The short story is I got a gobbler with my recurve this past week. Here's the rest of the story......
2017 I had plans to hit the IBO trad 3D circuit as I had spent all of 2016 researching shooting styles, etc. and developed a process that worked really well for me. March of 2017 I decided to attend a shoot at a somewhat local Trad archery club and see how I would do...I shot the highest score I've ver shot and won the recurve class. That was on a Saturday - the following Monday I couldn't pull my bow back....
To make a long story short I had 'frozen shoulder' and other issues that required surgery to fix. It was 2020 before I was able to shoot my trad bows a little - but did not feel I had shot enough arrows to hunt with confidence....This year I am able to practice and shoot enough arrows to feel confident of hunting trad again....
This would be my 12th hunt for a gobbler this season....So far for the season, I had called in two other birds with no shot opportunities, seen one hen, and had gobblers respond to my calls on about half the hunts. It didn't really matter to me how the hunts went - I was hunting trad again and enjoying each and every hunt....
Turkey hunting with trad equipment, at least the way I do it and have found reasonable success with, is quite an endeavor. The amount of equipment I take in on most of my hunts is a lot by most standards, but I've developed a system that works well for me. Sometimes I'm comfortable leaving a blind in the woods but most of the time I do not. Here is what I use to carry my Double Bull blind and chair:
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I also have other gear I need. Heres a pic of it as I have it laid out for going under a cattle fence:
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The morning of this last hunt, I was headed to a spot I had found a lot of turkey poop, some dusting spots and tracks along the edge of a corn field. To be honest, about 3 hours in a pop up blind is all I can stand, so I decided to be set up by 8 a.m., as I thought late morning might be the best time to hunt this spot.
As I walked down the farm path at about 7:30 a.m., and peeked over the hill to check my field for turkeys I spotted a hen already in the field. I stood there for a few minutes watching her and hoping she would feed on away so I could set up where I wanted to in the field edge, but shortly I spotted a gobbler strutting in the field too....
I backed down the path a little ways and set up my blind right in the farm path, as quietly as I could. I didn't really like this spot as a gobbler would have to be right on me to see my decoys, and I like to set up where the gobbler can see the decoys at a distance, in order to be distracted by the decoys as soon as possible..After getting the blind up I peeked over the hill again and the turkeys were out of sight so I picked up the blind and walked a little closer to the field with it, so I could set up on a hill.
Once I got everything set up I started calling with my box call. Its an old P.S. Olt call I bought as a kid over 45 years ago. We didn't have any turkeys back then in my area, but I bought it in the hopes that one day I would be able to turkey hunt, and besides it just looked cool to me.....
I heard gobbling off in the distance as soon as I hit the call....I also added a cackle with my slate call to try and excite the gobbler more...I don't call much but every time I yelped with the box call the gobbler would respond and was getting closer...
I figured the gobbler would come in from the field and walk down the farm path to my decoys, but all of a sudden he came out of the woods 15 yards from my blind and eyeing the decoys with a fight in mind.....He circled around behind the Jake decoy and came right up to it at 6 steps from my blind. I prefer to neck shoot a gobbler with a broadhead made for that and had practiced all month and could wear out a paper towel tube at 10 yards. I figured if I could hit that then a turkeys neck would be no problem....The problem was I had raised the bottom of my window just a little when I set up because the decoys were slightly higher than the spot I had the blind....
As the gobbler focused on the Jake I picked a spot on his neck and let it fly...WHACK....and the arrow was laying on the ground at the gobblers feet....What the heck happened? I felt like my bow tip had hit something but could not believe it....I keep a backup arrow laying by my chair with a VPA 3 blade for follow up and now I picked it up and put it on the string as the gobbler jumped back about 10 yards but then started back to the decoys....Boy was that a mistake....Here is what happened on the first shot...One of the blades on that big neck shooter broadhead snagged the bottom of the blind window...
Once again the gobbler came in behind the Jake decoy and was spoiling for a fight....When he turned his back to me I shot and hit a good quartering away shot. The arrow penetrated well and the angle looked good but the gobbler flew off!....Oh crap is all I could think of as I watched him fly off around the curve of the woods and out of sight.....At that time I was thinking how much I hate body shots on turkeys but felt pretty good about the shot....
I slipped out of the blind and retrieved my neck shooting broadhead arrow and there was some feather and blood on one blade....What the heck.....I must have nicked the gobbler with the first shot but he sure didn't act like it. Also, there was a blood trail so I was feeling pretty good....
I waited about 30 minutes and then started down the farm path in the direction the gobbler went. There were small drops of blood for the first 100 yards or so - which surprised me as he was flying at that point in the trail...Once the trail got in the woods the blood was gone and all that was left was to do a grid search. To make a long story short after about an hour of grid searching I found the gobbler dead with the arrow still in him. Based on distance measuring with my HuntStand app he went about 250 yards. The arrow had entered at the base of the tail, shattered the thigh bone at the top of the drumstick and the broadhead was sticking out of the bird. He was stiff when I found him so I'm pretty sure he flew as far as he could and then pretty much died very quick....There was also a big cut at the top of his chest where the first shot had clipped him. I was surprised he gave me the second shot opportunity after seeing what the first arrow did to him....
Hopefully I haven't made this to long, but it was a good hunt and I wanted to share it with my fellow TG'ers....It feels so good to be shooting trad again and I'm looking forward to deer season and more stories to tell....Bow on this hunt was my Bear 50th anniversary Kodiak TD, about 44 lbs at my draw and a 200 grain 3 blade VPA....
Congrats!!! Great hunt story and another lesson for each of us to watch closely blind window configurations. Enjoy eating your tom and glad you're back shooting full time.
Awesome Congratulations Wally thanks for posting
Cory <><
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Great job!! :thumbsup:
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Excellent!
Congratulations
Awesome storytelling and bird! Glad to hear about your comeback!
Congrates! Glad ur able to stick hunt again...tks for the story :thumbsup:
Great story! So far no shots for me this season. I also use a golf bag caddy to haul my blind...works great.
Congratulations, Wally. Great bird and story. I'm so happy that you're back to where you want to be. As always, best wishes.
Congrats! Nice bird! :thumbsup:
Way to go sir and thanks for posting your hunt! Congratulations! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Way to go!!
Congrats!
Bisch
Congratulations!!!
Congrats
Wally, You earned that Tom, great comeback and nice to see you rewarded with your Tom... your story was well done, not long at all for what you experienced. Congratulations.
Thanks everyone for the kind words.....
:shaka: Fantastic story! Congrats!!!
Good idea for packing the blind - and way to stay after them!
Congratulations
Tim B
Pickngrin - you are right the golf bag caddy works well....Not the best thing for going through the woods but good for farm paths, field edges and places like that....