We've all had our successes and failures... but is anyone willing to tell on themselves a little bit with an embarrassing moment while turkey hunting?

I've done everything from hunting with an unloaded gun, to leaving decoys in a field and going off to chase and coming back to turkeys in my spread, to sitting down under roosted gobblers, to bumping birds that I thought were a lot further away, to sitting in ant hills, and obviously giving up on a bird too soon and standing to leave and they be just over the ridge. I've had my share of slam-dunk misses and other blunders as well.

The list is long and distinguished... How about you?

This one is right up my alley.......... I just do not know where to start. I'll give it some thought and post later.

3 different gobblers, 3 different misses in 4 mornings while I was up at Tech. Clean misses too, which is good! That stung big time considering they were all national forest birds. Went and shot the gun and the whole load was a hitting a good 2 foot to the left. Thats when I remembered my buddy had backed over my barrell with his truck dove hunting the summer before. Thats the only gun I had up at college. Had to stick with it and smoked one a couple weeks later by holding two feet to the right haha. Should have shot the gun after the first miss but just didn't take the time too. That gun is now retired.

Ewwwww.... I got a good one for this topic!! Beautiful spring morning... typical brisk spring air.... drive up to my listening spot in anticipation of having several oppurtunities for the morning. it is still really really early and dark. So I just get out and listen for awhile while sipping some coffee. No sooner I get out of the truck and I heard a loud thunderous GOBBLE!!! And then it was on! All over gobbles rang out across the property, it must have been atleast 6 or 7 different birds! I pick the obvious nearest and easiest bird and start heading that way. Now these dudes were just tearin it up...my blood and adrenaline was already sky rocketing when I get to about 75 yards from where this bird is. I sit down and let it progress.... daylight starts emerging and the turkeys still haven't stopped gobbling. I let out a quick small soft tree call sequence and this gobbler atee itup. It was turning into one of those, well where am I goin to eat for breakfast here in a minute mornings! Sure enough, not too many more calls and this bird was a beautiful 30 yards right down the barrel in full strut!! I go to click the safety off and I feel resistance!!!! When all of a sudden I remember that my new 3.5 inch remington 870 super express turkey 12 guage, was equiped with a nice new safety feature in which required a little key to unlock the safety!!! Well that key was tucked safely in my gun cabinet 45 minutes away!!!!!! So I had to sit and watch in agony this bird strut 30 yards away for 10 minutes...... can we say OUCH!!! It still pains me to this day!!!!

I had an unloaded gun once while hunting with Freddy and Hody .. luckily Hody's gun was loaded

Proabably the worst was once on Public land in WV that I was not familiar with .. had a bird goblling his fool head off down in the valley below me which bordered private land I knew .. stayed around up on the ridge for a couple of hours trying to find another Turkey.. all the time listening to this bird.. finally gave in and walked off that steep mountain.. dreading the walk back up to the truck later.. setup a few hundred yds from him .. cause I knew I had to be close to the Private land.. I could see the Hay fields through the timber.. I figured he was on the edge and I might be able to call him onto the public land and kill him.. this went on for two hours.. I had to get to school .. knew I had to do something.. so I went closer and closer.. keeping an eye out for the Boundary markers .. he never stopped gobbling.. when I finally got to 50 yds of the field I saw the boundary markers .. I got out the binoculars and starting glassing the field for him.. I found him about 200 yds into the field beside the farm house in a PEN .. .. that's right I had been hunting a penned up tame turkey for an entire morning almost .. The worst part was the steep climb back up to the truck ..

I hate to even tell this. Back when I first started this addiction a friend and I would often hunt together. We were a little late getting to our spot, it was getting light. We were about to cross a little field to get to the bigwoods we were gonna hunt when we saw birds roosted just on the on the far edge of the field, maybe a 150 yads away. We quickly plopped down and got setup and waited...and waited...and waited. Nothing not a peep.
Freddy, there had better be a prize for the most embarrasing.

Took us half an hour to figure out it was 3 buzzards setting in the tree!

Besides many many mistakes and poor decisions over the years one really stands out as embarassing.

It was the first year of PA spring turkey season, 1968 and my first spring season. I believe it was a 5 or 6 day season. Anyway on the second day I had this bird going good (so I thought) right off the roost. Well the bird finally shut up after about 30 minutes of playing with me. I waited another hour before I could not hold back the mornings breakfast any longer. So proceeded with operation relief. Now I am a grabber not a leaner. Well just as things got on thier way a bird doubled gobbled about 200 yards away, that was not embarrising. What was embarresing was I heard a twig snap a few seconds later behinde me and turned my head, no not to see a turkey but another hunter about 30 yards from me. Well what can one do except finish up. He was polite enough to just waive and back on out.

Now what are the odds back then very few turkeys and fewer hunters.

My dad thought it funny, my grandfateher just said, serves you right, dam spring season. Gramps was a dye hard fall turkey hunter. The reason I am the way I am today, ate up with it, both seasons.


Earl

Personally, I have never done anything embarrassing on a turkey hunt.


Well, wait a minute. I have done everything anybody has mentioned so far. Seriously. Every one of them.There might be some other moments. can't remeber them though.

So no $h!t there i was, fresh out of boot camp and had missed deer season. An old high school buddy of mine had asked me if i would like to try turkey hunting with him. So i take my hard earned army money and buy myself a new gun, vest, and a bunch of really awesome calls that i didnt know how to use yet. and spent hours apon hours everyday for a week reading about turkey hunting. Finally my day comes, my buddy had roosteda 3 year old bird for me the night before. so it was my time to shine, sure enough at day break hes hammering and before to long my buddy had him coming in on a string. he gets to about 25 yrds in full strut and i just lock up like a 5 year old. I had been hunting big and small game for 10+ years, but a thunder chicken in full strut had me locked. after taking a tongue lashing from my buddy we set up on him again. and sure enough here he comes, right on a string. this time i knock my awesome gun off of my even more awesome new pair of shooting sticks spooking the bird...as he was within 30 yrds this time as well. So i take THAT tongue lashing as well and buy my buddy breakfast for calling in this bird twice in a matter of an hour. 3 days later we hit it again, this time im gonna jelly this things head. i mean, its going down, birds gotta die. we set up on him as he is roosted at the bottom of a steep ridge, and we are on top of it. I can hear the bird coming up the ridge, closer..closer..closer. i put the bead right where the sound is coming from, just waiting to see his fleshy red head. And i hear a wisper " why have you not shot yet" with a few adult words here and there. I open my one eye and there is this gobbler for the 3rd time. he had come up the ridge just to the left of my bead, and i had not seen him because my left eye was closed. i look over and my buddy has a look of fire in his eyes as the bird flies off. we have hunted that bird every year, he must be 7 or 8 years old now and probably the smartest bird in northern VA......all thanks to me

For those of you have been around the Board a long time, this is not a new story, but certainly one of the most embarrassing of my turkey hunting career. The year is 1982 and after reading during January in Field and Stream an ad in the back of the magazine for mouth turkey calls from Penn Woods, I sent off my $7.00 as recall. Three weeks later, the package arrives in the mail and I set off on a journey to learn to call turkeys. With no internet like we have today and not coming from a hunting family, I was all on my own. I read about turkeys, their calls and started driving my family nuts with my attempt to create turkey sounds that were on the cassette tape that came with the calls. In the shower, in the car, while watching tv, while diong homework, on my drive to work or school..those horrible, horriible sounding attempt at yelps went everywhere I did.

So opening day came on a Saturday and with zero scouting, I walk an old logging road into some big woods area shortly after daylight. I'm carrying an old single shot .410 shotgun, because that's what the magazine said...shoot them with a shotgun. I find a comfortable seat overlooking a draw and pull out my call. I let loose a series of yelps, well, the closest thing I could produce that might have sounded like yelps and then listened for the turkey to gobble like the tape said. Nothing. I do it again. Nothing. I thought I heard a bird's wing beats but who knows. As I sit there wondering what a real gobbler sounds like in the wild, I notice a black object walking down the ridge across from me. Gee, look at the crow just walking along. Down the ridge it comes, across the draw and right at me. It walks by me at 15 yards and up the hill to the logging road that I dropped off of. And by now you have guessed what comes next...GOOOOOBBBBLLLLE from that CROW!!! Holy Cow, that's what a turkey looks like? I'm frozen in my seat, totally in disbelief that I just let a turkey walk by me. To that point in life, I had never, ever seen a live turkey. I thought that when I called, it would gobble and we would have a conversation. Nope, this bird came right in right off roost directly to my horrible, horrible yelps without ever making a peep.

So, there you have it. I've told on myself again. I called in a turkey on my very first turkey hunt without knowing what a turkey looked like or ever hearing one in the wild. Proof positive that not everything can be learned from a book!

As an aside, he gobbled his fool head off as he walked away from me down that logging road and out into a power line clearing. He was double and triple gobbling, cutting me off at every call. Been hooked ever since.

I've done most everything, called in and missed two different longbeards the same morning before I had ever killed one. Can't count how many times call of nature has interupted a hunt A few years ago I had a buddy after me to get on one. I had killed a gobbler on thurs morning and heard several others. Woods were just torn to pieces. I set up the hunt for sat, and of course told him it was a can't miss. We get there and ease down a log road in the dark and I want to get to the corner of another road 30 yds just up the hill in some small pines. We picked our way up an old roadbed, I in front about 10 yds. When I walked under a little scrub oak the whole tree explodes over me, branches cracking. I can feel a hot wind blowing down on me with unmistakable smell of poultry. Twigs and sticks are showering down on me, it felt like five minutes till the heavy wing beats faded off. What is a gobbler doing here! We head on up to the road to wait on daylight, there will be another one. Daylight comes nothing, give it time nothing, silence. I told my buddy , you know I can still smell that gobbler. He looks at me and says, "you ought to he $^!T on your hat."

I have done most of what has already been said and will continue having embarassing hunts! But last year before youth day i went out to the young man that i was taking and let him pratice shooting. This would be his first ever spring turkey hunt so wanted to go over safety of the gun and let him shoot at some turkey posters to get ready for the youth hunt. He did very well but told him when the real ones out in front of you try not to let your nerves get the best of you! Well on youth day he killed a jake and did very well. So we planned another hunt and we went and called in 2 longbeards and once again he did very well but the second longbeard stayed around and gave me a shot but guess what a complete miss! Now his cousin was also tagging along and they both looked at me and said how did you miss? We talked and laughed then some other birds fired up and called in 5 jakes and the cousin got one of those! Walking back to the truck they both laughed at me and said i think you the one that needs the shooting pratice

Doug

I too hunted penned farm birds before. I got invited just to be set up to do so.

Missed in front of my five year old nephew.

Let one walk right by me with my wife.

Missed in front of my wife.

Missed in front of my dad, a few times.

It is kind of embarressing when you take someone that doesn't know anything about it, you get on hard gobbling birds; and they think its like shooting ducks or something, that if you hear a bird you should kill it everytime and you cant get em to budge. I've had some funny looks before from some guys like this before.

My Grandpeppie shot one a week before the season and checked it in thinking it was opening day, Rappahanock County, I killed one the next saturday, the real opening day and saw his name on the check card in front of mine and asked em about it. They just laughed. I used to tease him all the time about that.

I've done countless dumb stuff by myself but I'm not embarressed cause no one will ever know.

I know one thing i hate it was last spring i was working a bird for about 2 hours and a deer walked in on me seen me or smelt me and ran off snorting bird stopped goblling an the hunt was over. I think turkeys know the deal when deer get alerted.. Another thing is i hunt some real swampy areas and i was sneaking in on bird early one morning and got so stuck in the mud, it sucked both my boots off in the complete dark MAN what a day that was!!

Missed 2 from same tree n 30 min. Finally killed one an hr later. Found out gun was off to the left!