On my way home from my weekly 600 mile Tuesday production trip, I called my wife and asked her to check the weather for Wednesday, and as I suspected it was going to be a beautiful morning. I then called Rob and said, "your place or mine tomorrow morning?" We decided that we would hunt my blind as I had yet to hunt it this year and agreed to meet at 5:15am. After a brief hike in to the blind, (set on the side of last year's corn field with woods to the uphill side and a major road to the downhill side) I unpacked the decoys, got my gear situated in the blind, and joined Rob listening for the first gobble of the morn outside the blind. We didn't have to wait very long. At 5:25 we were rewarded for getting out of bed. One, then another, then maybe a third sounded off up the hill. Rob quickly decided that we would move up the hill and in the woods to get the bird "struck," as Rob put it. He had them fired up on the roost in no time and at approximately 5:35, he put a stop to the tree talk and promptly "flew down" the imaginary birds he was replicating. As we briskly walked back down to the blind, he plucked and yelped just enough to let the gobbler know that we (his potential soulmates) were on the move. As we were doing so, a tractor trailer came down the road/highway and let off the gas engaging the jake break, this also caused him to let loose another gobble, Rob just smiled and said "if he's not with hens, this is a done deal." We got the blind zipped up and after a minute or two, Rob let out a few more calls, this time when the gobbler fired back, we were certain he was on the ground and darn near where we had first started him. We then went silent and Rob would peak out the corner of the blind window (he was on the uphill side) to check the top of the field for what seemed like a certain appearance. After a few more minutes, Rob wanted to make sure that he wasn't walking out the top of the woods away from us, so he called once more and when the response came, it was seemingly from the edge of the field. Rob put down his calls and peaked out the window to see our bird streaking the 75 yards from the edge of the field to our setup. {Rob} "He's running, he's running." "Can you see him, can you see him?" {Me} "No, should I draw?" {Rob} "What, you're not drawn? Yes, draw, get ready, can't you see him now? I can't see him now." {Me} "No, not yet, can't see him yet?" Now I draw and see him running up from behind the setup and comes through the mustard grass to stop right next to my strutting jake, who is perched behind a bedded hen. {Rob} "Pound him, take your time, but pound him." {Me} (releases arrow.) He rolled and got up with a broken wing and ran towards the woods, this is when I made up for the fact that I went hunting this morning instead of my usual Wednesday mile run before work. Nothing, and I mean nothing gets your heart rate up like chasing a wild man through thick underbrush who is chasing a turkey though thick under bush. After retrieving the bird from the Amazon, here are the hero shots. Big props to Rob on dialing this bird up. He had a game plan from the first gobble and it played out to perfection. BTW, pictured to my right, your left is my latest bow purchase. I haven't had time to get proper pics of her yet. 2010 Destroyer 340, with black Vapor Trail strings and cables, Vapor Trail Limbdriver, Octane one pc quiver, 11.5 Octane Stab with black wrapped inner tube, and Viper Pro MT sight. It slapped this bird silly with a 430 grain Victory VForce 1 arrow. For a tip, I borrowed Chuck Adam's ax.
YEAH BABY!!! Man, what a way for a guy to wake up!! A text from a team mate about a dead longbeard!! Man am I fired up now! I just got a strutting jake for my next 4 days of hunting, and after you're success with one, I'm ready to go! Big, big congrats man! That's a very fine bird, and what better way to do it than with a good friend! Nicely done, gentlemen. Nicely done.
Thats what im talkin about YEAH BABY!! Ben way to put the hammer on him and Rob, way to get em in for Ben LOVE IT LOVE IT! Congrats guys
I was awaken this morning by the phone alarm alerting me of a new txt message. When I looked at the time, I knew someone was tagged out shortly after fly down. Congrats guys !! Now I need the work load to lighten up so I can get out there
Thanks for the kind words guys. Rory, normally the Rob/Ben duo does the camera thing, just didn't work out this morn. Wouldn't have had much footage anyhow, and I wasn't letting this bad boy go one more step.
Congrats on a fine,fine bird.Was'nt able to score my first with a bow this year but did kill two with my bang pole.Season's over but maybe next year.
I was happy to get the text at 5:25 a.m. :D AWESOME pics, Ben... and that bow is freakin' sharp!! Nice pants too, by the way.
Greg, I think between Rob and I, we set some kind of record for txts sent out that morning. The pants, I always rock the Predator, would have had the matching top, but wanted something dark for the blind._ Thanks for the congrats and compliments Shultz/Sliv.
That's what i'm talkin about!!! Hell yeah! Team one finally gets one on the board lol!! Congrats bro! I'm going tomorrow and Sat to finish out the season. Hope I have a story to match yours.
