Wow, what a turkey season this has been for me. No doubt the best but also the most frustrating season I can remember. I went to a new property this past Saturday that was loaded with gobblers in the Wildcat Hills. I only had 4 shells left in this box of turkey loads so that is all I took with me thinking surely I can kill a bird. Long story short I didn't get a bird with my four shells. Popped up on a bird at 30-40 yards after hiking up to a ridge line. Missed him standing, looking right at me, missed with my second running away, and missed my third flying away. I attribute that one to huffing and puffing but I still should have had him. Hiked over to a hot tom not long after, and he popped up in front of me in some heavy timber as I was going along. He didn't respond to my calling but as soon as I put a fan up he came right over. Shot him at 20 yards and thought I had him with all the feathers laying around but he got up right away and flew off and all I could do was stand and watch in utter disbelief that I didn't have an extra shell. I've never been so tore up and almost emotional about missing a bird. With my confidence drained and season ending soon, I made a trip down to southwest Nebraska to hunt with a good friend and turkey killing machine, where I had pretty good confidence we could get it done. Traveled down last night (the 27th) with thunderstorms all around the area we wanted to hunt first thing. Another heavy storm went right over the same area over night. We went up to that area to try and find birds at shooting light at some normal hot spots but we just couldn't get around with the roads so muddy and washed out. We gave up on those and went further south a county to some drier conditions. Got permission on a corn field right next to a creek that was full of birds. After trying to get in front of them several times on the creek we finally got into a position where we could at least get a decoy out in the field and try and call one over. Finally two toms came our way but they held up at 40 yards. One tom turned and left and the other hung around long enough to give me a shot. Made the most of it, but I was super nervous after missing those ones on Saturday. Talk about a relief when I realized he was down for good! Ended my season with a great bird with 1 3/8" spurs and a 9 3/4" beard. He lost a bunch of tail feathers flopping around but he is still a beautiful bird!
