Kicking myself in the ass.
This is my first year turkey hunting. I was lucky enough in my scouting preseason to be in an area of public land full of birds, in fact today was the first day out of 14 or so I didn't hear gobbles and the season ends the 24th here. I bought some decoys to give me a bit of a handicap since I'm crunching for time now. I set them up in an area I know they roost near and waited for a few hours. About 9 I took off up the ridge and walked a few miles running and gunning. After a day full of nothing I'm marching back to my decoys to load up and roll home just to bump one on the trail. Ok, I'll slow down a bit. I approached the top of the ridge overlooking my decoys and there are two down there on them. One kinda pecking around feeding, like the size of a Jake with a longer beard, and a giant tom kicking at my Jake decoy. I move in and had my sights on the smaller bird but hesitated because I wanted the strutting tom. I moved in a bit closer, about 45 yards away but a dirty line of sight. I took one more step and they both bolted. My knees were about to knock together, I've never experienced that one before haha.
I've been sitting here for about an hour and a half now, 30 minutes left in the day, frustrated with myself for not taking the shot/s I had. I didn't have the best shot on the tom and I'm glad I didn't pull the trigger, but I could've killed the other bird 3 times over. Another lesson learned I guess, hopefully I'll get another chance before the season ends. I've put in about 40 miles this month, getting physically and mentally exhausted and could've ended it all today with the pull of a the trigger haha. I've bumped birds but this is my first real blunder in turkey hunting.
Thanks for letting me bitch and moan. I'll get over it. Got a huge wing feather out of it anyways. Good luck out there fellas, be safe.
Edit: thank you guys for all the advice!