diehardhunter

Me and one of my friends went turkey hunting yesterday and my friend ended up wounding a big tom. We where laying in a crp field and we had a tom come charging in my friend grabbed his gun and stood up. The tom turned to fly and my buddy shoot him and rolled him for a second, then he gets up and flys away so my friend shoots him out of the air and drops him, he then flopps on the ground and gets up and starts running so my friend empties his 10 gauge on him. He is now out of bullets and the turkeys runs into a little woods. We figured we would walk in the woods and he would laying there dead. We followed his tracks for about a mile until we lost them. My friend was shooting 3.5 in 10 gauge #4's. I feel horrible about it and am awestruck that he didnt die.

Die Hard

acooper

Why did your friend stand to shoot? Wouldn't it have been better to shoot from a prone position anyway, for accuracys sake?

mouthcaller

Well, I don't know where to start and I hope you don't take offense to my comments. I presume you are fairly new to turkey hunting.

I presume you are posting this experience to envoke comments and suggestions to help you avoid wounding and losing a turkey the next time you go. Frankly, you guys broke nearly every rule in the book and a wounded gobbler will die unrecovered as a result.

When a bird approaches the hunter/shooter must already have the gun up, pointed at the bird or in the birds direction, and remain motionless until the shot is taken. You state that your buddy "grabbed his gun and stood up". Why? Were you taken by surprise? Could you not see him coming. Were you laying down in this CRP field? I don't know anyone fast enough to grab their gun off the ground, stand up, and cleanly kill a turkey.

So the first shot hits the bird somewhere, obviously not in the head/neck where you should aim, but somewhere, and he rolls and starts flying. At this point I suppose you are obligated to try and kill the turkey since he is likely wounded. So another round is touched off at the flying turkey, (a shot I won't ever take) and he hits him again, he flops a bit and runs off while your buddy hammers away with however many shell are left in his cannon of a 10 gauge.

I'm not suprised you didn't find the turkey. Their vital internal organs are surrounded by thick breast muscles, fat, and feathers. They will run 'till they are out of energy and then hide under a log or brush pile. The only way to find the bird is with a dog, assuming the turkey is dead somewhere that the dog can get to.

I sincerely hope you don't take my comments in the wrong way, but I feel it necessary to point out the mistakes made here in the hopes that it won't happen again.

Don't shoot at a moving bird. The hunter didn't have the gun ready to shoot the turkey and tried to "jump shoot" him. That simply doesn't work, perhaps 1 in a 100 times, maybe. ONLY shoot at turkeys that are standing still, in range, and aim for the middle or base of the neck.

Position yourself in a spot that allows you to see turkeys as they approach so that you can get the gun up and pointed at the turkey before he gets into range.

Shawn Perkins

yeah mouth caller....exactly.

this shouldnt have happened.

kingvjack

Sounds like a future dead bird.

shamlin

The most amazing part of the story is that you were able to follow turkey tracks for a mile through the woods.

kingvjack

A turkey with 18 pounds of lead in it should be pretty easy to track

JW

Take a real close look at those woods! The tracks you followed unless in snow are not his!

That Tom if wounded will hunker down in a tree log, bush, some tight place so go back and look real close. I had a buddy wound one once - took my dog out there and she tracked him - we found him laying dead tight uncer a old log with one limb out.

JW

SwampCollie

Just goes to show you that no matter how bad a gun you think you have.... you cannot body shoot a turkey.... they are just too thick. You might could shoot him in the back... but you gotta take that head out....

diehardhunter

Well we pretty much where spot and stalking this tom because he was hened up. We where laying in a crp field that was about 2.5 ft tall. We saw him coming and then lost him due to a hill then my buddy saw the turkeys head right in front of him. We have had a ton of rain in the last 2 weeks, I have never seen it this muddy in my life. The tom ran across a huge plowed field and was very easy to track expecially with his limp.

Thanks,

Die hard