snuffing my bird

[STEROIDCHICKEN]

shouldn't a man feel confident in telling his best friend about a bird with no worries of that friend going after the bird the next day?????
i know the bird doesn't have a name-tag around his neck saying "mr. petty's bird".
i got on a nice bird this past sunday but wasn't convincing enough to bring him him from his harem. i told my friend about him and lo and behold, he went over to this exact food plot, got out of the truck only to hear this bad-boy tom gobbling like it was no tomorrow. snuck into the edge of the food plot, yelped one time...yes, one time, and here he came.
20 lb., 11-1/8" beard, 1-11/16" spurs....
he wasn't going to tell me if i hadn't notice the background of the food-plot. he said that he had no luck else where...that being on 7000 acres with only a couple of turkey hunters on it, so he decided to give my bird a shot...a shot he did indeed. i'm happy for the guy but somewhat discouraged that he would do something like that...i guess i will have to keep my secrets to myself in the future. sorry for the ramblin...just had to vent.
there again, i wish i knew how to post the pics...once i do, i will post them.

[Dank]

Man i feel your pain. I learned this lesson with about a 130 class ten point a few years ago. I had him scouted out and made the mistake of telling a relative how i had it all lined up. Well, i got stuck at school writing a paper on the opening weekend of bow season and he killed him. Not only did he kill "my" deer he did so from my climbing stand. Talk about mad. Needless to say, now "my" deer and "my" honeyholes are exactly that...MINE. I only share the celebratory photos now. It seems like everyone is looking for good info. but not everyone is willing to put in the work. Sorry man, its a painful lesson to learn especially when its someone you think you can trust.

[Cut N Run]

I generally don't mention any roosted bird to another Turkey hunter unless that person is going with me to that spot to team up on that bird or it is roosted on a piece of property I am not likely to go back to any time soon. 
 
He did you wrong and broke the code of trust between the two of you.  It did teach you not to tell that s.o.b. anything in the future. I might be tempted to send that guy on a wild goose chase after another (imaginary) Gobbler in the middle of the busiest public hunting land in the area just to teach him a lesson.
 
That is like taking someone to a favorite fishing spot one day, then returning the next day to find your "buddy" with a boat-load of his friends parked on it wearing the fish out before you even get there.
 
Shame on him. I don't know how he could even look you in the eye after that. If you had not said anything about it, he would still not know where that bird was hanging out. That was not "your" bird, but it surely was not his bird to take from you. What he did was about as low down as it gets.
(did he groin kick you when he showed you the picture?...that's about what it would be like)
 
Just how I see it.
 
Jim

[silvestris]

What is the name of your former friend.

[M. Gallopavo]

That's the kind of friend you don't tell when you're leaving town and your girlfriend will be alone.

[turk2di]

ORIGINAL: Cut N Run

I generally don't mention any roosted bird to another Turkey hunter unless that person is going with me to that spot to team up on that bird or it is roosted on a piece of property I am not likely to go back to any time soon. 

He did you wrong and broke the code of trust between the two of you.  It did teach you not to tell that s.o.b. anything in the future. I might be tempted to send that guy on a wild goose chase after another (imaginary) Gobbler in the middle of the busiest public hunting land in the area just to teach him a lesson.

That is like taking someone to a favorite fishing spot one day, then returning the next day to find your "buddy" with a boat-load of his friends parked on it wearing the fish out before you even get there.

Shame on him. I don't know how he could even look you in the eye after that. If you had not said anything about it, he would still not know where that bird was hanging out. That was not "your" bird, but it surely was not his bird to take from you. What he did was about as low down as it gets.
(did he groin kick you when he showed you the picture?...that's about what it would be like)

Just how I see it.

Jim

 My thoughts exactly!

[tracebusta32]

Happened to me this morning, but in my case the bird was gobbling at my calls and get whacked on his way over to me...By a friend I suspect.

[Fan Club]

Yeah, that's pretty low Roger. The Jim Schlender T&TH story about being "gar-holed" comes to mind...
 
Last spring, my brother-in-law and his friend hunted my property while I was hunting in Missouri. His friend shot a gobbler. His buddy is a good guy and I'd like to be happy for him, but they at least could have asked! I get back from Missouri for my Michigan season and the birds have already been pressured and called to and there's one less gobbler to hunt.
 
[:@]
 
Jeff

[Sooner44]

I've had the same thing happen to me also. This year a friend hunted a spot I told him about, beat me there and was set up when I pulled in the gate. Last time I share any information.

[RutnNStrutn]

You have to be able to trust your friend.  If you don't trust him enough not to screw you like that, don't tell him.  I've seen friends get screwed like that, and learned their lessons.
Personally, I would never do a friend like that.  I have a friend of mine that showed me an absolute honey hole of a spot on a crowded Florida WMA.  I have never gone there without him, or at least without asking him first to make sure he was OK with it, and even then, I never asked unless he was already tagged out.