Well I finally got the "Turkey Monkey" off my back! My lease is covered up with turkeys but, for whatever reasons, I have not been able to bag one for the last couple years. I went down there for one last chance at them last week (the season ended today 4/29). On Wednesday morning I shot a good little 82# BBQ boar, at 9:45 in the morning. I don't know what he was doing out and about that late in the morning but it was a bad decision for him. Here is a pic of the little boar:
Then on Wednesday afternoon I finally had a few gobblers come around. I got a shot at a nice tom and skewered him from end to end. He must have turned a bit as I released because the arrow did not go through and across his body as I had planned but rather it was all pretty much on one side of him. He wobbled off with my arrow and I could never find him. At this point it felt like the Monkey was actually a 500lb gorilla positioned squarely on my shoulders! I was pretty perturbed at this whole situation. I went back to the same blind on Thursday morning to see nothing all morning long.
On Thursday afternoon, I decided to try a different blind just to get some different scenery. I got to the blind at about 4:45pm and found that my resident pack rat had decided to build a nest in my blind that covered up the seat of my chair. Well, I said a few choice words and proceeded to shove all the stuff out of the way so I could sit in the chair. All of a sudden the rat came running out of the pile and it was on! I chased him around the blind and was finally able to dispatch him so he can no longer make residence in my pit blind. Here is a pic of the little feller:
After all that commotion I was wondering to myself what the heck I was doing. There was surely no way I was going to see anything after all the ruckus and it was VERY HOT!!!! None the less, I sat down in my chair to wait it out.
A while later I was sitting there when I caught some movement out the window and, to my surprise, it was a bunch of pigs.....at 5:30 in the afternoon! There were two nice sows and a bunch of shoats. I picked out one of the sows and waited for her to present a shot. When she did, I drew back and let one fly. WHOOPS, I thought I was back from Australia! I sent that one high and bounced it off the top of her back and the arrow stuck in a cactus behind her.
I sat there in my chair wondering if those Aussies (just kidding Clint, Mick, and Luke) had put some kind of aboriginal voodoo curse on me or something while I was over there!
I had not even got done cussing under my breath at myself when I again caught some movement out of the window. I looked up to see a turkey hen about 10yds in front of me. I got back in ready mode and was waiting on the gobbles. Surely they were right behind her, right? I watched the hen scratch and peck her way in front of me and then off through the woods she went.
Surely the toms were right behind her RIGHT!!!!!
I waiter for a while and no other critters emerged. I said to myself "Well' I guess it was just not meant to be" and unnocked my arrow and set my bow down beside me. About 2 or 3 minutes passed and I looked up and there they were! Three gobblers coming in right toward the blind. I quickly got everything back to ready state and when the first one got to about 11yds. I let the string slip from my fingers. The arrow hit perfectly and the Tom did a half back flip and was down right where he had been hit! Finally, that Turkey Monkey was off my back! Here is a pic of my gobbler:
I went and retrieved my bird and got back in the blind. I was sitting there with that big grin on my face (all of y'all who have bagged game with a traditional bow know what I am talking about) when it hit me! There was a reason that I missed that litte sow 20 minutes earlier. If I had shot that sow I would have been tracking her and never seen the gobblers. It is funny how things always work out in the end!
I sat there with that big stupid grin on my face for the next 45 minutes when, once again, I see critters. More pigs! This time it was 3 nice sows and a gaggle of piglets. One of the sows was a cool looking brown color. We don't get too many pigs that are not black so she was now the only one I wanted to shoot. After milling around for a while, crunching on the hand thrown corn I had tossed out in front of the blind, the brown girl finally gave me a shot. I let another arrow go and watched a complete pass through and they all exploded and skeedaddled out of there. My first impression was that the shot was good but maybe just a tad high. I got out of the blind to inspect the arrow and it looked awesome. There was also a good blood trail starting right where the pig had been hit. Because I thought I may have been a little high, I decided to wait a bit before looking for her. After about 15 more minutes I could not stand it any more and started on the trail. It was a short one and the pig lay dead about 30-40yds away. As I had thought, the shot was just a tad higher than I was aiming but still low enough to be a great shot. here is a pic of the 90# brown sow:
And here is another of the pork and fowl together:
All I can say is this was "One of Those Days" where nothing can go wrong. I had taken two critters on an afternoon hunt and had them both in the cooler before dark! I had an awesome hunt and can't wait for my next outing into the woods.
See everyone later,
Bisch
Topic: I finally got the "Turkey Monkey" off my back! (Read 693 times)
