Rolled a gobbler but never found him?
 

Let me set this up, I called in a mature gobbler last spring and took the shot at about 25 yds and rolled him over. In fact I knocked him over and down into a 8 foot deep drainage ditch that I had no idea was behind him. I was set up in an area that I have never hunted before. I couldn't beleive after the shot he wasn't lying there because I could hear the wings flapping like crazy. I go over to where he was standing and there are feathers and blood on the ground. As i stood there all of a sudden out from the ditch he he comes running like he was shoot out of cannon. I fired again at him and he rolls again, not sure if I hit him or if he just stumbled. He runs thru some thick low hanging eastern cedars when I lost sight of him, never to be seen again. I went back to the drainage ditch and there was blood, feathers and what looked like part of his waddle on the rocks. Clearly he was hit but not good enough. Is there certain things a tom has a tendency to do when hit, hiding places, etc. There are plenty of articles writting a tracking wounded deer but I don't ever recall seeing any on wounded birds. I'm sure that bird died at some point either from the shot or a predator got him. My question is........ I have never had to track a tom like a wounded deer that I know how to do but how does one go about trying to find a wounded bird?

What I have always been told to do is look under all thick places where you think the bird went. They will go up under stuff to hide and heal. Did you shoot him with a bow or gun?

Shotgun, 12 ga #5 winchester extended range. I looked everwhere crawling under every cedar looked in every hole no sign of blood, feathers anything

They hide in the darndest places........and wounded did not go far.....it will be buried under leaves or low undr a bush or laying in some dead fall......

The best way I found to track a wounded Tom - I use one of my dogs - bring back to the spot and just say fetch....the dog has not let me down yet...did that on a few from the party I was with......

JW

The photos are some of the sign left by the bird in the drainage ditch. I have never seen that much sign and not recovered the bird. Any thoughts if the sign indicates if the hit was enough to cause the bird to expire at some point?

Well with all those feathers looks like you hit low more so than the neck or head.

Means you hit the body. Loosing feathers means little - tho the blood is interesting.

I hit one like that - lost a bunch of feathers - as I ran up on it with a loaded side by side black powder - I tripped on the big branch the bird was hiding under only to stumlbe and release the bird from the branch tangle. The Tom ran a few steps and flew into a cedar swamp to which I spent thenext few days looking for it. It had the Ole 20 oucne Coke Bottle beard!

Never found it.

But like I said I have used my dog to help find 2 cripples.

JW

a wounded bird does not want to fly or run especialy up hill. i have wounded a few birds before. In the missouri hills i always find them in the bottoms or in a brush pile. They are sneaky so keep a real good eye out

Found a gobbler one year an hour after I shot it. Curled up in a depression under a pine tree, with his head tucked under his wing. Stone dead. 200 yards from where I shot him. Bet I walked past him ten times before I saw him. I've also lost some over the years. It happens to the best of us. A turkey really doesn't have much blood to lose. i think that bird died, soon after.