I screwed up today

[Mount-N-Man]

I have been hunting a farm not far from my house and every time I have hunted there mature toms have come out in a flat spot on the side of the ridge every day between 10:30 and 11:30. I did some work this morning before going hunting and was planning on setting up about 9:30. When I arrived there was already 4 hens and a big tom there. I watched them from a bordering ridgetop and when they left it was 10:15. As soon as they were out of sight I ran over there and set up. About 20 minutes after setting up 3 hens walked past me and fed on up the ridge away from me, all passed within 10 yards.
No sooner than the hens left a big tom came in. He stopped at about 50 yards and wouldn't come any closer. After standing there strutting for about 10 minutes he turned around and left. When I decided to quit for the day I walked off were he was standing at 35 yards, so I could have got him. I did get some awesome video of him though. If its not raining I'm trying again in the morning.

[skin_dog1]

You need to get your set up to where you are comfortable shooting at 50 yards! sucks to have one hung up and not able to shoot. Ofcourse there are limits to everything!

[lab]

That does suck. I have been in situations like that before and it is not funny.

[Duster]

If your useing decoys you might try this. Set the decoys past you away from the direction the Tom's come from. Keep them in range just in case one shows up from a differant direction. By placing the decoys this way the Tom who hangs up at a regular distance from the decoys would be within range at his hang up point. It will cause him to focus past you at the decoys.

[SixPack07]

Distances get hard to judge sometimes, and that's why decoys can help. If you have it setup 15 yards in front of you, you don't have such a long distance to guess at.

[Turkeyhunter5]

good luck next time

[Gobblergetter2.1]

You cant get them all! Never give up... you'll get him next time!