Spent the day yesterday in my turkey blind. Not much going on until after 5 p.m. when four jakes came in to my set up. It was really windy and my feeding hen decoy was bouncing around like it was on speed. The jakes didn't like that and stayed out of my comfortable shooting range.
I got to my blind at zero dark thirty and listened to much gobbling from across the river. Nothing came my way, however. At 10 a.m. I went out and tethered my decoy so it didn't spin and zigzag around. I put two sticks into the ground to prevent lateral movement. It still bobbed up and down as if it were feeding.
At 11 a.m. I saw a hen skirting my position at about 50 yards. I hen yelped at her but she kept going. About five minutes later I saw two gobblers heading my way. They marched right in to the decoy less than 10 yards in front of me. One was strutting and the other tom was checking out what the hen decoy was pecking at. When the strutter deflated and stuck his head up I loosed my arrow tipped with a Magnus Bullhead.
There was a loud whack, and my bird jumped into the air and then streaked away. It turned and tried to fly back to where it came from but fell short. It staggered on for a bit, and then I lost track of it. His partner followed the wounded bird and also disappeared.
After about five minutes I left the blind and retrieved my arrow which had one of the three blades broken off. I walked over to where I last saw my turkey and spooked its partner that clucked and sprinted away. I looked down on the trail I was standing on and saw lots of blood. I peered over the embankment of a muddy stream and saw my turkey lying in the water next to a log on the other side of the creek.
When I retrieved the gobbler I saw that the Bullhead had sliced through about a third of the neck at the wattles.
The tom weighed in at 21 pounds and sported an 11-1/2" beard and spurs measuring 1-1/4". I used a 56# takedown recurve bow that I built for myself about 20 years ago.
I still have three more days to hunt and hope to get another crack at a gobbler.
Topic: Heading to Kansas for turkeys (Read 4164 times)
