doubled up with a bow

zvholk · 04-17-2012, 01:25 PM

Today was the best day of my short 3 year turkey hunting career. I would have liked to share the experience with my hunting buddy Mike (liv4rut) but he couldn’t hunt today.
The night before we saw a bunch of birds in the field south of where we were hunting, so when we got back to the truck I grabbed the plot and phone book to call the farmer. To Mike’s surprise he said “sure” without hesitation.
At 5 AM I was all set up in the field about 50 yards from the edge of the woods. At 5:30 they started sounding off like crazy. I just sat back sipping on my coffee with I big smile on my face.
A little after fly down I grabbed the call and did some soft yelps just to let them know I was there. A hen was also in the woods sounding off. After a short time she came out being chased by a Jake, and ran behind me, that was when I look out the back window and saw a strutting tom off in the distance. Just a few minutes pass when I see 4 red heads looking over the fence. I give my new fresh off the UPS truck, Best Turkey Decoy (BTD) a little movement and they come in (ended up being 6 in the group) to see what their brother is up to. I reach for my bow when I hear a close gobble in the wood and with the one behind me I resist the temptation.
The jakes walk off to my left heading for the tom that is closing the distance. I watch him do a little wing flap to one of the jakes and they take off like scared little kid. He looks over at my BTD and makes a mad dash from over 100 yards, when he reaches 20 he stops and starts strutting. Again I give the decoy a little side to side motion that was just enough to seal the deal. He came to the side of the decoy that is set at 4 yards for my blind and I drill him. Just as he flops over is see the other tom on the edge of the woods, he sees the wings flopping and as he makes a run for my bird I nock another arrow, as I draw back he is standing on bird one strutting and drumming his stuff, Whack!! Bird two hits the dirt.
With 2 birds on the ground I set back in my chair, took a deep breath and thank the lord for the awesome hunt. Then like the rookie I am grab my phone to call the wife. She answers “yes deer” I say a little too loudly “I just shot 2 birds”! Then all of a sudden they both get up and limped off to the woods. As I drop the phone I say “got to go” I get out of the blind to run after them. One only made it to the fence line before I reach him to stomp his head, the other one however went a little farther, but found him under some brush.
With both birds in hand I walk back to my blind and that’s when I think of my 6 year old Owen. He was looking so forward to sitting in the blind with dad on Sat. Anyone with a tag want to take 2 rookies out hunting this weekend!!

bird 1 was 23.9 lbs, with 7/8 inch spurs, and a 9.5 inch beard
bird 2 was 20 lbs, with 5/8,.5 spurs and 9.25 inch beard