Gooserbat I'm a dummy Giveaway... WINNER

[tal]

 My first season of turkeys I was getting object lessons on how not to do it every day. I was walking out one evening off the crest of a ridge and heard wings, a turkey on the other side was flying up to roost. I stood there dumbfounded and then another, then a couple begin flying up. I ducked down and eased farther down the ridge out of sight and walked out. Headed in by moonlight the next morning I wasn't exactly sure where I was and got to where I knew I had to be close, moving slow and scanning the limbs. Dawn begin to break and I spotted a big tree just 10 yards in front of me I wanted and planned to sit and listen. Just as I made the tree a bird gobbled in the limbs above me and took wing. Followed by 30+ birds in a big spring flock all together. One minute into daylight and I was free for the rest of the day.

[Here turkey turkey turkey]

One day I was turkey hunting. I went home and later on realized that I did not have my shotgun. I drove back up in the hills (public used land) and found my double barreled mossberg. It was laying right there, right where I ran over it. Luckily it was not damaged. In the same holler I lost my glock and had to track it down and found it laying in a spot to where I tried to close the gap on 2 turkeys gobbling right before a storm. Same holler, I got turned around and someone gave me a ride to my home. If you guys never hear from me again I may be dead in that holler, lol.

[northms]

Went to an area when I was younger that I had been seeing turkeys and sat under a tree to wait for  sunlight. After not hearing anything and being surprised I stood up and a gobbler proceeds to fly out of the tree I was sitting under and flies to the next county.

[MDTOM84]

By letting a Gobbler get to close and then missing him

[Snood Life]

Forgot toilet paper in the truck. Man I miss that pair of socks.

[strum]

 I know this is about turkey bu I shot a deer once with my bow. Drug her ( it was a doe day) and all my gear to a log road. Walked up hill 300yrds. Got my truck backed in to load the deer . Knowing full well where the deer was and I back straight over my bow. It didnt fair well.  Dont know about yall but I piss myself off more than anyone else.


Edit :because this is really about turkey hunting but ill leave my broken bow story up.
  My first year turkey hunting I bought one of those Primos Boxcutter box calls. About the 3rd time out.
Daylight comes . I hear a gobble so I hit the call. he answers and I see him almost running (yes down hill) straight to me.
  So i just keep on hammering that box for all it was worth.  yep yall guessed it .
  He locked down and looked toward me like ... Are you an idiot or what?
  Learned  the "put your call down" lesson that day.

[Papa]

My Brother got me started turkey hunting (and I didn't know much). The first time I hunted I set up on the edge of a field. I set a hen and a jake out as decoys. I went back and set down by a big oak tree. I started calling as good as I new how. It was getting around 10:00 a.m. and I was getting tired of not hearing or seeing anything. So I started putting my calls away. I heard a noise and looked in the direction of my decoys two big toms and a hen came running across the field an the first big tom to get to my decoys jumped on my tom decoy. I was so nervous and surprised that I shot the tom decoys head off. Needless to say I didn't get the live bird.

[avidnwoutdoorsman]

Located a bird during season not ready to hunt.

Got to a new spot I'd never hunted before, like new as in BC Canada first time ever hunting in Canada new. Stepped out the truck to make a locator call with a yelp, instead of a crow call. Instant response within a couple hundred yards. Problem was, I didn't have my camo on, gun was locked in it's case in the back seat, ammo was locked in a box in the truck bed.... ya that worked out well.



If you're where you can hunt, be ready to hunt.

[mhamby]

Like a fool, I got in way too tight on a big Tom. I was close enough to be able to make out his spurs against the early morning sky. He had been facing the other way when I first heard him gobble and I totally misjudged how far away he was from me. As I was easing along, making my way to him, I began to hear the sound of bark scratching above me and I then realized what it was. He was literally directly above me. I was pinned down and afraid to move too much. I got down to the ground, but wasn't in a very comfortable position and I had no intentions of moving too much in fear of bumping him. Like a fool, I tried to scratch the leaves and purr a little to convince him to pitch down right there once it was legal shooting light.
Instead, he stayed roosted for an hour and a half, waiting to see what was below him. Needless to say, by time he pitched down, my legs had fallen asleep due to having to just hunker down in a pinch. When he sailed over my head, I had a hard time turning around to shoot him once he reached the ground. I looked like a newborn calf trying to scramble to get turned around on him. He spooked and took off across the hollow. My Father and I got a good laugh out of it after it was all over. He was one of the biggest Toms that I have ever seen

[Greg Massey]

Early one morning as it was breaking daylight , i made couple yelps on a mouth call , just to make sure it was still okay , as i was looking back and getting my stuff ready for the hunt i turned around and had a gobbler staring me in the face , i guess he's still staring at people and still walking. I don't think i ever saw him again. It really scared me, it was just like seeing BIG Foot for the first time in the wild. 

[Rzrbac]

Several years ago my cousin and I were hunting together. We struck a bird and set up in the timber next to a narrow field. We were both calling and the bird was eating it up. He finally shows up on the edge of the field about 30 yards from us. We both kept telling each other to shoot. Finally he said he couldn't even see the bird so shoot him so he doesn't get away. I made a terrible shot and somehow just crippled him enough he couldn't fly. He took off running down the edge of the field and I jumped up to chase him. When he got to the fence at the end of the field he stopped. I tried pulling up from a dead sprint and ripped my right hamstring. I finished him off but I couldn't even bend over to pick him up. I had hard time getting out of the woods and an even harder time driving home. I had to drive with my left foot.

[GobbleNut]

Of all the "what-a-dufus" moments I had over the years, the one that really stands out (and could have been very expensive) happened long ago in the mountains of southern New Mexico. 

I was camped in a shallow, open draw with scattered pine trees of various sizes.  One morning I got up to start my truck to get the heater going and then got out to grab things to get ready to drive to where I was going to hunt.  The truck was on a slight incline, but I thought it would stay put,...so I left it in neutral without the emergency brake on. 

I grabbed some stuff out of my tent and walked back out to get in my truck,...and it was gone!  I looked down the draw and saw my truck rolling down the canyon about 75 yards away.  I took off after it thinking it was going to roll into a big pine tree and really do some damage. 

It suddenly came to a stop and when I got there it had rolled over a small limber pine that had been just enough to stop its momentum without doing any damage to my truck!  I could have been S.O.L. but the turkey gods were looking down upon me that day.

I think I killed a gobbler that morning, too!

[mspaci]

Ok I got one, so I go up to a buddys in Rome Ny to hunt his property. Hunt all morning & heard some way out. He gets a call from his wife who says that there is a whole flock out in the field by the road on the way into the property. Great, we high tail it over there & get about 50-60 yards from the field as we couldnt get any closer. We start to call & nothing, this goes on for a while maybe an hr. She calls us back & says she just went out & they are still there. Another hr & not a sound, finally I tell him lets get closer. So we ease in there single file really slow. Ok, there they are we can see something in the grass. A little close, ok they there are like 20 geese out there, boy did we feel dumb. Best part was on the way back to the house we struck a big Tom & killed it quick. Mike

[hotspur]

Long time ago I found a gobbler in a patch  of woods along a bayou . Found him by gobbling, the turkey started coming towards the bayou gobbling so I beat feet out of there. Returned a week later on opening day slipped my pirogue on the bank under a large. Oak well before daylight, and was startled and shocked when that tree top exploded with the sound of a very large gobbler busting out

[Tail Feathers]

I had one come running in from behind me two years ago.  He literally skidded to a stop behind me 7 steps away at my 5 o'clock.  In stead of waiting and seeing if he would continue on his path past me and to my front, I foolishly tried to slide the gun through some thick cover between us.  I almost got the red on him before I got busted.