

[Treerooster]

Ok I am going to start off with this gets under my skin a bit.

In videos you will see the hunter all ready to shoot with hands in shooting position and the turkey is coming in. They do a cut-away and the hunter repositions his/her hand so as to silently move the safety so it doesn't make a "click". Even read in books that describe the safety click spooking a wary gobbler. One of Bobby Dale's books has such a scenario. He even states the turkey spooked instantly and no shot was possible.

I have over 30 years experience hunting turkeys, certainly not the most but a fair amount, and have never had a turkey react to the the click or a safety. Even with hens extremely close to me. Sometimes I have taken the safety off a little ahead of time when I believed the shot was imminent, but also many times just before the shot.

That hand movement, moving it down to silently get the safety off, seems would spook a turkey way more than any click. Don't know because I have never done it.

Any of you ever have the click of a safety spook a bird. And if so did it ruin the shot.

[aclawrence]

I always click my safety off before hand.  If I feels he's definitely coming in.  This is obviously more dangerous and you have to make sure you go back to safe if you don't shoot.  I think I subconsciously always check my safety throughout the hunt.  Whenever I'm getting up to move and so forth.  I haven't clicked off right in front of a bird that I can remember.  I would think the movement could get you in trouble but hopefully the birds already in big trouble at that point. 

[Ihuntoldschool]

I would never take that chance.  Anything unnatural could spook a bird in close like that.

Depends on turkeys too.

You can get away with ALOT more on Rios and Merriams than you will Easterns or Osceola birds.

[Greg Massey]

I usually already have my safety off especially if he's in eye sight... Never had this problem myself..

[sswv]

I lightened the safety spring on my 870's so they are still safe but got rid of that snap when pushed off. my 301, like all polk stocks can have the hammer cocked back very quiet.

[hawkeye1958]

I try to get the safety off ahead of time. I just make sure to keep finger out of trigger guard until ready to fire.

[Sixes]

Interesting.  I guess everyone is different. I have never taken the safety off on any animal until the time of the shot.  i have taken it off and put it back on many encounters, but I have never taken it off while waiting. If my safety comes off, it's because I am about to shoot.

I cannot recall ever spooking any game disengaging the safety.

[capecodmike]

I have an older SBE2 with an pretty audible safety click.

Yes I once lost a bird when he heard the "click".

Quite amazing how fast and quick that bird went from watching his hens to bugging out in the air.  No shot was possible.

I now put a drop of lube on the button before I head out.  It's a temporary fix and needs to be done everytime I  hunt.

[bbcoach]

Buy a gun with a thumb safety and you won't have a problem.  Even if he hears a click, it's too late for him.  Head down on the stock, thumb safety off, BOOM.  Personally, I don't understand why most shotgun manufacturers have a safety on the trigger guard anyway.     

[ferocious calls]

Once a bird is close enough to hear the click and we are in sight, we must remember they are thought to have 5 times our sight recognition speed. Once alerted by the click they can pick us out rite quick often times. Not that they necessarily know we are a human, but something just not rite to THEM.

Turkeys are not real smart and are mostly pretty paranoid creatures, which prolongs their survival.

The most simple answer to the click is to practice and learn how to not let it click. That tiny movement may catch his eye and stretch up his head for a great shot.

[eggshell]

In 53 seasons and over 250 kill scenarios I have had one bird spook from the safety click and take flight. It was on public calling for a friend on the last day of season. The bird had probably been shot at before. I can't even remember a bird reacting to the click. If I am clicking the safety off he has about .5 seconds to react. However, if I see the bird approaching and know the shot is highly probable I will take the safety off before I am ready to shoot.

[compton30]

Buy a gun with a thumb safety and you won't have a problem.  Even if he hears a click, it's too late for him.  Head down on the stock, thumb safety off, BOOM.  Personally, I don't understand why most shotgun manufacturers have a safety on the trigger guard anyway.   

Good points! However, I will add a word of caution about the thumb safety that I hadn't thought about until it burned me.

I have a Mossberg 535 Tactical Turkey. Killed every bird I fired at with it. Love it, still have it. But, it has a thumb safety AND a pistol grip. I got caught moving my hand back to the pistol grip after turning the safety off a few years ago by a gobbler and I bought a Franchi after the season(I like the pistol grip too much to go back). I have no idea why Mossberg didn't move it specifically for those dedicated turkey guns but it is something to be aware of before buying and more importantly while you're hunting. Something to be mindful of even though I realize this is a little bit of a different discussion.

[Turkeybutt]

If I see the bird approaching and know the shot is highly probable I will take the safety off before I am ready to shoot.

I always check my safety throughout the hunt i.e. after loading, while walking, if I took it off thinking I have a shot but it doesn't come to fruition or after I shoot and most certainly before getting up. You just never know what might happen in all the excitement!

[GobbleNut]

Interesting question.  Can't say I have ever been aware of a gobbler spooking from the safety click. There have been very few instances where a gobbler showed up unexpectedly where I have had to quickly hit the safety button at the last second, however. I have generally had a pretty good idea prior to a gobbler arriving that he was about to show himself, and I tend to hit that safety button while he is still far enough away that the click...or movement associated with it...is not going to be a concern.

As for the videos regularly showing "B-roll" segments of a close-up of the hunter clicking off the safety right before the trigger pull, I always more or less chuckle at those video cuts to show that...and ask "why?". I know darn well that pretty much every one of those fellows clicked that safety off long before that "cut" to show it!  Of course, I know the "why" is because of the long-time idea of selling safety consciousness to hunters that seems to be a standard practice in just about all hunting videos.

Now, that is okay...and perhaps needed for some folks, but for those of us that have been hunting for more years than we might care to admit, it has just become repetitively unnecessary.  On the other hand, I suppose it is better to have it repeated over and over again in videos than for it not to be shown...and emphasized...at all. 

[HowardHog1]

I was with my 9 year old in Texas this March. I was behind him and facing off to the side and he was in control of the gun. A dozen hens were about 25 yards from us and the gobbler about 35 yards. Once the gobbler was clear of the hens, I told him to take the shot. He did and got the turkey. I thought it was the perfect hunt and nothing went wrong until I rewatched the video.

I happened to be filming with my phone. Rewatching the video, you can clearly hear him click the safety off (very loud on video) the closest 2 hens popped their heads up and 1 putted. They turned around and started walking away from us as well as the gobbler. Luckily he was able to get the shot off but we learned a valuable lesson that day. From the time he clicked the safety off to his shot was probably 2-3 seconds, much longer and I'm not sure it would have worked out.