Do You Think You Will?

[VAHUNTER]

if a hunter says that he has never missed he or she has not hunted long enough. missing is just part of the hunt.i have missed several and i'm sure i will leave the woods scratching my head in the future. like Ronnie stated missed birds are sometimes the best hunts

[Basser69]

Hunting with kids.....Its going to happen

[Flydown]

You never know about missing, but I answered "probably not".

If you look at the available exhaustive scientific research here on Old Gobbler , it appears folks who load up their own shells are a lot less likely to miss than the regular turkey hunting populace.   About half as likely, it appears.... based on polls about who missed or didn't miss last year.

If I loaded my own shells, I wouldn't tell anybody that I missed either! 

[neal]

With as much hunting as I do and the amount of people I take out a lot of new hunters it's about a guarantee! But all part of the learning curve and like I always say rather get close and miss than never have a chance.

[guesswho]

If I loaded my own shells I wouldn't have anybody to blame for the miss.

2ounce6s, cool deal with your Dad.  My Dads 83 now and the more he misses the better he cusses, or the more  he cusses the better he misses.  I forget which way he says it.

[guesswho]

GW,
I understand completely. Pop is 72, I was there on the next ridge when he killed his first and even called in his second tom for him. We go back a long ways hunting and I'm sure you and yours do too.

You could say that.
My first longbeard thanks to my Dads help.

Me returning the favor 40 years later.

[mossy835]

Like I said in the earlier post I watched my friend shoot a almost full grown Douglas Fir tree this year and we will always remember that hunt. I have missed my share too but try and miss when the hunting partners are not around because they "NEVER" forget a missed shot. Those that still have their father around (lost mine in the 70's) the hunts will be your memories for the rest of your life. My dad would look at me with a comical look on his face and just shake his head in disbelief when I missed any shot and that started it. Great post idea.

[guesswho]

Miss with me and expect to strike this pose for the camera.  Two of my buddies were at one end of a field, I was 200 yards away watching them.  Danny, the poor guy in this picture shot at this turkey that had several hens with him.   I was watching and birds flew everywhere, the longbeard flew the 200 yards and landed right in front of me.  I folded him up on the spot.  So I made Danny pose empty handed with me .  Again, some of the best hunts I've been on involves a miss.

[guesswho]

mossy,
I've missed turkeys from 0 to infinity and am an authority on the subject. Big white oak trees at 12 feet with nice 1 1/4" holes blown into them to times I swore I was shooting blanks with no real idea what happened.

Been there.  This is my one miss from last year.  This is about the nicest pine tree I've ever shot, in the top five anyway.  The turkey was just to the left of the pattern.   

[mossy835]

mossy,
I've missed turkeys from 0 to infinity and am an authority on the subject. Big white oak trees at 12 feet with nice 1 1/4" holes blown into them to times I swore I was shooting blanks with no real idea what happened.

Been there.  This is my one miss from last year.  This is about the nicest pine tree I've ever shot, in the top five anyway.  The turkey was just to the left of the pattern.   

That is funny it looks like the one my buddy shot. Wish I had the camera along with me so we could compare the pattern density.

[anthonyjhallen]

I said probably not.  But thats just wishful thinking.

[gob09]

i love the smell of fresh spent shotgun shells
GW that is just too dang funny you should be ashamed of yourself making that poor kid pose empty handed like that aleast he's smiling though

[TRKYHTR]

I have to tell a funny story about a friend of mine. He came to hunt with me for 4 days and didn't bring his shotgun so I let him borrow mine. I shoot a benelli with a magnum gobble dot site. If you line up the green dots with the red dots it's going to die. Well the first morning we called in these 2 big gobblers and he shoots and misses, on camera. Then we call in another turkey and he swings and misses again. Then he starts blaming my gun. So, you never know, I take my gun to the camp and shoot it at 30 yards and it blows out the target. So we know it's not the gun. The next morning we have a whole flock of turkeys flying right into our set up. A big gobbler lands 20 yards to our left and starts strutting towards some hens right in front of us. You guessed it he shoots and misses again. Thats 3 misses in a day and a half. He just slumped down and started laughing. " I can't believe this. What is wrong with me". About that time another gobbler, hammers right behind us and coming our way. Since he missed the day before I only gave him 1 shell. I told him thats all he gets. After the turkey gobbled he turns and looks at me and says " Daddy can I have another shell". I lost it and started rolling on the ground. This was all caught on tape mind you. The turkey gobbles again and he gave me the shotgun and says kill that turkey. The gobbler showed up to our right and I shot and killed him. It was a great day and I miss that man. When we get back to camp he says aint I supposed to line up the 2 dots on the left with the 2 dots on the right with the 2 red dots. What? There isn't 2 dots on each side. I guess his eyes had started going bad and he didn't realize it. He bought a red dot scope the next year and that fixed the problem.

TRKYHTR

[turkey slayer]

My Dad has one of the most classic misses I've ever seen.  And I have it on tape.  I was behind him about 50-75 yards calling.  He was standing up facing a big Oak tree.  There were about 20 turkeys in a group coming to the calling.  A couple of longbeards a few jakes and some hens.  I filmed them coming right to the tree my Dad was at.  He had the gun pointing straight up because he didn't know which side of the tree the birds were going to go.  The birds got to the tree and some went right and some went left. The first birds were no more than three feet from my dad when they spotted him and spooked.  My Dad jumped around the tree and tried to pull off a quick shot but missed.  On the tape you can see him miss and then birds flying everywhere and you can still hear turkeys putting and wing beats and my Dad turns his head and looks at me with his face mask still on and says says turn that @%$ @!*% son of a Btchn camera off.  He even threw in a few new words I didn't know existed.  Even something about some new kind of turkey I'd never heard of.

thats great.

[guesswho]

Hate to break it to you that way pal! You probably like picking up old shotgun shells and smelling them too.

Yep.  Empty shells from misses are picked up, smelled, notes written on brass of where, when ,and who missed.   Then the empty is hung from my Uh-Oh board that hosts shot off beards, empty shells, accidental jake deaths, emergency room wrist band from my broke nose incident and even a bearded hen.