Opening Morning...
Well, I figured after talking some smack about the Wild winning and shooting a turkey the next morning on the NHL Playoffs thread, there was pretty much no way that I would see a turkey when I went out this morning, much less get a shot.
I was out setting my decoys and climbing into the blind around 5:45 this morning hoping I could get those two toms I had been seeing to come in for a visit. I was set up about 80yd south of a brushy ditch with a CRP field to the north and hardwoods to the east. I knew the toms had been roosting in those hardwoods, and thought they would come into the field either to the north or just south of that brushy ditch. I set the decoys up at 17 yds, and so that they could see them through a break in the brush line. I set a hen decoy with a jake decoy mounting her, with the hopes that it would get those two toms fired up.
They came out of the roost around 6:10 and I heard them gobble as soon as they hit the ground about 150yds north of me, and I returned with a couple soft yelps and purrs, and waited. Within a few minutes I saw them come into the opening in the brush line, and I hit them with another purr, they looked over saw the decoys, and it was on.
Those two toms came in side by side on a run straight for that jake. I drew my bow when they hit about 50yds, and when they got to that jake they start beating the heck out of it. I picked out the tom I thought was the bigger of the two, and waited for him to take a breather and sit still for a second, and then squeezed the trigger on the release. The arrow went right where it was supposed to go and the tom ran about 10 yds before he fell. The other tom then looks over at his buddy, and decides he is now going to go beat on him. This tom was so preoccupied beating on his now dead buddy that I was able to get out of the blind, pull out my phone, and take some pictures of him while he worked over his buddy. I couldn't help, but laugh out loud at this spectacle. I yelled at him, he looked at me, gobbled at me, and then took off running. I have never seen turkeys act like this, except on tv.
It was a pretty awesome morning of hunting. Shot a really nice tom, got the first kill with my new bow, still managed to get to work by 8, and will be eating wild turkey for dinner tonight. Here are a few pics.
