One crisp morning in the month of October Russell headed out in search of the devious Deer. He happened to have a Turkey tag in his pocket. He found a great spot overlooking a prime funnel in-between their food and water supply and their bedding area. Slowly the morning sun started to creep over the horizon.
“Why does it always seem the coldest just before sunrise?” He thinks to himself.
With a slight shiver he nestles back into the rock cliff that he was perched on. He pulls out his doe call from his, camouflaged, backpack. Rubbing his hands together to get them a little bit of warmth, he grasps a hold of it and places it to his lips. Before a single sound is made from the little plastic device he hears rustling behind him.
“That’s impossible,” He thinks. “I’m on the outer edge of this cliff.”
He strains to look behind him without moving quickly. He doesn’t see anything. After a couple of minutes, which drugs on like some TV show where it takes two minutes for 30 seconds to pass. He has to do something. He raises his doe call to his lips and ever so slightly blows.
“Blauuu” “Buur” “Blaaa” “GOBBLE, GOOBLE, GOBBLE”
“What the?” That was close.
“That was not what I was expecting, but ok lets see where this takes us.”
He slowly moves his hand into his backpack again and pulls out his mouth call.
“cluck, cluck, cluck.”
“Gobble, Gobble…” It seemed to go on for several minutes, from all directions. The loudest still comes from over his right shoulder, from the trees behind him.
Silence. They are on the move to regroup with each other and dropping off their roosts.
“Gobble, Gobble, Gobble, Gobble…” It came from directly in front of him!
Straining to locate the bird behind the bushes, he grabs a hold of his bow and slowly places the trigger on the string. He can see movement now threw the brush. He starts his draw trying to be slow, but needs to be at full draw before the bird can spot him. He gets to full draw. Just then the birds that were behind him shout “Look Out He’s Right Here.”
The entire flog takes off running in each direction out of bushes and trees from everywhere.
As he looks back at his accomplice he was
looking face to face with several big birds that
immediately take off in flight over his head. He
slowly lets his draw back down, which by this time
had his arms shaking.
“I blew it. I forgot about the birds behind me.” He replays the scene in his head, over and over again.
He continued to hunt all morning but with to no avail.
“I mine as well eat lunch” as he stands and walks back to the truck he starts playing with his mouthpiece again. Yep the birds are still there calling back in time with him.
After his lunch he heads back to his same haunt. Maybe now they will come back and we can harvest something today. Russell has been bow hunting for over 10 years by this point. He feels that he has had enough game in his cross-sights that he can take anything, especially with his new PSP Firestorm, with his arrows traveling at over 300 feet per second.
He begins a rattling sequence. Hit, scrap, and drag. He feels good about it. After three sequences he rests back to listen, and rest. There is movement across the funnel, just to his right. It’s a fawn. He smiles to himself and watches as it jumps and prances around. Another movement catches his eye. A doe, she is with her fawn. They cross his path within 100 yards moving from his left to right. If they turn to their left they will come closer if they continue on the high ground they are going to move away from him. In Arizona a 100 yard shot is not uncommon and he does have a pin set up to make the shot. But he thinks to himself as they stop in front of him, No girl take your baby out of here. His attention at that moment snaps to the right once again. A Buck and a real nice one. Moving down the exact path. The Doe also notices and starts moving away from Russell and the Buck.
“Now we’re talkin’” he thinks aloud.
He places his trigger back onto the string. He preps his position to intercept the Buck directly in front of him. He will stop exactly where the Doe stopped. The Buck did not disappoint him. Almost to the exact spot as far as Russell can tell. Russell comes to full-draw. He has him in his sights and fix in. It seems like an eternity as he watched the buck thru the peephole.
“Not today young Buck, not today.” With a risk of such a long shot, about 100 yards, and a slight wind from his left to right he was afraid if he missed he would just wound it and in this terrain you may never find it. So to pass on this shoot is commendable. Not too many people would have passed up at an opportunity like that, but Russell says, “There’s always tomorrow.”
The Buck busts into the tree line, scattering Turkeys everywhere. Russell sits back and just takes in the evening air. It’s getting late but he is waiting until almost dark before he moves back to his truck. Wait the Turkeys are calling for each other. They want to meet up one last time before they head to their roosts. He fittles with his mouth piece again. Like magic they begin to appear from everywhere. Wouldn’t you know it they are going to meet up in the exact spot where he always imagined the deer would congregate and funnel thru? He comes to full draw; from what he thought was a protected spot. No, wrong again, one of the Old Jakes spot him from across the ravine and lets out a yell they scatter everywhere. He trains on one of the running birds and releases his arrow.
“A hit” with exclamation he jumps to his feet. Scales down the side of the cliff, instead of walking around. Runs up to the bird and finds it still flailing pretty good. He picks it up and looks it over. Wouldn’t you know it; this bird was a little faster than he anticipated. The arrow passed just behind the tailfin attachment point and cracked both his back legs. This bird wasn’t body shot anywhere. Russell quickly dispatched the Turkey and placed it into his backpack, after tagging it. He made it back to the truck and weighed it.
“7 lbs?” Hugh “I’ve never heard of a 7 lbs Turkey.”
“Oh well I got me my first Turkey!” He gleamed of happiness.
He headed to the check in point and the guy laughs and says, “We don’t have a small Turkey Contest going on here, but I think you might win this year.”
“Ha, Ha, Ha”
Russell heads home and everyone gathered around to hear the tail of this hunt. Everyone at the house was very impressed with him getting a Turkey, no one cared about it's weight.
Turkey Hunting Trip by The Thomas Ranch
Russell got a chance to harvest a Turkey,
while out Bow Hunitng for a Deer.
Here's the story.
Although during the cleaning process Casey cared about the smell. Saying that the Turkey should learn how to take a bath and all the kids doing their chuckles.
“It was the greatest thrill of my life. My first Turkey ever, and with a Bow, that made it extra special for me” Russell states.
“Congrats Russell on your first TURKEY!”
The Thomas Ranch
First Turkey
