A Wild Turkey Bowhunt In Progress

Last Call For Gobblers! 
May 12 (Afternoon): Today is the last day of the season and I went out at 3:00. I returned to Blind #2 because it has more visual exposure to the trail the longbeard used yesterday. To maximize the exposure I set two decoys to the front and one to the side.

After 10 minutes inside the blind I heard an animal on the outside climbing up the blind's fabric. It poked it's head through a shooting window and came in and climbed the wall up to the top -- an 8 inch long rat.

I had a machete with me so I yanked it out f the scabbard, I didn't want to cut a hole in the fabric, so I smacked the rat with the flat side. It scooted to the other side and I smacked it again and it zipped out of a window. At this moment I heard a "yelp" and noticed there was a hen approaching the front decoys. The commotion in the blind changed its mind and it walked away.

Silence!

Four hours of silence! Not a single gobble and no more wild turkey sightings. I had stuff to do at 8:30 so at 7:35 I gathered up my fanny pack, binoculars, camera, bow and reached for the zipper that opens the blind.

Gobble!

A close gobble too, definitely within 100 yards. I jammed my call in my mouth and clucked. The gobbler sounded off in the middle of my call. I called again and it did the same. (This is a good sign.) I pulled my gear off, nocked an arrow and sat in my chair. (No camera this time.)

Soft putts, right behind me. A bird came into view in the shooting window to my left. A hen walked by so close I could have bopped it on the head. It went to the decoys and made several soft calls. Then it started to purr.

A gobbler "spit" -- in the direction of the solo decoy. I peeked and saw a longbeard ... standing right behind the decoy ... he had already "blew up" and was in full strut. The fan was a perfect circle. The neck was scarlet red. He was big and beautiful.

Just one problem. From the chair I couldn't shoot through the window he was on the other side of. 

No margin for error here. And no time to waste, either. Quietly, I eased off the chair onto my knees and crawled to the center of the blind. I leaned so the fabric wall was between us and came to full draw -- then I shifted so I could shoot through the shooting window.

I had pointed the decoy toward the blind and since it had not looked at the gobbler it came around the decoy "so it could see him." The Tom was 8 yards away, front on, and my pin was dead on his throat. I touched my release trigger.

Whop! The arrow passed through his neck and the top of his body! The hit was loud. Body feathers flew everywhere.

The Tom ran 60 yards to a big oak tree and and went down underneath it.

I don't think I touched the ground on the way to the gobbler.

Here I am with this year's Spring gobbler. 10 1/2 inch beard, 1 1/4 inch spurs and 26 1/2 pounds. Blind #2 is directly behind me and the decoy is the one that charmed in this fine Rio wild turkey. 

Monday morning I put my camera on a tripod and took several pictures with the timer delay, but the Playback wasn't working and I couldn't tell I had cut my head off on all of them. Then I got my buddy Perry Wicker and he took some that came out good. Here are three of them, just click on the thumbnail to see the larger picture. 

| Pictures Of The Gobbler | To The 2002 Wild Turkey Bowhunt |

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