First ever turkey with a recurve and quite the experience

[Curvebo]

I've had the dream of shooting a deer with a recurve since I was a kid. For the last dozen or so years I've been trying to get confident enough in my shooting to hunt with my recurve. It seems I hit one road block after another and always ended up hanging it up and taking my compound hunting. Well this winter I made the decision that I was going to get proficient with my stick bow. I changed my approach a bit and shot a ton. I ran into some hurdle but got over them and have been shooting better than I ever have. Well I got to get out turkey hunting this past weekend. My buddy, who always invites me out to his place to hunt, invited me to come hunt. He has two younger kids that hunt and he still put me in one of his best spots. With all the "shelter in place" and "social distancing" I thought what better way to get away than to sit in a blind. It was so easy to get up at 3:30am to go hunting again! I was so confident I would kill a turkey given the chance. I made it to the spot no problem and got set up. It was awesome to hear all the wildlife as the sun came up. Ducks, geese, cranes, song birds, and of course turkeys! The turkeys were quite a ways south of me but I could hear them. I called but nothing was coming in until I saw a flash to the north of me. 7 turkeys crossed under the fence and were heading right to my setup. As they approached it was 6 jakes and a tom. Five of the jakes came right to my jake decoy and were sizing him up. It was funny to see them all huddled up clucking at my decoy. Then all of a sudden they all stopped, picked their heads up, and looked north of me. They started doing their nervous putts in unison and i knew they wouldn't be here long although I didn't know what they were alarmed at. They weren't looking at the blind in my direction. I had decided I wasn't going to shoot one of them because the bigger tom was coming in too. Well all of a sudden a wolf came up nose to nose with my laydown hen decoy and the turkeys scattered.

I quickly got my phone out to take video and was able to capture some great footage of what looks to be a young wolf chasing the turkeys off. The turkeys roosted right east of me. Eventually the wolf moved off and the turkey got out of the trees and headed south of me.

I thought for sure my hunt was over but I wasn't going to leave. It was so awesome to get to experience that and I wasn't ready to go home that's for sure! I just sat in the blind and not too long after some deer started coming out into the field I was sitting in. Then I saw some turkeys SW of me and heard more S of me.  Maybe I will get lucky. The turkeys were 200+ yards out but I would call and they would respond once in a while but were occupied chasing each other around where they were. This went on for a couple hours. I would just keep in touch with them and they would respond. Then I heard something close by S of me. I was pretty sure it was clucking. Then I saw a flash of something in a crack of my blind. It was a tom strutting into my set. I grabbed my bow as he came into my blind window view. He turned his back to me and I drew. I held until he turned broadside, pulled through my clicker, and put him down right in his tracks. It happened so fast! I had killed my first animal with my recurve! I was and still am on cloud 9.

I just want to give a big "THANK YOU"  to tradgang members for sharing all your wealth of knowledge and experience. I don't post much but read lots.

[k9bowman]

Outstanding job! What an experience it must have been for you. No reason now that you're not hooked for life on"stick & string". CONGRATULATIONS!

[Curvebo]

Outstanding job! What an experience it must have been for you. No reason now that you're not hooked for life on"stick & string". CONGRATULATIONS!

Thanks k9! Definitely has me excited to deer hunt with my recurve!

[beemann]

From one North Dakotan to another good job.  Way to stick with it. 

[HOGLESS2]

Awesome story

[Curvebo]

Thanks guys!

[Mike Bolin]

Great job on the turkey, but man what an experience with the wolf. You made some great memories.

[Sam McMichael]

Good job! What a combo - getting the turkey as well as an encounter with the wolf.

[Curvebo]

Thanks guys! Such a memorable experience!

[aim small...release]

Congrats! What an incredible experience. I thought the red fox I saw the other morning chasing turkeys was a big deal...a FRICKEN WOLF yikes!

[Mike Gerardi]

 
 

[abbatoys]

Wow. What an experience... Congrats

[Curvebo]

Thanks everyone. I'm still riding high off the experience.

[Shan]

Awesome!! Cool pic w the wolf too. Congrats brother!

[Friend]

Outstanding...Thank you for taking time to share such a wonderful experience

[Curvebo]

Thanks guys!

[arrow30]

WOW! thats a pretty cool hunt, wolf and all. congratts! on your first kill. stick with the stick and string and youll be stacking up kills before you know it.

[GCook]

Hey that is a great kill!  Congratulations on the first of many!

[Curvebo]

Thanks guys!

[Kopper1013]

Man that’s exciting!! Hope to get one myself some day, congratulations on a beautiful bird