Horn Hunter
Member
We have been hunting pretty hard most of the season and seeing a lot of birds but it finally came together on Wednesday, April 23. My buddy and I decided to take the day off since the forecast looked good. We settled into the darkhorse a little after 5AM and waited. We only heard a few gobbles and nothing very close but we knew there were birds around. This is my friends first year turkey hunting and he decided he wanted to use his bow. I had told him that I would let him shoot first.
About 6:45 we saw some birds entering the field. There ended up being 11 hens but no toms. They hung around for quite awhile and I was hoping they would call in a tom but they never did. After the hens left I called about every 10 or 15 minutes but we never heard anything.
So we were setting in the blind around 9:00 thinking about what we were going to do in the afternoon when a tom comes running out from behind us and goes right to Pretty Boy. He looks Pretty Boy over and then jumps on him, knocking him over. As this is happening I'm motioning to my friend to get his bow up and look for a shot but he is in awe watching the tom beat up Pretty boy. He finally grabs his bow and as he starts to draw his arrow falls off the string. It turns out he did not snap the nock on the string all the way.
I think the tom heard the arrow fall because he started walking off to the right, away from us. I had also grabbed my bow just incase my buddy had missed and I'm glad I did. I wanted my friend to get the shot but I was worried that he was going to run so I shot and hit him on the lower right as he was walking away. He jumped up and ran for the timber and we could see the arrow sticking out.
We gave him a little over an hour and then started the tracking. I went in where we last saw him and I sent my friend down by a fence to make sure he didn't go that way. As I got close to the timber I saw him jump up and run/flop into the timber. After about 15 minutes of moving him around in the timber I finally got a 30 yard shot and ended the chase. It turns out that my first shot hit him right in the drum stick. It broke his leg and he bled a lot but he could still move pretty good.
He's not the biggest but I'm happy. He is just over 24 lbs, beard is 9 7/8 inches, right spur is 1 inch, and the left spur is 7/8 inch.
Needless to say my friend is really hooked now. He said he couldn't believe how cool it was to watch the tom fight Pretty Boy. We'll be heading back out real soon to try and fill his tag, my son's tag, and my second tag.
About 6:45 we saw some birds entering the field. There ended up being 11 hens but no toms. They hung around for quite awhile and I was hoping they would call in a tom but they never did. After the hens left I called about every 10 or 15 minutes but we never heard anything.
So we were setting in the blind around 9:00 thinking about what we were going to do in the afternoon when a tom comes running out from behind us and goes right to Pretty Boy. He looks Pretty Boy over and then jumps on him, knocking him over. As this is happening I'm motioning to my friend to get his bow up and look for a shot but he is in awe watching the tom beat up Pretty boy. He finally grabs his bow and as he starts to draw his arrow falls off the string. It turns out he did not snap the nock on the string all the way.
I think the tom heard the arrow fall because he started walking off to the right, away from us. I had also grabbed my bow just incase my buddy had missed and I'm glad I did. I wanted my friend to get the shot but I was worried that he was going to run so I shot and hit him on the lower right as he was walking away. He jumped up and ran for the timber and we could see the arrow sticking out.
We gave him a little over an hour and then started the tracking. I went in where we last saw him and I sent my friend down by a fence to make sure he didn't go that way. As I got close to the timber I saw him jump up and run/flop into the timber. After about 15 minutes of moving him around in the timber I finally got a 30 yard shot and ended the chase. It turns out that my first shot hit him right in the drum stick. It broke his leg and he bled a lot but he could still move pretty good.
He's not the biggest but I'm happy. He is just over 24 lbs, beard is 9 7/8 inches, right spur is 1 inch, and the left spur is 7/8 inch.
Needless to say my friend is really hooked now. He said he couldn't believe how cool it was to watch the tom fight Pretty Boy. We'll be heading back out real soon to try and fill his tag, my son's tag, and my second tag.
