It pays to oversleep

[2ndHand]

Our season started a couple of weeks ago but yesterday was the first day I've been able to get out in the woods.  I went to bed a little late and ended up sleeping through my alarm. I had a quick breakfast before heading out to our property. I got out of the truck around 9:45. I hadn't really scouted that much but I've hunted this property for years. I knew where they might be hanging out. I didn't hear anything from the ridge so I decided to ease down to the creek.

In my hurry to get out to the woods I realized I forgot to fill up my water bottle. I was at the creek so I decided to refill my bottle there. As I was squatted down, filtering my water, I heard a turkey sound off maybe 50 yards away. I grabbed my shotgun as I moved closer to the trail that runs along side the creek. I yelped a couple of times and he answerd. I gave a couple more softer calls and he cut me off. I could tell he had moved closer to me so I picked a tree and setup. He could hear him walking towards a little to my left. He popped out on the trail in full strut about 25 yds away. Where he was I didn't have a shot due to some small trees. He stood there for a least what felt like 6 hours but I'm sure was maybe 45 seconds. He finally came out of strut and walked to my right. He cleared the saplings finally ending up directly infront of me at 20ish yards. I was shaking so badly I'm not sure how I aimed well enough to put him down. But after I pulled the trigger my biggest Bama bird was flopping on the ground.

[Harty]

Nice story and bird. I sure wish it always worked out that way! Something tells me though that you're not going to make a habit of it.

[tomstopper]

 Congrats man. The day that I don't feel the excitement like you described, is the day I quit turkey hunting.....

[turkaholic]

Nice job sticking to it.

[Ozarks Hillbilly]

Congrats

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

[albrubacker]

Congratulations! Looks like a big bird.

[renegade19]

 

[Gobble!]

Congrats!

[Muzzy61]

Congrats, cool story and nice bird.

[Gooserbat]

Congrats

[Wrangler95]

Very nice gobbler,congrats!!

[boomer]

Congrats

[mduncan]

It doesn't happen like that often....congrats on a nice bird!

[zelmo1]

Congrats on a nice bird 

[TRG3]

Great story and congratulations!  A few years back, it was in the mid-20s on opening morning so I turned off the alarm and finally got to the turkey woods about 9 a.m. when it had warmed up a bit.  I'd just set out my decoys and sat down, getting ready to call when a hen ran by at 20 yards closely followed by a gobbler. In the first 10 minutes of my hunt, a load of #5 shot sealed the deal. It seems that another hunter some 300 yards away had spooked the birds trying to slip in for a shot. As my buddy says, "I'd rather be lucky than good any day!"