- Details
- Category: Turkey
- Published: Thursday, 16 April 2015 07:31
- Written by Greg
The Perfect Decoy Placement for Bowhunting Turkeys
It was the perfect decoy placement for bowhunting turkeys – then I experienced an unfortunate first-in-a-lifetime situation.
The hunt started perfectly beginning on the afternoon preceding opening day of the turkey hunt. Sitting in the ground blind that I had erected the previous weekend, I simulated everything from filming my hunt to drawing my bow multiple times in anticipation of a shot possibility through the various window openings. Once satisfied with my setup, I remained in my blind until dark in hopes of patterning the turkeys that I’d seen during previous scouting trips.
Friday night at 6:00 p.m. the turkeys started to appear. They trickled from the brush 200 yards behind me and continued feeding slowly in my direction along an old fence until they were perpendicular to my location. Finally at 7:45 p.m. they crossed the fence and headed toward their roost of cottonwood trees. I counted 60 turkeys in all and watched the last one fly up to roost at 8:10 pm. However, it wasn’t until an hour later that I emerged from my blind and slipped quietly into the field to setup my decoys. Knowing that a bright predawn moon would make an undetected morning decoy placement difficult, I waited for the cover of dark to conceal my presence, a mere 100 yards from the roost. My decoys were in place, a strutting jake directly faced my ground blind 20 yards away. Then a walking hen was positioned 3 yards closer, with the final feeding hen just 10 yards from my blind. The goal of this setup was to position a long beard directly in front of my jake, less than 20 paces away.
Homemade turkey decoys placed in front of my blind A few turkeys arriving at my decoys
I arrived at my blind a full hour before daybreak and patiently awaited first light. My gear did its best to keep the frosty 20 degree conditions at bay – until finally the ruckus began. A constant reverberation of turkey calls brought me to the edge of my seat. For ten minutes I intently focused my binoculars on the cottonwood trees ahead, fixated on several dark silhouettes contrasted against the first glow of morning. At 6:25 a.m. the fly-down began. Despite producing several deliberate yelps, my calling failed to entice a single bird to fly down in my direction. Nervously I watched as every single turkey landed parallel to my position 80 yards from their roost. I let out a few more calls, but much to my dismay my calling seemed to drive the turkeys further away. Another twenty minutes passed yet the constant volley of turkey chatter continued; several toms proudly strutted near the flock. Unfortunately the entire mass had drifted another 40 yards. It was then that I decided to change my calling tactics. My calling became very aggressive as I matched the cadence of the excited flock. I alternated between a box, mouth and glass call to simulate a flock of my own. It worked – I finally had the attention of a single hen. She advanced 20 or so feet, stopped and alertly focused on my distant decoys.
I continued to pound away relentlessly on my calls. Seconds later a couple more turkeys joined the once solitary hen. Another ten minutes and the entire flock of 60 turkeys were in my lap, as close as 5 yards but nor more than 30. And even better than I had hoped, not one but two gobblers moved in on my jake! That’s when it happened, that first-in-a-lifetime situation – I was physically unable to draw back my bow. Try as I might, I could not make it happen. I tried at least 10 more times until I finally gave up, exhausted. A couple minutes of agitated chaos ensued until the flock became so nervous that they started to move away. To add insult to injury, 5 jakes turned around and came back to confront my strutting jake, almost a mockery of my setup, yet my final attempt to draw my bow failed.
Lesson learned – don’t risk a tweaked shoulder by sleeping the night before a hunt in the cramped quarters of a pickup truck’s back seat.
Relieved to have brought my Benelli as a backup Nice beard on my gobbler
Luckily for me I brought along my trusty Benelli, and not knowing the extent of my disappointing shoulder injury, I grabbed my 12 gauge the next day and ended up taking a respectable gobbler!