Wad striking a twig - will it change the pattern?

[Purebred Redneck]

A technical question

Dad shot at a turkey this morning at 35 yards, knocked him down, but it got away. We were looking at what may have gone wrong and I noticed right in front of where the muzzle would have been there was a sapling/bush and the load hit a little twig about 1/8" diameter.

I'm thinking that since the lead was still in the wad at the time, the wad could have been deflected ever so slightly and the entire pattern was off several inches from where it would have been, thus hitting the bird with the less dense edge of the pattern.

Does this sound like a reasonable explanation or did he do what he did last fall on a deer --- just make a lousy shot?

[jimh]

i wont say it couldn't affect the pattern some, but at that close range to the end of the muzzle i doubt that load of shot even cared it was there. has he patterned that shotgun and load? and can he aim it where it needs to be? i shot a turkey about 6 yrs ago that i hit on the run, i ended up hitting it in the body and not the neck. i knew i hit it good though but that thing took off across the field. about an hour later i walked a small creek bed about 300 yrds from the field i shot that bird and sure enough i found it laying there. if that shot knocked him down, he's dead somewhere tonight and the yotes are haveing a feast!

[Jack]

My guess is that the stick he hit might cause a gap in the pattern.
I am reminded of the time, quite a few years ago, that a friend of mine and I set up targets and patterned our turkey guns. His gun was throwing patterns a foot low, and his comment was "no wonder the birds keep getting up and running off- I'm hitting them in the chest, not the head"

[dovehunter]

My son had this same thing happen several years ago. He had called in two gobblers and shot at one of them at about that same distance. Both birds flew off at the shot. My son is a relatively good shot, at least on doves which are a lot harder to hit. We looked and found several saplings that had been hit and concluded the same thing - all the brush between him and the birds messed up the pattern. A Turkey's head is a small target and if even a few pellets are diverted it would result in a miss. I guess, of course, that there was always the possibility of "buck fever" but I didn't mention it and don't think that was the problem in his case.

[Purebred Redneck]

I did a similar thing yesterday, but that type of brush was about 15 yards away. By that time, the shot is well out of the wad.
I didn't have any problems.

I'm leaning towards him just missing it. I don't think he had turkey fever, but something happened.