Horn Hunter
Member
Well Sunday morning, April 26, the alarm goes off at 3:30 and I get up to check the weather. I look out and see the wind and rain and, unlike Limb and Weasel, I decide to go back to bed. I get up about 7:30 and see that the rain had stopped and the wind seemed lighter. I called my buddy and asked if he was up for it and we were on our way.
We get setup on top of a hill where we have been seeing a lot of birds, we actually spooked some hens when we were going in. We set the DB's up about 30 yards apart and set the decoys up out front and between us. We had Pretty Boy, his girl, and a couple of other hens.
We called sparingly and about 10:30 we had a response but it seemed far off. A few minutes later a hen comes running into the decoys. She walks through the dekes, turns walks by the front of my blind and back out of sight. She was just out of sight when I see two toms coming down the trail toward us. They are about 100 yards out but they are coming in. They get to about 60 yards and stop. I called softly and they started coming in again. They are headed right toward my buddies blind but then they turn and head toward PB. They walk right past PB and PG and now they are coming straight toward me. I have my bow in hand and my release clipped on but there is no way I can draw without being seen. They stop about 5 yards, right out in front of me and just stand there looking around. Then they start to get nervous, as they both turn away from me I take the opportunity to draw. They turn back to the left and now they are broad side. I line it up and pull the trigger. The bird jumps up as feathers fly and he hobbles off about 40 yards, drops down, and I think he is done. Right after my shot the other bird, jogged off and my buddy tried a long shot but missed.
Now the bird that I shot is flopping on the ground and the other bird turns around, runs back to my bird and starts fighting him. My bird does not seem to like that so he gets up, hops a couple of times and flies off. I could not believe it and I start thinking that my shot was to low and maybe all I did was break his leg.
I wanted to give him some time so we packed up all our stuff and took it back to the truck before looking for him. We looked for over an hour had not found him. As we head back toward the truck I am feeling really down about messing up the shot and injurying a bird. I told my buddy I was going to walk through some areas that were between us when we walked the first time. I walked a little and spotted him laying dead by a tree. It looked liked he had crash landed. I hadn't made a bad shot after all just some bad searching but we found him. Not my biggest but I am happy with it.
Sorry the picture is not real good, it is off my cell phone.
We get setup on top of a hill where we have been seeing a lot of birds, we actually spooked some hens when we were going in. We set the DB's up about 30 yards apart and set the decoys up out front and between us. We had Pretty Boy, his girl, and a couple of other hens.
We called sparingly and about 10:30 we had a response but it seemed far off. A few minutes later a hen comes running into the decoys. She walks through the dekes, turns walks by the front of my blind and back out of sight. She was just out of sight when I see two toms coming down the trail toward us. They are about 100 yards out but they are coming in. They get to about 60 yards and stop. I called softly and they started coming in again. They are headed right toward my buddies blind but then they turn and head toward PB. They walk right past PB and PG and now they are coming straight toward me. I have my bow in hand and my release clipped on but there is no way I can draw without being seen. They stop about 5 yards, right out in front of me and just stand there looking around. Then they start to get nervous, as they both turn away from me I take the opportunity to draw. They turn back to the left and now they are broad side. I line it up and pull the trigger. The bird jumps up as feathers fly and he hobbles off about 40 yards, drops down, and I think he is done. Right after my shot the other bird, jogged off and my buddy tried a long shot but missed.
Now the bird that I shot is flopping on the ground and the other bird turns around, runs back to my bird and starts fighting him. My bird does not seem to like that so he gets up, hops a couple of times and flies off. I could not believe it and I start thinking that my shot was to low and maybe all I did was break his leg.
I wanted to give him some time so we packed up all our stuff and took it back to the truck before looking for him. We looked for over an hour had not found him. As we head back toward the truck I am feeling really down about messing up the shot and injurying a bird. I told my buddy I was going to walk through some areas that were between us when we walked the first time. I walked a little and spotted him laying dead by a tree. It looked liked he had crash landed. I hadn't made a bad shot after all just some bad searching but we found him. Not my biggest but I am happy with it.
Sorry the picture is not real good, it is off my cell phone.
