For further information on crossbow hunting, shooting and equipment visit ExcaliburCrossbow.com.
Turkey Tales By Bill Troubridge - Excalibur Crossbows
May 16, 2008 - 6:10:33 AM
We humans aren't famous for our patience and the computer age is making things worse. I'm far from the exception to the "instant gratification" syndrome but they say that patience is a virtue, and sometimes it all works out!
Back in the early eighties when the Ministry of Natural Resources first started releasing wild turkeys in the province of Ontario I was convinced that it would be forever before any real value would be felt by the hunters here. Let's face it, a couple of hundred turkeys to populate an entire province? How could that work?
Within five or six years they opened a very limited season in the very few areas where turkeys were first introduced, and by ninety I bought my first turkey tag. At I had to drive for hours and getting permission was really tough, but regardless of my lack of turkey hunting savvy I still managed to harvest my very first bird, a hen with a seven inch beard (duh! I thought it was a tom). A humble beginning, but a beginning nevertheless.
Over the years the turkey population grew and so did my skills. By ninety-six they had trapped and transferred birds to a large percentage of Southern Ontario, including my own area. Three or four years passed where we occasionally spotted small flocks here and there, then they opened hunting up right here where we live and hunt. What a great feeling to finally be able to get out on friendly ground and chase gobblers at last! They were scarce and getting a bird was a real challenge, but turkey hunting had come home!
Over the last while there have been good hatch years and bad ones, but the birds steadily increased till the last two years, when fantastic dry and warm springs suddenly quadrupled our local turkey population. Overnight turkeys were no longer a novelty, and in the fall flocks of turkeys ravaged my corn piles making baiting deer all but impossible.
Opening day this spring was an experience not to be missed. I watched a flock of around fifteen birds, mostly gobblers, working a corner of one of our deer leases regularly. These were mostly young birds because of the tremendous hatch last year, with a few two years old mixed in. The opener saw Kath and I out very early in a popup blind where the flock regularly entered a bean field to feed. As the light came up a amazing cacophony of gobbles arose a hundred yards behind us, and when fly-down time approached I threw a few yelps to them to focus their attention on the decoys. When they left the roost the gobbling grew momentarily fainter, then once again increased in volume as they approached our blind. Kath and I were hunting with one crossbow between us, she was to shoot first while I ran the video camera, then we would swap if things worked out and it'd be my turn to run the bow. Birds flowed around the blind from all sides as they hit the field and approached the decoys. Every call was rewarded with a multitude of gobbling!
Kathy was all smiles on this day.
One turkey walked to within twelve yards and I watched through the lens of the camera while Kath took careful aim, and missed, skipping the shaft off the tom's back. We exchanged crossbow for camera, it was my turn now! The birds drifted out beyond range after the shot but I wasn't giving up and I threw every call in my pack at them. Eventually I broght an inquisitive youngster to just over thirty yards. Kat ran the camera while I put a Jak-Hammer tipped shaft through the unlucky bird, who managed to rise briefly into the air only to crash within sight stone dead. As I did the "hero" talk for the camera five more jakes rounded the corner of the field and once again Kath was up! A couple of yelps and clucks had them at thirty yards where Kath "melted down" her bird with a perfectly placed shot. When he went down his buddies turned on him and as one of the jakes made carnal use of the body the others circled him and pecked him unmercifully. With friends like that, who needs enemies!
It's always nice on the walk back to have a fat bird over your shoulder.
I never in my life expected to see turkey hunting like that, and even less so that it would happen a few miles from my house! Because of the work of the Ontario MNR, the NWTF, and especially the sportsmen of our province, turkeys and turkey hunting were back in Ontario. Twenty some years of patience and hard work had come to fruition and the wild turkey was back for all of us to enjoy.
