Fishback,
I feel your pain brotha! I shot my first turkey in the spring of 99 when I was senior in HS. The bird weighed 22.5 pounds. Since then I have killed over 20 birds or so while hunting in two different states. Well that was until the spring of 05 when I had the easiest hunt of my life. I was working on Lake Ontario as a mate on a charter boat. We got off the water early one may morning. I bought my turkey tags at 10:43am. I drove like a mutha to get to where my dad had been hunting that morning to see him pull out of the road and not see me. I looked down the field he had been hunting all morning and saw a turkey in it! Well, I can tell you that I did not flag my father down! I parked my car at 11:28am and loaded the gun. I looked out into the field and the bird was gone. I ran down the edge of the field and made 1 yelp. The bird gobbled. I looked at my watch to see what time it was (because you can only hunt until noon) and I noticed I had left my watch in my jeep! So nervous about time and having a bird gobbling in front of me was pretty exciting! The bird popped his head out into the field at 40 yards and I flopped him. I knew that I had plenty of legal time because this all happened so fast! I ran over to the bird, grabbed him, and then ran like hell back to the jeep. When I saw what time it was, I almost did #2 in my pants! The time was 11:36! 8 minutes and the hunt was over!
Since I shot that stupid bird, I have gone turkeyless since. I have been trying to do some camera work and it just makes things more difficult!
Don't feel bad about seeing turkeys without a bow. This past Sat morning, I identified a buck as my father....Long story
When it is time for you to take a turkey, you will! That is why it is called hunting and not shooting or killing!