Doubled Today

[Sturg]

I was archery hunting this morning. I had a big tom come into my decoys around 7:00 am. I have a mounted strutter for a decoy and usually when a tom comes in they go right to the tom to start a ruckus. I have a light rope tied to it so I can rotate the strutter if a tom hangs up. The tom is almost to the strutter when it notices the rope. He stops to study it. I shoot through an opening the blind that is velcro attached. I only leave about a 4 in slot to shoot through because I set the decoy at 15 yds I don't want the turkey spot any movement in the blind.He gets a little spooky from the rope and starts walking away. He is now out about 14 yds but I can't line him up in the sight because the curtain is velcro closed.. I decide to turn the strutter to see if he would come back and attack it. It has the opposite effect and walks off about 60 yds out and hangs there. He is out there over an hour. I try to coax him back but he stays put. He occasionally gobbles at my calls but will not budge. He even shares his space with a couple of deer at different times. Suddenly he moves up about 5 yds and I thought progress! I hear a small rustling and here comes another tom into the strutter. He tries to knock him down but just tilts it because it is staked down. The big tom moves another ten yds closer.

I'm thinking maybe this will bring him in. Then he stalls again about 45 yds out. I decide I should just take the one still messing with the strutter. I draw and get lined up on him. I release and hear a big thwack but the tom just jumps back and then goes after the strutter again. I look at the strutter and see the end on my arrow sticking out of the strutter. I was lined up on the tom and hit the stutter a foot to the tom's left! A deflection? The big tom leaves the scene at the sound of the thwack. I grab another arrow and try again. Another thwack the tom flys off with 18 in of arrow hanging out the opposite side I shot at. He flies about 20 yds and falls dead. Pictures are below.

Big tom taken while scouting

Decoy

Big tom hanging out

Smaller Tom Pics

Decoy with Arrow

Great ending with a good laugh about my "Double"

[Borch]

Way to go sturg!

[Cheetah]

Nice double.

[bigbucks]

Oops! Cool, at least hitting the strutter with the arrow didn't ruin it like blowing it's head off with a shotgun would have. Nice job sealing the deal.

[DonBo]

Cool story and pics.

[sticknstring]

Congrats and great pics! How have the birds interacted w/ that decoy the past 3 weeks or did you just start hunting?

[Sturg]

I've been using a strutter for years. I've never noticed a drop off in the later seasons. The hard part is getting the decoy seen. For many years I always hunted the G season in MN until the archery license came about. For bowhunting it puts the target close and they are pre-occupied with the decoy, giving you plenty of time to aim and they are fun to watch.