This damn bird is kicking my butt! He showed up right after 7 am again - just like last time. Closed the distance from 65 to about 30 yards and then got sidetracked by a lonely hen who was squawking her tail off about a hundred yards away. Eventually, he made his way back to me but never got closer than 50 yards. He was with some hens and strutted back and forth in the same 15-yard circle for probably an hour and a half. Finally, he left around 11 am and I had to bail out. I had my 6-year-old with and he was having fun watching the birds but 5 1/2 hours in a blind and he was bouncing off the walls. I don't think I'll be able to get back before Saturday. Not sure if he's going to be feeling any bolder or not. I'm contemplating between bringing the full strutter or just taking the crossbow, posting up against a tree and seeing if I can let him have it when he shows up to strut. No decoys at all. I'm beginning to hate this bird.
I totally understand the stance that we should not cow tow to the trolls that look over posts on hunting forums to forward their agenda. I am not apologizing for my love of bowhunting, and nobody else should. Legal hunting is necessary and instinctual. There is a standard for those that are in the public eye. The age old adage “ of whom much is given, much is expected” tells us this is true. When a person in a position of authority makes this comment it does have an affect on the image of us as bow hunters. I see that Whitetail got some dislikes for his comment and expect some for this comment but in the end I agree with his sentiment. I expect you would take the first ethical shot opportunity you get on that bird. And there is nothing wrong with saying “I’m gonna kill this turkey”. That’s what you plan on doing. The choice of verbiage was poor. Not for those of us that participate here, but rather the way the statement reflects on your site and therefore the people that contribute to the success of said site. I would hope that you would take a minute to consider that. I hope you get that Tom. I’ll be out there with you hoping my son gets it done in the morning as well.
So head shots with a turkey load in a shotgun is acceptable, but not with a broadhead from a bow? He has set his limited range of effectiveness for such a shot that he is comfortable with it. I truthfully thought he was gonna catch more flak for having a crossbow We're not going to be viewed by the anti-crowd in any better light no matter what we do. They are the same ones out there wearing vagina hats and throwing hissy fits/temper tantrums. If hunting was banned and animals started dieing from over population we would still be to blamed somehow. I think I might shoot a buvk in the eye this year, just to see if he seen it coming. The last part was in jest, but damn, we're damned by them and damned within ourselves. My first shot on a turkey I aimed for what on us would be the trachea. Clipped the wing. I'd rather clean miss tennis ball sized targets than be slightly off on basketball sized.
There is nothing wrong with aiming small to miss small. The head is a kill shot. We’re talking verbiage here and if you don’t think that people fighting against our way of life would like to use a quote from a person that would be referred to as an influencer in our current climate to sway the opinions of people that our on the fence then you simply don’t understand the way social media is being used to change public opinion. I was clear on taking the first ethical opportunity to cleanly kill a turkey - i’m In a blind now and if a headshot is what is presented it is what I will take. I have no interest in changing the mind of the anti hunter because it can’t be done. But there are a lot of people that have not made up their mind about the hunting lifestyle and it’s those people that will see a comment like that and form an opinion when it is put out in an an improper context by someone with an agenda. If you said it I wouldn’t think twice. The post I made above is specific in that we are talking about a face associated with a brand. And there is a difference in the eye of the non hunting public whether right or wrong.
Well, I failed miserably this morning. After watching this a-hole bird on Monday, strutting at 40-50 yards all morning, I decided I was going to move in closer to try and kill him. With tomorrow's forecast rain and more snow (WTF) I decided to head out this morning and try to make something happen. Got in before light and moved the blind right into the spot where he's been strutting. It's a 20 yard circle at the very end of a small food plot. I didn't put any decoys out and was hoping to simply ambush him when he came to strut his stuff. The birds were hammering on the roost before light today. They were quite a bit more vocal this morning than previous hunts, but once they hit the ground they shut up as usual. Around 9 am a single hen pops out in front of me and there's a tom trailing behind her. After 20-25 minutes of dinking around, he finally comes out in the open. Instead of strutting around and giving me an easy shot, he gets spooky and starts trying to get past me to some hens that were feeding down the way. I get impatient, panic a bit and shoot right as he's about to get too far out the side of the blind window. I ended up hiting him low and forward - no blood, just a few breast feathers. He ran off and that was the end of that. #fail #ihateturkeys
All these guys crying about "in the face". I bet their search history has plenty of "..... on the face". Lmao You guys are right though. People who are anti hunting vegans are going to fully support it and possibly even become hunters if we use the words harvest a deer or turkey around them. Why isn't this swamp chicken dead yet ?
Because the sumbich ain't been shot in the face yet...Justin's example with the bird today shows why they need shot in the face.
Because he's far too smart for me. Gave it one last attempt today and couldn't get him closer than 100 yards or so. He was gobbling his face off all morning and into the afternoon, but would not leave his hens. My IL season is done so he lives until next year. Perhaps we will battle again. Or I'll find another turkey to shoot square in the face. This weekend I head to KS for some redemption.
This turkey knows what a blind is, and more importantly for him, what's inside it. When did you set up your blind at the beginning of the season? Not sure if you're on public or private but if you're on private and feel comfortable leaving it out, set it up at least a week ahead of time. I set mine up 2 weeks early. Lets them get used to seeing it and nothing happening. By the time the season opens, they'll stop paying attention to it. These birds are smart. The only people who think they are stupid, are the ones who haven't hunted them.
I chickened out and shot one in the back instead of his ugly scrotum-looking face. Killed him in about 3 seconds flat though. Then his buddies proceeded to poke, peck, kick, scratch and hump his corpse for the next 2 hours. Turkeys are so strange. I may make turkey nuggets out of him tonight.
You are going to make turkey nuggets out of a Scrotum-Face bird? Are turkey nuggets the same as Rocky Mountain Oysters? If so, the joke potential here is endless.
I'm going to make nuggets out of his man breasts. I left his nuts attached to this corpse, which is likely being eaten by a buzzard right now.
