I just couldn't do it!!!

[Happy hooker]

Today is the last day of season in Minnesota,,I'm definitely out at first light waiting for a heavy pea soup fog to lift and wondering if I dare bring out my pricey Mann and watkins in this dewpoint. An hour or so passes before you can see and I reach for the stumpy ceramic which I know can handle the weather, No tree yelps this is the last day and I want to be heard loud and now!. After banging away a while I get the answer but the late May full green foliage confuses the sound direction. He answers every thing this is too good,,finally I see him pull out on the path still along ways away two hens in tow. Evidently the convenience of having a guaranteed hen sandwich still wasn't enough to compete with everything the stumpy was promising. He's coming very slow a little wary of all the dense foliage but he's coming, Giving me time to think???, just little flash mini thoughts,,it's the last day,,one of the worst winters in Minnesota history,,, this guy is a few hours from beating all that,,I'm fortunate to have 6 NY strips and a Ribeye in my fridge do I really need to eat him,,is a picture of a 19-21 lb bird gonna get me admired. He beat mother nature's worst and he's about to make it through the last of man's traps. For all purposes he  just ran a 26 mile marathon and he's inches away from the finish line all I have to do is stick my leg out and trip him.
Maybe it was conscious or maybe it was not wanting to spend 1 1/2 hour plucking a bird??
But I couldn't do it ,,I let him walk through the red dot sight and off into the woods!!
In my mind I bagged him,,,and in my stomach I'm waiting for one of the NY strips to defrost and treating myself to steak and eggs brunch.
Very satisfied with the season finale.

[davisd9]

If he came into range then you beat him and he should have died.  I do not want anyone letting me win. 

[1iagobblergetter]

Every person has his own personal fulfillment. If it was a Longbeard I would have ended the season with a BANG,cleaned my bird when I got home,and still ate New York strips...

[Roost 1]

Congrats on a fine season. I hope to hunt MN one day.

[Rapscallion Vermilion]

I totally get and respect your decision.  You won.

[LaLongbeard]

I've never killed one that I didn't have some regret. Well done ...it's not nessecary to kill him to have beat him.

[chcltlabz]

To each their own, but if I wasn't there to kill a bird, I'd carry a camera. 

[land cruiser]

I hope to get to this level one day. Many a gobbler will die before then

[codym]

Awesome brother! I totally get it. I'm the same way especially at the end of quail season. Dogs work beautifully, stick a small covey, I break my gun open, walk in and just count. Good luck and make lots of babies. I think there's a very special feeling knowing you could have and didn't.

[bobk]

I completely  understand your decision. You definitely beat him.

[GobbleNut]

There's nothing wrong with letting a bird walk.  I've done it many a time over the years, but never on the last day of the season with an unfilled tag.  If a guy feels better about not pulling the trigger in a given situation, good for them.

...However, your post suggests that you didn't shoot that gobbler because you felt that somehow his existence was the key to future turkey numbers in that particular spot.  If that is what you were thinking, you might as well have gone ahead and pulled the trigger. 

Spring gobbler hunting is based entirely on the premise that, if you time the season properly so that the hens are bred before you start shooting the gobblers, the male segment of the population is expendable.  Despite your noble intentions, allowing that one gobbler to live will have absolutely no impact on your turkey numbers there. 

Of course, if he makes it through another year, he will be there for you to consider shooting next spring, but that is the only difference your decision not to shoot him this spring has made.  Again, nothing wrong with that, but don't confuse benevolence with benefit.   

[bruce.smith0817]

I have done that a lot if he's called in a close enough to shoot I feel just as good as if I pulled the trigger an I don't need or care for  what anybody else's thinks I hunt hunt to satisfie me not others

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[zelmo1]

You are a better man than I. I will let a jake walk in that situation, but a longbeard will get some action, lol. Well done brother 

[ol bob]

Guess I'm getting to old I let several walk this year just couldn't make myself shoot i think its time to hang the gun up.

[Ozarks Hillbilly]

I get it, you can count coup since we haven't figured out catch and release turkey hunting.