Well, I finally had a chance to put my plan into action this week. First hour of the first morning I called in a nice tom with 4 jakes in tow. He stepped out at 15 yards, but apparently my hen decoy wasn't pretty enough or he didn't feel like fighting the jake decoy. Didn't seem spooked, just simply continued walking right on past me. I was afraid to move for fear of spooking him.
Yesterday started out slow. Had three toms gobbling from the trees, but all seemed to find hens immediately and none came my way.
Later in the morning I heard a gobble from the other side of my property. I headed on over, and he continued to be kind enough to gobble occasionally so that I could get a good fix on his location. I got the decoys up, settled in, and let out a series of yelps.
In a manner of minutes I heard strumming to my left. Sure enough, out walked two jakes followed by a struting tom. Right up to the decoys - this is cool! But now the delemia - how the heck can I raise and draw my bow with so many sharp eyes so close?
I wanted the tom, and finally decided it was now or never. I eased tension gradually on the string, expecting at any second this whole thing was going to blow up on me. Just as I nearly reached full draw, and the struting tom conveniently stepped behind a bush. I eased the string back down.
As he stepped out again, I once again drew back, and all I could think about was dang, this might just work! I think I was a little premature with my release though, and my arrow passed through the puffed up feathers above his back.
They all ran off up the hill, and before even reaching the top he was back in strut and gobbling again. Certainly not overly spooked, but they simply wandered off.
Man, that was close! As disappointed as I am to have missed, I think I was actually just dumbfounded that I could actually get drawn on a turkey, (3 of them) at that range, without a blind, and not get busted.
Although I have no bird in the freezer, I do have a new found confidence that I could actually pull this trick off. And I have two more tags in my pocket that are valid in a couple more weeks.
I will be back!!