• Help Support TNDeer:

Whats your best "almost got'em" story?

  • Thread starter Thread starter BV
  • Start date Start date
B

BV

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2008
Messages
177
Reaction score
0
Location
Maury Co. TN
My buddy and I were hunting last year and got set up on a gobbling bird before daylight. Everything worked out perfectly, he hammered at us on the roost, hit the ground and came in on a string. I lost the coin toss so I was video taping and my friend was shooting. As the bird worked his way towards us I was getting some great footage on the camera. Once the bird got to about ten steps my buddy pulls the trigger and the shell didn't go off! That bird putted and took off running, then flying for dear life!
We checked the video after he was gone and we realized that we both missed. In my excitement I forgot to hit the record button! Once the bird was gone we circled him and called him in again and he hung up at about 70 yards. We ended up naming that bird "Ol' Snap." He better look out this year though because its my turn to shoot ( with the gun)! Maybe this time I won't "miss."
 
2 years ago 2nd weekend of season at first light I gave an owl hoot and got one to gobble. I got within about 200 yds of where he was an tryed it again. He gobbled and so did another bird REAL CLOSE!!! I got set-up called some the bird answered each time he flew down within range. The problem was I was in a powerline and he was in a pine thicket so I couldn't see him I worked the bird for about 10 minutes could here his wings dragging as he strutted. He got quite for a minute or so. Then I saw him peering out of the pines directly to my left at about 6 yards he moved back out of sight and about 5 mintes later he crossed the powerline around 100 yds. away.
 
This is my best one from last season. At daylight, I got set-up on a hot gobbler that was roosted no more than 75 yards away, across about 40 yards of a corner of a field. To say he was hot was an understatement. Every sound, no matter what, even the call of a songbird, was making this tom gobble! This went on and on, and even after the usual flydown time, he stayed in the tree gobbling non-stop. I was trying to entice him to fly down with some faint yelps and purrs that he would immediately gobble at.
Suddenly, I heard a gobble in the woods behind me and to my right that sounded to be about 100 or so yards away. I didn't want to turn around to get into position to shoot if he was coming in, because I thought the one on the roost in front of me would be pitching down into the field any second!
Then another gobble behind me, this time about half as far away!
I still didn't want to give up on the one in front of me!
Finally I couldn't take it anymore and shifted my body around to shoot at the one coming in from behind, and of course there he was no more than thirty yards away, running towards me! He didn't see me moving, but unknownst to me, there was another longbeard behind him that spotted me moving, and he let out an alarm putt. Needless to say, they both turned and went back the way they came, without my getting a shot.
And, adding insult to injury, after staying on the roost and gobbling practically nonstop for 45 minutes to an hour after daylight, the bird in front of me pitched down in the opposite direction and disappeared into a swamp, without my ever getting a glimpse of him. Lesson learned: I should have turned around to have been in a postion to shoot when the bird behind me gobbled the second time, making it obvious he was coming my way!! :cry:
 
JC, even though you didn't get'em don't ya just love those mornings where you don't know which side of the tree to shift to :grin:
 
One weekend last spring I was hunting a nice place where I always heard this gobbler hammering away about every morning. This property was only open two weekends of the turkey season and adjacent to the property I normally hunted so I knew the birds were over there. Well Baxter83 and I spend a Friday playing chess with this particular bird for the better part of 3 hours. It seemed like a sure thing at first but he gave us the slip. After some scouting, I made my plans to go back the next morning and give him another try. I waited until the perfect time to slip into the old creek bed and ease toward where this bird likes to roost. I had gone about 150 yards and he gobbles. I close the distance until I get in my comfort zone and find a big oak to lean against. I start getting my calls out and a second gobbler starts hammering to my left. I start thinking this is going to be good, wish Baxter was here for this!!! I make a few soft tree yelps and a gobbler sounds off RIGHT ABOVE ME!!! It's getting daylight, the turkeys 2 longbeards and a jake are hammering back and forth to each other. The tom to my left flies down and disappears in the saplings. The jake above me flies across the creek to my right. The old tom on the roost to my front now is still hammering away. I yelp a few times and the bird to my left starts coming towards me and the jake flies back across the creek and is within 40 yards now looking for that hen but I'm not interested in taking him. Meanwhile that old tom is still hammering away in his tree. The bird on my left is closing fast. He gets within 15 yards but I am still facing the middle bird that's still in the tree gobbling. I wait until the left bird goes behind a tree and shift. Well somehow he saw movement and turn and trots off away from me. I didn't want to take a desperation running away shot so I held tight not wanting to alert the tree gobbling turkey. He eventually flew down and took basically the exact same path around this particular property as the day before. After an hour he gobbled several more times and went silent. We played another chess game which he wound up winning. Hopefully I will get a chance to test him again this spring.... maybe the odds will be in my favor.
 
Big ole 25lb tom I had worked several times that season, never really had a chance. Well one morning, I managed to get in between him and his hens. I was set up in some really thick stuff, and after around 30 minutes of calling, had him at 30 yards, but no clear shot. He was still working his way toward me, but then a bobcat broke from around 5 yards to my left and made a rush for him, spooking him into the air.

Never got that bird that season, one of the few I really wanted but never killed.
 
Whitetail Junkie said:
JC, even though you didn't get'em don't ya just love those mornings where you don't know which side of the tree to shift to :grin:
Click to expand...

OH, HECK YEAH!! I considered that morning a HUGE success!!! :grin:
 
man i have a bunch of ALMOST stories but i will go with the last one in my memory.

this bird almost worked me to death!!!

I had been on a set of 4 toms for about 2 weeks and everytime i set up on them they did the opposite as they did the day before. So this time thinking i would outsmart them me and my buddy decided to split up to take advantage of 2 callers and covering more area.

We rolled up on top of the field we had been seeing them out in the past few days and let the owl call rip! To my surprise it sounded like an army of gobblers surrounding the field. I mean there was easily 10-15 LBs around the field with through us for a loop. I ended up setting up on the edge of the field about 60yds from the closest set of birds and my buddy eased around the back of me in case they flew down and circled back. They liked everything we threw at them, i mean they gobbled if i farted so we just knew we were in the money. Luck would have it that a few hens flew down out in the middle of the field (about 100yds out) and hung out. The LBs next to us all flew out them ignoring my decs and calls. all the other LB's flew down on the other side of the field and hung out in full strut. So at this point there are 20 different LB's out in this field strutting but NONE close enough to do anything with. The problem now is the field is big enough that i cannot move on them or get around them without getting busted. After about an hour of watching them they moved off to the far side of the field so i made a chose to ease back, drop down the ridge and try to get around them to cut them off.

I ran all the way without stopping!! so i finally get to where i think they are going to be (out of breath so a mouth call was out of the question lol) just to find out the birds were working back to where i was originally. My buddy had moved the opposite way as i did so now we are BOTH on the wrong side. I eased up to the top of the field just to see 4 birds in FULL STRUT 10yds from where I was 30mins ago!!!

so now i am pissed and decide to make my way back. I run back as fast as i could (should mention i lost my binos and tube call during this process) and popped out about 60yds from them on the field and belly crawled through the mud another 20yds. So here i am 40yds from them laying in a patch of grass COVERED with mud. I lay there motionless for what seemed like an hour as they slowly got closer. once about 30yds out I am getting ready as slowly as i can only to find out a HEN is 10yds from me and has me pegged. I am stuck laying on the ground IN MUD and CANNOT move. She sat and stared at me for over 20mins and i could not move. during this time 3 of the 4 LB's were at one time 20yds from me and I could not shoot because my barrel was pointing the wrong way and i could not adjust due to the hen. Once she finally moved on all of the birds were back out in the middle of the field moving away from me. We worked on those birds the rest of the day with no luck and had 2 other instances where we were withing 50yds but didnt have good shots. 2 of them i had never seen before and had WHITE tail fans. I never saw either of them 2 again the rest of the season


moral of the story......patience can be a great thing!!!

i took this pic after it was all over as a joke that i should have just put the dang decoy on my head and eased through the grass and shot them hahahahah heck if you can beat them join them!!


 
Wow! This is a lot of reading so I'll make mine short and sweet.

My first several attempts at turkey hunting back in 1998 or 99 I came out empty handed. The very first bird I called in came in to me without a peep. I had a couple decoys set up on top of a hill (bluff) overlooking the river. I didn't roost them the night before because I was too young to drive alone, and my dad didn't want to drive all the way to the farm after work that Friday. However, they always seemed to roost there or one other spot on our farm. Anyways, that morning I set up just before daylight and was calling at day light trying to get one to gobble. I didn't have a locator call so I just yelped a little with my diaphram call (which sounded horibble). At about 6:45 I heard something behind me so I turned around the tree (mistake) and there he was 25 yards from me. He started to turn to go down the hill so I turned around as fast as I could and shot (mistake # 2). The feathers flew and so did he.............right across the river. I saw him land and shake it off then walk out of sight. I only went a handful of times after that and never saw much after so I got bored with it and quite all the way up to last year. :grin:
 
The same year I also shot at a pretty nice 7pt buck 4.........yes I said 4 times with my bow. He literally walked all the way around me and left and came back multiple times. I ended up watching him make a rub and scrape within 20 yards of my stand, but by then there was hardly any light. :blush:
 
Well in continuance of my above post I was leaving same area, it was about noon and I spotted a LB feeding at the edge of a right-of-way. He was heading towards the woods and I figured he was gone but decided I was there and might as well see what happens. Well I park, put on my stuff, load the gun, and start the sneak toward where I last saw him. I sat down on a small hump inside an old pine stand of trees. There was a cleared road in front about 50 yards that seperated the pines from the hardwoods, and the right-of-way was on my left. I called for a few minutes and waited for what seemed like an eturnity (15-20 minutes lol) and nothing happened. So I got up and moved in a circle farther to my right in hopes of getting in front of him. I sat back down where the old roads made a 4-way interesction and called some more...... nothing. After another 15 minutes I got tried of waiting and figured he had gone into the woods earlier and was gone for good. I got up and headed down the old road leading back to the right-of-way. About 40 yards from reaching the right-of-way something ran and flushed up flying away from me........ Yep you guessed it, that turkey was about 20 yards form that little hump where I first sat down and called..... I learned just because you don't see him, doesn't mean he isn't still around, patience is everything in the turkey game!!
 
hahahaha i just remembered the best ever which is more of a DUMB ARSE then an almost hunt...

First time i ever went on my own (had NO IDEA what i was doing) i walked out to the middle of a field with a brush pile in it and set up my decs because i heard one gobbling up on the ridge above it....took me a while to do all this as i said before i didnt have a clue what i was doing.

once i got everything set up i pulled out the box call and let them have it!! well i was still standing up about 10yds from the decs and 10yds from the brush pile. withing a matter of secs a LB came running out of the woods infront of me on a string. Problem being i didnt expect it and was just standing in the middle of the field with my gun on my shoulder...(here comes the best part) the bird spots me and i spot him at the same time!! he turns and BOLTS back into the woods and smart me goes and sits down in the brush pile and starts calling again thinking "he may come back, maybe he didnt really see what i was" hahahahahahahahahahah gosh i was an idiot!!!
 
Another and my final "almost got'em" for now started on a saturday morning on a piece of property with limited access (same area I took my very first solo turkey a few weeks earlier). I located a bird on the roost and moved towards him and into my comfort zone. After daylight I saw his hens fly down and he eventually followed. Once on the ground we exchanged calls and he came to within 50 yards but with the thick bushes I wouldn't shoot. His hens took him in the opposite direction so I scouted around and made my plans for the next morning.

It was still very early the next morning and I was waiting on a gobble to know where I needed to be. I had leaned my gun up against a tree next to me since I wasn't "hunting" yet just "listening". I was at the edge of a somewhat grown-up grassy
field and the hardwoods. I was listening to a distant gobbler when I heard a noise next to me. It being so early I didn't expect to come face to face with oppertunity. But as luck would have it, I guess another hunter bumped a hen and nice gobbler and they came trotting my way. By the time I realized what was happening (as I gazed at his long beard, life seemed to happen in slow motion) he was within 10 feet, yes I said 10 feet!! I had to spin around to grab my gun and by the time I got back around they had fled behind a blown down cedar tree and were going straight away.....

Lesson learned: Be ready with gun in hand at ALL times in the woods, no telling when an oppertunity will just bump into you!!!
 
Its funny how much we can learn, and re-learn from the almost stories. Over the past 11 years of turkey hunting I think I can probably remember nearly every "almost story" because I learned some sort of lesson from each one of them.
 
I so agree BV....however you always have those ones that are more of a head scratcher too....just leaves you sitting there thinking "man what do i have to do here???"

its just such a fickle sport with never have the "FOR SURE WAY" each hunt is a little different and sometimes you just have to try something

the guy who taught me everything i know use to tell me 70% of the time you are not going to do the right thing, just the nature of the beast but boy that 30% sure makes that 70% worth it.
 
It was my 11-yr old's first hunt with him being the one carrying the gun. All I took was a backpack and a few calls.
I did a little clucking on my mouthcall and got a gobble. I waited about fifteen minutes and tried again. We got another gobble and the distance was cut in-half.
About ten minutes later, I hit a light tune on the boxcall. We heard all kinds of shuffling in the leaves just out of sight over a little rise.
I had a handfull of leaves in our blind and started crunching them and making a little rustling noise.
The bird, which was very nice, walked within ten feet of our setup. My boy locked the hammer back, shouldered the gun, and BOOM!
He missed. He forgot to put his cheek on the stock and shot over the turkey's head. He said the bead was lined up, he just forgot to place his cheek.

All I can say is this was the best hunt ever! I have killed my share of deer and turkeys, but this was definitely the best...
 
Here's another one for me. I had been hunting this bird that I talked about earlier on another post that was basically up on top of a mountain in a big cow pasture. The hill he was on was surrounded by woods and he was always roosted right on top of it in the center. I had hunted him several mornings in a row and had had several close calls but wasnt able to close the deal. This particular morning I headed up a fence row before daylight on my way in. I was a little late, and was in a hurry. I tripped over something, probably cow crap, and when I did that big dude hammered just up the hill from me maybe 50 yards. I was on the opposite side of the fence than him and in a terrible position for setting up on him. I had a little time left and there was plenty of foilage on the trees so I decided to head back down the hill another 75 yards or so, cross the fence, and slip through the woods until I was level with him. I did so and got set up about 50-60 yards from him; I sat down, laid my gun across my knee and waited. He hammered, and hammered, and hammered. I finally let out some sleepy tree yelps and the gobbler screamed back at me. He finally pitched down and came strait at me. I could hear him spitting and drumming, but with the soft grass in the area I was at I couldn't hear him walking. I just knew he would show his old head any second. I waited, and waited. Next thing I know, GOBBBBBBBLLLLLLEEEE. He had to have been ten steps away,RIGHT BEHIND ME! He was spitting and drumming like crazy. I got goosebumps because I knew he was within ten yards and I couldn't do anything but hope he would strut his way around to the front of my gun barrell. Never happended. Just as he appeared in a ghost-like manner right behind me, he silently left and I never heard him gobble again. SO CLOSE! Guess that was one of thos 70%'s, REN
 
Well if anybody works night shift they know how much it can drain the mind and body of a die hard turkey hunter. Working till 1 am, coming home and sleeping 1 to 2 hours and hitting the woods every morning at daylight for a week straight can get the best of you. I had been on one of those week long binges hunting by myself and Friday of that week me and a buddy hit it early. While walking in half asleep we discussed setup and this and that. We got to our listening spot and located a bird. Knowing the normal routine of this bird we split up knowing that he could possibly go the opposite way once the calling begins. He circled around behind him to cut him off and I got in front of him and waited. It was still 30 min beforer daylight and I had managed to get within 60 yards of his roost. Sun started showing and I hit him with some tree yelps. He pitched down and came to me on a string. I was already in position with the barrel on his head, safety off, and he was at 10 yards. Pulled the trigger and all I got was CLICK. He spooked and took off. I jumped up and racked the slide on my gun thinking I had forgot to chamber a round. Lead him a little and CLICK. As he flew off I realized that through the sleepy walk in and the heated discussion I had with my buddy about setup, I had forgot to load my gun, PERIOD. That was my STUPID moment of the day.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top