Set up where the gobbler was roosted yesterday morning and nothing. Silence. 10 minutes after sunrise I hit the call and was answered by hens. My thought process was that gobbler found the hens yesterday and was with them, hence, no gobbling.
Stand up to leave and there's three jakes that had appeared out of thin air. Headed towards the hens and nothing. No gobbling. No hen talk.
An hour later, finally the first gobble of the day. After slow playing to see if he was going to come, I looped around. Luckily I stopped at just the right spot and saw him leave a group of trees. I got sat down, hit the call, and no answer. I saw him picking his way to me about 10 seconds later.
He stopped in a tiny little hole and somehow caught me moving my gun or something. He periscopes and in my head I said "I can kill him right there." But, that little voice told me I needed to be 100% sure it wasn't another super Jake. I held off. I hoped he'd just put his head down and come a little closer. He didn't. Instead he turned to leave and I saw his beard. I touched the trigger and he took flight.
This time I watched him sail away 400 yards, clear the tops of some trees and keep going.
I'm still distraught over it, hours later. I know it's just to turkey hunting but due to all the things I mentioned earlier, this one really stings.
I should have just let him go and live to fight another day, and know where he lived. Instead I rushed it. It's all on me. It's a bummer.
So far my little redemption is more redemption for the turkeys, than me!
I hunted around until noon when I figured I needed a reset and maybe a nap. Went back to camp for a few hours. The reset didn't help lol.
I'm in here now where I missed him 8+ hours ago. This pocket of habitat seems small and the areas he would roost seems small. I really don't expect him to come back but then I know I can cross this off for tomorrow, look elsewhere, and not wonder if he went back to his little pocket.
