Hi all! been absent for a while. Work, new cabin, other interests and a small dose of burn out has kept me away from here for the most part since February. With fall coming quickly though I thought it was time to take a morning walk with what will be this fall's weapon of choice, so Sunday morning I let the wife sleep in while I snuck out back and up the logging road headed for the ridge that runs along our river and any stumps that might be found along the way.
 
Dropping off the road and into the thickness of the north facing hill, it was obvious that this was a target rich environment. The problem was that the obstcals surrounding those targets, and the rocks that lay beyond, were a bit tougher on my woodies than I had expected.
 
15 minutes into my hike, my quiver consisted of as many dead soldiers as it did live ones, and I quickly realized I needed to start being a little more careful with my shots if I expected my walk to last. As I putted along the ridge above the river, I quickly spotted something that should catch any trad archer's eye. Not one, but several primaries lay in the duff among the stumps above the river.
 
Stopping to look around, I quickly realized why these feathers were here. See, this ridge over the river is a favorite roosting area for what my wife calls the "Barnyard Gang", a rather large flock of turkeys that for the most part live here on the farm undisturbed. It's not unusual to see 20 - 30 at a time in the summer months not including the young'ins. They tend to roost here on the ridge, and this here is obviously one of their favorite roost trees.
 
A quick walk around this tree produced several dozen feathers. primaries, secondaries, tail, breast and back feathers were literally everywhere. In this picture there are 3 primaries and a secondary. can you see them all?
 
Being a scavanger at heart, I of course started picking up any that could be used for fletching. It soon became apparent that picking and shooting was not going to be easy. Every time I saw a stump, I had to put down my treasures to shoot. As I worked along the ridge I soon ran out of hands to carry all the feathers and had to leave them in a pile to be picked up later. See these turkeys roost all along the ridge. about 200 yards from the first roost tree, there's a cliff that the birds use as a launch pad. there were dozens more feathers laying around here.
 

Under the barbed wire fence and through the saddle in the cow pasture, I topped the next rise and hit the mother load. I think there are 10 or 11 in this picture, but from where I stood I could count roughly 3 dozen wing feathers.
   
A quick look around reveled their primary roost tree. the ground around this pine had so many droppings it looked like a barnyard.
   
A little more searching and a couple piles later, I figured it was time to start heading back to get a bag, but not before a couple more stumps were thumped.
   
I wanted to throw this picture in of the barnyard where we usually see these birds and from where they got their name. According to the farmer who owns it, this barn was bought from Sears and Roebuck back in the 1890's sometime and was brought in in pieces by rail car and assembled on site. Pretty neat if you ask me. You can see the road we drive in to get to camp on the right in the picture. 4x4 is needed about 9 months out of the year.      
   
One more picture going up the road. 1 minute before this picture was taken there were 16 gobblers trotting down the 2 track in front of me. My camera however takes too long to start up.    :(  
   
After dropping off my bow and grabbing a bag, I retraced my steps and collected my treasures. Leaving the feathers that were a little too far gone to use, I still ended up with roughly 100 primaries and secondaries to add to the pile from the birds we took this past spring. Not bad for a short walk wouldn't you say?

I hope you enjoyed, thanks for coming along.

Thats a cool story Brent. Nice haul too...Missed ya messing with the owls at the Muzzy this year.

Nice pics Brent thanx

Ripe wood holds up better to the stumps LOL ripe meaning carbon ofcourse LOL

Nice grab!

Loox like a great place for Oct. 1st    

Sure is pretty country.

Beautiful! Thanks for bringing us along! It looks like paradise to me.

good stuff! what kind of bow is that?

Hello Brent, I missed you at Denton this year. We have a pack of beagles for some rabbit hunting this winter  

I think I will take you up on that invite for spring turkey season  

B. Glass - It is our little paridise. If the deer were as numerous as the turkeys and coyotes there would be no reason to ever leave the farm.

Bob, you wouldn't know what to do with that many birds. I swear it's like the southern tier was 25 years ago. lots of dumb birds and NO hunters.    :D

Hey Jim! sorry I've been distracted this summer. I look forward to following your pups this winter. there sure are a slew of rabbits this year.