ORIGINAL: hootnscoot
Fantail,
Could be the gun, could be you. Lots of good suggestions here, let me add one more.
I missed a bird 4 years ago and I am 99.99% sure its because I picked up my head to 'peak'.
I now have a mantra that I go through right when I'm about to shoot. Believe me, the heart is still pumping and the adrenaline is flowing like crazy but right before I'm about to shoot I take 1 more second to ask myself if my head is down. I even practice it prior to the season just trying to visualize a bird walking into the site and taking that pause. its worked very well for me.
If the gun is sited in like you say and you are shooting two-feeet over then you are likely moving right before the shot to 'see what happens'
Practice makes perfect...................
You're probably on to something there. I always did have that very problem with a scoped gun.
probably cant in every situation, but why not shoot the turkey as soon as it enters comfortable gun range, instead of waiting for it to get this close. I waited for it to get closer and closer one year and blew my opportunity because after a LONG STORY i didnt even get a shot because i waited too long.
I'm glad you mentioned that because I forgot to mention only 1 of these birds was called in the rest were either spot and stalk or just appeared out of nowhere. If they work in slowly I usually don't miss em. The one that was called in was actually a pair of jakes and we wanted a double but either I didn't have a shot or my buddy didn't and that's how they got so close. In my defense on the jake, I did take out a small tree that I didn't even notice.
I don't want anybody to get the impression that I'm a "good" caller because 95% percent of my success comes from spot and stalk. And before anybody jumps on me with both feet, what I mean by spot and stalk is finding them in a field, trying to figure out where they are going, and getting in front of them as my schedule doesn't always allow time for me to really work one unless he's lonely on the roost.