Took my ground blind to the public woods yesterday for the first time this season. I was setup tucked just into the timber on the inside corner of a cut bean field edge by about 1:45. Around 2:20 I thought I heard a couple of yelps coming from the timber behind me, so I dug my mouth call out of my pack and made a few yelps of my own. 5 minutes later a nice big gobbler steps out of the timber 15 yards to my right. I grab my bow and come to full draw as he's walking straight into the field. He comes to a stop broadside (still at 15 yards). I release, and watch the arrow THWACK! right into the spot I was aiming at just at the top of his leg from what I saw. The gobbler jumps into the air as feathers fly everywhere. When he hits the ground he takes off running driectly away from me, and takes to the air disappearing from view as he glides down into the timber (with my arrow still in him as I could see the fletching sticking out from his left side). It appeared he was going down at last sight, but it was fairly windy so I never heard a crash or any flopping.
I give him about 30-45 minutes and took off to look for him. I ended up essentially grid searching about 25 or so acres of timber. I looked under every pile of brush and deadfall, and finally decided to give up after it got too dark. I never found any sign to go off of. No blood, feathers, or my arrow. My only assumption is that he was able to glide way further into the timber than I thought, or he made it all the way over across a creek to the neighboring private land. I just had zero evidence to tell me where else to look either way.
I've swung and missed at plenty of birds over the years, but his was the first one I've ever hit that I've lost
(You'll have to ask burkhart about the story of the one that
almost got away
)
