RE: Boneheaded Mistakes?
My biggest BONEHEAD move was in AL last year. I played cat and mouse with these two gobblers traveling together for 3-4 days straight. On the last morning down there, set up in the DB on the ridge we THOUGHT they were on with bow in hand...we here a gobble and his partners response from the next ridge over...this area is steep, they might as well been a mile away, they werent coming to us....So we grab the gun and a deke, and dive off the cliff basically to the bottom, Standing nearly straight up on the careful descent, My butt was almost always touching dirt behind me..We make it to the bottom, and they are still gobbling on roost...now we hustle up trying to make it to the point of the ridge they are on..finally making it to the top, we stop for a breather. We are within 150 yards of the last heard gobble on roost now. Gametime...We listen and the first bird pops off again, 2-3 times...but the second bird was silent...I thought maybe he heard us coming up the slope and we should stick tight to see if he pitches down and heads our way thinking we were hens....but curiosity got the best of me, and we pressed closer along the ridgetop...we made it over a hump not 20 yards from where we rested, and the silent tom busted out of roost from not 30 yards past the hump, he hadnt seen us at any point, and likely thought we were a flock of hens that were sounding off down in the bottoms behind us coming his way...Had we sat down, there was no doubt in my mind that was a dead turkey. He flew down, got his friend to join him...and they were quickly at several hundred yards gobbling just to taunt us.
Moral of the story....do NOT press an already good situation..be able to read the cards on the spot and analyze when to sit, and when to move.