weirdest circumstances

[Rockhound]

what is the weirdest circumstances in which you killed a gobbler?

One morning i was walking in right about time for gobblin to start and walked up on a bird on the ground, it could not walk or run or anything just flop off 20 yds or so. I knew something was wrong so i took my chances and killed it when i finally got within range and he quit flopping off. I got lucky and it turned out to be a 2 yr old gobbler.

It had come bad winds and tornados the night before and had apparently blew the gobbler out of the tree. When i got to it and inspected it, both its legs were broken so bad at the hips you could almost detach the whole leg by hand.

I was worried about it being a hen, but i knew something was wrong. I honestly would not have felt bad if it had of been when i found out what was wrong. Its just a little to good to be wasted on a coyote.

[guesswho]

Years ago I killed one while I was under an old bathtub. Almost killed one while in an old army tank one time. Ten more yards and he would have ceased to exist.

[cahaba]

I killed one by sticking my shotgun thru hog wire to shoot it.

[CntrlPA]

A couple years ago I was giving a bird the silent treatment but after half an hour in that nice warm morning sun, i fell asleep. When i woke up, i could hear something walking behind me. He made it off to my side and I dusted him!

[Spring_Woods]

Last year in Ohio we setup on a bird early only about 100 yards off his roost. After fly down he went the other way like turkeys usually do. Me and buddy swore up and down we had him dead to rights. He gobbled his brains out!

Anyways there was another bird gobbling some 500 yards or better away across a giant clear cut. We called him in and killed him. Unlikely and weird since he was so far away. I just figured he'd hang up somewhere along the way. I have since learned to expect the unexpected.

[redleg06]

I killed one that was standing about 10 yards from our truck....that my buddy was napping in. 

To make a long story short, we came in to a place "cold" without knowing where the birds were roosted and parked in a farm equipment "parking lot" in this old farm yard....basically the farmer parked his bulldozers/ trailers, tractors, old misc. junk, in this area and the birds had become accustomed to it all being there and we just pulled up and parked in amongst all of it, well before daylight.  Anyhow, we realized pretty quick that we were right on top of these birds and they didnt seem to really notice us. We had slipped out about 50 yds from the truck, in the direction we anticipated them being, when we started noticing "shapes in the tree's"....we honestly had no idea which way they were going to pitch down or if they had seen us pull up etc...

The birds were obviously roosted A LOT closer to this area than we anticipated. Long story short, when they pitched down (there were multiple birds) one of them went towards the truck and walked behind some parked equipment/ AND OUR TRUCK and when he did, I hopped down in a creek (it was dry but deep enough to keep me from being seen) and eased down to where I figured the bird would step out but he basically got in amongst the junk and back- tracked.  At this point he went back and forth in front of our truck probably 3-4 yds off the bumper.  They had just got so used to all the junk there that I guess the truck didnt seem that unusual for them....   and when he walked back out and cleared the truck/equipment trailer, I shot him.  My buddy in the truck was caught a little off guard...

I have NEVER seen anything like it.   Almost felt bad....almost.

[Crappiepro]

I got a nice tom in my back yard, 10yrds (if that) off the corner of my garage LOL. We had hunted for 2 days in the on and off down pours of rain. I was done and wasn't hunting until the rain stopped. It was the second day of season and I was home changing my wet clothes and debating on even going back out. I was in the dining room and looked out in the back yard when something caught my eye LOL. It was a nice tom struting in the back yard, I couldn't believe it. So I got my gun and waited until he was on the other side of the garage out of site. I went to the north east corner and stood there ready, he came walking out off the north west corner right into my sites and pattern LOL. I'd say maybe a 35 yrd shot and my 1 bird Indiana season was over. It sure made for an awful short season. I don't know how some feel about it but a birds a bird. I called my buddy who was with me earlier and told him. We laughed about it, neither one of us could believe it!

[alloutdoors]

I was taking my cousin's kid out during the youth hunt to try and get him his first bird. We had worked a bird at first light but he went off with a bunch of hens. We did some running and gunning down a power line right of way and had a bird answer at point blank range about the third place we stopped to call. We dove behind a stone wall and the bird charged in to about 30 yards but was in heavy enough brush that the kid wasn't comfortable with the shot. A couple hens stepped out on our side of the fence and busted us before the tom could come any closer. It was getting late in the morning by this point so we headed back up the hill to a field where I thought the first bird might cruise back through after his hens left him.

We got out some decoys and got set up at about 10:30. At 11:00 I heard a single gobble and then the tom came strutting into view in the next field over. I gave a few yelps and he very slowly started to make his way toward us, strutting the entire time. He didn't get very far when I saw a sudden flash of movement streaking toward the tom from behind. At the very last second, the tom saw it too and he dropped strut and ducked just in time to avoid having his head taken off by an eagle that had it's mind set on a turkey dinner. I don't think the eagle missed him by more than a few inches. Not wanting to push his luck, the tom tucked tail and booked it into the woods before the eagle could make another attempt. I figured we were sunk, but since there was left than an hour left to hunt anyway I decided we would just stay put.

I waited several minutes and then began some light occasional yelping. At about 11:30 the tom gobbled from inside the woods. A few minutes later he gobbled again from just a little bit closer. We were along the south edge of the field and he was in the woods off the east side, he continued to slowly work his way in our direction but would not come out into the field (understandable after being nearly decapitated by an eagle). He eventually worked his way around the corner, and was now making an approach through the woods behind our setup. We weren't in a great position to cover that angle, but managed to get turned around more or less in his direction. Suddenly he was right on top of us, no more than twenty yards and gobbling hard, but there was a tree blocking the kid from swinging the gun onto him. I thought for sure the kid's nerves would get the better of him, but he stayed calm and eventually the bird took several steps that brought him back into the field of fire and the kid dropped him stone dead. Before the shot could finish echoing off the hills, the noon siren sounded down in the valley signaling the end of our hunt.

The eagle attack is easily the strangest thing I've had happen on a turkey hunt, and I still can't believe we managed a successful hunt after it occurred.

[jblackburn]

Spring 2005 in Missouri.  Opening weekend was cold and spitting snow. My buddy roosted a couple the night before the hunt.  We woke to very cold temps, wind, rain/sleet and almost slept in.  We sat up and watched two toms fly down after one gobble and they walked away from us.  We got up and circled around them, thinking they were headed to a bottom to get out of the wind.  The way this pasture lays is kinda weird.  It is all flat, then drops off at least 20 feet into the bottom.  We thought the birds would be by the creek, but they were right below us.  We some how saw them before they saw us.

We dropped to the ground with ZERO cover and yelped a couple times.  The theory was that they would walk up the hill and when we saw heads, they would be in range.  Well, leave it to a couple gobblers to not read the script!  They came in, alright, but they were FLYING! I was rattled and tried to wing shoot one like a dove and WHIFFED!  It landed in a tree at 20 yards and my buddy smoked it!  I composed myself in time to see the other gobbler land IN THE SAME SPOT and I smoked him!

That was the my first and only double with my friend!

[El Pavo Grande]

Slipping down a ridgetop calling every 75 yards or so, I had one cut me off and he was maybe 100 yards.  I scrambled for the first good tree of considerable width I could find.  His second gobble revealed he was closer and moving to my right, which I immediately recognized as a potential problem.  I had literally sat down next to a brush top, so close I couldn't reposition my gun that way.  I hear him spitting and drumming, dragging his wing tips through the leaves.  He gobbles and it shakes me!!!  He is close, I mean so close I should be able to smell his bug-eating breath.  My heart is pounding.  Then I see the tip of his white crowned head just over the log that my right shoulder is near resting against.  I'm stuck, can't shoot, and this turkey is literally going to walk right past at just a few mere feet.  Game time decision and against my better judgment, I reach under the log and grab ahold of this gobblers right leg.  The fight is on and he is winning!!!  He is flailing around scared out of his mind I sure.  Finally after what seemed like an hour, which was in reality no more than 20 seconds, I conclude that I have made a serious error in judgement.  At this point there is only one way to kill this gobbler, and  I knew the sensible solution was to release him.  So, I set him free and called him around the end of the brush top for a clean, quick shot.  Relieved and battered a little, I rush to claim my well deserved prize.  Just kidding. 

[jblackburn]

Slipping down a ridgetop calling every 75 yards or so, I had one cut me off and he was maybe 100 yards.  I scrambled for the first good tree of considerable width I could find.  His second gobble revealed he was closer and moving to my right, which I immediately recognized as a potential problem.  I had literally sat down next to a brush top, so close I couldn't reposition my gun that way.  I hear him spitting and drumming, dragging his wing tips through the leaves.  He gobbles and it shakes me!!!  He is close, I mean so close I should be able to smell his bug-eating breath.  My heart is pounding.  Then I see the tip of his white crowned head just over the log that my right shoulder is near resting against.  I'm stuck, can't shoot, and this turkey is literally going to walk right past at just a few mere feet.  Game time decision and against my better judgment, I reach under the log and grab ahold of this gobblers right leg.  The fight is on and he is winning!!!  He is flailing around scared out of his mind I sure.  Finally after what seemed like an hour, which was in reality no more than 20 seconds, I conclude that I have made a serious error in judgement.  At this point there is only one way to kill this gobbler, and  I knew the sensible solution was to release him.  So, I set him free and called him around the end of the brush top for a clean, quick shot.  Relieved and battered a little, I rush to claim my well deserved prize.  Just kidding. 

You had me, hook, line, and sinker! 

[Kywoodsman]

     Last year I managed to kill a bird that I probably would not have had I not learned that a diesel truck makes a great locator call. I was walking in to a property right at the first rays of light and was headed back to the very back end of the property about a half a mile back from the road or so where I knew a particular bird had been roosting all season. I had only made it a couple hundred yards or so when a diesel fired up somewhere well off in the distance on a neighboring property. Well as soon as it fired up a bird hammered back not 60 yards away. I instantly dropped to the ground and crawled for the base of the nearest tree trying not to get busted as I had no clue the bird was roosted there because I had never seen a turkey roost there before. I waited a little while, let out a few light tree yelps, he fired back, and I shut up and waited. Five minutes after fly down I was packing that bird back to the jeep. Had that diesel not fired up and that turkey shock gobbled I would have been about a half a mile away from him and very possibly would have never killed him.

[El Pavo Grande]

Ok, these are true.  Maybe not weird circumstances but make for a good story.

One year in MO, a friend and I were set up with several turkeys gobbling around is.  Finally two together commit and come in.  As anyone knows that hunts MO, the undergrowth can get thick.  These two turkeys come in to about 25 steps, but I can't determine gobblers or jakes from where I sat.  After a brief appearance they get a little nervous and turn to leave.  My buddy with the camera says they are longbeards, so in an attempt to maybe kill them walking off, I ease up in my knees and shoulder my gun.  But, they were too far.  At that moment we hear, "pfftdooom" right behind us.  My buddy whispers an expletive and I ease my head around to see a gobbler in full strut with nothing but air between us, not 25 steps, walking right to us.  So, it's now or never.  I slowly twist my right shoulder and bring the gun straight over and shoulder it to my left shoulder, rest my left cheekbone on the stock (I am right handed) and shoot the unaware gobbler left handed at 15 steps.

Fast forward a few years, and the same buddy and I are hustling it to a hidden field for an evening hunt.  We are ascending from the creek and hear a turkey gobble real close.  We hit the ground and crawl about 15 steps to the field edge.  There are about 4 longbeards and a dozen hens at 75 yards.  We make a couple calls and within a few minutes they are walking straight to us.  30 steps he shoots, turkey flops.  I ease up on my knees for a point blank shot.  I shoot, the turkey flies straight up about 15 feet and back down.  I proceed to miss 2 more times.  My buddy hands me his gun, but it jams.  I could tell I hit the gobbler and he is just standing there obviously out of sorts, so I take off at him.  I get about 5 feet away and he takes off.  I dive and miss him, get back in my feet and the chase is on.  I am gaining ground and dive at him again, like Hank Goldberg trying to spear someone.  I have him momentarily but he escapes my grasp.  My buddy is now in on the action.  3 times I have narrow misses and a face full of KS dirt, but it soon dawns on me this gobbler can only run to his left and is making about a 30 yard circle.  On about the 5th pass my buddy makes contact and slows him down enough for me to finally stop the race.  We laid there for a few minutes short of breath, beat up, and shocked from what had just happened.  I was sore for several days after that.

[BrowningGuy88]

Well I have 2:

One:
I had gotten permission to hunt a 600 acre cattle farm only two days before season two years ago and wouldn't you know it I woke up late opening morning and only had time to go to this property before light. I had never stepped foot on it before then. I managed to work two gobblers all morning but they would not come closer than 75 yards from the woodline. They had flown down to their ladies in the middle of a 100 acre field and wouldn't come back close enough to the woods.

Same story the next morning.

The next weekend I roosted them Friday evening and went in Saturday morning with a new game plan. I brought a camo fleece blanket from home and a camo pillow. I crawled out in the middle of that field about an hour before daylight and covered up with the blanket laying on my stomach with my head on the pillow facing the roosted birds. At daylight I yelped twice and they double gobbled. I never made another sound. The hens flew down within 20 yards of me and teh gobblers hit the ground about 80 yards out. I waited for them to strut in to range and when the lead strutter hit 30 yards I hit him in the face with a load of Nitro Blends.

The next morning I went back and killed his buddy right on the woodline where I was sitting opening morning.

Two
It was raining and 39 degrees on March 18th a few years ago (that is cold in South Alabama) and I couldn't get any of my hunting buds to go out with me that morning. Well I only had a few days to hunt that year since I was still in college and working full time - I went in the woods.

I got to a favorite spot of the strutters and set down for a long miserable wait. I actually fell asleep before daylight sometime and woke to find the sun risen and a lone gobbler gobbling about 100 yards away on the roost. Around 9:00 he pitched out and came strutting up this old logging road stopping every so often to scratch to wet grass. At about 40 yards he pauses mid stride and throws his head up - I think that he has seen me cause I am not hid well. Out of the corner of my right eye I see a gray blur and quickly turn my head to look and see a bobcat slipping up the road from the other direction. The gobbler doesn't seem to know what to do and when the bobcat hits 40 yards I send him a load of Winchester HV #5's and roll him. I think ok that gobbler is long gone and turn to see him just running down the road. He crosses a shooting lane as he turns into the pines around 20 yards and I rolled him up.

I couldn't think of a wierder way to kill a turkey than shooting a bobcat in front of him and the idiot not flying off..

[duckaholic25]

My Dad and I are set up on two gobblers on our last hunt of the season . They fly down about 60 yards from us with two hens. I finally get one of the hens fired up enough to come check me out and she pulls one of the long beards with her. He finally gets in range and I tell my dad to shot. BOOM, the turkey flys straight up and towards us. BOOM BOOM, I am telling myself ok well thats it he will hit the ground dead. Well when he hits the ground he is still one his feet, so we jump up and dad is digging in his vest for another shell and it seems like it takes him 5 minutes to find one. He finally gets one and is so shook up he cant close his bolt so I push the button to close the bolt for him and as soon as the bolt closes, BOOM he sent one into outter space. He had his finger in the trigger guard and through his gloves and adreline he couldnt feel it. We finally calm down and get another shell in the gun and kill the turkey.