I wasn't sure I would get to hunt turkey this year so I didn't sign up for the turkey contest. As it turned out I was able to get out Friday after driving 4 hours to a buddy's lease. He hunts deer and waterfowl so he didn't mind if I hunted turkey. I got the blind and decoys set up 30 minutes before shooting light and climbed into the hut. Shortly thereafter, I heard a couple gobbles not too far away and waited until it was light enough for the birds to fly down before responding. I gave a quiet cluck and then a fly down cackle followed by a short yelp. The gobblers answered right back so I called back and shut up. A couple minutes later I heard a gobble that sounded like it was on the ground. I gave an assembly call and got quiet. Seven or eight minutes later I heard a gobble coming from my right that sounded pretty close. I leaned back in my chair, lifted the flap on the blind and saw a big tom at full strut headed right for my decoys. He was probably 50 yards out and coming without hesitation. I grabbed my bow and came to full draw. I only had to hold it about 20 seconds and he walked into view, totally focused on my tom decoy. I settled the 20 pin on him and let it go. The arrow hit right where my pin was and the bird jumped a few feet and looked around. I know how turkeys are so I quickly grabbed another arrow, knocked it and drew it back. The tom moved out to about 40 yards and laid down but had his head up. I let the bow down and ranged the bird just as he stood up looking like he would tip over. The rangefinder registered 41 yards and I re-drew my bow and sent an arrow into the grass an inch under the bird. He didn't flinch and continued to struggle to keep his feet. Feeling like he was going to go down I waited about a minute and then knocked the third arrow when he started looking around. I settled the 40 yard pin on him and made a perfect shot, dropping him in his tracks. I was seriously stoked! I grabbed my phone to send my son a text and after punching out a short message I looked up to see a coyote standing over my turkey. I was incredulous! It hadn't been 30 seconds since I looked down at my phone and seemingly out of nowhere, a coyote was already on my bird. I quickly grabbed my bow, knocked the fourth arrow, settled the 40 pin on his chest and released the arrow. I again shot low and the dog had no idea what just happened. He just kind of jumped a little and looked around. I knocked arrow number five and drew the bow. The coyote started moving toward my decoys which in turn brought him closer to me. I was at full draw but as he moved closer I wasn't sure how far he was so I moved my head away from the bow to try to get a guess on the range when he finally decided he didn't like the situation very much. He turned around and moved off at an easy gait before I could get back on the bow and settle the pin. Rather than lose an arrow on a moving target I let him go as he was now over 50 yards away. It was an awesome experience and the first turkey I've killed in a few years. My turkey tag was filled in the first 20 minutes of the first day of my hunt and I couldn't have been happier. I used the Killzone broadhead on this hunt and upon cleaning the bird saw that the first shot was all I would have needed. The second one just sealed the deal. The bird had a 9 3/4" beard and was my biggest bird to date. Good hunting everyone.
