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You aint gonna
believe this one!
Every year it's
a different story when it comes to spring turkey hunting. The
weather seems to be a big factor in how the birds react. If it is
too hot, they don’t seem to talk much. If it is cooler, they seem
to want to talk. If it is warm for a few days in a row, you never
know how hunting will be. When I showed up at my long time friend,
Ron Mast’s, house, he informed me that he had not seen many birds
lately. I couldn’t believe this because in the past years in the
spring we had always seen a lot of birds. Of course, it had been
real warm the previous week.
This year I was
hunting with my oldest son, Ryan. He was using his boom stick and I
was using my good old PSE FireFlight. We
arrived early enough on Friday evening to get in a couple of hours
of hunting. I headed to what is called the Condo, a very
comfortable tree house in a bunch of pines on the edge of a swamp.
This is the same tree stand I have harvested both of my previous
turkey archery kills. The first evening, I had a couple of hens
come by my stand, but I never saw or heard any gobblers. Maybe they
snuck by when I was napping. My son got a shot, but he missed a big
Tom. This was his first ever shot at a turkey, and I think he
didn’t wait for it to get close enough. It was close to 80 degrees
when we were hunting.
The next morning,
when we woke up, it was 43 degrees and extremely windy. I’m sure we
had a really cold wind chill. Anyone who knows me knows when I go
hunting I bring plenty of clothes, just in case. I was prepared and
dressed as I would in the fall for a deer hunt. My son and Ron did
not dress the same because they thought it would warm up like the
previous day. Boy, were they wrong!
When I got to the
Condo that morning, I didn’t hear anything but the wind. No turkeys
talking at all. That was highly unusual since in the morning you
always hear turkeys in the spring at Ron’s. I didn’t know if it was
because of the wind or just the birds were not there. Hey, it’s
just hunting. You deal with what is thrown at you. I tried a few
calls and didn’t hear anything.
I was watching some
ducks swim around in the swamp when I realized I had a couple of
hens almost underneath my tree. I watched them peck around in the
grasses for their breakfast then I turned and looked up the hill. I
saw a big gobbler at full strut. That was so incredible! It has to
be one of the coolest things in the wild. The problem was where I
was seeing this bird. I thought the bird would see me if I tried to
get a shot. I decided to wait shoot until it walked by the tree
stand I was in.
That was when the
adventure started. This Tom was all puffed up for about 40
minutes. It just stood there trying to impress the females. The
problem was it had no idea how stupid it looked to the ladies since
it had no middle tail feathers. I don’t know if it had been in a
fight or what, but he had the side feathers with nothing in the
middle. He looked huge to me. The head was so white and the
gobbler part was so red it was just awesome. This bird finally
decided to strut around. It started walking back and forth. The
problem was on that side of the blind, there was a lot of cover so I
could not get a shot. He was on the south side of the blind but
after every little strut, he would move a little more to the west.
I was thinking if he would continue in the manor, sooner or later, I
might get a shot.
Finally after about
40 minutes, it looked like he might give me shot. I was thinking to
myself if he would get past this one last pine tree, it would be
clear enough to allow me a tight shot. As he got closer to the
tree, I got ready. Finally, he strutted past the tree and it was
clear. I stepped back in the blind, went to full draw, and stepped
back to the window. His back was to me with him still at full
strut. I let the 2315 aluminum arrow fly. I watched the arrow
almost in slow motion fall short of the turkey. Actually, at the
time, I thought I hit it in the foot but I really missed it
completely.
I shot it for 20
yards, but it was probably about 25 yards. How can I watch this
bird for over 40 minutes then blow the shot? I expected the bird to
take off, but it acted like nothing happened. I think with the wind
blowing so strong, it had no idea what happened. It kind of walked
off to the west with the two hens. It was about 45 yards away and I
was thinking of trying to make the shot when the hens stopped and
started picking at their feathers like they were trying to make
themselves more attractive to the Tom. Then they started to head
back to my location. I think they were heading for the safety of
the pines I was in. When the Tom got within about 15 yards, I
thought he was mine.
Once again, I
pulled back another 2315 Easton arrow and took aim. This time when
I let it fly, I never saw where it went. I only saw the Tom keep
walking in front of me. I had missed a second time. I quickly
grabbed another arrow and he was still within 15 yards. I looked
out a different window this time and went to full draw again. I
couldn’t miss a third time. I let the arrow fly, and yes, I missed
again. I grabbed another arrow and went to full draw in a panic and
this time I just flung the arrow in a panic. Once again I had no
idea where the arrow went.
At this point, I
could not see the Tom. I really didn’t know if I had hit it with
that fourth shot or not, but I was not very confident. I saw one
hen out to the west and the other hen to the east. I looked down
searching for all of my arrows, but I could only see the first one
that I shot. I hung my bow up and was wondering how was I going to
live this one down with me missing the same bird four times. I was
watching the hen that was to the east head to the swamp then circle
around and head back to the west.
Then I heard a splash behind me. I turned and saw the Tom
heading up the hill. I quickly grabbed my bow and went to full draw
in one motion. At this point the Tom was running up the hill, and I
thought why not? I let arrow number five fly at this bird and was
shocked when I watched it hit the mark. The bird took off flying
with my yellow fletch sticking out just to the right of its rear
“Bulls-eye”. I watched as it flew up the hill, crashing into tree
limbs as it went. Then all went silent except for the wind still
hallowing. I grabbed my bow and what few arrows I had left and
headed down the tree. My quiver looked pitiful.
This was going to
be my first flying tracking job for a turkey. I headed up the hill
in the direction I last saw the bird. Once I cleared the thick pine
cover, I saw something that didn’t look natural. I then recognized
it as a big pile of feathers that was all spread out on the side of
the hill. I could not believe it was that easy to find. I sure am
glad the trees had not been in full cover with the over growth going
crazy like in the fall.
When I picked up
the arrows that had missed my 9 ½ bearded Tom, I discovered I had
never even hit a feather. Four shots, three within 15 yards and not
a feather touched until I hit it running at 25 yards. Who was going
to believe this one? There are a few lessons to learn from this.
Now you know why I stand for hours shooting the moving coyote at the
Fall Shoot. Also, many people I have hunted with have asked me why
I have an eight-arrow quiver. Now at least you know why, I might
need them! Take as many arrows in the woods as you can carry.
And the most important thing from this hunt is don’t quit hunting
because it is windy. The wind just might be your friend in the end.
Mike Alexander
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