Three blind pigs and an acorn

[Scoot]

Although I was unsuccessful in drawing a ND turkey tag this year, I had two good buddies pull the tag. Tom (harvey lee) very generously gave my buddies and me permission to go out and chase some birds. Tom's been extremely generous to me and I'm very grateful for the chance to be able to hunt on the land in ND- it's a slice of heaven for whitetails and any time I get out there is wonderful! Every time I hang a tree stand or plant my butt in the woods out there, I know there's a chance of a buck of a lifetime walking by. I get "kid in a candy store" excited each time I go out there and I always have fun.

Most of the times I've been out there I've seen or heard turkeys. The ground blind I posted several pictures from last Fall was an area where a lot of turkeys seemed to be. On Sunday, Jake (one of my buddies with a tag), Gabe (no tag), and I (no tag) went out to try call in a turkey. We only had one small problem- the sum of the turkey knowledge the three of us shared couldn't fill a thimble! The three of us have a lot of bowhunting experience, but not when it comes to chasing turkeys. In all honesy, we figured it'd be a good way to spend the day and we'd get to stretch our legs and spend some time outdoors- we really didn't have any false hope of shooting a turkey. However, we were going to try and have fun doing it.

Five minutes after leaving Fargo it started to rain. The forecast was for rain and plenty of it. We got to the area by the blind and parked about 40 minutes before legal shooting light. About 15 minutes before legal shooting time, we headed out to the blind in rain and pitch black darkness. We set up the decoy and quietly prepared for a possible, but highly improbably, shot.

Here's the view we had from our seats.

About 45 minutes after legal shooting light we heard a hen do some talking, but couldn't ever locate her. Half an hour later Jake spotted three birds in the field to the Southwest of us. They were generally heading our way. Soon, two jakes, several more hens, and a tom came through a tree row to the South of us and they worked their way towards us. They made it to about 80 yards South of us started to mill around. The tom strutted around and tried mightily to impress the gals. Soon, two deer fed their way out into the field near the turkeys. The day was a huge success at that point- we had turkeys and deer in plain sight, a soft pitter patter of rain on the ground blind, and three good buddies sharing the whole thing. We were all thrilled with the outcoome already!

Soon the turkeys started to feed back the way they had entered the field. Jake got on the call and turned them in our direction. Before we knew it, the hens were leading the jakes and toms right in front of us and right at our decoy. I made the comment that they were "comin' in like trained pigs!" They disappeared in a blind spot for a bit, but then came into our shooting window.

Soon, the whole group of them was right in front of us (not all of them are in the picture) and Jake was at full draw.

I had my camera set on burst mode (20 pics/sec) and hoped to take pics of the shot, the arrow on its way, the hit, and the response. However, the turkey didn't cooperate- he just kept moving and provided no obvious time for a shot. Before I knew it, the arrow was gone and I missed my opportunity for some cool pictures. However, Jake had hit the bird and it was moving off to the North. I grabbed another arrow and gave it to him. He shot, but the arrow missed low. Gabe and I took off chasing the bird down- we soon caught up with it. Jake had taken his first turkey!

He hauled it over to the blind, where he had his tag in his backpack. We cut the tag appropriately and tagged his tom.

One final pic- the picture of three blind pigs who found an acorn!

[DonBo]

Sweet deal! WTG guys. Great pics as usual Scoot.

[sticknstring]

Even a blind squirrel can find a nut once in awhile! Congrats on the bow bird & great pics!

[mrklean]

congrats to your buddy

[harvey lee]

Seems from the pictures you have posted in the last few years from archery deer and turkey, the three blind pigs do pretty well.

Glad you had a fun day Scoot and go out again and whack a few more.

Seems that blind harvest alot of wildlife in the short time it has been in the windrow there. I believe we have harvested 4 deer out of that blind in the past 2 years along with a couple turkey.

That field seems to always have deer and turkey in the area. The gate that goes to the west by the house is also a very good area if you have issues finding a nice tom. Set up about 50 yards north of the gate on the fenceline on a nice early morning and my bet is, you will see turkey crossing the road before 9am. Always seems they are crossing there.

As always, great to have some hunters who seem to always follow the rules we set and treat the land as if it were your own. Thanks for being the guests I hope to have every season.

Looking forward to a few more turkey harvest photo's.