wapsiguy
PMA Member
As I have told many of my friends I could not have wrote a more textbook hunt. I had been watching a group of birds for the last month and felt confident if I was patient that I would have a great chance at taking my first bird with a bow.
I woke up early Monday morning with no need for an alarm. I got into the blind early which I had set up the day before. I knew the birds were roosted close and I had to put my 2 DSD’s and B-Mobile decoys in the wide open in clear view of the roosting trees. I was ready to go by 5:10. At 5.49 I heard my first gobble:way: and by 6:15ish he was on the ground and letting me know his location every 10-20 seconds with booming gobbles. Just a few minutes later I hear the drumming and sure enough here he comes on a fast pace half strut walk straight for the fake strutter at 10 yards. PERFECT!!!! His head goes behind the decoys fan; I draw my bullhead and wait for him to give me a shot. This is where things get a little blurry in my memory as “the heat of the moment” takes over. I let er fly and hear a wack but the bird is still standing and in fact is running away!!! What the????
I’m in shock as the bird runs around the blind and takes flight. I am devastated and sick to my stomach. I marked the last location that I saw the bird and then proceeded to look at the bullhead and found no blood on the blades although 1 blade was a little bent and just 1 feather. I looked for about 10 minutes to no avail. I would have looked longer but there was another hunter in that area and I didn’t want to screw up 2 hunts in the same morning. I came to the conclusion that “I MISSED!”
Long story longer I ended up going to work feeling very dejected as I had spent a lot of time scouting and practicing with my bow just to come up empty handed. Everything up to the shot was absolutely perfect UGG!!!. So there I was at work not getting much work done when I get a phone call from the landowner telling me that he thinks he sees a bird with a red head lying in his alfalfa field but he thinks it is still alive. I had called him earlier just to let him know what had happened. I left work in a hurry and got to the location and sure enough there he was and he had been there for a while as he was a little stiff. Very odd deal as where I last saw the bird to where he was found was 150 yards back towards my blind. I do feel bad that I didn’t make a clean kill but glad that he expired in a place where he was seen and recovered. I was off about 1/2" - 3/4" at most from having a dead bird on the spot. I do have some other pics but I thought that they were a little too graphic to show here, I have no idea how that bird could run let alone fly. Sorry for the long post and good luck to everyone else out there
24.2 pounds 1-1/8" spurs and 9.50" beard
I woke up early Monday morning with no need for an alarm. I got into the blind early which I had set up the day before. I knew the birds were roosted close and I had to put my 2 DSD’s and B-Mobile decoys in the wide open in clear view of the roosting trees. I was ready to go by 5:10. At 5.49 I heard my first gobble:way: and by 6:15ish he was on the ground and letting me know his location every 10-20 seconds with booming gobbles. Just a few minutes later I hear the drumming and sure enough here he comes on a fast pace half strut walk straight for the fake strutter at 10 yards. PERFECT!!!! His head goes behind the decoys fan; I draw my bullhead and wait for him to give me a shot. This is where things get a little blurry in my memory as “the heat of the moment” takes over. I let er fly and hear a wack but the bird is still standing and in fact is running away!!! What the????
I’m in shock as the bird runs around the blind and takes flight. I am devastated and sick to my stomach. I marked the last location that I saw the bird and then proceeded to look at the bullhead and found no blood on the blades although 1 blade was a little bent and just 1 feather. I looked for about 10 minutes to no avail. I would have looked longer but there was another hunter in that area and I didn’t want to screw up 2 hunts in the same morning. I came to the conclusion that “I MISSED!”Long story longer I ended up going to work feeling very dejected as I had spent a lot of time scouting and practicing with my bow just to come up empty handed. Everything up to the shot was absolutely perfect UGG!!!. So there I was at work not getting much work done when I get a phone call from the landowner telling me that he thinks he sees a bird with a red head lying in his alfalfa field but he thinks it is still alive. I had called him earlier just to let him know what had happened. I left work in a hurry and got to the location and sure enough there he was and he had been there for a while as he was a little stiff. Very odd deal as where I last saw the bird to where he was found was 150 yards back towards my blind. I do feel bad that I didn’t make a clean kill but glad that he expired in a place where he was seen and recovered. I was off about 1/2" - 3/4" at most from having a dead bird on the spot. I do have some other pics but I thought that they were a little too graphic to show here, I have no idea how that bird could run let alone fly
. Sorry for the long post and good luck to everyone else out there24.2 pounds 1-1/8" spurs and 9.50" beard
