This morning I worked a gobbler off the roost. He was hot and gobbled 300 times, at everything!! After 45 minutes he walked in and I proceeded to shoot a tree. At the time, I assumed it was a rushed shot and bad aiming on my part.
Around 12:30, I was near the scene of this morning's fiasco, with a DSD hen out, doing some soft calling. I spotted a gobbler step out on the ridge trail. I clucked at him a few times, he turned and saw the deke, and popped into full strut!! He was absolutely gorgeous!! He slowly strutted down the trail making his way to my deke. When he was standing next to her at 20 yards, I put the green dot in the middle of his neck and dropped the hammer!!
To my amazement, he just stood there. I missed AGAIN!!!
He turned and took a few quick steps behind a couple of large oaks. I jacked another shell into the chamber, and aimed for the other side of the tree. He stepped out, and I put the dot on his neck and fired again. This time I hit him, but he did not go down. I jacked another round and jumped up as he started to run away. He tripped over a big log, landed on the other side, and stuck his head up.
I aimed and fired again, this time putting him down for good!
I retrieved my bird, and his head appeared to be clear of any pellet impact. I noted that one shot impacted his left side, mid wing. That would have been my second shot. The first shot was a clean miss. The third shot also hit his body. Both wings and one leg were broken.
Apparently I did not shoot the tree this morning, the scope had been bumped out of alignment. That cost me one bird this morning, and almost another this afternoon!! Needless to say, that Truglo hunk of junk is coming off of my gun, and getting returned to Cabelas!!
Anyway, he was a really nice gobbler.
22 lb's 11 oz's, 10-1/2" beard, 1-1/4" 1-1/8" spurs, scoring 67.4375!!
Talk about redemption!! Enjoy the pics gang.
