BOWHUNT FOR THE RIO GRANDE
by Robert Hoague

Turkey Hunting With Billy Don
I am bowhunting at Billy Don's Wild Horse Prairie Ranch in Burnet, Texas. 

Apr 28 - Right Off The Bat

Twenty minutes passed as I waited in the blind for daylight, passing the time listening to gobbles and a lone hen yelping loud enough to be heard from quite a distance away. Then everything got still. They were on the ground. 

GOBBLE!!! A booming gobble ran out either in the woods behind the blind or further down the road.

It was the road. Four hens were walking in it. The booming gobble sounded again and I saw it break into strut behind the hens. Moving in bursts of speed the big Tom closed in on the hens, stopping abruptly to gobble. Loud gobbles. Real loud.

The hens stayed on the road and walked right by the blind, 10 yards max. But the Tom darted off the road and ran until he was ahead of the hens. I pumped up the camera's light setting and took a picture. It was a little early for a top notch picture. The camera time display read 6:52. 

The gobbler went into a strut and I zoomed in for a better pic. He was missing a couple of tail feathers in his fan.

Zip! Once again he darted to another position, this time he was closer. Not close enough, but closer. I had rangefindered that curved tree yesterday, it was 36 yards. But if he crossed the road and came to the hens I was in the game.

 The gobbler's hot pursuit had the four hens disoriented. They were scattered but still were all within 15 yards. One of the hens was the bearded hen from yesterday. 

In full strut, the big Tom made a quick move across the road to the far side of the hens and hit the brakes. Two of the hens crossed the road to get away. The way I read is I only had seconds to get a shot off. There was no time to use the rangefinder. I was uncertain of the yardage but estimated it at a little more than 25 yards.

I put my pin on him and moved it to his head -- and shot right through the space in his fan. He didn't know what happened, or care. The two remaining hens walked quickly across the road and caught up with the other two hens. The Tom ran to cut them off, and did. And the hens broke into a run and the entire entourage disappeared over the ridge.

My arrow was totally clean, once again I had misjudged the yardage. This time he was closer than I thought. Technically I didn't give him a turkey haircut, but if he would have had the missing tail feathers he would have got one.

Daylight got stronger and I saw another big gobbler come off the ridge and cross the valley to my area. I put a Woodhaven Doug Crabtree call in my mouth and when he looked to be as close as he was going to get I cut at him. He immediately popped into a strut.

I already had rangefindered the small tree in the picture at 34 yards. As I reached for the BowTech and yelped. He gobbled thunderously and stood still, looking around in my general direction.

I picked up my camera with my right hand to get another picture. That must have been the signal for him to leave, because that's what he did. I got another picture, though.

It was only minutes after 8:00 and I had already danced with two super sized longbeards. 

At 8:46 the gobbler with the missing tail feathers in its fan walked down from the ridge. He eyeballed my area when I called but he didn't come closer than 40 yards. Right here he is turning slowly, look at the length of that beard dragging in the prairie grass.

Again this morning, several hens moved through the valley, came under the fence or out of the woods behind me and I was constantly checking out wild turkeys and gobbles. 

Russell was due to pick me up at 10:00 today because I have web work to do. At 9:55 I arranged my gear to leave. GOBBLE !!!  From the woods behind me. 

That side of the blind was closed and cracked a small slit and peeped through the mesh. Another big Tom was in the trees 60 to 70 yards to my rear. I did a fly down cackle type call and he roared an answer and walked 20 yards and stopped. He looked good to go.

One big problem, Russell is always on time and it was time. I yanked my cell phone out of my pocket and hit redial. Russell answered. "Wait.", I whispered.

"What?" He could tell it was me from the call display. "I'm almost there," he said.

"Hold up," I said, louder this time. "Don't come now."

"I can't understand you!"

I peered through the slit in the mesh. Oh no!

The big longbeard was 15 yards away. I hung up. And shut up.

The longbeard stood silently, with its periscope head looking everything over. Then it turned to its right and stepped back into the woods, not spooked, but not comfortable with the situation. That's how he got that long beard, I think it's a wild turkeys creed that if something moves or things don't seem right, and they don't know what it is, they leave. 

When Russell didn't show up in 15 minutes I phoned him. He had stopped two hills down the road. We returned to the lodge and I drove to Burnet and ate two bowls of Tortilla beef soup and a ruben at the Christmas Cafe. They were delicious and the soup came with two of the best cookies I've ever eaten.

Then I made some business phone calls and got ready to go back out for the afternoon hunt.

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Billy Don Van Cleave

Billy Don Van Cleave's Wild Horse Prairie Ranch We are bowhunting Rio Grande Wild Turkey with Billy Don. His ranch is the home of the Bowhunting.net Annual Bowhunt in October. He has bowhunts for trophy bucks, does and wild hogs. Plus Exotics: black buck, red stag, rams, aoudad and more. Billy Don, P.O. Box 199, Satin, TX 76685 Call: 254-749-6119 Fax: 254-546-2709 Email: bdvanc@aol.com Web: Wild Horse Prairie Ranch

To This Hunt's Home Page

Billy Don Van Cleave's Wild Horse Prairie Ranch Billy Don, P.O. Box 199, Satin, TX 76685 Call: 254-749-6119 Fax: 254-546-2709 Email: bdvanc@aol.com Web: Wild Horse Prairie Ranch