depends...if i can see it well and its barely floppin, i aint runnin. ive fell alot more than once in the woods..i dont need to be running with the adrenalin higher than a crackheads and a loaded gun in my hands...
after last years expirience though, i will make sure i got that empty out and am locked and loaded and gun pointed on the bird...kinda like clearing a house lol...
last year i made a horrible shot. jerked the trigger and the hevi shot 6s absolutely clobered the bird in the wing butt. shattered the wing hard. when i fired, i watched it fall like a deer and never flop...i KNEW something was up...ive never saw that. it fell sideways..it was wierd. i THOUGHT i racked another shell in...i had the empty in my pocket actually...i get 10yds away and see him lift his head and take off...pulled up CLICK! BAD SHELL!! rerack!! cycled the action hard and by that time he was 40yds down the hill...head was up laying on a log...put the bead on his head and fired. dead bird...i was right on his head and it was fully extended..no way he made it from there. calmed down, reloaded my shotgun and walked down the steep hillside slowly...got down there...no bird!!! feather trail the whole way down there...blood all over the log and could clearly see my pattern nailed him there...hmmm....creek was not even 100yds down the hill..could see down to it easy and no bird...some blood went right..so i zig zaged the hillside for about 300yds looking for the bird...nothing..down to the creek..i walked the creek bottom between the creeek and hillside back to where i last saw him...nothing...did the same thing to the left..nothing. came back...nothing..walked up to where i shot him, gathered my calls and gear i left behind..i wasnt giving up...trying to piece the clues together...walked a straight line from where he was at the 2nd shot and got to the creek...not a big creek, but i didnt think a wounded turkey was crossing it...standing there thinking and looking around and i about died when he poked his head out of a brushpile across the creek...soak and wet, busted wing....very much alive, but it would been a mess to shoot him again...set the gun down and waded the creek and grabbed his head and we wrestled...i won...
still dont want to run through the woods with a loaded gun, but i dont know what to do after an expirience like that....
incase you are questioning my story, heres a couple pics..
notice the blown up wing and how he is SOAKED....and yes, he was about half naked....
now notice the beautiful blue spring sky?? definently wasnt raining that day!! bad pic...tried using the self timer..
had no idea i shot him in the wing...and had no idea i short pumped the gun, i have a problem with that and my 870 and i dont know why...maybe i need to replace the spring...i think the previous owner used it as a home defense gun or something...it had no plug in it, which is very odd...could left it loaded for as long as he owned it and killed the spring...or maybe my arms are just short...going to replace the spring now that im thinking about it though...