people brag all the time about killing birds at 50,60,70+ yards, but what's your closest kill (pics of the damage welcome)
5 steps came around a root ball
4 or 5 yards in thick cover...I lost him then he moves out from behind a tree
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7 or 8 steps a few years ago on a late season hammer during our last week!
3 yards, I was setting in a creek bank. Turned that head inside out.
8 yds.
12 steps, right at fly down after a heavy rain storm and under the hemlocks. Still surprised that gobbler didn't have singed feathers - heck of a fire ball out of that barrel.
I popped a quarter sized hole thru ones head at a couple feet. A buddy had killed a bird and as we were walking out, a bird gobbled at our shuffling in the leaves. I wasn't real fired up about killing one just yet so I decided to see what would happen if I used my buddy's bird as a decoy. I fanned his bird out aginst a tree and we sat basically beside it. A little calling and the other longbeard showed up. When he saw the turkey, he saw us. At first he putted and started to run but just as fast, he wheeled around and started agressive purring. After about 3 back and forth trips, putting then fighting purring, he gave up on us and attacked the recently deceased decoy. Assuming the whole time that he was a 2 yr old, I was just enjoying the show. Then I looked at his legs, hooks!! I knew he couldn't move fast enough to get away unless I missed so I just shouldered my gun quick and go my surprise, he just stopped flogging and gawked at me.....Boom! I'll likely never see that behavior again and although it almost seemed unfair, I'm glad I shot. That way I have a story that won't fade from my memory anytime soon.
About a foot from the end of the gun barrel. He came in hard over my shooting shoulder and got right in front of me.
Then killed one last year at 8 steps. He strutted all the way in from 75 yards or so but I couldn't swing to shoot until he was almost in my lap because of a pine tree in the way.
I've killed two in the same spot two separate years at 10 paces. They srut out a logging road and hop a high tensile fence looking for the girl of their dreams then get smacked upside the head by the ol' BPS. It's my favorite spot..get tucked in beside a great big multiflora rose. I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it. Who's idea was it to start asking questions like this anyway??
Around 8 steps or so. Knocked his beak completely off!
around 5 steps
I killed a bird in 2004 and 2009 at 3 yards.
Right around 7 yards. Picture really doesn't quite do it justice
(http://i951.photobucket.com/albums/ad355/griffithr87/Spring%20Turkey%202010/ab26fc96.jpg) (http://s951.photobucket.com/user/griffithr87/media/Spring%20Turkey%202010/ab26fc96.jpg.html)
7 yards.Unfortunately i've had more misses than kills at that range :OGturkeyhead:
A touch farther than the end of the gun barrel.
Mine was about 12 yards away. I was only 14 and was learning how to call on my own. I seen the pros do it on tv and tried to replicate what they were doing. After not hearing anything for about an hour, I began packing up and thinking how stupid turkey hunting was. All the sudden from behind the big oak I was up against, a turkey gobbled and scared the crap out of me. Because the oak covered my whole body, I just raised up my gun and when he went by my tree at 12 yards, I dropped him. Been addicted ever since........
It was about 5 yards. It was also self defense!!!
Several birds at 3-5 steps...too close for comfort....
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8 yards. I slipped in on a FLA WMA, owling as I went. Got no response, so when it got light, I set up on a fence line. After building a palm frond blind, I let out a few soft yelps. To my surprise, a gobbler fired off from inside of 50 yards!!! :o
I did some more soft, tree talk and heard him fly down. He walked in to my dekes, and saw something he didn't like. He dropped out of strut, and ran behind some bushes. He walked to the other side, and peeked around the edge, eyeballing my blind.
Too late, I was already on his neck!!
BOOM!!!!! :fud: :turkey:
I jumped up, ran to my bird and he was a dandy!! 20 lb, 11 inch beard, 1-1/2" spurred Osceola. Made the registry!!
After admiring him, I went back to my blind to pack my stuff up. Then I heard it, flop, flop, flop, flop.........
As it turned out, the wad hit him in the head and knocked him out. He woke up and commmenced to flopping. He died, but not before he flopped out a few wing feathers, and a huge patch of chest feathers, ruining my mount.
Oh well, whatcha gonna do? Still had a Florida Registry Osceola!!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v476/RutnNStrutn/Hunting%20Pics/MrBig2.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/RutnNStrutn/media/Hunting%20Pics/MrBig2.jpg.html)
Bout 6 steps.
9 yds
Within spitting range. We saw each other at the same time.
About 10 yards
About 5 feet from the choke tube was the closest. Just the way it played out.
My closest was 14 feet. I've killed one at 19 feet, one at 7 yards and one at 11 yards too.
Quote from: bmhern on February 12, 2015, 09:51:21 PM
It was about 5 yards. It was also self defense!!!
Same here! I was calling to two gobblers about 75 yards out in a field when a tom crept in quietly and came out of a thicket to my side. Never heard him or saw him until he was just about on my lap. I about needed a new pair of britches! He looked me right in the eye and he was so close that I missed him completely. My shot cleaned out that thicket though!
I've killed 2 or 3 at about 10 yards.
Quote from: sippy cup on February 12, 2015, 05:41:46 PM
5 steps came around a root ball
Same thing as mine! It was my first longbeard actually. Two came in and they got so close because they were side by side and I couldn't shoot until the separated. I was sitting up beside the rootball of a pushed over tree. That was AWESOME close. :fud:
7 yards 4 bearded bird I was a wreck was in wide open sitting up next to poplar he flew in to me landed at 10 yards behind me waited for him to turn he was in full strut then turned and busted him had to sit and wait forever for his fan to block his view never thought I would get away with it
I shot an Osceola about 4 years ago on a central Florida WMA at 3 long steps. Had two birds from opposite directions coming in fast trying to beat the other to the hot hen (me). A gobbler with a hen came out from behind a palmetto strip and crossed right in front of me. BOOM. About 1/4" of skin kept his head on.
I counted coup on one once decided not to kill it after that.
Let a buddy shoot one that was at our feet we stood up and took one step.
12. If they get within 40 and I have a shot I take it.
About 5 yards or so a couple of different times.
About 8 steps in the late 1980s. He drummed from behind me and circled at about 15 steps on the wrong side to walk right under my gun, but with thick cover between us . He never made a step for over an hour constantly drumming and violently spreading his fan. I finally very slowly eased my wingbone up to my lips and oh so softly yelped three times. He broke strut and took his last two steps to the small opening upon which my gun was trained. I think that was the most pleasant hour I have ever had in the turkey woods, and I have had hundreds of pleasant hours.
This one was about 15 feet away. The pattern didn't open at all. It pretty much hollowed out the skull cavity, taking the brain and bones with it. He actually started flopping around. When stepped on his neck, nothing stayed attached.
(http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b209/stinkpickle/IMG_2323_zps402b68fc.jpg)
4 steps on a gas line
:OGturkeyhead: 4 steps, he walked right to the gun. I barely moved, only my shaking. Stopped and bang, no lost meat. Not a pretty sight, and that was 2 3/4" #4's. Al Baker
About 15 feet.
7 or 8 steps
(http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p85/UKturkeyhunter/IMG_1312_zpsbzepwz7s.jpg) (http://s126.photobucket.com/user/UKturkeyhunter/media/IMG_1312_zpsbzepwz7s.jpg.html)
Roughly 5 FEET and thats a stretch.
Was bowhunting a bird in a small woodlot. I pushed him to much and he went cold, so I looped through the woods to get a view of the other side in case he was playing with hens out in the field. Upon getting to the other side nothing was seen so I was walking the woods edge back to my set and as I was walking there he was tucked up tight and low in some edge brush.
I slowed, drew, turned and shot.
Not a text book hunt but I was thrilled how it went down, if he would not have had the red head I would have walked right by. He was a good sized tom - they are pretty smart :)
My closest bird was a comedy of errors...
The bird was in front of me, and came down a gully right below me (only a few feet away, but I never saw his head for the shot). He then came up the side of the shallow gully hugging the back side of the tree I was sitting against.
As he was coming up the little gully, I was able to turn around and point the gun the other way (so my front side was facing the tree). The bird came up hugging the tree right under my gun barrel (literally too close to shoot). I had on some mesh camo gloves, and while taking the safety off, the mesh got caught up in the trigger... While trying to untangle my glove, the gun discharged (in a safe direction of course).
Now the bird was right under the barrel in between myself and the muzzle, and although he was not hit, that gunshot sure rang his bell... He kinda teetered and stumbled off slowly (obviously rattled)... I let him get about 10 feet out and took his head off with my second shot...
I guess that would technically count as a miss... I honestly could have reached out and grabbed that bird at one point easier than I could have shot him though.
Years ago I had one almost trip over my foot. First shot missed and he stopped to gobble at it. Second shot was a hair low and I blew a hole clean through him.
Another time a buddy had cripple one and was chasing it. As it ran by me he yelled for me to kill it. A 3 1/2 load of Hevishot at 3 ft does damage.
12 yards using a TC Contender Handgun in 410 ga.
My closest and only kill was at about 20 yards. Sure hope to get another this year.
6 yards
I think the repercussion did more damage! If I remember right I'd say 6 feet.
(http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn8/whitewatervalleyhunts/20130529_071442_zpsfqdgvzd4.jpg) (http://s300.photobucket.com/user/whitewatervalleyhunts/media/20130529_071442_zpsfqdgvzd4.jpg.html)
He was also wearing another hunters mark
(http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn8/whitewatervalleyhunts/20130529_070646_zpsoxuldrlw.jpg) (http://s300.photobucket.com/user/whitewatervalleyhunts/media/20130529_070646_zpsoxuldrlw.jpg.html)
Well it would have been 12-15 yards but I just grazed him & had to fold him up flying off. Dang near got away. This was my first gobbler.
I had a bird standing in the center of a cedar thicket a few years ago. Probably gobbled 200 times in the matter of an hour or so. He wouldn't move but gobbled at every thing. I slipped to the edge of the cedars then went in after him as my dad stood back and kept him gobbling. When I got within 10 yards I quit slipping and just waited on him to make the next move even though I still couldn't see him. He strutted towards the tree I was standing next to. His drumming and gobbling shook me for about 2 minutes before he took the last two steps around the cedar bush. He got shot at 3 steps and didn't fare well, to say the least.
10 feet and no I was not in a blind