Had the First Shot Out from Under Me

[hoyt]

I'd scouted these birds a couple days ago and made my plan. Set up way before daylight with my 20ga. flintlock.

Sounded like 3 and they gobbled good off the roost, flew down where they did Sat. morning and after a fairly long back and fourth with mouth calls, turtle shell with glass and the one they liked most purrs from my old Lynch Jet State, had two of them strutting straight up towards me at about right under 40 yds. When someone who had slipped in from above and behind me to right at 20 yd...unbeknownst to me...he never made a call from that set upset up. shot one of the gobblers.

I posted the full story on the muzzleloader forum.

I thought I'd seen it all on public land for the many yrs I've hunted it.

[zelmo1]

  Unfortunately not. Good luck in the future

[taylorjones20]

Some people... smh

[grayfox]

Public land hunting will really test your religion.

[mgm1955]

That's a shame. Some people have no ethics or sense!

[Spitten and drummen]

Yeah, there is a lot of people around now with that sense of entitlement. They want to benifiet off others hard work. It's a shame it's spilling over into turkey hunting. Op , hang tough and you will be rewarded in the long run. Unfortunately I have had this happen to me 3 or four times.

[owlhoot]

Had the same type of thing happen to 2 friends of mine a few years back, mention it to this day and you can still get one of them to turn bright red. Really sucks .
The only real problem i have had happen is with the run and gun guys who chase after a gobble and come up on you working the bird and then spook it trying to get close. Some shoot and wound or miss as the bird takes off at 70-80 yards, but mostly just sees them and spooks. Hey they say it work on the tv.

[g8rvet]

Hope he chokes on it. 

[101st501]

that sucks

[Snoodsniper]

Public land..... gotta love it!

[hoyt]

The thing that really gets to me is how someone could have the gall to set up that close..and I'm not exaggerating he was 20 yds or closer and would have been impossible for him not to see and hear me calling.

But..it just reminds me again there's some very weird people in this world and lots have guns and are in the woods.

That's why I just walked off and kept my comments short.

[Honolua]

What the hell? Did you say anything to him? I guaran-damn-tee he'd have got an earful from me.

[hoyt]

I just jumped up and said the F word real loud, then "at least I didn't get shot" really loud. He heard me and saw me I'm sure...he wasn't but about 20 yds from me messing around with the gobbler he just shot when I said "at least I didn't get shot!"

I just wanted to get away from him and not loose my cool. Two guys in the woods with loaded guns..after what he just did..not a good time to start an argument.

[TRG3]

A guy who would do that would also shoot at a sound. Be glad that he didn't think you were a real hen and shoot you! I had something similar happen a few years back. Just after sun up, a guy drove his pickup down an old dirt road past my decoys only yards from the road in picked soybean field, so he obviously saw them. He got between me and a gobbler still on the roost some 200 yards away. In about 10 minutes, I heard him shoot and then drive back past my decoys. This was on private ground, which means that you still don't really know who is out there.

[derek]

I hunt exclusively public and trust me I know there are people out there that would deliberately get between you and a bird and shoot it out from under you... but there are also two sides to most stories.  I'm wondering how someone could get 20 yards from you and you not notice?  Did he come in in the dark as well?  If so I'm sure you caught him off guard when you started calling.  Maybe he didn't know you were there and thought you were a hen?  I know I've heard that one before when people do dumb things on public.  Sounds like the situation was pretty good and maybe he didn't want to jeopardize that as obviously it resulted in a bird.  It's a scary situation no doubt, as you were preparing to shoot and had someone within killing range of you that you did not know about. 

I'm not trying to take his side, but just that sometimes it seems different from the other perspective.  Last year I took a buddy from work that's not much of a turkey hunter.  We got to chasing a bird and when we finally got close enough to really get him worked up, he was getting closer, and I thought it was going to happen.  Next thing you know, BANG.. right where both of our guns were pointed.  My buddy was pissed and wanted to get worked up about it.. I calmed him down, as I didn't know the whole story.. maybe this guy had been working this bird when we came up on him.  I never heard him call, but not everyone calls that loudly.  Maybe he thought I was a loud mouthed hen and was going to let her bring him right past him.  I was more worried about not knowing someone was in the direction I was preparing to shoot, so we got out of there and went looking for another bird.