^^^Yep, goes without sayin'. Tho, one does not generally have to wait long in these types of threads, before someone will pipe in and tell about hunting for 50 years and killing hundreds of deer with never a miss or a bad hit.
One miss that will forever haunt me was Turkey hunting a few years back. Had patterned these two old toms for two years.....never could get between them and their hens during the season because of how and where they roosted. Killed other Toms that came in while working those two, but it was just not the same. They had a ridge and fields on both sides that they worked that I did not have permission to hunt,(and obviously, no one else did either), so I always had to work them from a distance, even tho they roosted on property I had permission to hunt. At that time, we couldn't hunt after 5:00 p.m.(law has changed now) so waiting for them to return to the roost while an an option, was generally futile. No matter how carefully, or how early I snuck in, I'd almost always alert hens roosting with the Toms, busting the setup for the day. Even when I didn't alert the birds and would get good response from the roost, they'd fly down directly to the neighbor's field and tease me all day. Finally one morning by shear luck, I came in and got between the Hens and the two Toms on the roost. The wind and wet leaves made it quiet, and I had left my seat and gear there the night before. So all I had to do, was sit down and wait till sunrise. Sun came up to a hens in the tree above me and all around me, while the Toms gobbled off below the ridge line....outta sight. Didn't take long before an unseen hen saw the slightest of movement from me and the jig was up. Knowing I had to do something, I jumped up spooking the hens, sending them off the roost in another direction away from the neighbors field. When the Toms flew down into the neighbors field, there was nuttin' to fly down to. The hens were all calling from the field behind me. Perfect storm set-up and it worked like a charm. Those two toms only waited a few minutes in the field before hurrying back to the top of the ridge to my calls....and the answering call of several hens behind me. I watched them for a coupla hundred yards strutting and double gobbling at every call. My only fear was the real hens would pass by me before the toms got to me. I gave myself a line about 15 yards away that I would hold off to shoot, until the toms were within it. They obliged nicely and quickly were so close I could hear them drumming and could see the hooks they had for spurrs. I had the bead on the one I thought was the boss for what seemed an eternity. Had to wait for them to separate so I did not shoot them both(limit is one a season/tag here). Once they did, I brought my target out of full strut with a cluck, and when he raided his head, I put the bead on his neck waddles and squeezed the trigger. After the shot, we stood there and looked at each other in amazement. It wasn't until he and his brother turned and quickly ran the other way, that I thought about a follow up shot, but it was too late, and a poor percentage shot. To this day, I do not know what happened. The gun has always patterned well with the loads I use. There was nuttin' in that 12 yards that separated us but clean air. Only thing I could think of is that I am cross eye dominate and after looking down the barrel for so long, I opened both eyes and sighted the bead with my dominate left eye instead of the right. Three days later I killed one of them @ 10 minutes to 5 as they returned to their roost in an April snowstorm. The spurrs were 1 5/8" and very sharp.
