Thinking about joining a MA chapter (Missers Anonymous) after Sunday mornings fiasco. I was running behind a bit due to walking my 72 year old father out to his spot. It was grey light as I neared where I planned on listening for birds. As soon as I reached the edge of the cypress a bird gobbled from the his roost. I wanted a better fix on his location, so I hit my owl hooter. Two birds answered back and they sounded under 100 yards. I had to drop and set up on the spot so as not to blunder into them and spook them off. My flydown cackle was answered immediately answered by both gobblers. So I put my gun up on my knee and waited. My next calls went unanswered, and since I had heard hens, assumed the gobblers pitched down and went with the ladies. While scanning the cypress, a softball sized red/white/blue blob caught my eye. His head was straight up as my crosshairs settled on his wattles. Brain said "shoot", trigger finger squeezed just as he was bringing his head down. BOOM...he did a backflip and I racked another shell, slid the safety back on and slid out of my Gobbler Lounger. When I got to the spot he was at there was nothing. No bird, no feathers and no blood
I believe it was a clean miss right over his back and the report of the 3 1/2" magnum merely scared the living crap out of him.
I would have been much more disappointed if not for the fact that this was a last minute thrown together hunt, in a no quota WMA, that I had not set foot on in three years and not turkey hunted in about six years. I left my house with zero expectations and was thrilled just hearing the two gobblers at daybreak. Hopefully tomorrow morning a different story can be told as I head to north Florida with a friend to hunt his property.
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