I am upset with myself from this mornings outing.. I saw 8 moose, 6 deer, and a black bear which were all great to see. I saw 3 bearded toms, one which I messed up on very badly!!
I am still ticked off at myself over that one. It was a very big tom with 2 beards for sure. Prolly 12 + inches on the longest beard.. I was heading up to my blind and there he was! He flew up on a big rock and before I could do anything he jumped down the other side. I ran up to the rock and there he was around 25 yards from me. I haul up and of coarse I still have the safety on. I kept pushing the safety in the on position like numiss.. When I realized it and got the safety off the bird headed into a small brush pile. So I waiting until he came out of it. Then he was around 45 yards away and I fired. The bird flew and I do not know how the heck he could of. I watched where he went and searched it over for 2 hours. That is how sure I was that I had hit him.
When I decided I was not going to find him and got to the truck he gobbled. I was not sure if it was him so without thinking about my calls I went to check without them.. Stupid on my part again, and I went searching for where the gobbling was coming from because he continued to gobble. I found him he was around 100 yards east of where I shot at him. He was around 60 yards and we saw each other about the same time and he flew off.
I feel great about the fact if I did hit him he never got hit to awfully bad. I just feel like crap over that whole situation. The other birds had a much better chance due to my messing up on that first one.. Then on my way home I saw a jake and after a while I saw 6 jakes all in one group..

That is how day one went down and I am blaming it on my shotgun. So that one is staying home and my long tom will be going for now on.

Good Luck to you j76!