Things were just coming into view in the first light of the day when I climbed into my blind shortly after 6 am on opening morning of the Michigan turkey season. By 8 am I was wondering if I had set up in the wrong spot as I hadn't heard a gobble or hen yelp but then I heard a soft cluck to my right and spotted four jakes headed my way. They stopped about 10 yards from my decoys and were acting wary so I started softly purring on my slate. They settled down and came right in and milled around my dekes for a few minutes before heading off down the two track to my left.
My blind was set up in a clearing with a two track to my left headed east and one to my right headed south. My decoys were set up so any turkey that stepped out on either two track would see them.
About an hour passed and I saw a nice tom cross the two track to my right about a hundred yards away. He crossed from right to left and never looked my way in spite of my calling. Another hour passed and he crossed back from left to right and again didn't look my way. After a few more unanswered calls on my slate I put that down and pulled out my diaphragm call. I yelped on that and he finally gobbled. He was in the woods to my right and fairly close! I got him to gobble three more times and after about 10 minutes of silence he came into view in full strut. I had two hen decoys and a jake. He was trying to call the hens to him but when they didn't come he decided he had to come in and whip the jake. He marched right up to my jake and postured against the decoy then moved to the side of the jake and wing whipped him. The jake deke fell over and I came to full draw. He was still broadside in full strut when I dropped the string and watched the arrow disappear right where I was looking. He tucked his wings down and ran off into the woods where he had come from.
I was using my new trad tracker and watched the line feed out for a few seconds and then stop. I thought, either the line broke or he was already down. After a few seconds another five feet or so of line played out so I knew the line hadn't broke! I waited as long as I could stand and then got out and looked at my arrow. A pass through with decent blood. I started following the string but found I also had a decent blood trail. He hadn't gone far. They say turkeys don't bleed but they bleed pretty good when you shoot 'em with a Great White.