Last year I decided to take up bowhunting whitetail..Hook line sinker..100 percent addict..Worked my off, had a great season, learned a ton from making mistakes, and also learned from some small victories along the way..
Fast forward to May 4th of this year..200 plus miles total scouting for this upcoming deer season, 30 trees prepped and ready to go.All done right? Time to relax, pick up the fishing rod..Nope!
I have a local game area which I feel I know every square inch of..Kept seeing turkeys, hearing turkeys, seeing sign left by turkeys..Pretty much thought I had a handle on what these little buggers were doing out there..Never really thought about hunting them..Until....
May 2nd I am 25 ft up a tree, my last spot to get ready for the fall..Just hangin there in my saddle enjoying the spring morning when all of a sudden 2 big toms appear and decide to hang around for quite a while..Both of these guys are within 10 yards of my tree..Finally I say " hey turkey!" loudly. Nothin."Hey turkey", nothin..One actually wanders up to thw base of my tree and starts peckin at my backpack. What the heck! Then they wander off..I decided at that moment it would be a good idea to pick up a tag if any were left for my area.I havent killed anything yet with my bow so I figured what the heck..Gives me an excuse to be in the woods some more..
The evening of the same day I headed out to pick up a couple mouth calls. Practice for 2 days straight. Annoyed the you know what outta my wife.Brought them to work , yelpin at people on the sidewalk as I am drivin by practicing.Ha! Hey I want to be ready! I picked up a tag on May 4th..Whoops! Purchased the wrong hunt! My hunt ends May 8th! Not May 31st! Well screw it, I can do it in 3 days!
The plan was to go "au natural", no blind,hunt with the bow. Find a good tree in the area I wanted to hunt and make it happen..Evening of May 4 I hit the woods, picked a location, added a little cover..A week or 2 prior I had bumped some turkeys off thier roost in the early am so I figured I would begin there..or close to there..
Morning of May 5, first hunt...Park the car, 5 am..Gobble, gobble...well well, game on. Pink light now..Bust out the mouth call with a little yelp or 2. Gobble gobble..Holy moly, its on. No way..I dont know what the I am doing..Gobble gobble.All I know is a turkey is getting closer..My plan was to keep it simple.No movement, set up to really only shoot to one location. The tree would cover my draw, other scattered small trees would help out as well. But the bird had to come through this spot. Low and behold, here comes this Tom. 40 yards. Struttin, 30 yards, struttin. 20 yards. Ah man this is so cool right! Turkey huntin is easy! 5 yards more...Then out of the corner of my eye, from the complete opposite direction 6 more turkeys..All hens I think..
Now I am pinched against the tree. Cant move..I twitch, its done..
At this point the Tom and the other birds kind of converge behind me and the tree..Gobble! Judas priest that tom is 5 yards behind me. I cant move..The volume of sound was crazy..Rather than risk being busted on the first morning, I sat still. Back of my head glued to the tree. These turkeys wander off with no shot presented..I exhale...Done. I am hooked..
Called my wife and asked if she would like to come out and spectate in the evening of the same day..She does, and we do. I am sittin at the same tree, she is roughly 20 yards away at the base of another tree.
7:30pm..Gobble.Gobble..sounded like a ways off..I throw a couple yelps, clucks etc. Gobble. Really? Again, another bird coming in? She is going to watch this go down? Friggin cool.
Guys, she can see me but I cant see her. I had rotated my postion, to shoot this bird, or any bird, based on what happened in the morning movement wise. Damn it! This Tom shows himself in the opposite direction I figured he would be coming from. Again 40 yards, 30 yards. Hes goin crazy.I am really givin it to em call wise.He seemed to like it amd kept coming..Woods is silent. I can hear every step. At this point my tree is the key to it all. He has to pass behind me for this to work.Hes close, but I can not rotate my head to see how close. It sounds like hes going to come right between my wife and I, not from behind. Glued to the tree, gobble! Gobble! Hair standin up on my arms..I know this thing is 10 yards and closing. Hes lookin for his lady..Then I hear a branch or twig break. What the?! What is my wife doing? Cant move to see, I stay glued..Turkey ends up going where I needed him to, walks right behind me again. Remember the twig snapping? My wife was trying to signal me it was ok to move earlier. If I had, dead bird. But I digress...Now I can see him, still cant move to draw, 10 yards. Come to full draw and he steps behind a large tree on top of he ridge we are on..about 15 yards away.. Gobble..Come on man step out! Nope. He proceeds on a line away from me with the tree blocking my shot..Couldnt turn him around or call him back.I Let down the bow, stand up.My wife stands up with the biggest smile you have ever seen.Corners of her mouth touchin her ears big! Ha! Were like this is the coolest thing ever.
Like I said earlier, long story..
Ok, what have I learned. The birds dont know I am around yet..What do I need to tweak to get a shot off?.First morning hunt I did not use a decoy..I decided to pick one up for the evening hunt just desribed.These Toms were coming in looking for a good time and not finding any women..just wandering off after looking for a while. I stuck a hen deke out that evening but it was in the wrong location. To be honest I didnt like it from the moment I set it down. Kind of felt it may not be visible from the path these crazy turkeys were taking..Matter of feet. A move of less than 10 feet probably would have sealed the deal that night. No worries. Tweak the set up again.
May 7. Last hunt for me do to other
obligations. Man I really felt confidentthis time. Just had a good vibe. Rotated my set up 180 degrees, put the deke out 17 yards. Line of small trees perpendicular to me leading up to deke offering me a window to draw.Left shoulder and against the tree. Bow holder in the ground right there. Grab bow, draw, shoot. Minimal movement other than the draw.
Confident. Afternoon hunt.Split work at 2pm. Sittin by 3. Gobble by 3:20.Big tom at 40 yards. Gobble. Deke is at 12 oclock. Bird is 40 yards at 3 oclock. He sees the deke. Holy schnikes he makes a beeline for it.Couldnt have scripted this any better. Gobble. Strut. Gobble..5 yards from deke I am at full draw, he circles the deke. Broadside. Whooa buddy, I let the arrow fly. Thump....
Bird elevates about 3 ft, comes back to the ground. Time stops..I missed! Wait no way! Bird takes about 6 steps out of sight. To say I was pumped is an understatement. I quickly reach around my back side, nock another arrow. Stand up draw and spin at the same time behind the tree to the opposite side thinking I will have a second chance.....nope. Turkey had moved behind a down tree and was high tailin it outta there..Left me standing there in the open wondering what the heck just .....yeah boys I missed.Right threw the chest. Feathers and no blood on the arrow..inches, milimeters...THIS FELT GREAT.Not the miss, but rather I had pulled it off. Second day turkey hunting, 3rd day with mouth calls.I had friends tell me good luck drawing the bow dude without a blind. Whatever..
Amazing experience..Having one of these beautiful birds actually respond to me, and have a set up work was an incredible feeling..Success in my book...all the way..
Oh I almost forgot, my wife immediately picked up a tag for the remainder of our season...2 hunts in, nothin yet but we will get it done. The birds have changed their patterns. Been scouting to figure it out. They have moved out to utilize the bordering fields..Gotta figure out how to intercept them before they get there...Last but not least my taking her out has extended my hunting even furthur and is even more fun than hunting myself..Funny thing is I have access to private. My buddy doesnt turkey hunt. My wife says hey man I want to kill a bird on public! We will only use the private if it gets down to crunch time..Man....enough said right there...Sorry for the novel..Just fun for me to relive it. I think next year I will buy the right tag and give myself more than 3 days!
Take care everyone..
Regards
Chad..
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