- Details
- Category: Turkey
- Published: Monday, 08 May 2017 00:27
- Written by Greg
Turkey with a Bow
I finally shot a turkey with my bow! It was opening morning of the general season turkey hunt and I was loaded down with my bow, decoys and backpack. If I hustled up the mountain, I would make it to my destination in about an hour. Plodding along in the dark was slower than I had expected, but I finally set down my gear at 5:45 a.m., 15 minutes behind schedule. By the time I set my decoys and put up my temporary blind, it was light. Since I hadn’t heard a single turkey to this point, I worried that my presence had been detected by roosting birds.
GoPro footage at 20 yrds looks more like 40 yrds Just spun decoy, ready to draw my bow, Magnus broadhead
For the first five minutes my calls went unanswered. Then it happened, a gobbler answered. Over the next nine minutes I only called twice, both times very softly. The big old long beard came in on a string and I had a ring side seat to the event. For the next several minutes I watched as the tom sized up my jake decoy, apparently waiting for it to make the first aggressive move. Anxiously I waited…hoping that I would be the first to make the aggressive move. I needed the tom to turn away just far enough so that I could draw my bow undetected.
As the tom pivoted near my decoy he barely brushed the jake and slightly spun it, causing him to react to the movement. As the gobbler turned in response, I drew my bow and let an arrow fly. My arrow hit slightly back, but the long beard only made it about 20 yards – I had my tom!
Four days later we were at it again, this time with two tags to fill. Just before dawn a turkey let out a gobble from the roost. My son and his first-time-hunter girl friend were setup 30 yards in front of me. We waited for the tom to fly down and began calling. Within minutes we drew the gobbler 350 yards across the field until it stood 32 yards in front of them. At the roar of the 12 gauge I thought the gobbler was dead, but somehow the turkey ran off and disappeared at the far side of the field from where he had originally come.
It took another day and a half of hunting, but patience and perseverance paid off with a turkey double!
