There I was just talking to the owner of the land telling him about the three mounts that I have. The standard fan mount, the half mount and the mack daddy the full mount. Well, I guess I talk so much and BS so much he asked me are you not going hunting? (He gave me a go an hour earlier.) I said yes I should get going.
I went out and geared up for the hunt not expecting too much that late in the day. About six in the evening.
I had forty acres of awesome land to hunt. By the way, did I mention that I was told that he would not let anyone hunt his land and he was kind of an old, you know what? That was not true he is one hell of a nice guy.
I got out back to the ten acres of woods and stopped for a minute. I made a couple of calls and the gobbling started. The hunt was on. I quickly went over closer and picked a tree to sit by. By gully, I think he is coming my way. I called once more and he gobbled again. I moved over to my left about 75 feet and sat down by a tree and got ready to fill another full turkey plaque mount for the man cave. Then there he was about 37 yards away in full strut. I had a couple of small trees in the way but I thought that was no problem. Strutting away I thought there is a dead bird. I leaned over to my left and pulled the trigger.
Oh boy, he did not go down, what the heck is with that? I got up and run over to where he was to see him get air born. There was a little ridge there so I did not see him all the way. He got out of sight and the disbelief was playing with my thoughts. What went wrong? There was a good blood trail so what’s the deal with that? I tracked him and he was what I thought hit pretty good. Blood everywhere. I went back to the spot that I was sitting and found out that I had hit with half my shot a four-inch tree. It took the blunt of the shot.
I looked for two and a half hours and came up emptyhanded. Looking under and around every spot that I thought he could be hiding. There is nothing worse than not getting your bird when you know it should have been a kill. There is no doubt that they are a tough bird to kill.
I went home humbled and feeling down in the dumps. No mount today anyway. I just don’t like ending a day like this.
Never underestimate the will of a turkey. There will be better days ahead. No matter how good of a turkey hunter you are, be wise to every situation. I should have probably shot left-handed. I practice shooting left-handed for these situations.
Be wise and keep your head so this won’t happen to you.
Good luck and happy and safe hunting to you. RAW