AL Spring Gobbler Season 2025

[bamaranger]

As before, here's a running narrative on my spring season, hope all enjoy. Seems an odd year, never heard a gobbler during scouting 'till 21April, and even then it was spotty. Still seeing relatively large flocks here and there, all on property I cannot hunt, all accompanied by multiple gobblers. Not feeling particularly positive, could be one of those years, we will see. I'm fortunate to be healthy and have opportunity to go, so not complaining, just speculative.

-1April, Opening Day, hunt #1
Up extra early to hunt a relatively new spot I'll call The Arena. A Narrow steep sided V-shaped hollow. At the apex of the V there is a flat bench or shelf that extends out into the hollow, perhaps 50 yds deep. For all the world it seems like a stage, and the hollow sides the seating area. I've heard a gobbler here twice, gobbling from the roost and one morning he spent over an hour there parading about. The evening before I slipped in and popped a dome blind and a comfortable chair, all set.

Never heard a gobble 'till 11:00, way off on the right (north) side of the hollow. Way off, maybe 400 yds. I answered with the slate call anyhow. Is it the same bird, I dunno? I feel certain if I leave, and chase that gobble, I'll get over there and one will gobble here....I've been calling every 20-30 minutes all morning and am set and secure. I'll wait. About 15 minutes later a pair of hens stroll past, headed west and down the hollow, reinforcing my decision. Nothing happens again 'till 1:00 PM, when 6 more gobbles occur over the space of about 45 minutes. over to the N. again. At 1:45 I can stand it no longer, leave the blind and circle off to the north onto the top of that ridge arriving about 2:00. The sides are steep and somewhat brushy, the top more open, I'll call from here. Yelp on the slate , ....nothing. I try him 2-3 more times over the next hour Nothing. I'm wupped. Backtrack and collect the blind and chair, hump it all out to the ATV, I'll start on the N. slope tomorrow.

2April, hunt #2
In early again, on the N. ridge of The Arena. Not a good morning, overcast, wind blowing 100mph and I can't hear worth a dang. At daylight, I think I hear one low down and well towards the open end of the V. I move that direction staying on top, and think I get an answer to an owl hoot in the same general area. I gotta get lower and out of the wind. I decide to drop onto off side of the ridge, the circle out around the far end and into the mouth of the V lower down. It's still early, 6:15 or so, light enough to move about efficiently, but I need to be stealthy. I make it down the off side, and am working to the point when ...BANG....a shot, 150-200 yds away. Well NUTS. I don't know where the guy came from, perhaps walked in from one of the residences along the county road. Wherever and whoever, he was on top of that bird from the start. It's 6:25 I stick around for an hour, just listening, hoping there's a second bird, curious to hear an ATV or some clue of who and where that guy came from but all is silent.

OK, get in the game again. I jump on the ATV and motor over to Irish Hollow. Wind still blowing up a storm, I drop off the big point and into the hollow itself, in the lee side of the wind and plop onto a big rock and listen. Ten minutes or so later, a big tree gets blown over up top and lands with a crash and a gobble rings out, garbled in the wind, on the hollow floor off to the west. Has to be closer than it sounds, so I drop off the side and into the bottom. I cover about 400 yds and arrive at a spot I'm familiar with, with a good field of view at the base of a huge beech. I'm not fully set up and a gobbler fight breaks out out in the pasture, 150 yds or so off. But I have hit the property line and can legally go no further. Set up, I call with a medium size box, brought along just for calling in the wind. Nothing. Periodically over the next 2 hours I hope that one of the combatants will drift up my way, but nothing answers or appears. Ah well.

It's all up hill on the way out, and when I reach the ATV I realize I do not have my favorite striker for the slate call...well nuts. I pop the blind, thinking it got left there.....nope. Back at the old Bronco, I turn everything upside down, thinking it fell out in the AM suiting up. Nope. I ride the ATV back to The Arena, maybe I lost it there dismounting....Nope. Last resort, I motor out to the N. ridge of The Arena, to where I called from yesterday at the last. There in the leaves at the base of the tree lays Striker #1. OK, highlight of the day.

I try and squeeze a hunt in late that afternoon over at bamaboys place, he claims to have seen a tom in his field, but I get stormed out.

-3April, hunt #3
In early again, I'm on the crest of Big Hollow, where I heard a 'tom the week before gobble from the roost, then gobble up a storm out on a little point on the side of the hollow. Again, the wind is blowing hard and I hear absolutely nothing Today I brought a big, vintage Lohman box, it rings out well in the gale, but to no avail.

[paknheat]

Great write up. I’m not able to hunt this year due to shoulder surgery. So I really enjoyed reading your hunting story.

Thanks for taking me along.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[bamaranger]

-Hunt #4, 4April
Family obligations negate an early start, and I pickup bama granddaughter and return home in the AM for a real breakfast and a nap before leaving home about 10:30 AM for a midday hunt. I enter Irish Hollow from the opposite side of the other day on an old trail I have not been down in several years. I put in some reflective markers for a predawn entry and finally settle at the same tree from which I heard the gobbler fight. Wind is still up, but down low here not so bad. I call sparingly over the course of 3 hours on an old Lynch box picked a couple of years ago in an antique bazaar. Nothing answers and I climb out at 4:00 PM to arrive back home at a decent hour. Bunch of big buck rubs here, I picked a a few deer trees when I was hunting this a few years ago, but never came back to deer hunt, but......I really need to deer hunt this in the fall.

-Hunt#5, 5April
Bamaboy calls, he's seen two gobblers strutting on his property in the next county N. I call that same evening, he says have at it. I meet him in his drive as he arrives from working night shift. He wishes me luck and heads in the house to sack out.....guy looks beat....we'll meet for lunch. I hump out across his back 20 acre field and pop a blind up out of sight of the house and Co. road. As day builds, I hear no gobbles, but again, the wind is romping. I've chosen this corner as its out of sight, and its as out of the wind as can be given the circumstances. I run the old Lynch box again, couple of times an hour. At 9:30 I see a lone hen across the property line in an adjacent pasture 200 yds away. She glares my direction when I run some yelps from the Lynch at her, but resumes feeding and eventually drifts out of sight. I stay in place 'till 11:45, leave the blind in place and go up to the house and wake the boy, we go to lunch, just us two, first time in a long time and It's great.
Back from lunch about 2:00PM, 'boy goes back in the house for more sleep, I gear back up and start across the field. I don't go 50 yds and from out of a slight in a fold in the field a hen and huge gobbler pop up, 100 yds away. The hen bolts back into cover, but the gobbler runs the length of the field, some 300 yds, and flushes onto the neighboring properety....jeez, gimmie a break! Well......nuts again. I still have hope. 'Boy said there were two gobblers here, and just maybe, by dusk, the spooked gobbler may slip back in the area, looking for his date. I've killed a couple that way after bumping them, though perhaps not so dramatically. I do nothing but sit in the blind and watch for 2-1/2 hours, and begin some light calling at 4:00PM. I use the slate, the wind has ebbed some and don't need the volume, and it's a different call from what I was running this AM, just in case the spooked gobbler had heard the box before. All that strategy for nothing, as no turkey
answers or appears. Ah well.

[stagpanther]

Still plenty of time for team Bama--odds will work in your favor eventually.

[bamaranger]

-7April, hunt #6
Took Sunday off, church and family. Really need to be there if your wife is going to speak. The plan is to get up and go all the earlier today, but it doesn't work out that way. I oversleep by over an hour, never leave the house 'til 7:00AM. It rained off and on all night, and the temp has dropped into the mid 40Fs, a near 40 degree swing. I'm not to concerned, figure the birds will stay on the roost longer, but hope they will come to the fields to dry out eventually. I'm set up in the blind at bamaboy's by 8:00AM. I've stated before, I really don't like to hunt from a blind. Yeah, it conceals you, and today, it keeps the wind and cold off me a bit. But it still seems goofy. Still, I could never hunt these open fields effectively without one.

I run the slate every 20-30 minutes, only moderate wind and its enough volume this morning. Nothing answers and I hear no gobbles all morning. I do see turkeys. At 9:30 or so a hen slants across the field, angling past from the SE, stopping and glancing over briefly when I cluck at her, but not changing course. She passes by at 75 yds or so, ducks under the adjoining fenceline and out of sight. At 11:00 I see a second hen, this one appearing briefly in the SW corner. She pivots and stalks off as if she's seen something she doesn't like........I dunno, a vulture or hawk, beats me, but she split.

I tough it out 'till 1:00PM and can stand it no more. I'm pretty well layered, and the blind is warmer than being exposed, outside, but I'm barely warm enough. I discover that the paddle on the vintage Lynch in my vest has an edge splintered. The damage is slight, I can likely glue it and all will be fine, but it still irks me. I love those old Lynch box calls, if for the nostalgia if nothing else, but they are fragile. I'd been babying this one, and didn't use it this AM anyhow. In fact I'm primarily a slate & peg man. I glue it back that night and hope for the best. The dinged call breaks my spirit, and I bail out, run to town for lunch, then over to a gunsmith shop where I'm getting a bigger bead placed on my Lanber O/U. The O/U is ready, so that works out OK. I leave the blind in place and will hunt it tomorrow AM. It's to be even colder. Seems more like deer season......with Dogwoods blooming!

[bamaranger]

-hunt #7, 8April
When I leave the house its 36 degrees, but this morning I am ready for it. Several layers of fleece, watch cap, all black for the inside of the blind. I arrive at the boys place in good time and linger outside the blind in the predawn, hoping to hear a gobble in the distance, but to no avail, not a peep. As the light builds, so does the wind.....again! Once light enough for turkeys to fly down, I hit a fly down cackle on a private brand butternut box I picked up in a pawn shop in WV. A bit later I yelp on the slate with a shrill striker, trying to cut the wind, then make a point of setting the calls out of easy reach. I see and hear nothing all morning, the wind continues to build and I bail at 12:00 noon.

-hunt #8, 9 April
I've had it with sitting in the dang blind and need to enjoy a spring morning unencumbered. I head back to Big Hollow on the opposite side from where I hunted earlier last week. Again I arrive in good time, and am surprised to see no vehicle tracks on club roads....that means nobody has been back here in 3+ days, since the bad storms/tornado Sat. night. I feel certain I'll get on a bird this AM. It's 36F again, I'm layered up and look like the Michilin Man in camo, but I stay warm. Cold and still I can hear over a vast amount of territory......and I hear absolutely nothing. I call with the slate sparingly, run the crow call a bt trying to provoke a gobble......nothing. Looks like it's one of those years....."Silent Spring", so far anyhow. I've not heard a gobble in a week.

That evening I run the ATV out to a large ROW near home and settle in on a high place where I can hear and glass both directions. Later than what you might think, I see 7 turkeys feed across the ROW and drop into a hollow adjacent, ....they have to be roosted right there. None of them acted like gobblers, but 3 looked a good bit darker than the others.......maybe, just maybe, I saw 3 jakes and 4 hens. The plan is to hunt that ROW in the AM .

[eastbank]

keep the stories comming, i feel i have lived the same stories over the years.

[bamaranger]

-10April, hunt #9
Despite my aversion to hunting from a blind, this morning here I sit, super early, in a dang commercial blind again. I left from the house on the ATV, motored to the farthest point on pvt. property where I can legally ride, then dismounted and hoofed it onto the right-of-way to the point where I saw the birds the evening previous. The hike wasn't far, but it's up and down like a rollercoaster, and I'm toting, blind, chair, and all my usual gear to boot. The last 100 yds or so, I inch along in the dark.....those dang birds birds are right here somewhere, perhaps even overlooking the ROW.

I know the spot well, having hunted right here on this open knoll on several occasions, so selecting the very spot to pop the blind for the best field of view is simple, been here, done that. I settle in between two scrubby pines, moving very slowly and carefully, no odd sounds, no light. I've chambered a round way earlier for the same reason. No decoy either, the state has declared no dekes until tomorrow, so I'm going to have to coax these birds up with calls only. I manage it all without messing up, stakes, poles and the big stadium chair and settle in, it's still a good 45 minutes 'til light. I munch on a snack cake, sip on a breakfast drink, and await dawn and the morning.

As it lightens, I'm amazed how late other hunters are arriving on the public land nearby. I'm considering tree calls, and their pounding down the gravel roads a mile away, likely with a walk of some sort ahead of them you'd think. Truth is, a percentage of these road warriors will never leave the road if they don't hear or provoke a gobble, they'll simply crank up after a brief wait and some owl hoots, and roll to somewhere else , covering a lot of territory in the course of a morning. Not my style, but it's commonly done anywhere there's vehicle access. Heck, I've watched guys call and never leave the truck, just roll down the window and crank away with a box call!

I deem it light enough to tree call, and waft ever so soft soft yelps with two different strikers from the slate. A few minutes later, I repeat the hushed chorus. Nothing and I'm actually glad. I know there are turkeys here, they had to hear that. What I don't want is to provoke a gobble and draw other hunters. I wait, hoping to hear wings of a flydown turkey. Fifteen minutes later and still no turkey noise of any kind. OK, I'll chance a fly down cackle. It may provoke a gobble, may draw another hunter resultant, but I need to convince these roosted birds to come my way this morning, and not wander off where ever they choose. I run the cackle on the slate.....and get an answer.....but it's not a gobble, it's what sounds like a mature hen, cutting back, annoyed that some newcomer has invaded her space. I respond with what I hope are friendly lost yelps and put the call down. Turkeys have heard me and answered, lets see what happens?

I never do hear wings, but in just a few minutes I hear turkeys on the wooded slope below me, clucking back and forth, some soft yelps and occasional scratching noises inside 100 yds and seeming to move my way.
I'm facing east, the morning light is illuminating the inside of the blind, and I'd better get a mask on. I do so, arranging it so I can see well, then glance back out the blind window. There's a turkey looking right at me on the opposite side of the ROW, 40 yds away. Despite the opening only being 6" or so, that dang bird detected movement and is really looking the set up over. Ahh!!!.....don't putt, don't putt. It doesn't.......breath of relief...... and resumes moving my way, with an ocassional peck/scratch. I manage to get the gun in my hands and out the window. Things then happen quickly.

Unseen until the moment, a turkey sails out of a tree just inside the woodline from about 60 yds and lands on the edge of the ROW. Three others appear like magic from down slope and in a moment I've got 5 turkeys in front of me at 40 yds or so in the wide open. Jakes, all jakes, but #3 in the progression seems bigger and has more beard, he might be a two year old. I track him with the Leupold on 3x, and hesitate twice fearing I might kill two with one shot as they sift forward. Finally the one I'm on is clear. I make an odd goofy bullfrog like sound with my mouth and five heads pop up. I center the wattles on #3 and shoot. He goes over backwards, feathers flying, and flops madly. Solid.

The survivors mill about, taking another would have been easy but illegal of course. I unzip the blind, and clamber out, they run and flush away, and I pace it off over to the one I've shot , thirty-five full paces likely 32-33 yds. He is in fact a jake, not a two year old. I find that his larger beard is actually two beards, each about 3". Nubs for spurs, and I doubt he weighs more than 15 lbs. Mature, he would have been really interesting. But I've no regrets. I'm 10 days into the season, this opportunity was hard earned and an honest hunt, and I'm tickled, every gobbler I kill is a gift and special. It's just 6:30, from when I first called to the shot, less than 30 minutes.

I pack it all up, careful not to loose calls, strikers, mask....geez all the little stuff and the devils in the details. I make the up/down hike back to the ATV, now toting the young gobbler as well, but my steps are light, even uphill. I pack the ATV and motor back to the ridge crest from where I spotted the flock the night before. I unpack the gobbler and hang him from a convenient limb and a large down log makes a nice breakfast seat and table.
I eat and drink some more, soaking up the moment.......one lucky feller!!!!!

[eastbank]

way to go, the season here starts may 3 rd and i,m over ready, i have gone over every thing i will pack for the upteen time.

[stagpanther]

Congrats! Somewhere out there that Huge tom tripping over his own beard still awaits you.

[bamaranger]

Plans gone Astray
-12April, hunt #10
I take Friday off to help with 'bamagrand and have big plans for Sat morning, but it doesn't work out that way. When the alarm goes off at 4:00AM, I'm still wupped. Force myself awake, down the hall, jeez, I feel crumpled. I stumble back to the bed and reset the alarm to 8'oclock, four more hours of badly needed sleep. At eight I feel considerably better, and elect for an afternoon hunt over at 'bamaboys, he keeps messaging me about birds on his back field. I set dekes and blind up and am hunting by 1:00 PM, break for lunch about 1:00PM and hunt 'till dusk and see or hear narry a thing.

-14April, hunt #11
Once again I have big plans, but have to adjust and assist with 'bamagrand issues first thing in the AM. Again bamaboy has messaged, birds on his back field Sunday PM, so by 9:00AM today I'm back at his place. But...I cannot stand anymore blind time just this AM and thus push to his back property line, where I set up and call into adjoining hardwoods, hoping to draw a bird off private property. I stay at it 'till 2:00, certain I'll hear a bird midday, but do not. I'm back in the fields with blind and dekes by 4:00PM and it's HOT! I call sporadically and wait hopefully, but see nothing....again.
Not sure what I'll do tomorrow, but I think I'm done here at the boys place.

[stagpanther]

Here in Maine I frequently see turkeys hang out in sandy areas of which there are a lot of in quarries--they seem to like to browse there and it looks like they also "wash" their feathers in the sandy/gravely stuff. Is that a regular thing they do?

[bamaranger]

That activity is called "dusting" and is commonly thought of to be done as a preventive against biting insects and other parasites. It is part of their preening routine and can aid with oils and flaky skin too. Usually you will see shallow bowls, and within you will often find turkey stomach/underfeathers (is that a word? ...likely not correct). There is also a thing about gobblers and sandy washes and flats, they seem to like to strut there for reasons only known to them. On such a strut zone, one can often find gobbler tracks back and forth, and drag marks from their wings.

[bamaranger]

-15April, #12
I oversleep this morning and miss the first hour of daylight. I'm not to upset about it actually. I've not heard a turkey in 13 days, why would this morning be any different? I take the extra time required to drive over to Irish Hollow and drop in from the shallow side.....primarily because it's an easier walk out! By 7:00AM I settle in at the base of the big beach tree on the bottom, the wind is up, but not too bad down here. The plan is to hunt well into midday. If their not gobbling at first light, perhaps a lonely 'Tom, shun of his hens that go to nest, may gobble about lunchtime. I'm tickled pink when a gobble sounds at 8:00AM. It's well across the property line, likely near a half mile away, and over where I cannot hunt, but it gives me hope. I was beginning to think my hearing had slipped! I drift in that direction as far as I dare, settle in again, and call a bit. No response and no more gobbles. I tough it out 'till 1:30PM. It's stinkin' hot, and I take lots of breaks climbing out and take nearly an hour to get back to my vehicle. I'm done for, but manage to slip out at dusk to listen for roosting turkeys, but again.....nothing.

-16April, hunt #13
Again, I have a hard time getting started in the morning and miss the first bit of dawn. And again, I'm not really too upset. Somethings off this year, many guys are reporting few gobbles. Anyhow, by 6:30AM I'm in the vicinity of Big Hollow. I'd heard a very vocal bird here preseason, and opening morning I believed I could hear birds here as well, though I was hunting over on The Arena about 1/2 mi to the east. Since then I've had a report from a source I trust who was at this very spot opening morning and he stated "we were covered up with gobblers". I've actually hunted this sport or very near it twice already this year myself, but, as seems the case this year.....narry a peep. This morning's no different. I stay 'till 11:00AM, then bail. I'm so dang tired, every time I sit down, I get the nods.
Still, that evening, I push over to my neighbors 160 ac and sit his stretch of R.O.W. with a blind and single decoy. I see a turkey in the distance, some 500 yds or so the south, on the ROW, but it pays no attention to my calls or the decoy. But it gives me a starting point in the AM

[stagpanther]

That activity is called "dusting" and is commonly thought of to be done as a preventive against biting insects and other parasites. It is part of their preening routine and can aid with oils and flaky skin too. Usually you will see shallow bowls, and within you will often find turkey stomach/underfeathers (is that a word? ...likely not correct). There is also a thing about gobblers and sandy washes and flats, they seem to like to strut there for reasons only known to them. On such a strut zone, one can often find gobbler tracks back and forth, and drag marks from their wings.

Thanks--that describes a lot of what I see--I think they like coming to dusty/sandy areas, it's like visiting the health spa.

Strange times hunting. Saw a coyote in broad daylight on the road to my place; he just stood there watching me as I pulled up near him. Very weird.

[bamaranger]

-17April, hunt #14
I get to bed early the night before and and up and away on the ATV way before a hint of dawn. Once again, despite my dislike of the process, I am tucked into a commercial blind, fat, dumb and happy with two hen decoys in front of me, not far at all from the knoll I took my first gobbler this year. It's pretty clear that the fields and openings are a key element in locating turkeys this spring. You can walk for miles in glorious hardwoods, and not find any scratching or see/hear a gobbler, they seem all to be holding along or near open areas. Yes, they'll roost in the woods, but they appear in the cleared areas to feed, strut and generally hang out. A major mast crop failure this past fall led to all this, and it may well be why there is limited gobbling activity as the gobblers are likely undernourished as a result. That and a wild swings of weather and temperatures, (at least two tornado cells have swept thru the two county area during the season) and multiple thunder and hail storms as well.
Anyhow, I'm out on this open area in this silly pop-up blind and always feel a bit foolish when I do so. But it lets me hunt these open areas and not get busted by turkey eyeballs. There's just no way to sit motionless in these open spaces for the lengths of time required. I know a few real purists who will not do it, nor use decoys,..... good on them. I figure I need all the help I can get! As I've written before, ..I've had too many gobblers get away, that I should have killed, to feel too bad about using a blind and decoys when the situation required. This morning is one of those times.
There is less truck traffic over on public land this morning, but as dawn arrives I hear a guy running a reed type owl hooter way to the south, maybe as much as 1000 yds away. He's wearing the thing out and in a few minutes it's clear he is working his way down the ROW in my direction. Live owls start as well and I just know a gobbler will sound off....but nothing does.
The owl man stops short of the knoll I'm perched on , just out of sight at a couple of hundred yards. He remains in the area until near 8:00 AM or so, then I hear him no more. At least he wasn't wanging away on a turkey call as well. I've tree called a wee bit at first light, then some very soft yelps, hopefully just enough for a gobbler to be aware of me, but my calling has been very limited. I feel certain the owl man will move to cut me off if a gobbler responds to my calling, so I play it safe and have only called sparsely and very softly when owl man was still at some distance away. By 9:00AM I'm convinced that the owl hooter has drifted back the way he came. I call on the slate, 3-4 yelps, moderate volume, every 20 minutes or so. It's relatively calm, light wind, just enough to swing the soft decoy a bit now and then, and from my knoll my calls should carry well. I tell myself I will stay till 11:00 AM
At 10:15, I see what seems to be a turkey head periscoping up over the lip of the knoll, 75 yds or so away on the left. I get the gun up, run the Leupold up to 5X and sure enough that's a head. No distinct color on it, and I can only make out just the head. Maybe a hen. As I watch, another head eases into view. Wattles, fleshy appearance, distinct enflamed red with white crown, that's a gobbler! I ease the gun in, get the slate in hand, and run some light clucks, then ease the gun out again. The pair of birds ease into view, eyeballing my decoys. Yup, hen and a gobbler.....another jake. The come on steadily, and as they get to 50 yds or so, the young gobbler splits away from his hen and begins to slant in towards the nearest decoy. I ponder briefly, do I want to shoot another jake? I've been hunting hard, went 13 days without hearing a gobble, yes....I wil indeed shoot that jake!
I'm on him, and recall telling myself don't let him get so close you do not have a useful pattern. There seems good I catch his wattles in the crosshairs and I shoot. He goes down, but amazingly, pops back up and begins to flop towards the wooded lip. The angles change and I cannot track him from this blind window any further. I jerk the stubby Remington back in the blind, pumping in another round, and run it out the front window, getting a sight picture on the crippled gobbler again. He's right on the woodline when I trip the second shot. Feathers fly, he's stopped.
I flip the blind over (no stakes this AM), pump a third round in, and walk hard down to the bird. I get within a few paces, his head pops up, and he flops off the ROW and into the wooded down slope. If I shoot him here, this close, they'll be nothing but a bloody stump on a head shot and turkey burger if I hit the body. I breech the shotgun, opening the action a few inches, better safe than sorry! I figure I can catch the devil.....and the Keystone Cops episode begins.
I snatch up a down branch and rare back to waylay him, the limb breaks on the fore stroke and I miss. He flops into 3-4 ft washed out gully, I bail in after him trying to pin his head with my foot, he dodges several times, I can barely keep my balance on the grade. He's not really getting away, but I'm not catching him either. We cover 20 yds or so in this crazy life and death dance until I get his head pinned with my foot. He flops wildly, then stills. Finally! I remove my foot, his head pops up again! Oh no you don't,.... I pin him again before he can move and get the other foot involved and that ends it. Jeez....I've got a bird, but what a fiasco. Not the clean kill he deserves or I intended. But its done.
I don't know what happened on the first shot. It's 38 paces to the first feathers, and 48 to feathers of shot #2. After that there are feathers everywhere. When I skin and fillet the bird, the upper corner of the breasts are full of holes and so is the top portion of the crop. He's got an eyeball shot out, some holes in the wattles as well, how did he go anywhere? Broken wing, broken leg (second shot, good thing too) he's full of pellets, I don't understand any of it. I pattern the gun the next day, it's dead on. Did I anticipate the shot. flinch and shoot low? Perhaps not follow through and fringe this bird? He was on the move, should I have stopped him before I shot? Or somehow, did I manage not to hit something vital? I know how lethal this gun/choke/load combo can be. Dunno, odd business.

[stagpanther]

It happens, kudos for sticking with the pursuit. What kind of load/velocity? maybe it got wonky at that range?