This is my third year hunting spring gobblers with a bow. Ive been out twice this year, days 2 and 3 of the season. Today, I had three jakes come in to me, but without a blind, I was limited in my movements. One saw my fingers move and kept an eye on me for a few minutes while the other two walked by.
My gear is full camo, leafy face mask, dark gloves, my 50# Sage with some green paint leaves to break up the black glass backs outline, black arrows with green and white fletches modified with black permanent marker barring, a box call and a diaphragm call.
Having three jakes looking for a hen that isnt present really made it difficult. I guess the best thing to do is get a hen decoy and park her on the far side of a big tree trunk. I managed to get my bow up and partially drawn on the last one as he passed a tree, since there were no eyes on me, but his position on a slight rise and the distance caused me to let off. It just wasnt right for me. Im sure I coulda hit him, but it may not have been the cleanest shot. The same happened a few minutes later when either another jake came by chasing a hen, or one of the original three came back. He was strutting about 20 yards, but just over a slight rise, between trees, with some sun peeking over the hill. It just wasnt right for me.
I expect I will go back out tomorrow, maybe go a bit earlier and snip some branches and make a small blind to help my chances. It is frustrating, but its a learning process and at least I got my arrow pointed at one, and it was a good time.
I plan to finish this season out like Im doing now, with no popup or ready blind, keeping it as simple as I can, maybe arrange some branches for a blind and just use whats already there from mother nature. Its the hard way, and I can change it up next year, but this close encounter is encouraging, and may have been different had it been a single turkey.
Any and all advice and pointers are appreciated.