Today was the best day of the season so far, but I'm still birdless. I went out this am with someone who has already filled his tag. He was calling for me and someone else that had an awesome piece of property to hunt. As soon as we arrived, there was a HOT Tom gobbling his head off on the roost. It sounded like a second bird was close by, but we were able to get fairly close to the roost of the one making the most noise and we set up. Long story short, the bird popped up on a hill at about 20 yards. Since I was the guest on the property and the other gent had as clear of a shot that I did, I figured he should take the bird, but he didn't. The bird started circling around the back of the hill and looked like it was going to come out on the path on my side, and I was ready. Well, he did a 180 and circled back and came out on the path at about 40 yards on the other side. He hung up after seeing our decoys. I was facing the wrong way, but the caller told me when he was out of sight, so I was able to turn around. I was sitting on a small stool, and the other shooter on the ground, and I had the opportunity to take the shot, but I thought he did too. It turns out the small height advantage of the stool was something he didnt have. I didn't want to blast his bird, and he finally took the shot after an eternity of strutting. He missed. The bird flew to a tree, and about 10 min later, down the other side and gone. Great action, Great show by the bird, thunderous gobbling by a BIG bird, doesn't get much better. Well..... the guy who missed the bird was off to work, and the caller and I hit a WMA. This post is about to get a little longer. We were walking thru an area trying to strike a gobbler, but we struck a hen. We thought she might have a Tom in tow, so we set up, the caller about 30 yards behind me. No decoys this time, and it didn't seem that anything was happening. Then I see the caller motion to look behind me. 5 jakes had circled around behind me and were headed right to him through an opening in a stone wall. I only saw 4 though, one was hanging back. I was able to shift position and turn around, only to have lots of saplings and brush between me and the birds. I picked an opening and told myself if I had a shot, I would take it. The birds were closing the distance to the caller, and were on a path that would put them directly between myself and the caller. I settled my cross hairs on an opening (still a safe distance away from the caller), a bird stepped in, and I squeezed off a shot. The bird did a little flip, then got up and ran. The other birds went off in a different direction. Unfortunately, we found a few drops of blood. We trailed the bird and covered a LOT of ground, but came up empty. I feel sick about wounding the bird, but I'm hoping the wound was superficial and he lives to mess me up again next season. It was the best morning so far as action was concerned, a great experience, but it's just sickening to know you wounded a bird... Sorry for the long post.

Yeah, that stinks buddy. I didn't help any either, season is over, and I never had a bird even close to being in range. They were henned up terribly this season, and had a severe case of lockjaw. I also apologize, I really had high hopes for the season. Looked really good before opening day, but, doesn't it always? [8D]

Don't sweat it guys.Thats why we call it hunting! Sorry about the wounded bird,sometimes stuff happens,but get back out there and hunt some more,and most importantly have FUN,thats why we do this!