Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting SC Piemont Opener

Well, I guess the turkey gods thought I got cocky after the successful youth hunt with my son Saturday. Regular season opened this morning and before 8:30 I had set up on 2 birds, called them both in, pulled the trigger twice and had nothing to show for it. I was sick

The first was right at fly down time. I should have been more patient but there was another hunter on the other side of the creek (property line) that I was afraid was about to mess the bird up. So I took a shot that I knew was too far and the rest was predictable. Gobbler flies off none the worse for wear

The second was worse. Got on another one (two actually) and they both came running, literally. Shot the lead gobbler, he hit the dirt, then proceeded to stand up and run off, busted wing and all. Looked for hours to no avail. There are some massive brush and debris piles covered in briars from a logging operation 5 years agoon the side of the road where he was so he could have easily holed up in one of those or just run to the next county. That's the first time I've ever lost an obviously wounded turkey in 30 years of turkey hunting

Took some of the fun out of an otherwise beautiful day. Made me sick. Even patterned my gun to make sure it was human error and it was

That sucks. Better luck next time.

I lost a bird last year and on camera. I do a lot of filming and my buddies whom were to hung over got left behind. I set up and two nice toms come in see the decoys and tag team the jake on camera.

I give them some hollywood time then let the pellets fly. One is stoned the other hops up and I pop him and he flops to the ground the stops moving. As I am packing and setting up to film the recovery the bigger of the two birds jumps and runs off limping with wing draggin. I dive for my gun and let the last shell fly without success.

I call the shack and my buddies bring out the Brittany. There was a baseball puddle of blood at the kill shot and two others about 200 yards into the swamp that she was able to find.. I was heart broken. In slow motion you actually see the Tom raise his head and as I approach he gets ready to boogy. He was directly behind the decoy so I didn't notice.. Sucks..

That was the day that I switched to all Heavyweight shells.