Embarrassing Moments

[OldSchool]

The nice weather we're having here in NY has got me thinking spring. Turkey hunting obviously, but fiddleheads, cowslips, leeks, or ramps depending on where you live and mushrooms too. After a hunt around 20 years ago I'll never be able to look at a wild leek again without thinking of one of those birds that got away.

I got permission to hunt a long hardwood ridge that year and was told there might be one other hunter on it once in a while.  It turned out that there were several other guys hunting it, so I'd leave it alone til later in the morning, after whoever might be there on any given day was gone.

I'd seen a big bird there a couple times, but he didn't want any part of a turkey call and would only gobble a few time each morning. Nobody was parked there one morning so I went in early and we played our usual game of me calling very sparingly, moving, scratching in the leaves, shutting up for long periods of time and just watching etc.

On this particular morning, I'd been fooling with him for three of four hours and hadn't heard a peep out of him in over an hour. I was sitting against an old rotten stump with a fallen tree trunk in front of it and the ground around me was covered with leeks.  I love fresh leeks and the smell was making me hungry so I decided to stay put for a while longer then I'd dig a few before I headed home.

Another half hour and still no sign of the turkey. I took a good look around, got up and stood my gun against a tree. I walked around and found a stout stick to dig with, dropped to my knees and started filling my head net with leeks. I'd been digging around in the dirt for maybe five minutes when I got the feeling I was being watched. I looked to my left and there stands that big old Tom at about 50 yards watching me on my hands and knees digging leeks, and he was well within range of the stump I'd just left. We looked at each other, me on my knees with a stick in my hand for a few seconds, then he turned and quickly walked away. I swear the old reprobate had a smile on his face. I hunted him several more times before season ended and never did kill him.

I went home, cleaned my leeks and had them for dinner that night, but they didn't taste as good as usual. I haven't had them since that they don't bring back the picture of me on my hands and knees eyeball to eyeball with that smiling turkey. 

Bob

[Tunaguy]

Something always happens when you go to take a leek!

[Greg Massey]

I was hunting a WMA years ago and after getting up at 3 clock in the morning and driving just over a hour to get to the place i wall down throw the woods in a creek bottom only to hear a hen all morning. So at lunch i came back to the truck to eat and rest for a little while for the evening hunt as i was staying all day. Now you have to remember i was in my early years of learning to turkey hunt. so back to the story as i left the truck and walk back down a old logging road i decided to setup on a little ridge off the road after setting for about a hour i started taking naps in between calling and after about 2 hours of off and on napping i look over to my right about 25 yards and i'm thinking that's the pretties red bird i'v every saw on that old stump well you guess it ... it was a gobbler that had walk in silence and never made a sound all i did was watch him walk away never raised my gun in disbelieve because that was my first gobbler i ever saw in the wild..30 years ago..

[762hunter]

Several years back, I was green as it could get when it came to turkey hunting,  I had a buddy with me and we were gonna figure these birds out.
Heard some gobbles that AM but they were not interested in anything we had to offer. Late morning we went to set up at the top of this field where I had seen birds in the past and was just going to wait them out.
Well after a couple hours I had to let some coffee out, I stood up to ease back and water a tree, my buddy decided to take advantage of the situation as well.
We had not sat back down more than 20-30 seconds when all the sudden here comes 4 red heads over the rise. We both had to wait on each other to get our guns ready and aimed.
Turned out nicely as we doubled that day, but we were very close to getting caught with the wrong weapon in hand.

We still laugh about that


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[Marc]

A good friend of mine with whom I took on his first turkey hunt (who is now a more experienced and accomplished turkey hunter than I) had some interesting experiences with me...  On his initial hunt, he did not even want to go, as shooting a turkey on the ground did not seem exciting to him.

First time I took him, we hunted all morning without even hearing a bird.  Just as we were going to head out, we heard some gobbling some ways off...  We were on a ridge, and I made the decision to get to the top of the next ridge over (quickly)...  As we topped the ridge, the trees were all small, but before continuing on, I decided to give a call to see where the birds were...  They were just over the next ridge (and had gained ground faster than we had).

We set up as best we could, and with another call, three toms cleared the ridge and came walking towards us quickly in full strut while gobbling.  It is the fastest I have ever seen strutting birds making ground, and they were all nice toms.

Just as the birds were coming close to being in range, I heard a strange sound from my buddy...  He started hyperventilating...  Loudly....  Tails fans dropped, heads picked up, and the birds were gone.

I learned to turkey hunt on my own...  Read some books, got some "cassette tapes" on calling, learned to use a "tongue tickler" and a box call...   Made some awful mistakes during my early days...  Including trying to body shoot the first bird at about 35 yards...  That unfortunately worked out horribly for me (and the bird).  That is when I realized the importance of smaller shot and a tight choke for turkey hunting.

Lucky for me, when I was learning, I was living in an area with a high density turkey population, and the learning curve was far quicker, and there was some room for error (with so many birds).

Currently, I am hunting a vastly smaller turkey population with far more pressure...  I feel like I am learning all over again.

.

[tomstopper]

One year I was hunting and had to drop immediately because a bird was coming in fast and not far away. When I dropped in the bushes, I sat on my foot wrong and it fell asleep without me knowing it. Minutes passed and I finally shot the bird and got up quickly to run over and put my boot on his head but when I stood up, my foot was numb and I fell flat on my face. I remember looking at that bird flopping as I laid there on the ground just stunned and numb. I had a huge bruise on my left cheek bone for days and my buddies got a good laugh out of it.

[g8rvet]

I was walking out of the swamp after fooling with a bird that would not cross a feeder creek I did not know was there. Instead of coming out the way I came in, I decided to learn the lay of the land and walk through to the other side where my brother and friend were hunting.  I was picking my way and figuring out the meandering of the main creek and all the little feeders as well. I heard a noise as I came up on a little rise and right in front of me I see two possums squared off making an awful ruckus.  I close to about 30 yards and watch the spat.  I get tired off the UFC Possum style and pick up a branch and toss it at the combatants.  One hauls tail, the other bows up at me, with that disgusting 300 tooth possum hiss.  I laugh and pick up another rotten branch and toss it at him and hit him square.  He charges me!  Like a frickin pizzed off Cape Buffalo, with none of the weapons!  I think to myself, "Ah hell no, you are bringing a knife to a gun fight" and quickly unshoulder my shotgun and shot him right at my feet (I was shooting cheap lead in those days).  So I kind of laugh and head out of the swamp.  Reach my brother and buddy sitting on the tram after I owl hooted to see where they were.  It took me 20 minutes of convincing that I did not have a Tom hidden in the woods and that I had indeed shot a possum during turkey hunting hours!  They thought it hysterical.  I found it only slightly amusing and the possum thought it totally sucked!  When  I had told them the story, I told them the last thing that went through that possum's mind was some #5 lead, I think that is when they finally believed me.  I never did hear from the other possum, but I heard he was skeered of me from then on.  Turkey Thug?  heck no, I am a possum gangsta.

[Dr Juice]

Something always happens when you go to take a leek!

Amen


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[wmn2]

Regarding taking a leak..
It was opening day of shotgun season for deer in Ohio. I was around 17 and my dad dropped me off on a fencerow and was going to push the woods to me. Well, I had to pee, so I unzip and mid stream, if you know what I mean, I hear something behind me. A nice buck had snuck up from the opposite direction of where they should have been coming from and I was hanging in the wind. I grabbed my gun from leaning against a fence post and he saw me and took off. Needless to say I completely missed. My dad still brings it up from time to time.

[Tail Feathers]

Wasn't me but a buddy who was in a tree stand one morning when a woman came walking by.  She stopped about 30' from the tree he was in, oblivious to his presence, and proceeded to take a big old dump.  When she stood up, he bid her good morning.
He said she ran like a track star.

[Planner]

Two years ago and buddy and I took his wife out to shoot her first longbeard. We set up at the bottom of a hollow and we sat about fifteen yards apart. I started calling and heard a hen answer me from the ridge above. I'd call... She call. This went on for a couple of sequences. I decide to start getting aggressive so when she called, I interrupted her. That really pissed her off and soon the hen battle escalated until it reached a feverish pitch. We went back and forth with cuts and clucks and I was throwing the whole orchestra at her. I've done this successfully so many times I thought we had a really good chance of getting her down off that ridge with her lover boy in tow. Well, this battle of the voicebox went on and on and she just wasn't budging. We were all frozen against our trees and I didn't dare move more than I needed to run my call.... Well after what seemed an eternity and being absolutely certain this hen wasn't within eyesight but still being able to hear, I glanced over to my buddy and saw him working his pot call. I answered, he ran his pot call and I heard my hen. Yup- you guessed it my "hen" was my buddy fifteen yards away and we had just fooled each other into thinking we were each battling a live hen. The sound was bouncing off the hollow that each of our calls sounded to each other like they were on the ridge. His wife had the last laugh since she was situated where she could see us both and was wondering what the heck we were doing the whole time.


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[g8rvet]

Two years ago and buddy and I took his wife out to shoot her first longbeard. We set up at the bottom of a hollow and we sat about fifteen yards apart. I started calling and heard a hen answer me from the ridge above. I'd call... She call. This went on for a couple of sequences. I decide to start getting aggressive so when she called, I interrupted her. That really pissed her off and soon the hen battle escalated until it reached a feverish pitch. We went back and forth with cuts and clucks and I was throwing the whole orchestra at her. I've done this successfully so many times I thought we had a really good chance of getting her down off that ridge with her lover boy in tow. Well, this battle of the voicebox went on and on and she just wasn't budging. We were all frozen against our trees and I didn't dare move more than I needed to run my call.... Well after what seemed an eternity and being absolutely certain this hen wasn't within eyesight but still being able to hear, I glanced over to my buddy and saw him working his pot call. I answered, he ran his pot call and I heard my hen. Yup- you guessed it my "hen" was my buddy fifteen yards away and we had just fooled each other into thinking we were each battling a live hen. The sound was bouncing off the hollow that each of our calls sounded to each other like they were on the ridge. His wife had the last laugh since she was situated where she could see us both and was wondering what the heck we were doing the whole time.


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Durn it.  If there had been no wife, there would have been no witness and it would have never happened. 

[OldSchool]

Something always happens when you go to take a leek!

That's for sure. Some funny stories here, thank you.

Bob

[Dmason3]

Snuck up to a roosting spot where I had seen birds before. It was my first or second year hunting and had no idea (still don't) what I was doing. Let out a couple of calls on my pot call and got a gobble in response. I couldn't believe it. I would call and he would respond. Did that for probably two hours but he wouldn't come closer. Never could figure out why not. It suddenly dawned on me when I passed him on the way home. One of the guys that lives by there has a pet tom that he keeps and it never leaves the yard haha. Boy did I feel dumb


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[tha bugman]

I don't care what you are hunting...when nature calls...nature comes a running/flying up to you .....never fails