What's your closest turkey kills

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quavodus
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What's your closest turkey kills

Post by quavodus »

I know a lot of guys want to know what the farthest you've killed one but, I wondered what is your closest. I've never killed one really close. I think about 15 yards.
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AlinMi
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by AlinMi »

10-12yds and have missed a couple that close too
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Southern Sportsman
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by Southern Sportsman »

5 steps. It was a good setup for a turkey gobbling to my right. I hid in a patch of vines to my left. But the turkeys circled behind me and came in from the left, so when they came into view they were point blank.
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WV Ridge Reaper
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by WV Ridge Reaper »

12 yards..I usually do the dirty the first chance I get..Had one point blank last year,didn’t pan out.
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HunterGKS
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by HunterGKS »

8 yards here in Ohio. I called him in from behind me. He came in strutting, spitting & drumming passing within 5 yards.
When he went behind a stump to my left & dropped him when he stepped out.
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Prospector
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by Prospector »

You said it- too many folks worry about how FAR you can kill him. The real measure of a Turkey Hunter is how CLOSE you can get him. That being said, for me, around the 15 yd mark. I’ve had one or two closer but it generally don’t end well lol. 30 yds is my favorite mark, close enough that pattern is dense, far enough that it’s opened up a bit for your own margin of error...
But I shoot at my first GOOD opportunity and that has allowed a couple to walk this year bc I didn’t think the percentage favored me enough. However, I can go try him again and I’m not sick bc of a miss or worse.....
“Son, Turkey HUNTING starts at 40yds and in. If you can kill him farther that’s all you’re doing- KILLING. Make him think he’s answering you, call him up, kill him closer-Man! Now that’s what it’s meant to be…” Johnnie Keel ( an Old Pro most never know)
Hobbes_mobile
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by Hobbes_mobile »

I know that this topic has come up on here before.

7 yards in IL around 2O years ago. That was really ugly. :) I've killed several between 10 and 15 that I never stepped off. I've missed a couple close ones too. I had a kid with me once that body shot one that had just spooked and taken to the air at no more than 10 yards. He wasn't more than 5 feet off the ground when the kid dropped him dead. It actually startled me because I didn't expect him to shoot.
norINhunter
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by norINhunter »

7 paces. Had a great setup and he was one of the few that did it perfect. Most of the time if they get to 25 yds I’m not waiting much longer.
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Turkinator
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by Turkinator »

2A69E7E8-9831-4762-A8D1-46E2C08CAEEC.jpeg
tss woks well at 10yds!!!!!
Hobbes_mobile
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by Hobbes_mobile »

Turkinator wrote: April 5th, 2021, 6:43 pm 2A69E7E8-9831-4762-A8D1-46E2C08CAEEC.jpeg tss woks well at 10yds!!!!!
I would really prefer to not let them get that close, but it just happens sometimes. Dangit that's a mess.
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soiltester
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by soiltester »

I love close and personable and headless, if at all or close to possible :stir:
Just off, a couple times and "not quite headless" fer' me :banghead:

Buddies give me heck for putting my DSD's so close to the blind in in fencerows on the edge of spring planted farm fields, but the pay off, "priceless" ;)

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OLE RASPY
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by OLE RASPY »

8 steps. Eastern bird at home.
TURKEYS
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Ozark Ridge Runner
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by Ozark Ridge Runner »

6 feet. I set up in a bowl with a tom roosted opposite to me on the other side of the bowl. It would have been easy for that turkey to fly down and follow the terrain and end up coming right down the gun barrel to me. But typical of those deep woods gobblers, he decided to circle way around to the left and come in from behind me and to my left. Right where there was a cedar sapling at the end of my barrel. When that turkeys head hit a hole between the limbs of that tree I torched off the SP10.
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paboxcall
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by paboxcall »

Late season, got in right under them in the hemlocks, satellite gobbler flew down and came quiet to the alpha gobbling still in the tree. Gobbler walked past me at 5, maybe 6 steps, and about to break over the edge into the head of the hollow. Heavy, dark storm clouds - legal shooting hours but still pretty dark. Heck of a fireball out the end of the 1300.
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appalachianassassin
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by appalachianassassin »

About 12........feet
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by Dtrkyman »

I had one come up a really steep hillside, knowing how turkeys in that terrain like to stay over the edge and not show themselves I started standing against the back side of large oaks, worked fantastic. This bird came up slow, I could see his fan and the very top of his head for several minutes.

I told my self when I see his eye ball I am shooting, I would say 3 steps and I cleaned the top of his head off, looked like he was guillotined! Luckily that gun shot perfectly down the beads!
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wchadw
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by wchadw »

Had one fly off roost towards my tree yelp. Shot him under 5 yards. He about landed on me


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RidgeRunner3105
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by RidgeRunner3105 »

Best I remember it was 7 yards. Group of Jake’s slipped in while I was calling to some big gobblers, I was young and it was the first bird I killed by myself. No decoys.
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SwampDrummin
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by SwampDrummin »

I’m trying pretty seriously to kill one with a samurai sword.
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935
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by 935 »

I've killed several a 12 or so steps. Hunting a narrow road with a cutover in front of me, thinking they would come down the road and they came through the cutover.
Thank you Lord for creating these wonderful birds and allowing us to chase after them.
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by pullit »

10 yards, I set my decoy up just a few feet out in the field because I saw birds as I was about to enter the field and did not want to get busted. I eased back into the woods, sat next to a big tree, and when I got my mask up on my face, there were 2 gobblers standing next to my decoy! I wanted for the to separate and shot the bigger of the two. From the time I put my decoy out till I pulled the trigger was maybe 1.5-2 minutes tops.
Never had a hunt that quick before and still don't know how those 2 toms did not see me when I put the decoy out or even where they came from for that matter.
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Blackduck
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by Blackduck »

2 feet, 4 feet, and 4 yards are the closest I remember. Missed one at 3 feet as well, with a simple head bob when I squeezed the trigger, shooting a golfball, easy to miss. I did drop that one out of the air at 25 yards with the second shot. I've had jakes and hens step across my feet, though never on them. Had a deer come up and lick me. A snake crawl into my vest while sitting against the tree. Opossum try to crawl through my legs (I sat against an old stump, right over his den hole). A racoon wanted to crawl across me to get up the tree I was against to get to his den. At about 5 feet he knew something wasnt right about me (he could see my breath and I'm sure smell me). A bobcat stalked my gloved hand when trying to wave him off, got to about 6 feet before I stood up, worried he would pounce. All sorts of crazy things in the woods if you sit still long enough.
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Southern Sportsman
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by Southern Sportsman »

SwampDrummin wrote: April 6th, 2021, 5:01 am I’m trying pretty seriously to kill one with a samurai sword.
In what state is that legal?
I go stubbornly into error by myself, and reach my own fallacious conclusions using my own faulty data. ~Tom Kelly
Matt76cmich
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by Matt76cmich »

About 12 steps. He had to come up a small hill to me. He strutted so I could just see his fan and back feathers, then he took a couple more steps and popped his head up. Took it with my dad's old 20 gauge 870 Wingmaster with a fixed modified choke barrel with 2 3/4" #5 pheasant load. I don't think I've ever shot a turkey over 25 yards.
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taulbeescott539
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Re: What's your closest turkey kills

Post by taulbeescott539 »

At the age of 11, having missing a turkey every year since I started turkey hunting at age 6 from shooting at them 30 to 40 yards, I called my first in and let him get to 8 steps before I shot just so I wouldn’t miss


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