Shooting flying turkeys

ShortMountain91

ShortMountain91

WKR
Joined
Jun 7, 2018
Messages
735
Location
Tennessee
I'm 33 and have been hunting turkeys for about 20ish years and have killed plenty in that time. It is my favorite hunting in my home state of Tennessee. Today I had something new happen over the course of my turkey chasing career. I shot a gobbler in full flight, had him fall out of flight but unfortunately did not recover him. I have only shot at them in flight a couple times but those times have been clean misses. This is the first time I have hit one where he came down hard.

So this got me wondering from my fellow turkey nuts, have you ever shot one flying and recovered him?

The backstory:
So I had my 4th kid in late February and am blessed to get a 12 week paternity leave from work. This has allowed me to chase the turkeys hard this year and have had a fun season. In TN we get 2 birds per season and I was able to call one into my lap last week flopped him clean at about 8 yards. Today was not as pretty a story. I'm hunting a 30 acre open field this morning. This property has a bush hogged bottom between a creek and bluff behind the field I'm set up on. I hear one single gobble first thing in the morning on the neighbors wooded property. Give it a few minutes and start my calling sequence. No response. Call some more throughout the morning and still no response. We had some rain rolling in around 10 today so at 915 I decide I'll see if I can peak down into the bottom behind me and see if the gobbler that sounded off at daybreak is strutting around down there. I stand up from my hiding spot and some movement catches my eye to the right. It's 3 turkeys running away from me about 200.yards out. I'm sure they heard my calling sequence and had I just sat there 10 more minutes I believe I would be tagged out right now. So once I'm done cussing myself for screwing this hunt up I give the turkeys about 20 minutes to get out of the field so I can slip out and head home. As I'm walking back to the truck I catch movement again. The same 3 turkeys are still standing in the field about 350 yards from where I first spotted them. I duck down for a minute or 2 then slowly ease up. They're still there and didn't seem to get spooked this time. Up until today I had been using the flextone full strut decoy which can double as a reaping rig. Wouldn't you know that the day I have the perfect opportunity to reap, I switch it out to use the Jake hen combo. So I drop my pack, put the Jake on a stake and start belly crawling towards these 3 turkeys, Jake decoy in one hand, gun in the other. At this point the rain is here and it's pouring. Get to a little rise and before I have time to think I have a tom right on top of me running up for a fight. I drop the Jake decoy and shoulder the gun. The tom flies up and I fire off the first shot. He doesn't seem phased. I squeeze off the 2nd and he crumbles up like a stoned mallard then crashes into the neighboring woods. I take off running after him which sends the other 2 toms running in the opposite direction. Get into the woods and it is thick everywhere. Didn't see him and couldn't hear anything because of the rain. I spend the next hour and a half looking for him in the brush while getting soaked in the rain but to no avail.

The reflection:
Looking back at this and the other couple times I have shot at flying turkeys I have always said "why did you do that?" afterwards. I think my instincts take over and I can't help myself but shoot but it has to be a very low percentage shot. Had he landed in the open field I think I would have had a good chance to run him down and finish him off with an additional follow up but that's not what happened. I know that's hunting but man do I hate shooting a gobbler, knowing I hit him and not recovering. Really puts a damper on what has been a very fun season so far. Gonna take a few days off before I head afield again. We have more rain heading in and maybe that will give me some time to get in better spirits.

Sent from my SM-S936U using Tapatalk
 
That’s a shot that I don’t take. I get the adrenaline taking over thing, but if I don’t have 100% confidence that I can cleanly kill that animal, I don’t take the shot. That applies to turkey, deer, elk, etc. Nothing worse than critically injuring an animal with a wing and a prayer shot and you can’t find it.
 
I can think of several that I have shot on the wing. No regrets.

We used to do drives in the fall. Particularly in the fall in South Dakota. Pheasants didn't open until 10:00am or 12:00pm, so we would do a couple turkey drives in the morning.
 
My brother shot one flying.

At 40 yds he shot and missed. The shot scared the turkey and it took off flying RIGHT AT HIM! 😳😳

The Tom didn't realize where the shot came from.

So he goes, "I put the bead right on his beak like a finishing goose, pulled the trigger. Bang flop."

Turkey landed 5 yds from where he was hiding!
 
LongWayAround said:
I can think of several that I have shot on the wing. No regrets.

We used to do drives in the fall. Particularly in the fall in South Dakota. Pheasants didn't open until 10:00am or 12:00pm, so we would do a couple turkey drives in the morning.
Click to expand...
Did you lose many of them or were most of them recovered?

Sent from my SM-S936U using Tapatalk
 
If you are not using TSS. I highly recommend switching to it.

I also found you don't really need to lead them much, certainly way less than dove/quail and related.
 
ShortMountain91 said:
Did you lose many of them or were most of them recovered?

Sent from my SM-S936U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I cannot recall having ever lost one. My dad has shot quite a few on the wing also.

I can think of a variety of distances from very close to rather impressive wingshots.
 
I’ve only shot one on the wing. I was hunting with a buddy and called in a pair. They came to about 45 yards when a pair of hens that had been sitting 15 yards from us took off in the other direction. My buddy told me to take the shot because it was outside his range but he wanted one of us to get one. I hit him at ~55 yards. He rolled over and then got up again and started running. I figured I better keep shooting as he was obviously wounded. Next shot clean missed but scared him and he took flight. Third shot dropped him. He was dead when he hit the ground. 103 yards by laser rangefinder.

That’s definitely not a shot I’d prefer to take, but the situation obviously called for it.
 
The sort of stunt OP pulled is illegal some places. Obviously there are reasons for it.
 
Not sure if ‘reaping’ and wing shooting are the same according to Meat Eater.
There are states where reaping is illegal

www.themeateater.com

Should You Reap A Turkey?

Ding ding. That’s the bell for any number of turkey hunters willing to go toe-to-toe over the morality of reaping a turkey, which consists of using a gobbler fan or decoy to sneak within bow or shotgun range of a longbeard and kill it. Some hunters think it’s one of the most thrilling ways to...
www.themeateater.com www.themeateater.com
 
Steve300xcw said:
Have never heard that term before...Interesting.
Click to expand...

It’s one of those things that the “It’s not how I choose to hunt so I want it banned so nobody else can do it either” crowd wants to ban.

They’ll claim it’s the reason for declining turkey numbers even though there’s no evidence to support this. Meanwhile there is some pretty solid evidence that things like early hunting seasons, increased predator numbers, and decreased early successional cover are strong contributors.

They’ll also claim that it’s dangerous. Which is true if done unsafely—just like any other kind of hunting. But just like other kinds of hunting, there are safe ways to do it.

It really comes down to some guys having fun and being successful doing it and other guys wanting to ruin that for them for no good reason other than it’s not how they choose to do it.
 
juju said:
The sort of stunt OP pulled is illegal some places. Obviously there are reasons for it.
Click to expand...
Since when was legality an accurate measure of morality? And who is doing the measuring?

There are individuals who feel that shooting an animal "in its bed" is unethical. I've done it more than a couple of times. I'd do it plenty more, if the opportunity presented itself.

Since ethics by definition is a personal thing, it's going to be different from person to person. Would I make a habit of shooting at a turkey flying? Probably not. Should I be able to tell somebody else they can't? Hell no! That's how we end up with restrictive, blanket laws that benefit no one.

Sounds to me like the OP genuinely thought, at the moment he shot, that it was a good shot. Sounds like as a result of what occurred. He is rethinking his thoughts. That is a good thing.
Reaping is banned in like nine states. The thread was framed as being about wingshooting. It is not. It's about pulling a stunt so ill-advised it has often been banned entirely.
Click to expand...
I'd also certainly not call something that happens 9/50 times "often".
 
BigDuckHunter said:
It’s one of those things that the “It’s not how I choose to hunt so I want it banned so nobody else can do it either” crowd wants to ban.

They’ll claim it’s the reason for declining turkey numbers even though there’s no evidence to support this. Meanwhile there is some pretty solid evidence that things like early hunting seasons, increased predator numbers, and decreased early successional cover are strong contributors.

They’ll also claim that it’s dangerous. Which is true if done unsafely—just like any other kind of hunting. But just like other kinds of hunting, there are safe ways to do it.

It really comes down to some guys having fun and being successful doing it and other guys wanting to ruin that for them for no good reason other than it’s not how they choose to do it.
Click to expand...


Declining? Do you know how many of those feathered rats I gotta dodge in my pickup each week?


Makes me laugh a lil. This bird it is only ethical and safe if you call it in and sluice the thing.....That bird over there you better not shoot on the ground, thats unethical and just plane non-sportsman like......Hunting birds with a dog is the gentleman's way of doing it, although if its just a dog chasing animals it is wildlife harassment....

But then give it a couple extra legs and cover it in hair and its spot-n-stalk baby!!! Fair chase an all that jazz...Unless we hunt them at 1k yrds in which case you arent allowed to question it, because you have no idea what it takes to make that sorta shot.

gawd damn I hate hunters :ROFLMAO:
 
first turkey i shot was in flight-I was maybe 10 years old-impressed the heck out of my Dad and Uncle-

Dave
 
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