What was your funniest missed shot

[reflexl]

If you have turkey hunted very long you have missed. Some of us more than once. I missed a huge gobbler at 15'. How I didn't see the 1/2 diameter sappling 4' in front of the gun barrel until I hit it still baffles me. Timber! Done that twice. Another bird came into a fan decoy I bought. I have to try every new toy that comes out . When the bird got to edge where he could see that the huge artificial gobbler was less than a inch thick he started jerking his head and making a sound that sounded like YUK!! YUK!! I got tickled and missed the bird at 20 yards. How about it? Lets hear some misses. reflex264

[remmy1187]

Actually wasnt my miss, none of mine are funny, but my brother missing his second bird in two days.  The DISGUST look on his face was priceless.  Really did feel bad for him though. Better luck this year Bro!

[Jbird22]

The one and only chance I had to kill one on my birthday (April 11) in 2010. It was my third miss in three attempts and I just walked the 400+ yds back to the boat laughing in disbelief. Laughing was the farthest thing from my mind the first two misses that season though.

[mudhen]

Not really funny, but I got pinned down on a NE hillside last year, dense low cover, called the bird up the hill.  He passed below me at 45 yards, no shot, and within about a minute or two, he was standing 36" beside me.  Missed the snap shot 

But 3 other NE birds paid the price for his actions 

mudhen

[jblackburn]

About five years ago I was hunting with a buddy in MO.  It was the first Saturday and it was cold, windy and spitting rain.  He had roosted a bird the night before so se headed to the spot before day light.  We were set up within about 60 yards of the roost when they flew down and bolted for the field.  We were able to use the wind/noise as cover and made it to the field only to find no turkeys in sight.  We walked about 10 yards to where the field drops off into a creek bottom and saw them about 60 yards away.  We drop down on our butts in the mud in the open field.  We decided to call soft to see if one would walk up the hill and offer a shot.  I yelped twice and one of them flew up the hill at us.  I (stupidly) shot at him and whiffed.  It landed in a tree about 20 yards away and my buddy busted him.  As this happened, I looked back and saw the other gobbler flying up the hill.  He landed in the SAME SPOT and I killed him!  It was crazy.

My other funny is from this past year in southern Kansas.  I decided to try my luck with archery turkey hunting during the KS archery only season.  I did not have a house blind, so I was sitting in the brush on my butt using cedar and a little fold out blind as cover.  I shot over the first one and they trotted off.  Then I called them back and center punched a sumac bush. It sounded like a shotgun when off when my wasp jak-hammer broadhead broke.  They ran off and I found my arrows.  I was very angry when another gobble rang out behind me. I sat back down and called in five more jakes!  I missed three more times and when home MAD!

That week I ordered a pack of Magnus Bullheads and killed one the next weekend!

[Rio Fan]

I sure in the heck didn't find this funny at the time, but 3 years ago I absolutely zooed on a nice long beard.  He came in strutting.  It was perfect, the sun was shining on him and I was just waiting to hammer him.  His hen went to the left of me and when the gobbler was within about 25 yards of me, I pulled the trigger.  He jumped up in the air and flew away.  I can almost guarantee I shot right over the top of him.  I can laugh now, but I was so pizzed off at myself for quite some time!

[Basin_hunter]

My funniest miss was the 1st turkey I ever shot at ! I was about 15-16 years old and was hunting with my grandpa. He dropped me off at a food plot on a high-line and I realized as soon as I stepped out the truck I forgot my only turkey call at the camp !! I set out 2 hen decoys and made a little blind with some brush in the area. I heard leaves crunching shortly after it broke good daylight and realized it was just a stupid armadillo. My confidence was in the dirt because I left my lynch box at the camp so I decided to take a nap. I had my shot gun down the log I was sitting against about 6ft from me, (big mistake). Around 830 that morning I hear leaves again but figured there was no way it was a turkey, until I saw a longbeard strutting in front of my decoys. He came less than 10 yards from me and my gun was out of reach. When he strutted behind a little tree i made a move to grab my shotgun and he broke strut and commenced to get out of dodge ! I threw a quick shot at him on the run but i hit a sapling instead of him. I will never forget that hunt.

[deerhunt1988]

I have missed more times than I care to admit...But the only time I truly remember laughing after a miss was a mid-day picture perfect hunt on public land. After 3 seasons of missing more birds than I killed, I got a new gun to restore confidence. The day before my "funniest miss", I mentioned to my father how I had yet to miss with my new gun (something like 7+ kills in a row, a record for me!)

So fast forward to the story.. I got out of class at 9:00AM that morning and it the weather forecast called for the first 70 degree, clear, windless day of the season. It was the first week of April too, so the gobblers were willing to commit.  I arrived at my spot at 10:30AM and heard one gobbling on his own way off at 10:45AM. Over the course of the next hour and 15 minutes, I had a hunt we all live for. I made 3 setups, got to watch the bird strut, gobble, etc. for several minutes. On my last setup I got in some thinned pines, right where he had been strutting 10 minutes prior. A few soft clucks was all it took to bring him back in. I couldn't believe my luck as  he came slipping through the pines looking for the source of the clucking! I steadied my aim and BOOM! He took off flying! I let loose 2 more rounds and didn't knick a feather.

I sat there amazed, and then started laughing. I thanked the bird aloud for such a magnificent hunt. Normally misses hurt A LOT, but it did not hurt too bad that time. It was just such a spectacular hunt, that I felt fortunate to participate in it. And the miss would happen as soon as I mention my track record with my new shotgun. ha.

I seriously debated going home after this, but had one shell left and decided to try out a spot I had never been to before. Arrived at 1:15PM and at 2:15PM I had a 1 1/4" spurred public land limbhanger on the ground. Another awesome mid-day action packed hunt within 2 hours of my miss!

Talk about one heck of a day of turkey hunting..A day I will never forget..

[Longspur321]

I can't say I've really had any funny misses. I feel more like throwing up after a miss to tell you the truth, especially after knocking one down and it runs off. It literally gets me nauseous.

Probably the most memorable miss is 2 springs ago in Sonora. A buddy and I were hunting a private ranch. It was his 1st turkey hunt in Texas, his 2nd turkey hunt anywhere. I struck up a bird in a juniper flat who was maybe 90 yds from us. We dove for cover under a juniper like roaches in a dirty kitchen. I yelped once and he hammered back twice. He came in across an open area running towards us. I let him get 37 yards away and BOOOOOM!! Feathers flew and he flipped backward. He got up and took off running. BOOOOOM!! He gained altitude....BOOOOOOM! Kept gaining altitude.....BOOOM!! BOOOM!! BOOOM!! I missed and so did my buddy. Bless his heart, he was trying to back me up but its hard to knock down a gobbler flying away with 3" at 75+ yards. We just looked at each other like WTH?? No need for words. We just sat back down in the shade of that juniper and licked our wounds in disgust. To top it off, I looked down at his choke and it had shattered on the last shot he took so that kind of topped it off. Looking back now, I guess it was kind of funny ....

[DC1.]

NEVER had a funny miss .  I guess me almost throwing up would be funny to somebody else !  

[BrowningGuy88]

My funniest hurt my pride the worst. It was the first time my wife ever went turkey hunting. She and I were still just dating in high school and we went one Saturday morning before daylight. I had roosted two gobblers and a few hens the evening before so I just knew we would be toting him back to the truck about 30 minutes after daylight. Well up until this point I had killed 13 and never missed - I had bragged about that to my wife. Anyway, we sat down about 80 yards from the roosting trees beside a little clearing. I did some some soft tree yelps and the gobblers cut me off every time I touched my slate. Right after daylight 11 hens and 2 long beards flew down about 60 yards away. I hit my slate and the 2 toms went to strutting and gobbling. They got to about 35 yards and I figured - hey my girl hasn't ever been before let her enjoy the show. Well then the hens came between us and the toms so I didn't have a shot! I waited until the hens were out of the way (about 20 minutes) and let the longest beard have it at about 5 steps. Whiffed! Didn't touch him! He flew out of there like a helicopter, but the other tom bounced about 15 yards and stopped - putting. I beaded down on him and missed! Shot him three more times running out of the clearing!

I looked over to find my wife literally laying on the ground holding her sides laughing as hard as I have ever seen anyone laugh. She just looked at me and said "I thought you didn't miss!"

It is funny now, but I almost broke it off with her over that incident!

[TennLongspur]

I can laugh about it now, but at the time it wasn't funny at all. In fact I was sick about it. I had hunted turkeys for many years and had never missed. I used to laugh and say that if you take an ethical shot at an ethical range, there is no excuse for missing. Well, I don't say that any more because I missed on this day, and I have missed another since.

But I was hunting a new lease several years ago, and I had seen lots of sign along an old dirt road that runs out through the lease and dead ends. I sat at the dead end where I could see 300 yards up the road until it made a sharp turn. I had three dekes out, a feeding hen, a breeding hen squatting on the ground, and a jake standing about 10 yards behind her (a deadly spread). Well, it was no time before I saw him round the corner of the road way at the far end in a dead run. I had seen it on TV but never in real life. Usually when I see them running like that they are headed the opposite direction. But he was in a dead run right to me. I couldn't believe it. I had the NFL theme song playing in my head. Gun was up, just waiting on him to get into range.

At about 100 yards he pulled up and stopped, his neck stretched high looking. I made one little cluck on a mouth call and he was running to me again. At about 60 yards, he pulled up and was walking, but right about the time he hit the 40 yard mark, he made a quick step to his right (my left) I had 100 thoughts racing through my head and I figured if he was just circling to confront the jake decoy,  he would have gone into a strut. I figured he saw something he didn't like and was about to disappear in the thick cover just off the road, so I put the bead on him (or so I thought) and squeezed the trigger.

he jumped 10 feet straight up in the air and landed exactly where he launched from. THEN he disappeared into the thick cover off the road.

I don't know how I missed. Conventional wisdom would lead me to think that I shot behind him as he suddenenly stepped to my left and I swung the gun to follow him, but I must have shot low the way he jumped into the air. Perhaps I peppered his legs, but I stepped off the yardage a half dozen times - right at 40. There was no excuse for missing him. Still, it happened.

[njdevilsb]

I shot twice at a bird at about 33 yards.  Never ruffled a feather from what I could tell, but the vines above where his head was were leaking water.  My uncle made a couple jokes about that when we got up to it. 

[handcannon]

I always taught my son that we all miss sometimes and it is alright. I wanted to tell him that so he wouldnt feel I was upset with him if he ever did miss. Especially on his first bird. I wanted to let him know there was no pressure. Just have a good time.

Well, three years ago my son killed his second bird during youth weekend. The next weekend was opening day for the big boys and he told me he wanted me to shoot. Well, I knew if he was gonna be with me I wanted him to kill one instead. We sat up that morning on a bird that I knew loved to gobble. He busted of a couple dozen gobbles on the limb and once he hit the ground, headed in the other direction. We scooted down to try and get in front of him before he crossed the old railroad tram but he beat us across. That was our hunting lease property line so I couldn't cross it after him. I noticed he was paralleling the old tram and gobbling every couple minutes so we hurried to try and catch up. The sides of the tram had tall grass growing up the sides of the bank so I put my son up high against a tree and I just laid down in the grass below him and started calling.  Luckily the bird stopped and turned around. He came out onto the tram in a half strut slowly walking our way. I just knew my boy was gonna get this big boy but he was still about 80 yards away. I whispered to my son to ask him if he can see the bird and he says "no". I peeked up and did not realize that there was a bush to his left that was completely blocking his view. He would have to be around 25 yards from us for him to get a shot. Well, he came in to about 35 yards and locked up looking for the hen. My son said he still couldnt see the bird and for me to shoot. Well, here I am laying on my side in the tall grass with my gun laying on the ground in front of me. I eased it to my shoulder and rolled onto my back. I basically had to do what looked like an exercise crunch to get up above the grass to shoot. Busted! I shot just as his wings tucked and he hit the nitrous button in flight. I gave him one more Hail Mary shot in the air for some stupid reason. As I took the walk of shame back to the truck, my smarty pants son says "It's alright Dad, we all miss." He couldnt hold back the laughter any more. He kept on ribbing me saying " I could have done better shooting through the brush." If it wasnt for his humor, it would have been a total headbanger of a day.

I cant wait for him to miss a shot. Kinda looking forward to it!

[chipper]

I missed one a few years ago less than 3 feet from the tip of the barrel.