My turkey story

[Stone Knife]

I guess you can say that this story has been going on for 3 years and I'll add 5 hours to that time, why 5 hours you might ask. As some of you may already have guessed I have been hunting turkeys trad only for the past three years, it was my goal that to get a bird it was trad or tag soup. The past two seasons the soup was not that tasty to say the least, especially last years heart breaker, a lost bird. Now for this season, Joe said on Sat. he wanted to sleep in on Sun, I tried to convince him to come today but I won't force my kids to hunt. I was up at a quarter to four and getting gear ready alone this morning, I planed on going to a spot that an 84 year old man told me about yesterday, he said he heard three birds gobbling in there on Sat. but he was to dang old to walk in that far anymore and he figured that I should go after them.

[Billy]

C'mon Mr. Knife....drop outta the Lamb School of
S..
T..
OR...
....
Y tellin'....please.....LOL
       :D         ok,ok...I'll wait...

[Stone Knife]

So I'm off alone this morning, I wasn't sure were the birds would be roosting so I just hung outside the woods to listen. About twenty after five the first bird sounds off, a few seconds later there are three more. I start to head in when I hear more gobbling, I thought to myself that they sounded farther away that the first ones,oh well in I went. Next thing I realize is there are more toms than I first thought. So my plan is to get in the middle of them all, there kind of scattered out good so I feel this plan will work. I reached what looked like a good spot so I set the DB blind up and put Henrietta my mounted bearded hen out about 10 yards in front of me, she is facing the blind so Mr big will try to get in front of her so she's looking at him. Now I'm set so I tree call.

[swp]

AND?

[Stone Knife]

I get an immediate response from what I think is 7 gobblers, I've been hunting turkeys since the early eighties but when this happens I get excited. It's now good and light so I let out a series of yelps, most of them answer back right away, so I set the call down. A few minuets later the ones off to my left are on the ground the ones in back of me and to the right are still in the tree. At first I thought most of them were jakes but now when they gobble you can hear that sound like somebody shaking a bag of air, I'm thinking long beards. I hear more birds flying down and gobbling on the ground, then I see two toms strutting by about 100 yards, and there moving in strut at a super fast pace to were I hear some hens. Things are still plenty hot even though there are hens in the mix, I make another series of yelps then a sharp cluck after the cluck they all gobble. I try a few more yelps and the sharp cluck, I get the same results. I wait a bit then just cluck, they are  tuned into my calls because when I cluck they all gobble. By now I hear hens gobbles and that sound of toms drumming and spitting so I know there getting close. The drumming is off to my left but I see movement to my right, here comes two nice toms. They see Henrietta and they are on a mission to get to her. One of them comes in to around eight yards so I come to full draw pick a spot and release. My shot looks perfect the bird flops around some then gets up and I watch him for about 10 minuets till he is out of sight, he looks sick and is walking really slow.

[Stone Knife]

I look at my watch and it is 6:30 time fly's when your having fun. I wait a half an hour and then walk over to find my arrow, it is covered in blood and there is a lot of blood on the ground. I think to myself "he wont go far" This is were the five hours that I mentioned earlier come into play. I looked around for two hours in that time I tracked blood for about eighty yards and it seems to run out. All this time I'm packing all my gear because I'm not real familiar with this woods so I don't want to not find my gear. At this point I decide to take all my stuff home get some coffee and put on my walking clothes. After a quick cup and a change of clothes I'm back to the spot I last found blood. I look for another hour before I find just one more drop, I mark it and keep looking, I lost a bird last year and I thinking to myself that I 'll stay till dark before I quit on this one, I know my hit is lethal and I know how these birds can vanish  when they want to so I keep looking. I look under every tree top and brush pile that is in the woods I end up wading through knee deep water just to cover all the bases. I finally am crawling on my hands and knees through two foot high skunk cabbage when I find more blood, and then some more, I'm back on the trail.

[Stone Knife]

Close to 300 yards from were I shot him and 5 hours later there lays my first trad turkey, he weighs 20 pounds dressed has a 10 inch beard and one inch real sharp spurs, this is why I say never give up.

 

     

[drewsbow]

Nice bird Jim , Congrats      

[Curtis Haden]

Congrats!!! Great story and and a beautiful bird.  Ya gotta be proud of that one!

             

[Over&Under]

Originally posted by Curtis Haden:
Congrats!!! Great story and and a beautiful bird.  Ya gotta be proud of that one!

                   

Thats what Im talking about !!!!

Where did you end up hitting him so that he went that far?

[bowhunterfrompast]

Congrats  

[bretto]

Good story and a great ending. Way to stay with it Jim.

bretto

[J.Williams]

Way to go Jim and a nice bird,too.

[horatio1226]

Wat to go Jim!!!

[Stone Knife]

Where did you end up hitting him so that he went that far?  

He was quartering towards me, I put it in the left breast and out the right side just above the drumstick, I saw were I hit him and when he was leaving the arrow was hanging out, I never would have guessed that he would go that far.

[larry]

nice bird Jim, looks like the new bow is broke in!

[yellow bow]

Way to go Jim. Congrats!  

[Billy]

Outstanding !!
Nice hunt and recovery.
Thanks for the short story!

[JoeM]

Congrats Jim, a hard earned trophy is always sweeter and always keeps a special place in you memory!  Congrats again. Joe

[The Baron]

Congratulations!  Sounds like your determination and tracking skills were an essential part of this success story.      I'm trying for a trad archery tom for the first time this year, and my biggest fear is hitting a bird and not finding it.