Opening morning with pic's

[Archerysniper]

Well I finally have some time to submit my hunt story.

I got in the blind wednesday morning at 5am just to keep from blowing the birds off the roost. From my scouting on sunday morning before the hunt I knew I had my blind within 120 yards of the roost. At 5:10 I was laying down in the blind relaxing knowing the first gobble would wake me is I fell asleep when the rustle of leaves peeked my atention so I look out the window and a family of coons are playing around, I watched them them till 5:45 when I was startled by the first gobble of the morning. That bird was roosted were I left them on sunday so now I'm getting excited hopeing he will fly down and follow his same path right down a logging road that will put him at 5 yards. He gobbles again and this time he is joined by 2 more birds on the ridge behind me 100 yards now I know it's going to get good I'm surrounded by birds and they are gobbling every few seconds.

6:00 I hear the wings flapping as the bird in front of me flys down and watch him glide through the trees to were the birds behind me were gobbling. Now it gets quiet for 5 minutes and I'm wondering if they are done gobbling so I break out my slate call and give some soft yelps and the ridge behind me explodes with gobbling. I give them some more yelps and get cut off by a hen that was not happy with me every time I would yelp she would cut me off. I have had this happen many times before and it normally ends with the aggresive hen flying down by the gobblers and leding him away from me as fast as she can.

I allready had a plan for this happening knowing that I might be dealing with bigger groups of toms with hens this early in the season, I switch from trying to call the toms in to calling to the ladies instead of aggresive yelping or cutting I switched to soft purrs and heavy leaf scratching this drove the gobblers nuts and I could finally see the toms strutting on the ridge.

At 6:30 the hens finally fly down and I can see them heading to the northwest wich will put them out of range but they will hit the main logging road and I should be able to call them south down it because all the fields are that way with nothing but swamp and a lake to the north.

At 6:45 I continued responding to the hens everytime they would yelp I would give some soft purrs on the slate and scratch the leafs in the blind. The way I set the blind up anything comeing from the north would be at 10 yards or less when I could finally see them due to being on the side of a hill but the main road ran through at 18 yards and I was really positive any bird comeing from the north would follow it. Finally the first hen shows up then followed by two more picking there way down the road from the north heading to the corn to the south by this time I know I'm really in the game and the gobblers will be here any time.

As I'm watching the hens I start getting ready grab my bow get the arrow knocked and the release attached. Soon I start to hear this noise from the bottom of the hill were I can't see. PFFFFT BOOM PFFFFT BOOM, I let out a soft purr with my mouth call and got a gobble that shook the blind. I get moved into shooting position and start puting preasure on the bow string watching the road for him to step out in the clear when I hear PFFFFFT BOOOM to my left, I look over and can see the bright white and blue head and a full fan comeing up the side hill. I switch around in the blind right when he steps into clear view at 8 yards in full strutt. At this time I go into auto pilot I draw and can feel I hit my anchor point and move my pin slightly to the left of the beard so I don't cut it off and my thumb starts putting pressure on the release, the next thing I see is the bright yellow fletching dissapear into his chest slightly above and to the right of the beard. When the arrow hit's it makes him do a back flip over the hill and I can just see his wing flap a couple times knowing he is done 7:00 opening morning.

I put my bow down and unzip the blind and just as I step out I can see more Toms comeing down the road and into where my bird is laying. By the time I get back in the blind and get my camera out I have 5 turkeys giveing my bird the flying spur drop and kicking the stuffing out of my bird standing on him in full strutt a few times.

I let this go on for 5 minutes listening to the fighting purrs till I decided I needed some feathers left for pictures and opened the blind and they ran away.

Heres a view of the blind the big pines behind the blind is were some of the birds were roosting.

This was the last view my bird had he was standing by the little maple with green stuff at it's base.

This is were I found my arrow stuck in the road 75 yards on the other side of the bird.

[Wanderer]

Great story, great set up, great hunt! No "trash" there.

[Archerysniper]

Thank's Wanderer and yep no trash . I have some really cool video on my phone but can't figure out how to get it to my computer

[Sorgy]

Great story

Your scouting certainly paid off. Way to put it together.

Steve

[DonBo]

Good job and story AS! Hope to find the time write up my own soon.

[CapnJack]

Thanks for the blow by blow account! Although waiting for the "D" hunt is going to make it a lot harder now. Nice pics from the blind. Have to launch a few arrows tomorrow just to keep the nerves down!

[hugonian1]

Great read.

Funny how tough those other birds get when they sense weakness (death).

[IlliniWalli]

cool story, sniper

its awesome when a plan comes together like, and a bow kill to boot.

[bustumup]

Doesn't get any better! Every turkey hunter dreams of a successful hunt where there's lots of exitement and a plan works out. Turkey hunting is never the same after hunts like that, you'll strive to duplicate it and realize that it just doesn't happen like that very often. Congrats!

[mws4dux]

Great story and pics

[mrklean]

great story

[Borch]

Nice story AS!

Looks like you had them pegged!

[paceman]

Wow that was an exciting read! Great Job and pictures!

[Fishman11]

great story but where is a pic. of the bird you shot?

[engfish]

Turkey Contest Submission Thread

Pics Thread

[Archerysniper]

Yeah I forgot to add that one . Got it fixed now

[sticknstring]

Way to go 'sniper - it sure is tough to beat a plan that comes together isn't it? I've had a few of those hunts over the years and I can remember the details as vivid today as when they happened. You'll be remembering this one! Grats!