I was able to take off from work last week and, instead of traveling, I decided to spend the week at my cabin in Frederick County. There seemed to be a lot of birds around so I figured that if I tried it for a full week I should be able to kill a bird.
On Monday morning I decided to try a little wildlife opening just above the cabin as I had heard several turkeys there on opening morning and there was a fair bit of sign around. I didn't take the dekes because I figured that I'd probably end up moving once or twice and didn't feel like toting them around. The morning was beautiful, with 45 degree temps and dead calm. I was in the woods at 5am and heard my first gobble at 5:25. The bird was below me at about 150 yards on the side of the ridge just above a creek. He was right next to a 4 wheeler road on the property and I was hoping that he would just fly down into the road and mosey his way up to me. I noticed that I could cut the distance by about 50 yards so I moved there and, after settling down , I made a very soft tree call and he lost his mind. Good. I'll just shut up and wait for him to come in. Right......... I heard him fly down and it didn't sound good. A minute later he gobbled at a crow and was on the other side of the creek. I sent a series of yelps his way and no answer. He gobbled at a few crows and was moving away pretty good so I decided to turn up the wick a little and called with a fair bit more aggression. He came unglued and double gobbled. I kept it up and he kept gobbling and now moving closer but there was still the small matter of the creek. The sound of beating wings told me that he was across the creek and headed my way. and , sure enough, I called and he gobbled from my side and was about 80 yards away and in the road, I was sure. Well, as turkeys are wont to do, he shut up and I knew that he was going to show up any minute. He did, and announced his presence with a gobble that almost blew my hat off. Unfortunately he wasn't in the road but was at my 3 o clock at about 40 yards. Darn !!! He stood in that spot and gobbled about 15-20 times. Then he started getting nervous and was getting ready to vacate the premises so I tried to carefully move my gun that way and hope he didn't see me. I got the bead on his neck(or so I thought) and fired. Clean miss. So I got all of the fun of the hunt but no bird to take care of . Catch and release. It was 2.25 hours from the time he first gobbled until I missed him. Heck of a battle.
BTW, that bird was gobbling his head off 15 minutes later.
I had more adventures during the week including calling one from a long way off only to have him get to 50 yards and turn around after eyeballing my decoys. Still, a fun week and I'm glad that I stayed home this year.

Sounds like a good time to me. Anytime I get in the woods is a good time.
Vic

You were in the game pretty much all week its seemed. That's pretty sweet in itself for sure. Usually by now the ground has swallowed all them turkey's up and they have gone into their "run silent run deep" mode.

Enjoyable days afield. Enjoy it no matter what gets carried home

Still to me successful and enjoyable hunts.


Earl

The same thing happens to me except I did not have a shell in the chamber at 30 yards.click and he ran.I was sick to my stomach.I did everything right in the hunt.it happens.