Most bizarre or unorthodox way you've killed a bird?

[Neill_Prater]

Several years ago, while hunting private property near here, I heard a gobbler sounding off from the roost. I eased through the woods, and discovered he was roosted in a walnut tree in the middle of a large pasture. There were hens in trees close to him, and as it started to break day, they all flew down and the gobbler started strutting. I had stopped about 15 yards from the edge of the pasture, and was down on one knee watching the birds perhaps 150 yards away when suddenly the tom dropped out of strut and began running to the southwest corner of the pasture as fast as he could go. My first thought was that he had been boogered by another hunter, but I saw no one. I eventually eased into the 40 acres of woods he had run into, but was never able to call him.

The next morning, I was at the western edge of the same pasture, along the fence line between the property I was on, and the neighbor's 40 where the bird had gone the day before. I sat up well before daylight, and figured if he was roosted in the same area, I had a great chance of working him in. Sure enough, he was roosted in the same walnut tree, with his hens nearby. I called just enough to let him know I was there, and shut up. Daylight came, and they all fly down and he begins strutting. About 10 minutes in, the gobbler again drops out of strut and begins running to the southwest corner of the field. He never gobbled again.

The next morning, I came in from the other direction and hid in the fence row on the southwest corner of the field. He was roosted in the same tree, and I watched him fly down and begin strutting. I never even called. After 10 minutes or so, he went out of strut and headed my way at a dead run! I shot him at 15 yards. I have no idea why he ran like that. I would have never killed him if he had decided to go a different direction every morning, but he didn't. One of the nicest birds I've ever killed with 1 1/2 inch spurs.

[turkeyhunter91]

I was hunting a bird that was coming down a field edge every evening to go roost in a holler. Well I never could catch up with him so I decided to try the evening route. Finally late that evening his hens started right towards me and he was right behind. His hens walked about 20 yards Iin front of me and on down the field. Well he made It to about 75 yards and he decided he wanted to go to the other side of the field .  He was about 150 yards and getting farther away and all of a sudden a horse runs after him causing him to fly and land 40 yards from me. I let him walk on in a little closer and shot him with my tk2000.

[stone road turkey calls]

Ford F-150   

[J Hook Max]

Back in the early 80's, I was hiding in an old outhouse. I had eleven jakes walk within about 20 yards of me. Yes, I did shoot one of them.

[wisconsinteacher]

I have two stories.

1-After a morning of hunting my dad and I are driving home and as we pass a field there are 4 toms in full strut about 200 yards off the road.  We fly into town and ask the land owner for permission and he says, "go get one".  We drive back and they are still there, strutting behind a big brush pile.  That was the only thing between them and the road.  The field had just been plowed and the wind was blowing in my face so I told my dad to drop me off and I will be back in 2 min with a bird.  As he slowed the truck, I jumped out put a shell in and ran right for the brush pile.  When I got to it, I pulled my gun up and stepped to the side.  All the birds drop out of strut and looked at me.  From there, I picked the closest one and hammered him at 12 yards.  My dad was in the truck a 1/4 mile away watching the entire show.

2-Last year I ordered a trumpet and really wanted to use it.  When I got to the farmers house, I parked 30 yards from the barn and gathered my gear, but before I left, I put my mask on and started cutting a hole so I could play the trumpet.  After I cut the hole, I yelped a few times to make sure my facemask was perfect.  When I was done, I pulled my mask off and went to grab my gun from the truck.  As I am doing this, I see 3 red heads coming right for the truck.  The ycross the creek, duck under the fence and are now 30 yards from me.  I slowly loaded the gun, stepped away from the truck and shot one of the jakes.  It was my last day to hunt back home so I was okay with taking a jake.  I could not believe that by messing around with a call and making a few yelps would bring birds running right to the truck.  I could not believe how fast it all happened. 

[Bigspurs68]

Wow....there's been quite a few birds that iv killed that have crazy stories behind them. Just to save writing time, I'll just pick a funny one.
  Hunting in Kentucky a few years ago I got on some birds that were fired up but seemed to hit a wall 80 yds out. After a repositioning a couple times I came to realize that the wall was..a wall...well, a cliff. I let the birds move off, got right at the top of the cliff and called them back. Ended up shooting the what appeared to be the biggest of the three almost straight down. At the shot he proceeded to flop into a pretty good sized creek that was running hard from the 3 previous days of pouring rain.
  I had a hell of a time finding a way down to start with, then came the chase. Picture a normally same human running along the banks of a creek with a long stick , cussing, slapping at a ball of wet feathers as it made it's way downstream fast. I finally wrangled him out of the creek in a sharp bend. Fine lookin thing he was.
  As I was walking out with my soggy prize, I ran into a crew of state workers who were putting limestone on atv trails. One of the uniformed guys with a camera around his neck, asked if he could get a picture of me with the bird. I agreed,but couldn't imagine a more decrepit turkey to have a picture taken with. Oh well, at least they didn't see the whole episode. 

[tomstopper]

Wow....there's been quite a few birds that iv killed that have crazy stories behind them. Just to save writing time, I'll just pick a funny one.
  Hunting in Kentucky a few years ago I got on some birds that were fired up but seemed to hit a wall 80 yds out. After a repositioning a couple times I came to realize that the wall was..a wall...well, a cliff. I let the birds move off, got right at the top of the cliff and called them back. Ended up shooting the what appeared to be the biggest of the three almost straight down. At the shot he proceeded to flop into a pretty good sized creek that was running hard from the 3 previous days of pouring rain.
  I had a hell of a time finding a way down to start with, then came the chase. Picture a normally same human running along the banks of a creek with a long stick , cussing, slapping at a ball of wet feathers as it made it's way downstream fast. I finally wrangled him out of the creek in a sharp bend. Fine lookin thing he was.
  As I was walking out with my soggy prize, I ran into a crew of state workers who were putting limestone on atv trails. One of the uniformed guys with a camera around his neck, asked if he could get a picture of me with the bird. I agreed,but couldn't imagine a more decrepit turkey to have a picture taken with. Oh well, at least they didn't see the whole episode.

I can picture that.....

[jcour4]

I had recently moved to mississippi and decided to go hit some public land after work to do some hunting but mainly just scout since I'd never stepped foot on this particular spot. It had just rained a bunch the previous day and the low land had a lot of standing water. I was walking in a trail for awhile and decided to help a little bit to see if anything responded and boom there was a gobble. Well there was a creek that separated me from the turkey and it was about four foot deep in the middle. I frantically looked for an alternative and jogged up the edge of the creek hoping to find a narrow spot and the turkey kept gobbling and was getting close fast. I came to a bend and spotted a large tree that laid across. So I hopped up on it and started across. I was nearly to the other side and decided to call to see where the gobbler was or find out that he had seen me strolling across the log. I let out a couple sharp cuts and he let loose 50 yards away.

I saw his head coming through the timber while crouch on this log over water with no where to go if I stand up he will see me and there's just some small trees on the bank. So I decide to bail off the log and into the water. Luckily the water wasn't too deep just about a 18 inches. I slowly move to the bank edge sit in the water next to the uprooted tree trunk. I hear some drumming and the gobbler comes around the tree about 5 steps from me and I let him have it. I was soaked and pretty cold but glad I got him. Defiantly an odd encounter for me.

[captpete]

Ford F-150   

[captpete]

I had recently moved to mississippi and decided to go hit some public land after work to do some hunting but mainly just scout since I'd never stepped foot on this particular spot. It had just rained a bunch the previous day and the low land had a lot of standing water. I was walking in a trail for awhile and decided to help a little bit to see if anything responded and boom there was a gobble. Well there was a creek that separated me from the turkey and it was about four foot deep in the middle. I frantically looked for an alternative and jogged up the edge of the creek hoping to find a narrow spot and the turkey kept gobbling and was getting close fast. I came to a bend and spotted a large tree that laid across. So I hopped up on it and started across. I was nearly to the other side and decided to call to see where the gobbler was or find out that he had seen me strolling across the log. I let out a couple sharp cuts and he let loose 50 yards away.

I saw his head coming through the timber while crouch on this log over water with no where to go if I stand up he will see me and there's just some small trees on the bank. So I decide to bail off the log and into the water. Luckily the water wasn't too deep just about a 18 inches. I slowly move to the bank edge sit in the water next to the uprooted tree trunk. I hear some drumming and the gobbler comes around the tree about 5 steps from me and I let him have it. I was soaked and pretty cold but glad I got him. Defiantly an odd encounter for me.

Reminds me of my buddy last fall.  He had sat in a treestand for over 2 hrs. without seeing a deer. As it's getting dark he watches a bird fly up to roost about 70yds from his stand. He climbs down from the the stand and sneaks to within 35yds of the bird. He lets an arrow fly(ya, he shot it off the roost, but did it with a bow at 35yds). The bird dropped out of the tree and landed in the creek. He was afraid the bird was going to get away and without thinking jumped into the creek touching bottom at about 4'. Needless to say, the water temp at the end of October in Iowa is not your normal swimming temps.

[Gooserbat]

Let's see, I've crawled up on them, sat under their favorite roost tree in the afternoon, sat on field edges and not called at all, but all those birds I killed just always come up a bit short of the ones I called to the gun. 

[stinkpickle]

Ford F-150   

It's amazing how much damage one bird can do to the boss' Land Cruiser...or so I hear.   

[Longshot]

A little hen came half way through the windshield and creased the roof of my wife's S-10 Blazer. My wife was scratched up from the flying glass, but the hen wasn't as lucky.

My second spring gobbler was henned up and was paying no attention to my calls. After 20 minutes of trying to coax him away from his harem with no luck, I lost my patience and yelped and cut as loud as possible on my mouth call. He still paid no attention to me, but the lead hen took exception and came with her hackle raised. The rest of the birds all followed her right into my lap. When the gobbler poked his head out from behind a tree at 20 steps, I took my shot and blew a fist sized chunk of pine bark off the tree. The gobbler took flight and I just watched him climb away in disbelief. I could see him looking back at me as he was leaving. He should have kept his eyes on the road. He flew straight into a pine tree and fell out the air stone-cold dead. He never even flopped when he hit the ground. I was sure that I must have caught him with a flier pellet, but I skinned him to the top of his head looking for a hit and never found a single pellet. I'll take them however I can get them, but I would much rather have smashed him where he stood.

[owlhoot]

Inside my old 87 Bronco, strangled and broke his neck! It was us or him