I am absolutely humbled at the spring turkey season the Lord has given me this year. This has, without question, been the best spring season of my life. And I've been hunting turkey for nearly 25 years. This has been an emotional roller coaster like no other. I set my blind up in a corn stubble field (cut last fall) and haven't moved it in 3 weeks. I've hunted it 6 times now. I've worked birds every day, seen birds every day, and seen more long beards than hens. I've missed 2 (yes, I suck) and have had more fun than I should be allowed. Now, let's get to the lightening strike. I hunted yesterday and, while I did have a hen merely feet from my blind, that was about it. The birds were pretty quiet yesterday. I heard a few, but they only gobbled a couple times. This morning, however, was a completely different story. I had 3 birds gobbling heavily on the roost, and a few more were talking sporadically. In all, I think I heard about 10 different birds this morning. And 1 of them was really fired up. They flew down (the opposite direction, imagine that) and were quiet for a while. But at 6:30, he started up again, and kept it up. He was loving my RTD slate call and, even though I don't call a lot, he gobbled every time. He even double and triple gobbled a couple times. Then, he was quiet again. About 8, he started in again. I cut aggressively on the slate, and he went crazy. And he was pretty close, but in the woods. We played cat and mouse for half an hour, and at one point I exited the blind, cut the distance to about half, cut at him aggressively (which drove him absolutely insane) and I ran back to the blind. I put the call on the floor of the blind and didn't touch it again. He gobbled his head off for about half an hour. Then, all was quiet. About 9:30, I thought I would move the blind into the woods where they've been hanging out. I took a good look around the blind, just to make sure there were no birds in the field. There were none visible. Then I thought, I'll just yelp one more time, just to make sure. GOOBLBBLBLELEE and he was CLOSE! In about 20 seconds, I saw him clear the top of the rise about 50 yards away. He just stood there for a minute, and then he saw Jake Mobile. His whole attitude changed. He took an aggressive posture, and started slowly closing the distance. At about 40 yards, he went full strut, and didn't break it. But he was walking straight to me, looking right at my hen decoy only 10 feet from my blind. I kept thinking "Turn! You need to turn broadside!" I was afraid he would see me draw. He kept on coming. Then, I was like "Dude, you're getting TOO close now!" And I decided to chance it. When he was merely 10 yards away, I came to full draw. He never broke strut, looking straight ahead. I put my 20 yard pin on the red of his neck, and cut loose. He simply broke strut and began slowly walking off. Well my jaw hit the ground! I was like...........HUH???? But I nocked another arrow, and he turned broadside at 22 yards. I buried it right in him! Nice shot!! He ran into the woods with me hot on his trail. I jumped out the front of the blind and chased him. 3 hours of searching later, we never found him. My dad and I grid searched the woods and just never found him. We found a feather here and there, but no bird. I'm positively disgusted. To get 1 shot at a bird w/ archery tackle for me, is a great year. But THREE??? Unheard of. And get this. We went back out to look some more, and yeah......2 long beards strutting in front of my blind. I'll be back in the morning. But, I'm down to 2 days of the season left. I'm busting out the Benelli. To my team mates I say I'm sorry. I should have gotten it done, but didn't. But man, what a season it's been!
Keep at it....I'll bet the best is about to happen!!! Good luck and looking forward to some quality photos!!
Just some of the feathers at the second shot location. I can't believe it, but I think I actually missed him the first shot. There are some feathers on the ground, but they're cut off near the tip, not down by the quill. I think all I hit was feathers. Golly I really DO suck. :D There were chest feathers everywhere along with these wing feathers. He's hammered, we just couldn't find him.
Don, what a year indeed and yes you do suck :D >>>BAM<<<:D J/K Dude, keep at it with the bow, its gonna happen lay the Benelli down
Dude ,, how can you miss like that?!?!?! ........uh,,,,,,nevermind Finally you are seeing things my way ... GUN!
