No way I could make myself body shoot one, I love to eat them not pellets. I can’t imagine trying to eat one body shot with TSS with all those tiny pellets.

I hope you guys are joking about all these misses and body shots. My goodness, no wonder the turkey population has been declining. If a guy misses more than a couple birds on our place over a stretch of 4-5 years he wont be asked back. We only have one who misses more than 1 every 5+ years and he knows he has been on a short leash.

I’ve killed 25ish. Missed 3. 2 on public which really hurt

I think I have killed around a dozen turkeys and I have only missed one. I got lucky that morning and shot one about 15 mins afterward.

I don't miss much but I don't shoot much either! I have lost more turkeys waiting on that perfect shot than missing. WAY more.

I travel all over the country hunting turkeys. Usually pull the trigger 20 times a year. I might go a long time without missing one, then things go to chit 3 times in a row. I’m not missing birds that are standing in front of decoy posing. I miss a bobbing head that pokes up over a rock at 10 yards

Me

If he’s on the roost?

Once more, B’ham Fred has cut through the fog of BS.

Who hasn't? You haven't missed a few, you haven't shot at many.

I've missed them to far, missed them too close, missed them flying, missed them running, missed them because I didn't get my head down on the stock and some I don't know why. Putting a red dot on my turkey gun helped a lot. If the dot isn't on him, you ain't gonna kill him.

I’ve missed a pile when I was younger,only a few the last 15 years or so

Im still getting over 100 pellets in a 10" circle at 50, which is well over what I used to get with a 12 ga, turkey tube, 3" copper plated 6's at 40. That rig killed a bunch of turkeys. However, since I switched to tss, I still want them inside 40. Knowing it will kill one at 50 only makes me more comfortable that if I misjudge 40 he will still be dead. I just don't see the point in shooting at one farther and risking a cripple. All research says that as few as one pellet in a bird risks him dying later either from infection or predators and I cant think of anything more I would rather not do is cripple one. If I kill one, I want to put my hands on him, not find his pile of feathers later. I would never think of body shooting one and think pretty poorly of folks that are merrily shooting at them at 60, 70+ yards and saying "oh I missed him". The chances of a miss are high close (<20 yds). The risk of a cripple is high when the pattern opens up at longer ranges.

Dependin on how high in the tree..if hes purty low..ill save my tss an shooteem with my pistol.. im purty frugal🥸

Been hunting them for almost 50 years. Remember 2 different field Turkeys back in the early 80's I shot at too far....stepped off 53 yards on one and 55 on the other. Just got soooooo frustrated after hunting them several times and they wouldn't come any closer....both just jumped up and flew off!! The other for sure plenty close miss at about 25 yards: I had called some Hens up and they were behind a HUGE downed Red Oak tree....all I could see was there legs/feet through the underside of the tree. Old Big Boy had been Gobbling down the draw. Then....I saw another Turkey come up and I could only see his legs/feet also.....but they were Pink.....unlike the grey color of a Hen. Got the gun up and he started walking to the right behind the tree coming to look for that other Hen(Me) he heard....all I could see was feet. I was bent way around to the right in order to be ready when he came out into the open. I was in Bad pain in this position as I had a ruptured Disk and was scheduled for surgery in 2 weeks. Well....he took his sweet time coming around...then got behind a hickory tree. I told myself just as soon as he sticks his head/neck out from behind that tree I gotta let her fly....and untwist. Well...he stuck that head out....and my load skinned the bark off the side of that hickory!! Amazed he wasn't flopping....I watched him run a ways then fly off!! What a damn' let-down...oh well. All the rest have died right there....

Me and my good friend Beau were hunting on his place south of montgomery one day and we had turkeys gobbling all around us...off the property of course. So we decided to make a loop around the edge of the property and all of the sudden one gobbled in the brush beside us and walked out in the road over a little rise where I could see him but Beau couldn't. Beau was also in front of me so I couldnt shoot. I crawled up to him as the turkey moved to our right not knowing we were there gobbling his head off. Being young and dumb we decided to both stand up and shoot him on 3. Needless to say the image of the gobbler flying over us is burned in my mind. That joker haunts me.

I have , but It had to be the darn gun.

Probably 20+

Usually from being impatient.

yyyeeeaaahhh ... misses ... 🤔💩 we dont talk about those much (for me) ‘cause they sting too bad 🤣

I’ve never missed -

- the opportunity to lie about missing one.

Good reading on these stories. Grady, that sounds like a plan me and my hunting buddies would have hatched up back in the day haha. Thanks for the info gobbler, I agree with you about not risking a cripple and that's a big reason I didn't kill much early on in my turkey hunting. That and the darn things are just smarter than me. I see it kinda like bow hunting...sometimes you have to wait for the deer to cooperate for the shot and that doesn't always happen.

Bad juju in this thread