You had 6 misses on the same bird? Do tell.
Started 3 years ago, had been watching birds for solid month, while keeping my distance, never really been sighted by a bird. group of about 18 birds, and 3 toms. couple 4 jakes. ,, One tom "named Bruce" stood out amongst the rest for size and length of beard, plus he didn't take nicely of the jakes buggin him. Smart bird he is, never really went close to tree lines or field edges, and just hung out with hens just out of range for a good shot.
season starts, and i want to get this bird down. spent the whole opener waiting for my chance, birds fly right over me into the field in morning, gobble gobble and turkey things,,,landed about 57 yards out, and never came any closer, in fact he strutted away across the field, hens in pursuit. So dumb founded ,, i turn to my play book, and know they are going for a walk and will be back around 2;15 in the bottle neck in the field and bush, which was a daily observation, i went home , grabbed my ghillie suit and headed back with lunch and turkey chair. set up where they strut the afternoon away, which put me 11-16 yards from the "playground" Warm sun hits me nice and i take a nice nap, , , , all of a sound there is this loud gobble , the loudness seemed to put him at my feet kinda loud. as i try to open an eye i hear it again,,,, well what the .... , there he is all puffed out and the gun is next to my chair and not in my hands. i start seeing other hens and jakes coming out of the bush. waiting for the right moment to slowly reach for my turkey boom stick,, big ole Bruce slowly turns to the hens , showing himself as the dominate turkey and all proud and turkey things,,, i reach for my gun , grabbed it , checked safety, got it mounted, and at the same time i mounted it, "Bruce" turns around , looks right at me, as i am pulling the trigger, he puts his head at a 45 as the first shot blazed by him, now i have all the turkeys attention and some head for the hills, ,,Good old bruce decides to gobble again, as i am pulling again the trigger, at the same time he scoots a foot to left and there goes another shot blazing by him, for that split second i was "WTF" momenting as i try to take a for sure death shot at him, as i pull the trigger he dips his head to the ground, and the shot burns by where his head was... out of shells, and flabbergasted, i was like bruce you deserve to live type deal , since i couldn't do anything in the moment to help myself. off he went, not running, but a rapids walk, towards all the smart birds. Didn't see him the rest of season. shot his brother the next day. That day i called him Bruce.
Second year chasing the kung fu master, almost the same deal, roosted them at night , snuck in early am, , watched them fly down right over top again, they landed farther this time and just went across the field to their playground, eating along the way. so i did what i have seen earlier scouting them, ended up again in my ghillie suit, but this time their play area moved 50 yards to the south, i had a red green make shift blind, and my turkey chair, once again the sun killed me after lunch , and it was nappy times. Just like the previous year, GOBBLE GOBBLE and turkey things,,, Being as stunned as i was , stupidly go to grab gun and mount it with blurry eyes and hardly open, i identified the birds, and just let all the lead down range towards this "bruce" lee turkey, i remember seeing flapping wings and a road runner, and gone he was for the rest of season, i killed his other brother following weekend.
He deserves the kung fu masters degree, I have shot a lot of turkeys and hunted different styles for years in southern onterrible never have i had the experience of this on any other bird.
this year he is back and bigger. he is my only bird i will chase. but this year the boom stick will win..... Maybe....
