My biggest bird to date!

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Brad
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My biggest bird to date!

Unread postby Brad » Tue Apr 29, 2014 3:47 pm

I have been crazy busy the past few days and thats no excuse, this should have been posted 3 or 4 days ago. I started out the season bound and determined to kill another bird with a bow. I was not getting very many visuals of birds, my father in law wasn't seeing many, and the hunters (term used loosely) that hunted the land the season before said they saw very few birds, and that they wouldnt come in to decoys or to calls. I started my season out in a spot that I traditionally see birds, not every day but every season, and traditionally a group of 2 or 3 toms always seem to come in together to this spot. I put my blind out on Easter and didn't pay enough attention to the details, it was in a good spot but hard to see out of, and the sun was not going to work as it was highlighting me in the blind which makes drawing the bow harder. I sat for a few hours and called in two toms, but they had zero interest in the decoys. They passed 100 yards away without a care in the world. I repositioned my blind about 50 yards away but facing a better direction, I could see more of the valley so hopefully there would be less "surprise" birds. I saw the rest of Wednesday and only saw birds a long ways off. I did see another tom come out and go where the other two toms went earlier in the morning. I made a mental note to move the blind for the mornings hunt. As the evening was winding down I watched a tom come out about 600 yards away and disappear over a knoll in the hill only to hear my dad jelly head him. He should have gone left.

We took pictures of my dads bird, moved my blind in the rain, and left and had a few PBR's to celebrate. I went out the next morning and somehow cuahgt a 20 minute break in the rain that allowed me to walk the mile to my blind without getting wet, how about that! I hated how the blind was positioned, I had to kneel down to see across the valley and it was just not user friendly, still it was in the right spot so it had to do. I had seen birds in two spots consistantly, this one, and a spot about a half mile away down the valley. I saw a few birds down the valley in the other spot but held tight. It was a cold damp morning with a lot of rain and wind, you know, the day you just hunker down in your snug lok and play on facebook and reading books and scanning the field every few minutes.

I did that for awhile and eventually noticed a tom 125 yards away, across the valley from me and above me elevation wise. He was looking at my decoys and acted surprised. I called and he got nervous and took off. I thought it was weird but just kept on keeping on. Before long I noticed 3 toms coming from where I set the day prior. They had seen my decoys and were approaching but cautiously. They hung up around 40 yards and got skittish, so I decided to try a shot with my bow when they turned to walk directly away from me. This is a fairly lethal shot even at the long range because you have a large margin for error (the entire spine) to be a little off. I shot and missed, and tried another since they didn't scare. I came up with a big goose egg.

I saw for a few more hours and couldnt take it, the blind was miserable to hunt out of because my visibility was terrible being on a side of a hill, I could not see what I needed to without having to crouch down, which was not comfy. I decided to move to the other spot where I had been seeing birds. It was no longer raining, so I packed up. As luck would have it as soon as I took the blind down it started pouring, and I got soaked in the hour it took to pack mule all my gear to the other spot. My back was suffering and I questioned why I brought all the gear I had. I sit long hours in the blind with a bow so I had a few books, food, vexilar battery to charge the cell phone and camcorder, and a few magazines. I got set up and put my BTD jake out front of me right behind a DSD submissive hen, and then my dads DSD feeding hen on one side of the blind, mine on the other in a V formation. My buddy told me to always have the bird be able to approach the jake first without the hens lack of movement hanging them up. I sat for a few hours and 3 toms came out, along with a jake, and a hen. The biggest tom was chasing the jake all over and he eventually left the flock and ran the jake off to my right off in the timber in front of me. The two other toms moved towards me but stayed out about 35 yards, I tried that shot too and came up empty handed again. No more shots past 25 yards, there is just too little margin for error with a bow.

I sat another hour or two and a hen walked within a foot or two of the blind by my hen decoy to my left. I looked to the right and saw a tom headed my general direction about 150 yards away. He slowly came towards me and I texted my dad saying he was heading my way. I was down to my last arrow that hadn't been fired, the two I shot in the morning were recovered, but they blades were full of mud and didn't close all the way, no way they would shoot accurate past a few yards. I had a couple of fixed blades I brought just in case , so I tried to assemble one so I had a back up arrow in case I needed it. I looked up in time to see the tom running to my jake, I flipped on the cam and grabbed my bow, he was at 8 yards or less. I didn't get the broadheads swapped so this arrow had to count. I watched him attack my decoy, and I shot him. I was nervous and off the mark by a few inches and the tom didn't care that he just got shot, he went into display and kept having at my decoy. I grabbed one of the previously fired arrows and decided that it was gonna have to work, and two holes were better than 1. I drew back and shot him in the back again, this time doing a lot of damage and the bird took off, hit hard but still able to cover distance. He went down after about 100 yards, but needed some more assistance going down for good. This was in the pouring rain, I came back from the battle full of mud, blood, and rainwater. I felt I was in worse shape than the bird, I looked like a muskrat that was all sopping wet. I got beat up by the bird pecking me and thank god I didn't grab his feet, he had razor spurs that were long and sharp.

I came back with my trophy and just collapsed in my blind while I tried to gather up all my gear. I finally got some pictures and sent them off to my buddies and some fellow beast members. The bird was all tore up, it seems a bow always does that, this ones tail fan was missing for all intents and purposes. I got some pictures after it stopped raining and did my recovery for the camera. The pictures are not stellar, there was a TON of damage from the huge broadheads and its graphic, so I didn't take too many pictures. It was not until I got home that I realized how big of a bird this was, he was 25.46 lbs on a certified scale (a day later), 1 1/4" spurs on each leg, and a 10.5 inch beard (we originally had 11" but that was the night we killed him, he certified at 10.5" so thats what I'm calling him). I looked at the NWTF record book and did some searching and found the bird is #6 or 7 in the state overall as a typical with a bow (Mens), and a new Sauk County record with a bow. I am on cloud nine with this bird, I just wished I had shot him better and not destroyed his fan, but I guess a bow does more damage to the bird overall and I am only interested in using a bow anymore. I would have done a full body mount had he been in better usable shape. My taxidermist said he could fix him, but it would take parts from multiple birds and I didn't want to go that route. I am having his feet preserved and put in a glass dome and then displaying the beard. I might be able to fix the tail-fan with enough effort.

Anyway heres the pictures:

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one of all the decoys together(feeding hens moved from original position)

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Brad
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Re: My biggest bird to date!

Unread postby Brad » Tue Apr 29, 2014 3:49 pm

Forgot to mention, I will have the video footage hopefully posted soon. I love self filming these bad boys with a bow, what a rush!
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Dewey
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Re: My biggest bird to date!

Unread postby Dewey » Tue Apr 29, 2014 3:57 pm

Congrats Brad. Turkey with the bow is a huge accomplishment. Well done! :clap:

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Re: My biggest bird to date!

Unread postby dan » Tue Apr 29, 2014 8:26 pm

:clap: :clap: :dance: :dance:
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BigHunt
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Re: My biggest bird to date!

Unread postby BigHunt » Tue Apr 29, 2014 9:53 pm

8-)
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Re: My biggest bird to date!

Unread postby BassBoysLLP » Tue Apr 29, 2014 10:38 pm

Outstanding! :clap:
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Southern Man
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Re: My biggest bird to date!

Unread postby Southern Man » Wed Apr 30, 2014 12:16 am

Great job! Congrats!
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Re: My biggest bird to date!

Unread postby Bigburner » Wed Apr 30, 2014 2:48 am

Nice job and congrats!
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Re: My biggest bird to date!

Unread postby whitetailassasin » Wed Apr 30, 2014 3:34 am

Congrats, great bird!!

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Re: My biggest bird to date!

Unread postby Black Squirrel » Wed Apr 30, 2014 5:22 am

nice Gobbler!
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Stanley
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Re: My biggest bird to date!

Unread postby Stanley » Wed Apr 30, 2014 5:26 am

Congrats on the nice bird.
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Re: My biggest bird to date!

Unread postby Edcyclopedia » Wed Apr 30, 2014 6:03 am

Nice Bird! :clap:
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Re: My biggest bird to date!

Unread postby UPbowhunter » Wed Apr 30, 2014 9:59 am

God job Brad the only way to roll on the birds!

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Re: My biggest bird to date!

Unread postby backstraps » Wed Apr 30, 2014 11:42 am

8-) :clap:
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Re: My biggest bird to date!

Unread postby muddy » Thu May 01, 2014 1:03 am

You haven't lived until you've ran down and choked your turkey out. Congrats.

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