# Bitter/Sweet day.



## iwantabuggy (Feb 15, 2005)

First the sweet.

I went turkey hunting this morning. Left the house after only 2 hours of sleep at about 2:30AM. It is the first day of Idaho's second season.

I hiked into the primary roosting area on my favorite private hunting property (a 500 acre ranch bordering several miles of BLM, state, and forest land), where I waited for first light. A little before first light I realized that there weren't any birds roosted at the primary roost, but that they were in one of the secondary roosts about 1/2 mile away. I started for it. As I approached the opening near the roost (still about 250+ yards away, I saw birds flying down my way. I hit the dirt and belly crawled to the last good bush to hide in (a sage brush that was about 8 ft around and about 6 ft high). As I prepared to call, the biggest tom gobbled once, and then one of the hens let out a short run of clucks and yelps.

Once I was finally positioned and ready to call (about 3 minutes later) I gobbled once with my gobble shaker, waited about 30 seconds and let go of a short run of yelps on my push button box call. I immediately heard the spit and drum of the largest gobbler. Over the next few minutes they appeared in sight and were feeding so that they would cross in front of me at about 60 yards. Then the hens turned and started feeding my way. The hens were now at about 30 yards and the largest of the two toms puffed into a strut, and then walked a few yards closer. The hens started to feed on past at about 30 yards, but the largest tom wasn't coming any closer. He was going to walk on by at about 45 yards. I decided to let him have it.

He hit the ground as several jakes about 300-400 yards away started gobbling at the report of the shot. I ran out to get him and paced of the distance walking back to my calls. It was 48 yards.

Now for the bitter.

I was really tired because I had only had 2 hours of sleep. I leaned my shotgun on the side of the truck while I had to set all my stuff down and take off my turkey vest to retrieve my keys. When I got home and was putting all my stuff away, I realized, NO SHOTGUN! Re-thinking how I had backed out, turned around, and drove away. I was confident that I had ran over my shotgun. I went back the 60 miles (one way) and retrieved the gun.

WHEW! The damage appears to be minimal. A few dings on the barrel and fore grip and the scope is now canted slightly. I believed that I can fix the cant on the scope, re-center it, and it looks like it will be good to go. I am trying to decide if I need to have a gun smith inspect it first, though.

The turkey was a pretty nice bird for Idaho. 18 1/4 lbs, 3/4 inch rounded and wore off spurs, with an 8 inch beard.


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## jgat (Oct 27, 2006)

Nice bird! That extra 120 miles must have sucked though. At least the gun wasn't totally busted up.


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## bmxfire37 (Apr 26, 2007)

at least you dident drive from ohio to georiga only to realise you grabbed the wrong bag of chokes.... i was in a hurry, my sister was haveing her baby...so i was running to get my stuff, i threw my clothes in the truck ran in got my shot gun, slaped a cable lock on it, grabed a case of shells and my bag of chokes...i grabbed the bag marked 20...not the bag marked 12... if you know what im saying...i guess we can all learn from his mistake and mine, take your time! but he was sleepy i wasent... NICE BIRD!


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## live_4_quack (Mar 1, 2007)

Funny. A buddy of mine found a BPS in the middle of a dirt road in Kansas about 5 years ago during turkey season. Guess you're not the only one to ever get excited and run off without the boomstick.


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## iwantabuggy (Feb 15, 2005)

live_4_quack said:


> Funny. A buddy of mine found a BPS in the middle of a dirt road in Kansas about 5 years ago during turkey season. Guess you're not the only one to ever get excited and run off without the boomstick.


Did I mention that I had only slept 2 hours the night before and that I was tired? I am always afraid I am going to do that. This time I did.


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## neb_bo (Feb 3, 2007)

i cant count the calls, knives, etc. etc. ive left laying in the field. i once left my gun on the porch while taking my boots off after a long day of chasing roosters, and it rained that night. when i was a little tyke, i left my pellet gun leaning against the tractor tire, it never did work quite right after that. dont worry, your not the only one.


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## weasle414 (Dec 31, 2006)

Good job on the turkey! I did the same sort of thing the last day or muzzleloader hunting last year. The place I hunt is about 40 miles away from my dads house and I had been sleep depprived the last 3 nights, too. When I got about 45 minutes away from my dads (in the opposite direction from our deer spot) I realized I forgot my stand! I wasn't going back up there for another month after that and I knew it and Pops wouldn't be able to find it if he was looking for it so guess who had to turn back at 1 AM for an hour and a half drive one way to get his stand!  Wow was I tired for school the next day... Got my stand, though!


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## iwantabuggy (Feb 15, 2005)

I took the shotgun by the local shop today and they ran a guage down the pipe to make sure it was still round and that it didn't have any bulges or flat spots. Everything checked out okay, so I shot it this afternoon. I had to do some adjusting, so I fixed the cant on the scope and then adjusted it back to center. Looks like I am good to go! :beer:


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