Slick
Well-Known Member
I saw this on another forum and thought it could be a learning opportunity. Its from Kansas last years Youth turkey season. In a nut shell a you will see a guy shoot about 3 inches over a Dad and Sons head and hit the decoy at about the 19 second mark with a .22. Its youth season so this guy has no right to hunt or use a .22. After reading the comments it occurred to me that we as bow hunters tend to watch and observe rather that give our location away. If you see someone working there way to your setup up or across the field creeping along get vocal because you have no idea what they are thinking or what type of gun they have. They say use your voice not wave your arms. The DA would not press charges because he did not shoot a live animal. WTH! Below is what the original poster said about the occurrence.
Opening day of Youth Spring Turkey 2020, my buddy Mike and I took his son out for the morning on public ground - El Dorado State Park. I had put these four Tom's to bed the night before, we had visions of a great hunt.
Around 8:30-9am I saw a red truck going down the county road out in front of our decoy set up, at a high rate of speed. Lost sight of the truck right about where we had parked. I'd been calling and had a few answers early but nothing since. All of a sudden I had the group of Tom's firing off 50yds behind us to the SE, and across the creek, they were coming.
As we listened, and awaited their approach, we heard another noise coming down the creek behind us from the N. It's a guy sneaking along with a rifle, he had face paint on and was moving real slow...my initial thought was "Squirrel hunter" and I remember saying it out loud. The bird's went silent, he wasn't after squirrels...
You'll have to forgive the wind noise, and really focus on the area behind us from the beginning, but what you'll see is a miracle...a miracle that someone wasn't killed
I told Mike and Gabe to stay put, and ran down to get his tag number while calling 911. His son and another adult were set up with decoys down by the trucks. Took a couple pictures of his truck/tag before they reached the "get away". I told him to stay and wait for the GW, but instead they took off spinning tires and throwing gravel.
Tracy took our statements later that day, in person, and started the case. If you watch closely you can see the bullet from his rifle hit my Jake decoy. So...1. Shooting at what he thought was a turkey with a rifle. 2. Shooting over the heads of Mike & Gabe. 3. Youth Season, he certainly doesn't fall into that category.
He knew exactly what he was doing. He saw my decoys, they're DSD's and look very realistic, especially at a high rate of speed from the road. He heard the Tom's sounding off behind us and, in my mind, he had a plan. He'd sneak up to the birds...shoot one with his rifle(22cal)...drag it back and have his son tag it...you know, just like every good dad.
I still don't remember turning on the GoPro out in the decoys, didn't even know I had the footage until late that night. You couldn't ask for better evidence, but the case never went to court...thrown out by the BU County DA because "he wasn't shooting at a live animal".
The hardest thing for me to watch is the few seconds between me/us seeing him and the shot. I just couldn't put "two and two" together fast enough to figure out what exactly he was doing, or what was happening right in front of me.
Mike and Gabe heard the bullet whiz over their heads, and Mike thought he heard it hit a leaf right above his head. I still have a really hard time dealing with the fact that I put them in this position. Have plenty of private ground to hunt, but I knew those birds were there and I hadn't seen anyone else around/scouting the afternoon/evening before.
You can see Mike's hand on his pistol after the shot, and for the entirety of the time the shooter was moving back to his truck. The guy immediately realized what he had done, and he did apologize several times while being called out...but, it should have never happened.
