Ray and I arrived at Paradise later in the evening as the other hunters and guides were out hunting.  With about an hour left before sunset, Ray got out his backup PSE Gorilla bow and started sighting it in on his Block target for expandable broadheads.  While Ray was sighting in his bow I toured the bunkhouse that we would be staying at.  The first thing that caught my eyes was the numerous 150-170 inch whitetail racks decorating the walls that had been harvested at Paradise Adventures.  The sight of such beauties left me wondering if I wasn't really in "Paradise."  Besides the whitetail racks it was interesting looking at the picture boards all over the house with various animals that had been harvested by past hunters such as Will Primos and team.

As the sun sat in the west hunters started coming in from the evenings hunt.  A majority of the hunters had been successful that night, and the ones who were not had boasted about their missed opportunities.  The tales that the hunters told of the dozens of gobblers they encountered left Ray eagerly anticipating the mornings hunt.  So, after a great dinner and a little BS-ing, it was time to call it a night. 

The alarm sounded at 4:30 a.m. as we slowly awoke from our beds.  At this time of the morning after the two week long hog hunt, I wouldn't say we were exactly running on all four cylinders.  Groggy and tired we got dressed, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and were ready to go.  Accompanying us this morning would be our guide Doc, a Pennsylvania chiropractor and NWTF president, who would be doing the calling.

A 7 to 10 minute drive down the road and we arrived at the day's hunting and destination.  Doc seeing where the birds had roosted the night before knew right where to set up.  We moved our way down the edge of the field, stopping to setup in a funnel area where three small sets of woods intersected three fields and a creek.  Within Five minutes we had the Double Bull Blind and turkey decoys setup and were sitting in the blind.

As the sun began to rise turkeys could be heard gobbling amongst the trees.  Doc pulled out his slate call and started alerting the roosted gobblers of our location.  With a few strikes on the slate things were starting to heat up.  One by one the turkeys started flying down from the roost.  The flapping of their wings sounded like Apache helicopters landing all around us.

Now with bow in hand Ray was ready for a gobbler to make its way towards the decoys.  The problem was that the gobblers all flew down in the field behind us.  With plenty of hens in that field, the gobblers had no interest in the decoys.  Doc took a little more aggressive approach to the calling as he combined both the slate call and the diaphragm call together.  This drew the attention of a few gobblers.  They started approaching the blind, but from straight behind us.  If Ray was going to get a shot we had to shift around.

Carefully, I picked up my camera, and like musical chairs Doc, Ray, and I all changed positions in order to be able to shoot out the back of the blind.  The two gobblers were approaching quickly but stayed in the brush along the creek giving no opportunity for a shot.  As the gobblers started to swing around the blind, a hen appeared in front of the decoys.  Keeping our eyes on the decoy, two more gobblers popped out of the tall grass in the field coming right at the lone hen.

Now, we were stuck in another jam.  We had just moved positions to shoot out the back of the blind, and now the toms where out in front.  It was time to shift positions again.  Slowly we rotated chairs again to position for a shot out the front.  With bow ready, camera ready, and doc calling again, we were ready for the approaching toms.

The two toms, fully fanned out, continued to approach the hen near the decoys.  Ray was waiting for them to present the right shot, but his range finder kept bouncing different readings off the weeds.  As the toms got closer something disturbed them.  For some reason they didn't like the decoys.  They started to move away form the decoys.  At 30 yards and the distance growing, it was now or never.  Ray pulled back to full draw, and like a machine anchored and released.  The release was true and despite the wind, the arrow held its path.  "Smack," the arrow sounded as it hit the bird.  The tom flapped and stumbled making its way towards the creek behind us.

As the first tom made its death run, the second tom was still in range.  Ray grabbed another arrow, nocked it, and drew back again.  Before he could even set the pin on the second tom, he skirted towards the wood line.  Ray let the bow down and we all recapped on how everything had worked out as planned.  With turkeys still plentiful amongst the fields, we decided to be patient and await another opportunity to fill the second tag.

We continued to call to try to entice the other toms to make their way towards us, but the dozens of hens in the field kept them preoccupied and no other shot opportunities became available.  With the turkeys now leaving into other fields, we decided to go get Ray's bird.  Ray and Doc recovered the bird some 50 yards later from the shot lying face down alongside the creek.  It was a healthy young bird topping out at 20 pounds with a 10.5-inch beard and 1.25 inch spurs.

For more information on turkey hunting or other hunts at Paradise Adventures contact Kurt Nunnencamp at (620) 568-2518 

Ray Howell
Phone: (507) 894-4624 
Email:  kickingbearfish@yahoo.com
or: Jason Borchardt
Franklin Family Ranch
Phone: (210) 445-3530
Web Site: www.rayhowell.com.
email: info@huntingffrtexas.com