Turkeys seem to be just about the toughest darn things I have ever bowhunted. My limited success with a bow has been pretty much sitting in a blind and hoping to draw one into range.
But that generally means putting the blind in place ahead of time and I tend to be very immobile while hunting this way. I know that my best chance of success comes from just sticking it out and waiting. And waiting, and waiting, and waiting......
I kind of miss the old "run and gun" days of turkey hunting when I toted my trusty ol' 12 gauge. But that is tough to do on turkeys with a bow in your hand.
Joebuck is one of the few that seems to have it figured out. I am making a real effort this spring to follow his formula for success, and am commiting myself to stick with it for at least the first two hunting periods that I hold tags for this year. (I actually have three tags, but will withhold a decision on how bad I want a turkey for the last one)
Here is my set up.
Turkey eye view -
My viewpoint -
There are three keys to the set up that I am hoping will make the difference. I've used the ghili suit before, but new to me this year are the bow blind and a Waldrop Pacseat.
Attaching the bow blind was a bit of a challenge, but Joey the Inventor came up with a great solution. I needed an out of production Cobra stabilizer mount. This would allow the blind to be folded to the side of the bow for easy carrying through the woods. A long shot plea on the classifieds here led to a response, and thanks to the generosity of Chuck Cook (elknutz here) I was hooked up and ready to go.
Here is a close up of how the blind attaches to my Super Diablo.
On other addition to my set up this year is a new gobbler decoy that is still on the way. I think it is called a SpinNStrut. It sits on stake and with the use of a rope I will be able to spin it in place and raise and lower the fan. Looks awesome to me - we'll wait and see what the big birds have to say about it...