bpbowhunter
Member
Today was very exciting, yet ended in disgust. I worked in two Toms first thing this morning that were firing from their roost, but neither gave me a shot. about 30-45 min after that, had 4 birds, thought they were hens, pass across the field and out of sight. I heard a gobbler off in the distance and threw out a few calls....it sounded like he was on his way. Waited a little while and hit him with another call, he was much closer. Then he made his way to about 50 yds out when I first saw him. It was a big mature bird. We played cat and mouse, he fired off, I waited patiently and only threw out a light call so often when he seemed to lose interest. This game went on for about a half hour. Finally when he was within 10-15 yds he committed to actually walking past my blind through one of my two, open windows. He was about 17 yds or so when he stopped, I had my 20 yard pin locked on my spot, let the arrow fly, watched it hit my spot, and heard a thud! I thought it was over, only to see the bird jump up, land and hit the ground running. He was running like he was hit good, gimping but still at a good pace, and out of sight about 50 yds out. 30 seconds after shooting him 2 more Toms walked the same path....I had no clue those birds were even there! The must have come in from the side of one of the closed windows and followed the bigger bird, the one I shot. Crazily enough, right after that, the four that walked through the field were Jakes, and they crossed the back side of my blind. So 7 male birds were all coming in, when I only saw the one that I was working. Back to the shot bird. I shot him at 7:30am and decided to check my arrow at 8:10, walked up, no arrow, no blood, followed the path he went then saw my arrow laid up against the down tree I saw him last hop over. My fletching was covered in blood! Also, the blades of my 2 blade Rage were not attached to the broadhead. I am thinking broke off in the bird or possible malfuncion of some sort. However, I thought great sign since the blood, so I slowly walked on and shortly after picked up a blood trail. I followed that path and at 40-50 yds the blood was getting better. He then doubled back towards where I shot him for another 40 yards or so. At this point he was within 50 yds of my blind but on opposite side of the downed tree so I never saw him. He then must have went down the side of the creek, went through the creek which I know he could not have touched, too deep, I wasnt even sure if turkey could swim, but he must have because I picked up the blood trail on opposite side and it was all watered down. I did lose and pick up the blood trail a couple times, but followed the trail a total of about 80-100 yds after the bird crossed the creek. I had my buddy meet me at he opposite side of creek to help me track, I had to leave for a little bit and he tried to follow the trail, picked it back up and came up on the bird. He said the locked eyes for about 10 seconds or so and the the thing ran off and FLEW! Flew all the way over the creek about to where my blind was. He said the Tom hit the ground hard, and was not flying right, he could tell it was pretty jacked up! Anyone have any clue what could have happened, or went wrong, and where I may have hit this bird? After following blood for that long, I would have sworn this was a dead bird. It was however the first bird I have ever shot, so not much experience with tracking them.
