Most bizarre or unorthodox way you've killed a bird?

[northms]

Not a pellet in him that I could find. Only turkey I ever killed without a gun.

Stunned him with the muzzle blast.  Now THAT is a story.   

[Izzyjoe]

A very good friend of mine that past away last year was a logger, drove a log truck for quite a few years, I told him I was gona start turkey hunting, and he said hell just ride with me one day you can get all the dang turkey you want! Then he told me a few months before that he run over a turkey with the truck, he said there about six or seven just running along road beside the truck, and all of them decided to cross the road, well the last one didn't make it! He didn't know that he had hit one till come back in from that run, he also run over a bunch of deer! An 80klb. log truck will make bloody mess of anything!

[arkrem870]

It had stormed/rained all night long. The next morning I was in a bottom hunting along a decent size little river/creek. (It is about 40 yards across and flowing muddy ). I hear a gobbler fire off on the other side so I slipped up to the edge and sat down knowing I couldn't cross it. Nothing ever gobbled on my side so I gave hime a few yelps. He responded and I could tell he was coming. 5 minutes later three white heads appeared on the opposite bank. I didn't really think thru what was gonna happen if they showed up because it would be too dangerous to swim and get him if I shot across the creek. All at once the soaking wet turkeys go to fly the river.... I guess their feathers were wet because the first one ended up splashing across in the water. When it was said and done.....they were all three within 5 yards of me (behind me/ had flown right past me). I'll never forget it

[chcltlabz]

Love to hear all the unconventional turkey stories.  Sometimes you've just got to make it happen!

I had a very unconventional year last year.  First bird of the year was a similar story to tomstoppers.  There were actually 6 longbeards and a few hens hanging out in a field with 4 satellite jakes.  Every time I'd reposition on the longbeards the jakes would come running in.  The big birds would work a little, but never close the distance to shotgun range.  I managed to belly crawl to the edge of the field for my last setup and again, the jakes came running but eventually worked away.  The longbeards were busy feeding and following hens around so I got on my knees and got as close as I could to the birds, and when they alerted, I ran in them and broke them up.  One particular bird ran the length of the field by himself, so I walked down to where he entered the woods, called and he gobbled.  Few seconds later he steps out and is down.

Another time a buddy and I split up to work the edge of a huge overgrown field, probably head high weeds, but enough blown down to be able to see fairly well in the field.  Not 5 minutes after we split up I got within 30 yards of an outside corner of the field and saw a hen running from me out into the brushy field.  I knelt down and pulled my facemask up and called.  A bird gobbled just around the corner and strutted around right to me.  He must have thought I was the escaping hen.  A bird shock gobbled to my shot, so I called my buddy (who was a little pissed I had killed a bird not 5 minutes after we split up) and got him over to me.  I called the other bird in to the wide open and he managed to miss.

Fast forward a couple weeks and 3 of us went separate directions in the same area of the first bird.  They dropped me off on the other side of the block in the morning and I had no luck, so when my buddy called to tell me he had missed AGAIN, I told him to pick me up to try a different spot.  We ended up parking where he had missed, and when I called from the truck, a bird gobbled a couple hundred yards away.  I headed towards that bird and stopped half way to where I thought the bird was and called, but got no answer.  I walked maybe 10 yards and something told me to call again.  This time he gobbled maybe 25 yards away on the opposite side of a hedgerow from me, just barely tall enough to conceal the bird.  I dropped to my knees and knew I had nowhere to get set up, so I pulled my facemask up and called softly.  I heard him drum and saw the top of his fan not 25 yards away, so I got my feet under me, stood up and dumped him when he came out of strut to run.  Another bird not 5 minutes after we split up.

[Blong]

Laid in a sand trap on a golf course wearing desert storm camo one morning. When the Tom hit the putting surface, I popped him.

[RutnNStrutn]

what's the most unorthodox or bizarre way you've killed  a bird?

Killed one without a blind or decoy one time.

I've never killed one out of a blind. But I try a blind hunt a few times each season.
Killed several without decoys, and a lot with decoys.

Here's a no deke story. Went to a field on a Florida WMA with pockets of woods in it. The turkeys liked to roost in the woods around the field and pitch down in it. That morning 3 birds gobbled around the field, and fog hung over the area. 2 walked away gobbling, but the third kept gobbling from the same place. I snuck to that area using the woods to cover my approach. Finally I spotted a gobbler standing alone gobbling.
I slipped to the left using more woods for cover. I snuck down to the where the woods started tapering off. I eased forward a few more steps when out of the fog, multiple turkeys materialized, and all raised their heads when we saw each other. I froze, then slowly sank to the ground, hoping my leafy camo would help me.
Once I was on the ground, the previously unseen hens started putting nervously. I slowly purred on my diaphragm, then let out soft, contended clucks. The hens calmed down and started doing the same thing. I crawled forward a couple feet to a spot where I could see the turkeys through the brush. I started looking at the turkey heads through my scope, trying to see if the gobbler was with them.
Finally he gobbled, a mere 12 yards away!! I eased the crosshairs onto his neck and squeezed the trigger. He was a good gobbler, and it was a really exciting hunt!!

[RutnNStrutn]

Another time, I wouldn't have been able to kill this gobbler without a deke. My friend and I watched a field strutter from first light until nearly noon. He bred the hen he was following and ran off a couple of other gobblers. We could only get about 150 yards from him, by crawling in and setting up on a wooden fence line.
Hunting ended at noon in Ohio, so at 11:30 we were desperate after watching him from first light. When the gobbler had his fan up, my friend stood up and stuck my strutting jake deke into a rotten fence post. Then he started gobbling at him with his box call. Every time my friend gobbled, the gobbler would turn around and look. At this point they had drifted in to 100 yards out. Using some bushes and the fence, I was able to belly crawl 40 yards down the fence. The gobbler was still out of range though.
My buddy kept gobbling at the strutter, and he kept looking back. Finally, at 1145, the gobbler had enough of the jake gobbling at him. He dropped out of strut, turned and marched up the hill to whip that jake's butt!! When he passed by me, I dropped him at 38 yards!!
I have no doubt that if it wasn't for that strutting jake deke, and my buddy's gobbling box call, I wouldn't have gotten that gobbler that day.

[REBELYELL]

About five years ago, I was hunting before work one morning. I went to a bird that was already gobbling on the ground and called without any response. Time was getting away and I had to slip out to head to work. I headed back towards the truck and I spooked the gobbler which was down in a hollow between me and the next ridge. Upon his flight out of there, he flew into a limb or stob sticking off the side of a big white oak tree. He fell to the ground not far from me and couldn't run or fly. I hated to see him go out that way, but I ended up having to shoot him on the ground. It was the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. He was a nice two year old with about a nine inch beard or so. Crazy as hell for sure.   

[Blong]

While bass fishing in a farm pond with a good buddy one spring, a gobbler came out of the corner and started making his way toward the pond. We were still in camo from the morning hunt so he didn't see us yet. We decided to crouch down behind a log and see how big his Spurs were when if he got close enough. He keeps coming and heading straight for us. I had a pretty good arm back then and my buddy once ran a 4.4 at southern miss. We decided that if he got within 20 yds that I would throw a small lighter knot at him and joe would run him down when I dazed him. On 3 was the count. 1,2,  and I stood up and flung the knot at him with great precision, joe was just about to grab the Tom and the lighter knot hit him in back of the head and knocked him cold!

[TauntoHawk]

Blong, that certainly is bizarre and unorthodox for sure 

[chcltlabz]

I forgot about one hunt many years ago.  A few of us waded in to a beaver dam to set up for an evening duck hunt.  It was fall turkey season, and someone in the woods near the beaver dam busted up a flock of turkeys.  One flew over us before we had our wits about us and knew what it was.  When the second one flew straight overhead my buddy dumped it into the decoys.  Never shot any ducks that night but we came home with a good bird.

[flintlock]

It was in the late 80s and I had taken a few gobblers w/the 870 and decided I wanted to kill one really bad w/the flintlock.  You couldn't shoot a gobbler w/a single projectile and I didn't have a black powder shotgun, so I decided I'd shoot 5 shot out of my .50cal.  Talk about a crappy shot pattern at 15 yards!

I arrived about 1/2hr before light after the 2hr drive and found that I ran off half-cocked and forgot my overcard and cushion wads I had hand cut!  What to do...and daylight was coming fast!!

I cut a chuck of one of my extra socks off and crammed it down the barrel of the .50 cal flintlock over the powder, then another chunck of sock over the shot and ran out my buddies back door as he laughed.

I got to where I wanted to setup a little late but HE was there hammering.   I made a few soft calls and that big bruiser glided in to about 20 yards.  He came around the tree (allowed me to come up and aim) and boy was he something.  I fired and the big gobbler didn't even run, just walked off snapping his head up here and there, LOL.    I must not have hit him w/any pellets at all.  As I stood there w/my rifle on my foot shaking my head, a jake sailed in to about 10 yards w/a hen and I watched them go over the hill the way the gobbler went.  I was really irritated then.

I reloaded, (yes more sock as I didn't fully understand the compression theory for powder) and at midday I was licking my wounds from having such a hoss get away at such a close distance.   3pm found me skirting the woodlot and I got an answer to my handmade shell call.  I quickly moved into the edge of some brambles and setup, giving him a few more yelps, which he cut off gobbling to.  I laid the hammer back on the flinter and got ready.   I see his head pop up over the thick stuff at 25 yards...I gave a soft purr w/the shell call (once his head went down) and here he comes.  20 yards, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6...KerFlatch- BOOOM!   At the shot he took off running and I laid the rifle over and was up hauling in full-bore pursuit.  After only about 50 yards through the cedars I started gaining on him and not too much further he fell over dead as a hammer!

It turned out to just be the jake, but I really didn't care.  I sacked him hillbilly style, in more ways than one!

Wess

[FullChoke]

A few years ago, I wrote articles for a local outdoor magazine. I got notification from the editor that a fellow who had a deer hunting operation wanted to start offering turkey hunts as well and wanted us to do a story about turkey hunting his place. The staff photographer and I headed down to this fellows home base and got the grand tour. It was really nice layout and had great accommodations. We headed out the next morning to a bird gobbling on the roost and set up. Directly we hear that he has what sounds like 2 hens with him. All three flew down together and headed across the highway. We didn't go after them as we thought that we couldn't hunt that area, but the owner told us later that morning that he also owned the property that the birds had gone to.

Well, that afternoon we headed out to that other property to see if we could catch up with the group before they made their way back to the roost. There was a big power line right-of-way that ran through the place and I had the photographer hang back while I snuck up to see if there were any birds in it. On the third step, I see 2 feathered humps about 40 yards away with their heads down feeding. I wheel around and we quickly sat down in a stand of seedling pines just out of sight of the two humps. He gets his camera ready just as the first hen walks past us at 8 yards with the camera clicking shot after shot. This was repeated with the second hen at 7 yards. I have my head turned as far to the left as I can to keep watching that last hen as she went by.

Suddenly I hear it. Pfffft dmmmmmmm. It's close, man I mean REAL CLOSE! I turn my head towards the sound in front of me. There is the strutting gobbler not 8 yards from me right down my barrel. He saw me move, dropped out of strut, turned to vacate the premises and ate the entire 1 3/4 ounces of copper coated lead 6's in that shell. All that was left to do was to take the photographs of this mangled gobbler and write the story.

[Blong]

 

Blong, that certainly is bizarre and unorthodox for sure 

[g8rvet]

I killed one with no decoys, no blind and no turkey call one time!

It was about year 3 or 4 in this crazy, stupid, addicting sport and I had yet to call one in on my own (had killed a couple called in for me and called one in for someone else).  After our morning hunt, I joined up with my brother about 11am.  We were walking to a field that was a good strut zone and I decided to hold up and blow the crow call. When I did, behind us, from where we had just come, a bird gobbles. A good ways off.  We turn back to that bird and before we enter the next intersection, I blow the crow call again.  Triple gobble.  Was that one bird or two?  Still about the same distance away after we had covered a few hundred yards.  Head to the next intersection and blow the call one last time - still a ways off and definitely 2 birds.  I look at my brother and say 'I know where they are headed'.  We run to an old railroad tram that crossed through our lease and parallels the road I know they are walking down.  We run/walk about a mile to the first road that cuts back towards the one they are on.  I know that they love to head in to the swamp on the tram road and figure maybe we are ahead of them now.  I look at my brother and say sit right here, they will come down this road.  We sit down and pull on our masks and I pop the mouth call in. As I get ready to start thinking about calling, here come Mr Tom at a fast stroll down the two rut road. My gun is already up and I put the bead on his cranium and squeeze. Down goes Frazier.  At the shot, Tom2 jumps and flushes, just out of range for my brother to get a shot.  Never made a single call and was still huffing from our run.