muddy
Well-Known Member
Yesterday my wife ended up sick, but by afternoon she felt better so I snuck out to the timber in hopes of getting my 2nd bird on the ground. Last spring I made a homemade "fan on a stick" and this spring I figured out a way to attach it onto the stabilizer of my bow.
Anyway, on the way to the farm I called another landowner that I hadn't gotten a hold of yet and asked for permission, he said yes, so mid way to one farm I ended up at another! I parked and got my fan put on the bow and decided that with the high wind I'd work the farm from the east side to the west just so the fan didn't move my bow around as badly. I was tooling down the first fence line, still in sight of the truck when I came over the first coolie in the alfalfa field. To my delight was a tom and 4 hens! I got the fan in front of my face and slowly crested the hill, hunkering down as I came over the crest. I sat for awhile while all 5 birds long necked me, but when they all went back to feeding I put my left leg out front, sat on the inside of my right ankle, leaned back on my right hand as a kick stand and started inching towards them. Almost immediately the gobbler was on alert, so I just sat there baking in the sun. He went back to feeding away from me and I just inched forward bit by bit again. For every foot I'd go forward, he'd make it 5 or 6 feet away from me, I was losing ground fast. The hens decided that they were going to feed out of the field and into a ditch, as soon as that happened the gobbler started doing the same thing, problem was he was 60 yards further away than the hens were. Frazzled, I just decided to sit there turning the fan back and forth like a strutter would do. 5 minutes after the birds cleared the field I could still see the longbeard on the edge of the grass, then 2 hens came back into the alfalfa and started feeding my way. Even from 200 yards away I could see the color change on the longbeards head... his hackles had just done gotten up and he dropped into 3/4 strut and started my way. 30 seconds later he came out of the grassy ditch and into the alfalfa with the hens, but he didn't stop there, he went into full blown strut and charged on a full run! A buddy of mine said, you'll know it when they commit, they'll be on a bee line and you can do jumping jacks with that fan and they'll keep a coming. Anyway, this bird was committed, at about 25 yards I knew I was going to get a shot... at 15 yards I drew back... at 8 yards I got WORRIED... at 8 yards the bird was still in full sprint strut and he suddenly did what I can only explain as a killer Jordan crossover type move. He suddenly started doing very short strut movements, first to the left, showing his right side, then to the right, showing his left side... back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, but VERY quickly. It was an amazing display of turkey retardation and dominance!! Suddenly at 4 yards I'm at full draw, the bird squaring up to me and cocking his head out and back getting ready to rape, dominate, or both! I let him have it just at the base of his neck and the Dead Ringer Trauma ate him up, end of story. Total time it took for him to get from where he decided to commit to death was about 45 seconds I imagine.
He went into flop mode and I just sat back and soaked it in, laughing pretty hard about how comical the whole thing went down. First time fanning and I had just killed a bird. Upon further examination, a heck of a bird too boot.
Now I am hooked on fanning birds, I never thought it'd work, but am happily surprised by how well it actually did work. The longbeard even helped me get my camo repainted into nice red highlights.
Anyway, on the way to the farm I called another landowner that I hadn't gotten a hold of yet and asked for permission, he said yes, so mid way to one farm I ended up at another! I parked and got my fan put on the bow and decided that with the high wind I'd work the farm from the east side to the west just so the fan didn't move my bow around as badly. I was tooling down the first fence line, still in sight of the truck when I came over the first coolie in the alfalfa field. To my delight was a tom and 4 hens! I got the fan in front of my face and slowly crested the hill, hunkering down as I came over the crest. I sat for awhile while all 5 birds long necked me, but when they all went back to feeding I put my left leg out front, sat on the inside of my right ankle, leaned back on my right hand as a kick stand and started inching towards them. Almost immediately the gobbler was on alert, so I just sat there baking in the sun. He went back to feeding away from me and I just inched forward bit by bit again. For every foot I'd go forward, he'd make it 5 or 6 feet away from me, I was losing ground fast. The hens decided that they were going to feed out of the field and into a ditch, as soon as that happened the gobbler started doing the same thing, problem was he was 60 yards further away than the hens were. Frazzled, I just decided to sit there turning the fan back and forth like a strutter would do. 5 minutes after the birds cleared the field I could still see the longbeard on the edge of the grass, then 2 hens came back into the alfalfa and started feeding my way. Even from 200 yards away I could see the color change on the longbeards head... his hackles had just done gotten up and he dropped into 3/4 strut and started my way. 30 seconds later he came out of the grassy ditch and into the alfalfa with the hens, but he didn't stop there, he went into full blown strut and charged on a full run! A buddy of mine said, you'll know it when they commit, they'll be on a bee line and you can do jumping jacks with that fan and they'll keep a coming. Anyway, this bird was committed, at about 25 yards I knew I was going to get a shot... at 15 yards I drew back... at 8 yards I got WORRIED... at 8 yards the bird was still in full sprint strut and he suddenly did what I can only explain as a killer Jordan crossover type move. He suddenly started doing very short strut movements, first to the left, showing his right side, then to the right, showing his left side... back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, but VERY quickly. It was an amazing display of turkey retardation and dominance!! Suddenly at 4 yards I'm at full draw, the bird squaring up to me and cocking his head out and back getting ready to rape, dominate, or both! I let him have it just at the base of his neck and the Dead Ringer Trauma ate him up, end of story. Total time it took for him to get from where he decided to commit to death was about 45 seconds I imagine.
He went into flop mode and I just sat back and soaked it in, laughing pretty hard about how comical the whole thing went down. First time fanning and I had just killed a bird. Upon further examination, a heck of a bird too boot.
Now I am hooked on fanning birds, I never thought it'd work, but am happily surprised by how well it actually did work. The longbeard even helped me get my camo repainted into nice red highlights.
