I wanted to share this sooner but I have been real tied up with work this week. I took my first bird with my recurve last weekend. It was a classic early morning hunt and as turkey hunting goes it will never happen again.
So here's the story... I put my blind up a few weeks ago hoping the birds would get used to it being there. This spot traditionally holds a lot of birds but I still went to listen a few days before the opener to make sure they were there and were they.
Opening morning I got to my blind early, put out my strutting decoy and hen at about 10 yards from my blind. While waiting for first light an owl hooted then boom one gobbled and it sounded like he was on top of my blind. It turns out he was about 50 yards behind me in a big pine tree. I was thinking "I am in the chips right here." Then the woodline in front of me started to come alive every time he gobbled with hen sounds the length of it and in my head my chances were decreasing. I did not call to him at all while in the tree but knew when he hit the ground that I needed to give it to him to compete with the hens. So he pitched down in front of me about 75 yards away and I let him have it. He was responsive to every yelp and started to cut me off when I called excitedly. The hens were talking too but none on the ground yet, I was just trying to be louder than them. When he got in the road in front of me he saw my strutter and came right to him and strutted the whole way. My heart was pounding and up in my throat. I drew my bow when he and my decoy were nose to nose, picked my spot and released the arrow. He was down right there and hunt over. I am hooked now on bowhunting for turkeys. Last year I killed two birds early with my shotgun and hunted the rest of the season with my recurve and missed a bird at the end. This year I said that I was going entirely with my bow. Here is a picture of my bird.
Topic: Opening Day Gobbler (Read 1700 times)
