**Another Down - 5/20** Let the air out of one this morning.....
04-28-2007, 12:19 PM
#1
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Albany, NY
Posts: 4,679
**Another Down - 5/20** Let the air out of one this morning.....
Got a bit lucky this morning.....[8D]
My dad and I always hunt together for PA's opening day. His birthday is the 29th of April so we always try to get together for the weekend to turkey hunt and relax, it's one of the few times we have time to sit next to each other and hunt like we used to when I was a kid.
This morning we met up at 5:15am, and hiked to our listening spot to hopefully hear birds. As luck would have it, one of the most popular roosting spots on the property had 2x birds gobbling back and forth by 5:30. They quieted down as we hiked in, and little did I know until after we sat down, but they were only 50 yards away from where we sat. A few minutes after sitting down one gobbled again and when I looked up I could actually see both of them. The two gobbled back and forth probably 100 times and flew down in the perfectly wrong direction and headed away from us, couldn't be coaxed to come our way.
After this encounter we decided to get up and head to another well known strutting area on the property in a somewhat secluded patch of field. We setup the blind and 3x decoys and just as I was setting up the decoys I heard one sound off a good 300+ yards away on the other side of a stream on property that wasn't ours. I didn't think he would come in the whole way but figured we would give it a shot. I had a buckwing breeding pair, single hen, and single jake decoys setup from 5-15 yards in front of the blind. Sure enough, he started closing the distance and I could hear him headed our way. I called sparingly just to hear if he was still headed our way and he responded 5-6 times over about 45 minutes or so. Finally his last response was only about 125 yards or so, and he hung up a bit, instead of the heated yelps and cutts, I decided to hit him with some gentle clucking and purring on the slate, only a few minutes later I saw the head appear about 80 yards or so and then I shut up and let the decoys do their magic. He came in on a string and covered 50 yards towards us in less than 30 seconds. At 35 yards he stopped, went to full strut, double gobbled, and then went on a beeline straight towards my jake decoy ready for a fight. I let him get to about 15 yards or so, drew back the bow, and let one fly. My arrow proceeded to hit the side of the blind, open up (rage 2 blade), and still head towards and hit the bird pretty good..........lol. We couldn't believe it, he made it to about 30 yards out and I told my dad to anchor him with the Mossberg, and he sent a load of #5's the birds way to put him down for the count.
So I am not sure if I should call this my first bow bird, or my bird, or our bird, but here he is nonetheless. To be honest we both got a piece of him and it is the most memorable hunt we have had together to this day. I have called in and killed probably 6-7 birds between 18-19lbs as well as countless jakes but haven't been able to get one over 20lbs until today. He is my biggest bird to date, as well as my first with a bow, so I am quite proud.
We had 8 seperate birds gobbling and responding to us today in 2x different setups and managed to hear well over 100 gobbles total for the morning. I still have 2x tags for NY and one more for PA with several days ahead of me off for hunting, hopefully I will have another thread like this one to share before the weeks over.
What a beautiful day in the woods with my Dad...........
22.5lbs
10.5" beard
1 1/8" right side - 1 1/4 left side
My dad and I always hunt together for PA's opening day. His birthday is the 29th of April so we always try to get together for the weekend to turkey hunt and relax, it's one of the few times we have time to sit next to each other and hunt like we used to when I was a kid.
This morning we met up at 5:15am, and hiked to our listening spot to hopefully hear birds. As luck would have it, one of the most popular roosting spots on the property had 2x birds gobbling back and forth by 5:30. They quieted down as we hiked in, and little did I know until after we sat down, but they were only 50 yards away from where we sat. A few minutes after sitting down one gobbled again and when I looked up I could actually see both of them. The two gobbled back and forth probably 100 times and flew down in the perfectly wrong direction and headed away from us, couldn't be coaxed to come our way.
After this encounter we decided to get up and head to another well known strutting area on the property in a somewhat secluded patch of field. We setup the blind and 3x decoys and just as I was setting up the decoys I heard one sound off a good 300+ yards away on the other side of a stream on property that wasn't ours. I didn't think he would come in the whole way but figured we would give it a shot. I had a buckwing breeding pair, single hen, and single jake decoys setup from 5-15 yards in front of the blind. Sure enough, he started closing the distance and I could hear him headed our way. I called sparingly just to hear if he was still headed our way and he responded 5-6 times over about 45 minutes or so. Finally his last response was only about 125 yards or so, and he hung up a bit, instead of the heated yelps and cutts, I decided to hit him with some gentle clucking and purring on the slate, only a few minutes later I saw the head appear about 80 yards or so and then I shut up and let the decoys do their magic. He came in on a string and covered 50 yards towards us in less than 30 seconds. At 35 yards he stopped, went to full strut, double gobbled, and then went on a beeline straight towards my jake decoy ready for a fight. I let him get to about 15 yards or so, drew back the bow, and let one fly. My arrow proceeded to hit the side of the blind, open up (rage 2 blade), and still head towards and hit the bird pretty good..........lol. We couldn't believe it, he made it to about 30 yards out and I told my dad to anchor him with the Mossberg, and he sent a load of #5's the birds way to put him down for the count.
So I am not sure if I should call this my first bow bird, or my bird, or our bird, but here he is nonetheless. To be honest we both got a piece of him and it is the most memorable hunt we have had together to this day. I have called in and killed probably 6-7 birds between 18-19lbs as well as countless jakes but haven't been able to get one over 20lbs until today. He is my biggest bird to date, as well as my first with a bow, so I am quite proud.
We had 8 seperate birds gobbling and responding to us today in 2x different setups and managed to hear well over 100 gobbles total for the morning. I still have 2x tags for NY and one more for PA with several days ahead of me off for hunting, hopefully I will have another thread like this one to share before the weeks over.
What a beautiful day in the woods with my Dad...........
22.5lbs
10.5" beard
1 1/8" right side - 1 1/4 left side
04-28-2007, 01:13 PM
#3
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Colorado
Posts: 4,127
RE: Let the air out of one this morning.....
Great story -thanks for sharing. I did the same thing about two weeks ago. After putting a NAP spitfire right through a gobbler at 16 yards, and thinking he was going to be DRT; he got himself going and started motoring off to the right. Tried to shoot him again - the double bull blind waspinched down on the sides and there wasn't enough width to allow the arrow to passabove - arrow hit about and inch below thebottomof the opening. And mine didn't make it to the turkey. It tumbled end over end.
04-28-2007, 05:37 PM
#9
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Missouri
Posts: 3,763
RE: Let the air out of one this morning.....
Congrats man! Its always nice to spend some time in the woods with the pops every now and then.
I do have do say, what happened to you? Did you get an makeover? You look like much more of a chick magnet in your avatar! [8D]
I do have do say, what happened to you? Did you get an makeover? You look like much more of a chick magnet in your avatar! [8D]
