# How'd I miss that bird?



## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

Every year thousands of hunters ask themselves the question “how did I miss that bird”. Many times the answer is clear and simple, we took a bad shot. Maybe it was too long, maybe the bird was behind thick cover, maybe the bird was running away or maybe it was too dark, etc, but in nearly all of these cases, after some sole searching and a little scratchin of the head, we finally realize we made a mistake when we took that shot. I have never met a hunter who isn't guilty of one of these scenarios. Now these mistakes don't make us bad or unethical hunters, it doesn't make us bad human beings, it just makes us human. 
What then can we do to minimize the occurrence of these accidents that almost always result in a wounded bird?

Now, not including mechanical problems with your gun or the ammo being used, here is my list of mistakes that turkey hunters make and tips to stop them from happening again.

Too long of a shot. Turkeys are big birds and sometimes appear much closer than they really are. I recommend buying a life size turkey decoy and taking it to the field and practice shooting that baby at known distances until you have that mental picture of a bird within proper shooting distance firmly embedded in your brain. Secondly, stop believing this hype about 50 or 60 yard effective range BS being put out there by sellers of fancy choke tubes. There is no doubt that some of these chokes extend the range of a shot gun a few yards, but still, as always, when shooting at the limit of any gun's range is never the best idea. Let that extended range just be a little extra insurance against miss judging the range, not the standard to be used as “normal” shooting range.

Miss-handling of your gun. There you sit, all hunched over under a big pine and here comes that Tom, right above you on the little hillside, you raise the gun and shoot. He hops in the air with a couple flaps of his wings and then hits the ground a-runnin. “What the heck” you ask yourself? Chances are about 99.99% that you shot right over his head. In the excitement of the situation most hunters fail to get their cheek down of the stock properly with the resulting high shot! We've ALL done it and we'll probably all do it again sometime. Here is what you can do to minimize this “oh so common” mistake. First , make sure your shotgun fits right. If the comb is just a little too high, you're damned from the start. Snap your gun up to your shoulder a few times and take aim at a target, and without adjusting your head in any way, sight down the barrel, can you see the top of your barrel down below the front sight, even just a little bit, if so, your shot will go high. If you need to adjust your head...settle it down on the stock...your stock may need a refit or you need another gun. When you're looking down the barrel all you should see is that front sight just sittin there, no barrel, not the back end of your receiver, just a pretty little bead. I recommend also you go out in the field and do some practicing shooting from unusual positions. Take note of your cheek position on the stock, learn to naturally settle down on the stock before you squeeze the trigger.

I hear every year the old adage about always shoot a turkey in the head. I hear guys saying stuff like “shoot'em right in the face”, “ I shot the lips right off that bird” or sometimes from the real hardcore red neck “I blowed the head clean off that bird”. Now nobody is saying that a head shot is bad when you walk up on a dead bird, but I'll tell you right now, it's not the best place to shoot a turkey. If you want to kill that bird more often with less misses and less wounded birds, place that bead right at the base of his neck and let'er fly. Sure, you might get a few shot in his breast but the bulk of your pattern is right there in the neck/head kill zone. And if by some strange fluke you happen to fall victim to any of the above mentioned problems, guess what, you're still probably going to wipe the smile right off his face.

And last but not least, plain and simple old “buck fever”. A lot of guys will say, “oh, I rushed my shot” or “I took a snap shot” or “I didn't get the gun up to my shoulder right”, but by any name, it's buck fever! We have all been there (me being the exception, right?) so don't be to harsh on yourself. Buck fever...turkey fever if you prefer, can manifest itself in many ways, we've all heard some great stories, but in the end, it almost always results in a miss. There's not much you can do that is more effective to stop this plague than to simply breathe, breathe my friend . Slow controlled breathing will stop buck fever right in it's tracks. There is always time for one more controlled breath, and with controlled breathing, you're in control of your whole body. You'll make that good shot and bring home that trophy you hunted so hard to get.
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## Mojo1 (Sep 8, 2007)

Lots of misses are cused by being too far, but you can get them too close to kill 
Last day of last season, I picked my cheek up off the stock on a 8 yard shot, completely missed him high.

I called in 2 on the next to last day this year for my buddy. Had one "dead" at under 20 years until he shot. Bird flew away and my buddy was dumbfounded. I still haven't figured that one out. :mrgreen:

Some birds just aren't meant to be killed


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## Bears Butt (Sep 12, 2007)

Excellent advise BP! I wish you would have posted this last year before I took a hurry up shot and missed.


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## hawglips (Aug 23, 2013)

Here are a couple more to add to your valuable advice BP.

I like to build in some cushion in my range in order to counter the almost inevitable mistake in range estimation. Unless one has a range finder built into his head, even the best at estimating range among us will mess up in that category.

And first of all, how does one know what his actual effective range is? The only way to know is spend some time on the range and see what your pattern of pellets is actually doing. My personal rule of thumb is that my max range is whatever range I get both an average of at least 100 pellets in a 10" circle, and at least 1.25" of ballistics gel penetration. There is no way around figuring out the former without getting out and shooting. The latter is easy - Toasty has developed a nice shotshell ballistics program (KPY Shotshell Balllistics) which will tell you what your pellets are doing in the penetration category (as well as lots of other cool stuff).

A side benefit of getting your gun/shell combo out and shooting it is that you will get better at putting your turkey load pattern where you want it. And that leads me to the final max range criteria to add on to the other two - can I put the core of my pattern where I want it at the range I'm shooting. 

All three of those things are part of the equation - pattern density, pellet penetration energy, and shooter ability. Taking care to see that all three of those are adequate for the job we are trying to accomplish is the least we can do.


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## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

hawglips said:


> Here are a couple more to add to your valuable advice BP.
> 
> I like to build in some cushion in my range in order to counter the almost inevitable mistake in range estimation. Unless one has a range finder built into his head, even the best at estimating range among us will mess up in that category.
> 
> ...


Absolutely Lips, knowing the actual range is vital. When you have time when setting up, always measure the various ranges around you. My brother sits down and uses a range finder to determine the range to rocks, trees, decoys or other markers within his killing field to determine the range of the bird as it gets near these points. I am a little old school and just pace a few markers off. But many times taking the time to pace or use the rangefinder isn't possible if the bird is coming in fast. That's why I recommend the life size decoy time.

And as you said, learning your guns capabilities can only be determined by actual and deliberate use and study. Learning to know your gun and the loads that you use is a MUST!


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