Long story to start off with but I hope you enjoy it.
Friday, 12 April, 2013 --- Wilmington, NC. Brent and I had just finished up at a fundraiser to raise money to help fight ALS and we headed into the woods. We had been planning this weekend since deer season closed on New Years Day. Saturday was opening day of wild turkey season here in North Carolina and we were determined to get an opening day double. We decided to wait until after dark to get out to the farm so that we didn't risk spooking the birds by being in the field while they were still awake. When we arrived it was around dark-thirty and we figured the turkeys would already be on the roost so we found us a good hidden place on the opposite corner of the farm to park, pitch our tent, and eat a hot-dog for supper. We finished up our delicious gas-station meal and then decided that a fire may spook the birds so we just decided to head to the tent and rest up for opening day.
Saturday, 13 April, 2013 --- Burgaw, NC. 3:00 A.M., I am wide awake; I just heard a gobble. I have no idea if it was actually in the woods or if it was in a dream but now I am worried about oversleeping, waiting too late to head into the woods, what if the turkeys move earlier than usual. Finally I decide to look at the clock and when I see the time I figure I need to get some more rest and nod back off. 5:15 A.M., finally, I hear the buzz of the vibrate of my alarm clock on my cell phone. Instantly, we were up and getting dressed, in less than 5 minutes we were ready and heading out into the blind.
There was not a lot of gobbling on the roost that morning, a couple here and there but nothing to get super excited about. We had set up a couple of hen decoys and one tom at full strut about 15 to 20 yards in front of our blind. We were hoping the turkeys would come out of the corner of the field, see them and then head to them giving us a good close shot. Just like we assumed would happen from the quiet roost there were no turkeys that flew down into our field that morning so we set up to wait a little while before we started calling for the turkeys. We played a few yelps and clucks on a Buckner Slate Call and then sat back to watch and see if anything came in. All of a sudden there was a single gobbler almost running into our decoys. He came from the edge of the woods running to the decoys and I was hoping that he was concentrated on the decoys enough that I could stand and draw my bow. I gave it a shot and I was right he never stopped looking at the decoys, but he also never stopped moving. I was hunting with a new set of Magnus Bullhead broad-heads that aim for head and neck shots and I needed him to stop moving so I could take a shot; he never did. He kept moving around for maybe 2 minutes and I could not hold my bow back any longer. I tried to let the draw down and when I did he noticed the movement and moved away to the opposite corner of the field...busted. I sat back down and got out my Irving Whitt box call and sent out a few yelps and purrs to try to get him back out but didn't want to keep going and scare him so we just sat down really still and watched.
Sure enough, about 20 minutes later from almost the exact same spot he came from the first time, the same bird came out into the field again. This time he was not running, he had his red head way up in the air, on full alert. He only stayed in the field maybe a minute never leaving the edge of the field before he headed back into the woods. We figured that he had probably seen us or saw something that he didn't like and we had been busted again, the second time in 20 minutes. We figured we should probably just go on the house but we had set aside the whole day to hunt so we just decided to sit tight and wait it out, it was still only 8:30 A.M. and we had already seen the big gobbler two times.
Sit tight we did. We waited until around 10:00 A.M. before we started calling again, just a few yelps or a gobble every 20 to 30 minutes. Around 11:30 A.M. Brent and I were both starting to get tired from sitting still and not moving so we decided to take shifts watching and let the other person lay down and rest their eyes behind the blind. I took first rest and Brent moved over to my seat and took watch. I had only been laying down about 15 minutes when I hear Brent whisper my name. I rolled my head to the side and could see through the bottom of the blind that there were five gobblers running across the field toward the decoys. I didn't want to move to fast and spook them so I slowly started moving to get where I could stand up. I looked up to see that Brent had left his shotgun sitting over by his chair when he moved to mine to take watch, so I knew that I either had to get my bow from him or get to his shotgun to take a shot. As it turns out I didn't have to make that decision, as soon as the five gobblers got up close to the decoys they promptly turned around and ran back out of the field. I think they were trying to intimidate the strutting tom decoy we had up and when he didn't back down, they got scared and ran the other way.
We decided that having the birds run in on us like that was not working so we went and removed the strutting tom decoy and moved him behind the blind, and sat up to wait again. We waited until around 3:00 P.M. and then thought we would try some calling and Brent hit a gobble on his Whitt Box and we heard a gobble back about 60 yards away in the woods. I got out my Buckner Purr Pot and started doing some soft clucks and purrs, and the bird was gobbling his head off and getting closer. Brent was videoing to try to capture the hunt on film and I got my bow ready. The gobbler came out full strut and had a hen with him. Brent had him in frame on the camera and it looked awesome. This was the dominate bird of the pack and the one that we spooked earlier in the morning. He was full strut and shaking to fluff his feathers up even more. He came walking by us, only 8 to 10 yards in front of us. Every time he shook we could feel the ground vibrating as he displayed his full stature to us and our decoys. I waited until he was directly in front of us and then when he turned his back to face the decoys, I stood and drew my bow. The hen that was with him saw me and clucked and ran but he stayed and turned slightly so that he was quartering away from me. I figured I should go ahead and take my chance since the hen had already run and took my shot. The shot felt good, I was sure it was a clean kill shot. Then it hit him. The arrow had somehow flown left and hit him right behind his wing. It hit, dropped straight to the ground and he took off. Brent grabbed his shotgun and fired off a couple of rounds but the bird was already 50 to 60 yards away and in the air flying by that time.
I felt sick. I had the best shot possible on this nice bird and had missed. I still didn't feel like I had taken a bad shot, I think it may have been the new arrows, but it didn't really matter, the bird was gone. At this point we figured we had already seen turkeys four times today so we were planning to stay until we had a bird down or it was dark anyway but with the shotgun going off we figured it would be a while, so we took off our facemasks and ate the sandwiches we had packed for lunch and then got back to hunting.
Not 30 minutes later we saw just to our left slowly coming out of the field the five gobblers from earlier in the day. Brent wanted me to get one with my new broad-heads so he said I had first shot but as the birds got closer, I knew it would be futile for me to try to stand and draw with five birds directly in front of me. I whispered for him to take a shot and he did. He picked out a bird directly in front of him at about 35 yards and dropped him.
He had a nice bird, 8+ inch beard, right at 1" spurs, and around 23 lbs. I figured Brent would just want to go ahead and head home and get him cleaned, but he figured since we had been seeing turkeys all day, we still had a shot at the double. I told him I was up for it if he was so we grabbed his bird, threw it behind the blind and kept hunting. Everything was quiet for about 90 minutes and then I saw a Jake step out and head to the opposite side of the field. We figured that he would eat on the other side of the field and then come back to the corner that we were sitting in on his way back to the roost. We tried calling but he and the other Jake that joined him ignored us and kept working the other side of the field. They eventually had three hens join them.
About an hour before dark we started planning for what to do if they didn't come back and I decided that my best move would be to take Brent's shotgun and move to the opposite side of the field to try to sneak up on them. I moved up to the opposite corner of the field from our blind and stopped to see what the birds were doing. I saw that where they were even if I moved over to the opposite of the field I would still be out of shooting range. I sat and watched for a few minutes then realized that it would be dark soon. I decided that the birds were going to stay in the field until after dark so my only shot would be trying to crawl to a drainage ditch about 40 yards out in the field to use to sneak up on them. I started out into the field. I know Brent could clearly see me and that I probably stuck out like a sore thumb in the field. I watched as they ate and crawled forward slowly when they were not looking. When the birds would look up Brent would gobble and they would look towards them and I could continue my slow belly-crawl towards the ditch. About 30 yards out into the field towards the ditch, the jakes saw me. I was sure I was busted, but then the jakes started heading directly towards me. I was completely shocked. I just kept thinking, "there is no way this is happening". I froze completely and just watched as the jakes kept walking towards me. I waited what felt like forever, but was probably more like two to three minutes. When they got as close as they were going to get to me, they looked at me, hesitated, then took one more step towards the woods. As soon as he stepped I pulled the barrel of the gun around and fired. Because the birds had already taken a few steps and were starting to run I hit him in the wing but it was enough. It ended up being about 10 minutes before dark-thirty when I got him and completed our opening day double. He was a Jake, about 18 lbs., 1/4" spurs with a 4" beard.
Overall we were in the woods 15 hours on opening day, looking for the opening day double. It was tough hunting but we were successful in the end. Hope there are many more like this in the future.
Saturday, 13 April, 2013 --- Burgaw, NC. 3:00 A.M., I am wide awake; I just heard a gobble. I have no idea if it was actually in the woods or if it was in a dream but now I am worried about oversleeping, waiting too late to head into the woods, what if the turkeys move earlier than usual. Finally I decide to look at the clock and when I see the time I figure I need to get some more rest and nod back off. 5:15 A.M., finally, I hear the buzz of the vibrate of my alarm clock on my cell phone. Instantly, we were up and getting dressed, in less than 5 minutes we were ready and heading out into the blind.
There was not a lot of gobbling on the roost that morning, a couple here and there but nothing to get super excited about. We had set up a couple of hen decoys and one tom at full strut about 15 to 20 yards in front of our blind. We were hoping the turkeys would come out of the corner of the field, see them and then head to them giving us a good close shot. Just like we assumed would happen from the quiet roost there were no turkeys that flew down into our field that morning so we set up to wait a little while before we started calling for the turkeys. We played a few yelps and clucks on a Buckner Slate Call and then sat back to watch and see if anything came in. All of a sudden there was a single gobbler almost running into our decoys. He came from the edge of the woods running to the decoys and I was hoping that he was concentrated on the decoys enough that I could stand and draw my bow. I gave it a shot and I was right he never stopped looking at the decoys, but he also never stopped moving. I was hunting with a new set of Magnus Bullhead broad-heads that aim for head and neck shots and I needed him to stop moving so I could take a shot; he never did. He kept moving around for maybe 2 minutes and I could not hold my bow back any longer. I tried to let the draw down and when I did he noticed the movement and moved away to the opposite corner of the field...busted. I sat back down and got out my Irving Whitt box call and sent out a few yelps and purrs to try to get him back out but didn't want to keep going and scare him so we just sat down really still and watched.
Sure enough, about 20 minutes later from almost the exact same spot he came from the first time, the same bird came out into the field again. This time he was not running, he had his red head way up in the air, on full alert. He only stayed in the field maybe a minute never leaving the edge of the field before he headed back into the woods. We figured that he had probably seen us or saw something that he didn't like and we had been busted again, the second time in 20 minutes. We figured we should probably just go on the house but we had set aside the whole day to hunt so we just decided to sit tight and wait it out, it was still only 8:30 A.M. and we had already seen the big gobbler two times.
Sit tight we did. We waited until around 10:00 A.M. before we started calling again, just a few yelps or a gobble every 20 to 30 minutes. Around 11:30 A.M. Brent and I were both starting to get tired from sitting still and not moving so we decided to take shifts watching and let the other person lay down and rest their eyes behind the blind. I took first rest and Brent moved over to my seat and took watch. I had only been laying down about 15 minutes when I hear Brent whisper my name. I rolled my head to the side and could see through the bottom of the blind that there were five gobblers running across the field toward the decoys. I didn't want to move to fast and spook them so I slowly started moving to get where I could stand up. I looked up to see that Brent had left his shotgun sitting over by his chair when he moved to mine to take watch, so I knew that I either had to get my bow from him or get to his shotgun to take a shot. As it turns out I didn't have to make that decision, as soon as the five gobblers got up close to the decoys they promptly turned around and ran back out of the field. I think they were trying to intimidate the strutting tom decoy we had up and when he didn't back down, they got scared and ran the other way.
We decided that having the birds run in on us like that was not working so we went and removed the strutting tom decoy and moved him behind the blind, and sat up to wait again. We waited until around 3:00 P.M. and then thought we would try some calling and Brent hit a gobble on his Whitt Box and we heard a gobble back about 60 yards away in the woods. I got out my Buckner Purr Pot and started doing some soft clucks and purrs, and the bird was gobbling his head off and getting closer. Brent was videoing to try to capture the hunt on film and I got my bow ready. The gobbler came out full strut and had a hen with him. Brent had him in frame on the camera and it looked awesome. This was the dominate bird of the pack and the one that we spooked earlier in the morning. He was full strut and shaking to fluff his feathers up even more. He came walking by us, only 8 to 10 yards in front of us. Every time he shook we could feel the ground vibrating as he displayed his full stature to us and our decoys. I waited until he was directly in front of us and then when he turned his back to face the decoys, I stood and drew my bow. The hen that was with him saw me and clucked and ran but he stayed and turned slightly so that he was quartering away from me. I figured I should go ahead and take my chance since the hen had already run and took my shot. The shot felt good, I was sure it was a clean kill shot. Then it hit him. The arrow had somehow flown left and hit him right behind his wing. It hit, dropped straight to the ground and he took off. Brent grabbed his shotgun and fired off a couple of rounds but the bird was already 50 to 60 yards away and in the air flying by that time.
I felt sick. I had the best shot possible on this nice bird and had missed. I still didn't feel like I had taken a bad shot, I think it may have been the new arrows, but it didn't really matter, the bird was gone. At this point we figured we had already seen turkeys four times today so we were planning to stay until we had a bird down or it was dark anyway but with the shotgun going off we figured it would be a while, so we took off our facemasks and ate the sandwiches we had packed for lunch and then got back to hunting.
Not 30 minutes later we saw just to our left slowly coming out of the field the five gobblers from earlier in the day. Brent wanted me to get one with my new broad-heads so he said I had first shot but as the birds got closer, I knew it would be futile for me to try to stand and draw with five birds directly in front of me. I whispered for him to take a shot and he did. He picked out a bird directly in front of him at about 35 yards and dropped him.
He had a nice bird, 8+ inch beard, right at 1" spurs, and around 23 lbs. I figured Brent would just want to go ahead and head home and get him cleaned, but he figured since we had been seeing turkeys all day, we still had a shot at the double. I told him I was up for it if he was so we grabbed his bird, threw it behind the blind and kept hunting. Everything was quiet for about 90 minutes and then I saw a Jake step out and head to the opposite side of the field. We figured that he would eat on the other side of the field and then come back to the corner that we were sitting in on his way back to the roost. We tried calling but he and the other Jake that joined him ignored us and kept working the other side of the field. They eventually had three hens join them.
About an hour before dark we started planning for what to do if they didn't come back and I decided that my best move would be to take Brent's shotgun and move to the opposite side of the field to try to sneak up on them. I moved up to the opposite corner of the field from our blind and stopped to see what the birds were doing. I saw that where they were even if I moved over to the opposite of the field I would still be out of shooting range. I sat and watched for a few minutes then realized that it would be dark soon. I decided that the birds were going to stay in the field until after dark so my only shot would be trying to crawl to a drainage ditch about 40 yards out in the field to use to sneak up on them. I started out into the field. I know Brent could clearly see me and that I probably stuck out like a sore thumb in the field. I watched as they ate and crawled forward slowly when they were not looking. When the birds would look up Brent would gobble and they would look towards them and I could continue my slow belly-crawl towards the ditch. About 30 yards out into the field towards the ditch, the jakes saw me. I was sure I was busted, but then the jakes started heading directly towards me. I was completely shocked. I just kept thinking, "there is no way this is happening". I froze completely and just watched as the jakes kept walking towards me. I waited what felt like forever, but was probably more like two to three minutes. When they got as close as they were going to get to me, they looked at me, hesitated, then took one more step towards the woods. As soon as he stepped I pulled the barrel of the gun around and fired. Because the birds had already taken a few steps and were starting to run I hit him in the wing but it was enough. It ended up being about 10 minutes before dark-thirty when I got him and completed our opening day double. He was a Jake, about 18 lbs., 1/4" spurs with a 4" beard.
Overall we were in the woods 15 hours on opening day, looking for the opening day double. It was tough hunting but we were successful in the end. Hope there are many more like this in the future.
