Best bird you never shot?

[northms]

Another thread made me think about a bird or two I never defeated.  Do y'all have any birds that you never harvested because they were that smart or just plain lucky?  I had a bird named Ol' Tubby that outsmarted me for two years on numerous occasions.  No one ever killed him to my knowledge.

[Neill_Prater]

A bird this past season is pretty close to the top of the list. I don't give "my" birds nicknames, but over the course of about a week, I had no less than 5 close encounters with him, including a miss at 15 yards when I got in too big a hurry and jerked the trigger.  This was on private land, and I finally gave up and killed a bird on public land the next to last day of the season.

[jblackburn]

Several years ago when I was still living in MO, I chased a bird for two years and never had him closer than 50 yards.  I can't say he looked bigger than any of the other turkeys, but he was absolutely dominant.  He was always the last bird to gobble on the roost and he might only gobble once or twice on the limb. 

And you knew it was him.  His gobble was so deep that it felt like thunder from 100 yards away.  Once he gobbled, every other gobbler in the woods went silent.  He had a big field that he went to everyday, but he never seemed to go the same path twice.  He would stand there in that field waiting on his hens, gobbling every once in while. 

I skunked out the first year I was after him because I was obsessed with him.  Year two I chased him a couple days, then admitted defeat and went after a non-stop gobbling two year old to make myself feel better.  I suppose that old bird died of old age, the next year the thunder gobble was never heard.

[Rio Fan]

I've hunted a bird the last two seasons on public ground that I've had close calls with, but haven't been able to kill.  On one of the hunts, he was getting closer to me and he gobbled just below a small ridgeline and all he needed to do was pop his head up and I would've whacked him, but he never did show himself.  I probably could've crawled over to that ridgeline and had a chance to bush whack him, but I have too much respect for that bird to do that. On another hunt with that bird, my dad was with me and he was facing one way and I was facing the other way.  I had been calling periodically and my dad said he watched a bird with a big old rope step out from behind some brush, it looked down the logging road where the calling was coming from and then he turned around and walked away.  I don't know since he didn't see a hen if that's what made him leave, but he didn't putt or anything so I don't think he busted us.  I've killed a couple birds the last 2 years in that same general area, but this bird has given me fits.  I sure hope I get to hunt him again this spring.

[lightsoutcalls]

A couple of years ago I was hunting in OK.  I had dozed off while sititng against a tree.  I had a DSD jake and hen about 20 yards in front of me and had called for about an hour and a half without hearing a peep or seeing anything that looked like a turkey.  I woke up and raised my head to see 3 gobblers working around my decoys.  DOH!!!  I raised my gun while trying to see which bird had the longest beard.  I picked out the beard and shot the bird.  The other 2 gobblers worked around within 20-40 yards as I continued to call softly for about 30 minutes.  I noticed one of the other 2 birds had feather tips that were as white as any Merriams I have ever seen in pictures.  I still had a physical turkey tag, but had already killed 2 other birds in a part of OK where you don't have to tag your birds.  If I could have turned back the hands of time, the white tipped bird would have died instead.  As it was, he lived only because I had killed my limit for OK already. 

[Improvinghunter101]

I had one bird that lived on a 30 acre island that had a ditch that split and ran around and connected again.  I was on one side of the ditch and he on the other.  I finally got this bird to commit.  He strutted to the edge of the ditch and flew across.  Only problem was, he flew right in the middle of some bushes that were about 3 feet tall.  He poked his head up and then took off running away from me like a bat outta you know where.  After that, I tried everything I could but nothing would work.  He'd answer once and then that was it.  Only thing I can figure is he didn't see a hen and knew it wasn't good news.  Another bird I had would always roost on the edge of this ridge.  Set up on top, he'd fly down to the bottom.  Set up on the bottom, he would always fly up top.  He just knew there was something up.  One day we decided we were going to set up and not say a word til he hit the ground.  We did it perfectly.  We had set ourselves up between him and his hens.  Right before fly down, my dad's alarm went off on his watch.  Game over.  That turkey kept flying until he was out of sight.  I chased that turkey around for 3 years before I stopped hearing him.  Don't know of anybody that ever got a shot at that bird.

[30_06]

I took a first time turkey hunter out one year on opening day. We decided he would setup about 15 yards to the left of me on the side of a mountain, and I would call for him since it would be difficult for me to get in that area on crutches.
Around first light he had two hunters walk in on him, when they walked off you could see the turkeys pitch out of the tree about 300 yards away and away from us.....not good.

We gave it around 45 minutes and I started calling, next thing you know a group responds. They fly over the river and start crossing the field to us on the mountainside. In the space of 2-3 minutes they passed a group of hens and jakes and kept coming for us.

I'm psyched up, this guys first time, turkeys are coming in on a string, everything is going perfect. They are now within 100 yards, and closing. 80, 60, 40 yards now they are just looking around starting to strut a little. Why hasn't he shot? I picked out the one I had been targeting since last year, he is the third one back in the group, just strutting around without a care in the world....why hasn't he shot? I can't take it anymore. Draw a bead on "mine" and squeeze the trigger. BOOM!!
Turkeys go running everywhere, what happened? "Mine" is running off.

Turns out my new turkey hunting friend has a better internal range finder than me. They were out of range the whole time.
Despite numerous encounters that was the only shot I ever got off at "my" turkey.

[renegade19]

1:  First bird my buddy ever put me on.  Thought he looked as big as a Volkswagon when he strutted.  We got antsy and bumped him after we thought he had moved on (first lesson learned!).
2:  Bird I called the "Lone Ranger". Chased him off and on for 2 seasons.  He made an idiot of me several times.  Came real close on him once. Real hen won the contest for his affection that morning.  Scouted his sons or grandsons this evening.  Its a family fued now!

[jakebird]

I had a pair of evil birds that gave me fits for a few yrs . They lived on my grandfather 's farm which i know like the back of my own hand, which you think would give me every advantage, but for whatever reason i always struggle hardest to kill birds on that farm than anywhere I've ever hunted. These particular birds were giants. The smaller bird had the longest beard I've seen to this day. Easily twelve honest inches. The other bird's beard may have been slightly  shorter but was thick as a whisk broom. I spent enough time drooling over these guys through binoculars that I can tell  you they both had a wicked set of hooks to boot. The remarkable thing was that while both birds were obviously mature, and the smaller of the two was easily twenty lbs , the other bird made him look like a jake. He looked to be five pounds heavier atleast! These two humiliated me in every way imaginable until I finally gave up on them to save msanity. For amusement, I put my bud Shakey Jake on them when he was just getting his feet wet with turkey hunting, and amazingly he came breathtakingly close to killing them . Had them under 15 yds and had a hen bust him and blow the shot. Don't know what ever happened to those two . Probably died of old age. Never saw them again. But theyre there in my dreams again every spring.

[TauntoHawk]

you probably haven't been turkey hunting long if you've never had a bird make you look silly and lose sleep.

[Gooserbat]

I had a bird in Missouri that I chased one season.  Never gobbled, I only would see him in the same field every morning.  I could set up on the field edge and hope he would get close enough for a shot but he never did.  If you called he would just walk away.  All I ever figured out was he was roosting on the north side of an 80 acre field in a 20 acre cedar thicket.

[birdyhunter]

Hunted a bird last year that never gobbled but was very visible. Always with hens and never in the same place twice. Wound up killing him the last day of season while hunting another very vocal bird. He snuck in from behind me and got within 10 yards before I knew he was there. Monster bird with 1 5/8 spurs and 11 3/4" beard. Best bird to date

Sent from my AT100 using Tapatalk 2

[mikejd]

I have a few that come to mind but one stands out above all the rest. Where I do most of my Hunting Is in NY. I have a small camp on 14 acres bordering a 13,000 acre game tract were very few people hunt it. Especially turkeys. My camp is on a hill with a pretty good view of a pretty big fiels that some years is planted and some not. This field is private but all the land around it is public. we are even able to put decoys out without the farmer minding. The good thing about this field is the birds feel very safe in it do to all these little cuts and dips. You can actually walk out into this field that appears empty and before you know it birds are 15 yds from you. Anyway with the nice view we always have good opportunities to watch birds from my front porch with my spotting scope. well we had this one bird that was so big you could physically see his entire head with no optics he was incredible. In NY we can only hunt until noon. He would enter the field every night about an hr before dark and slowly wander off int the area I hunted. This bird was different the thing that stood out about him the most was the way other birds acted around him. He never ever had another Gobbler with him. He had a Harem of about 15 hens but these hens acted very different. Usually hens almost seem as if they dont care that there is a strutting tom near them as if hes showing for nothing but hens near this bird always seemed to be surrounding him as if they were protecting him. It was something to see to say the least and this was always like this they were all never more then a few steps from him always surrounding him. We have even seen were they thought there was danger along the field edge and a few hens would go and look to see what it was. this was very odd compared to most birds. Needless to say we hunted him pretty hard. I new where he roosted but he never did the same thing twice. He had no use for calls since he always had a harem of hens. It was tough to close on him because of all of these eyes on you. One year my dad was able to belly crawl along the back side of the field do to a small drop off. He got close enough to call to the hens who actually drew him within shooting distance. well after about 3 hrs of this game he was close enough for a shot he had an opening where this big boy stepped right in. Oh yeah it was now 11:40 almost over for the day. But Bang the shot rings out and I new he had him. But at the last second one of these hens jumped in front of him and took the hit. Very unfortunate that this happened not that the tom walked off unscathed but the fact that we had this dead hen. I think it still bothers my dad. But I think we did the right thing and kept it not to let it go to waste. This all happened the season before last with us seing him a few times last season as well but not able to get a bead on him yet again. Hopefully this season he is still around. It makes it fun knowing he may be the bird that walks by. Few other strange characteristics he very rarely ever gobbled whether on the roost or on the ground. This made him easy to accidentally walk up on. He also never ever reacted to a call by any off us. I hope in his old age he  makes a mistake.

[Fatbeard]

Chased a bird for 3 years on a mountain in east Tn that was huge!! But opening day last year my Dad put him down he was 25 1/4 pound 12 1/4 beard and 1 1/2 spurs

[tha bugman]

Best overall bird 12" paintbrush 1" spurs and weighed 20 pounds I killed him in a burn while it was still burning...I named him Dante