HuntingNet.com Forums - longbeard story

i have a new story for ya. Rye, Clayton, and I were out yesterday morning, on a turkey hunt for the last day of the season. we were out behind the blind with 4 decoys out by another friend's deer feeder. well, about 6:30, a few toms started gobbling. we all got excited hoping this might be the day. well, come 6:50 we were getting anxious and the birds just wouldn't come out of the woods. i grabbed a call, and yelped once. just to let the birds know we were here, because they did not respond to a few previous clucks. well, it worked. before i knew it, the birds came running out of the woods and across the field right towards our decoys! the kept coming out one right after the other. well there was about 20 of them total, and every one of them were toms except two! they were all very big birds with really good sized beards. about halfway across the field, the bosstom started to strut. this whole time rye is up in a nearby stand videotaping this, while clayton and i were behind the blind. i had previously cut out a small hole in the blind when the toms were on roost, so that i could shoot through the blind and not have to pop up over it. to make a long story short, the toms charged in, and i drew my bow, but my 25 yd pin right on his chest right above his beard. i didn't get nervous and i knew i was going to kill this bird. i took my last deep breath and released my arrow. well by the time i catch up with my arrow, it is flying sideways behind the bird. i thought that i had just skimmed the bird and it had deflected off if him. the birds fluttered up, and then right back down wondering what had just happened. clayton then popped up above the blind, which then made the birds fly off. we get out to where the birds were, and i thought i had just flat out missed the bird, when clayton had then told me, " Garen, right before you shot, i was fixing to tell you that your arrow was not above the blind!" i couldn't believe this. i was so excited, that i didn't even notice my arrow was just below the hole i had cut out! sure enough, we got my arrow, and the blades on my jak-hammers had blind material on them, and we went back to check out the blind, and it had a rip in it where my arrow went through it! this was a huge turkey, and i couldn't believe that this had happened. if i would have taken a little bit more time to make sure my arrow was in the clear, we would have had a huge tom taken by bow on video. it really sucks, but i guess sometimes ya can't help it. but i will be sure and get him next time!