Rewind, play...Pause

Elliot1987

Member
Joined
Aug 5, 2015
Messages
48
I wouldn't say I am a turkey nut, but I love hunting them. I practice with my bow regularly year round. It is something I enjoy, so I have become proficient on accident. Close to the season I practice out of a blind and I practice with my pack on while sitting against a tree. (cool tip here: use your backpacking pack to keep you way from the tree you are sitting up against so it is easier to draw.) I scout like crazy to find the birds starting one month before the season. This allows me to see the full transition of winter to spring, I love it. I am well prepared for when that thunder chicken comes.
My first couple outings I brought my kids with. It was a great experience being able to take my 3 year old out for the first time and it is something I'll never forget. My 6 year old made it out, but separately. He is my little veteran hunter who has been out scouting and glassing with me looking for birds and sign. Another thing I will never forget.
Those were the good parts of my turkey hunting this spring, now comes the bad one. I was sitting in my blind alone. My boys wanted to stay home with their cousins and play, so I hit the woods by myself. The weekend prior I had two toms walk by without strutting or gobbling or showing any interest at all in my two hen setup. Frustrated with this I thought I would frustrate them and throw up those same hens with a full strut tom decoy. I did this part correctly. I started calling early in the morning with no gobbles, but I knew they were around as I had done my homework and seen with my own eyes some of the toms in the area. By about 8am I see the black dot come out of the treeline. Sure enough here comes a silent tom. He sees my tom decoy and starts strutting his stuff. He lets out a gobble and starts coming closer. I had my 3 decoys setup 5-8 yards from the blind spaced 3-4 yards apart with the tom as the main focus area to shoot towards, but I had shots around the hen decoys too. The tom comes in at full strut. Stops about 2 yards from my tom decoy and I draw back let out 2 clucks with my mouth call as I do so to cover any sound I might make. I release my arrow after doing a mental checklist of my form and grip. Holding my form after the shot I know where my arrow hit and it hit exactly where I was aiming. The turkey ran directly behind my blind out of sight. I heard the trotting keep going then stop. As always with my bow, I waited a few minutes before I would go look for him. A mix of excitement and sadness my season was over came over me. Usually during this time I replay the shot in my mind, almost like I was hitting play and rewind over and over again on a VCR. Suddenly, a feeling of horror struck me! Rewind, play and pause.... It was then I realized I had aimed too far forward. My overconfidence in shooting led me to shooting at a quartering to tom in full strut, resulting in me completely missing the kill zone that is slightly smaller than a softball. I convinced myself that I may have clipped something good and he would be laying dead just a few yards behind my blind. I exited my blind and as soon as I stepped out I heard the unmistakable sound of a turkey trying to fly into a tree, the least graceful thing in the woods. I could just see him and he had barely made it 20 yards in the air in his attempt. He was clearly hurting as I had just damaged his primary muscle mass. I knew the shot wasn't low after this because ran off at a good sprint. Knowing that I cant outrun a turkey in the woods I decided to look for the arrow to see if I did hit anything good. I hit play and rewind in my head a couple times and found my arrow. The results were not what I wanted. A sticky, clear layer on the shaft with a few feathers and minimal blood. The blood trail was non existent aside from 3 eraser head size drops that were about 20 yards apart. I said to hell with it and tore off after the bird. Keeping in my, "smooth is fast and fast is smooth", I tried stalking a turkey in some thick dry woods in northern MN. This is not ideal. Leaves from last fall were everywhere and every step regardless of how I stepped resulted in an echoing crunch. About 200 yards into the stalk and trailing the birds kicked up leaves I see him again. Completely across the 1/4 mile wide plowed corn field and headed into the private lands beyond. That sickening feeling of regret and "shouldawouldas" set in. That feeling only a true hunter knows when he injures the animal, but fails to recover it. I sat with my back against a big oak and thought about where I had went wrong and what I could have done. I missed one step to my spring turkey hunting ritual. I did not study the anatomy of the turkey. Every year and for every animal I hunt I study the anatomy to ensure that not only my shot is good, but so is the placement of my shot. Vowing to never make this mistake again and apologizing to Mother Nature and her turkey, I pulled out my tag and did what I knew I was going to have to do when I replayed that shot in my head. I took my sharpie from my pack and wrote on my tag, "VOID Wounded 4/23/2020." This now serves as my bookmark for the rest of the year regardless of what I am reading. Ironically I had just gotten my "complete guide to: hunting, butchering and cooking wild game Vol 1, by Steve Rinella." Disposing of the tag is my own personal choice and I do not expect that to be the standard or law anywhere, especially for those who are new to hunting or who don't get out that much to hunt. I just figure I was given my turkey and it will now die. My tag is for the death of a specified number of animals of that species in a specific location, that tag is filled.

Thank you for reading and I wish you all the best!
 
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