bushidomosquito
New member
I would like to share with you the most horrifying and heart stopping experience I have ever had while on a hunt in the hopes that you can learn from my mistake and never have to suffer as I did. I had a very good first 45 min. of my first ever deer hunt this November when I took a doe at 200yrds. with a .30-06 and while dressing it another came out of the woods and stood broadside about 15' away to inspect the gory proccess. I thought I might never again have the chance to take a deer with my G23 so I slowly took aim and waited a second to see if she would come to her senses and bolt. She did not and received a Corbon copper slug in the boiler room for her curiosity.
It's true that the stupid ones die on opening day. Best first hunt ever.
The following weekend after picking up 2 more deer tags I sat for hours in several spots and saw nothing. Nothing, that is, except turkeys. Turkeys that were not in season.
Turkeys that I had no tag for.
Turkeys that my trusty borrowed .30-06 would make mince meat of.
And turkeys that surely were not foolish enough to come within range of my oh-so-deadly G23.
It was ALMOST enough to make me empathise with poachers. A weaker man would surely have broken the law that day. Had the last turkey I saw that day been the first, I surely would have been that weaker man. After about an hour in an unproductive spot I decided to move on and began a noisy hike through a foot of crispy leaves. Eventually, I came upon a large fallen tree that looked like it had been there for a while. It's base was sticking up about six feet in the air and I decided it would be a good place to sit for a while without making any noise. I walked alongside it feeling very peaceful, alone on that quiet and beautiful patch of land but that feeling was about to come to the harshest of endings. As I approached and stood next to the (unbeknownst to me) hollow end, I rapped on the base to see if it was to rotten to climb upon.
It was like touching a matchcord to the flashhole of a loaded cannon, except I was standing next to the wrong end and wasn't expecting a thing. What happened next had me more startled and closer to a full on heart attack than anything in my life. 20 inches in front of me a turkey shot out of that log so fast that I swear his tailfeathers were on fire. The calm, still air had instantly change to a stiff thumping gale than I imagine has only been felt by those that have leapt from a helicoptor.
Knowing what I do about prop driven aircraft, I'm sure he had to be moving at subsonic speeds, but it didn't seem like it at the time and I'm sure that NASA could have learned a lot from this particular bird. I have exactly one accidental discharge of a firearm to my name and I always thought nothing could freak a guy out like all hell in an instant like one of those but at least when that happened I knew right away WHAT had happened, I had just pulled the trigger expecting a click and I got a boom. You kind of half expect it even if you just cleared the chamber. My mind instantly put that into a frame of reference. That didn't happen with the turkey cannon. As I struggled for the longest miliseconds to comprehend wthf was going on, I found myself, a perfectly healthy 33 years old, on my hands and knees waiting for the next heartbeat and I began to think it would not come. Had I not just watered a tree a few yards back I most certianly would have wet myself. I know this because for the rest of the day I had that feeling one gets when one hasn't the chance to catch a sneeze while in mid-stream and feels like something important has slipped off it's mounts down there. One min. I am stalking through the trees, the deadliest preadator in the woods, NO creature could I come accross that I can't take down. The next I very nearly am dispatched by an effing turkey who simply had to jump out and say BOO!
Next year I will have that turkey tag. I will have my guard up at all times. I will be looking for the one with smoke billowing from his tailfeathers. And I will find out if anti-aircraft munitions are legal for turkey.
It's true that the stupid ones die on opening day. Best first hunt ever.
The following weekend after picking up 2 more deer tags I sat for hours in several spots and saw nothing. Nothing, that is, except turkeys. Turkeys that were not in season.
Turkeys that I had no tag for. Turkeys that my trusty borrowed .30-06 would make mince meat of. And turkeys that surely were not foolish enough to come within range of my oh-so-deadly G23. It was ALMOST enough to make me empathise with poachers. A weaker man would surely have broken the law that day. Had the last turkey I saw that day been the first, I surely would have been that weaker man. After about an hour in an unproductive spot I decided to move on and began a noisy hike through a foot of crispy leaves. Eventually, I came upon a large fallen tree that looked like it had been there for a while. It's base was sticking up about six feet in the air and I decided it would be a good place to sit for a while without making any noise. I walked alongside it feeling very peaceful, alone on that quiet and beautiful patch of land but that feeling was about to come to the harshest of endings. As I approached and stood next to the (unbeknownst to me) hollow end, I rapped on the base to see if it was to rotten to climb upon.
It was like touching a matchcord to the flashhole of a loaded cannon, except I was standing next to the wrong end and wasn't expecting a thing. What happened next had me more startled and closer to a full on heart attack than anything in my life. 20 inches in front of me a turkey shot out of that log so fast that I swear his tailfeathers were on fire. The calm, still air had instantly change to a stiff thumping gale than I imagine has only been felt by those that have leapt from a helicoptor.
Knowing what I do about prop driven aircraft, I'm sure he had to be moving at subsonic speeds, but it didn't seem like it at the time and I'm sure that NASA could have learned a lot from this particular bird. I have exactly one accidental discharge of a firearm to my name and I always thought nothing could freak a guy out like all hell in an instant like one of those but at least when that happened I knew right away WHAT had happened, I had just pulled the trigger expecting a click and I got a boom. You kind of half expect it even if you just cleared the chamber. My mind instantly put that into a frame of reference. That didn't happen with the turkey cannon. As I struggled for the longest miliseconds to comprehend wthf was going on, I found myself, a perfectly healthy 33 years old, on my hands and knees waiting for the next heartbeat and I began to think it would not come. Had I not just watered a tree a few yards back I most certianly would have wet myself. I know this because for the rest of the day I had that feeling one gets when one hasn't the chance to catch a sneeze while in mid-stream and feels like something important has slipped off it's mounts down there. One min. I am stalking through the trees, the deadliest preadator in the woods, NO creature could I come accross that I can't take down. The next I very nearly am dispatched by an effing turkey who simply had to jump out and say BOO!
Next year I will have that turkey tag. I will have my guard up at all times. I will be looking for the one with smoke billowing from his tailfeathers. And I will find out if anti-aircraft munitions are legal for turkey.
