jjohnson
Well-Known Member
This will forever be the best & worst day I've had in the woods. Sunday night I decided to drive by one of the farms I can to see if there were any birds up on the ridge. I parked along the road and glassed the field. Holy Crap! There were 8 strutters working an alfalfa strip heading to roost. I quick called my buddy and told him I knew where we were headed in the morning. That morning there were three of us in the blind and I was the designated camera man. It was bound to get interesting. We wanted to get close to the roost and as we were walking in the birds started sounding off. We decided 200 yds was as close enough and set the blind right in the middle of the field. We watched as a few birds pitched and headed for the timber.
It wasn't long and the longbeards started to show. About 45 minutes after day break we were surrounded. We had strutters 200 yds to our South working our way, 2 appeared to our west 75 yds away and 1 to our east 100 yds away. They kept their distance until the hens started hitting the field. I noticed another bird coming out of the timber to our east. That bird turned into 6 longbeards and 3 jakes. It was unbelievable.
For the next hour and half the "Rat Pack" as I called them harassed every tom that tried to enter the field. At one point in time we could visible count 13 Toms. Most of which were no more than 60-80 yds from our setup. Soon we had 6 birds walk by at 35 yds and park 20 yds behind the blind. And back and forth and back and forth they went. No shots. Finally the rat pack pushed a lone tom down in the timber.
Sweet now maybe one of these loners will close in. It wasn't long and 2 birds worked within 30 yds directly behind us. While they were messing around with the jakes another lone tom appeared in front of us and started towards the dekes. He caught movement from the timber and fled as the rat pack entered the field. This time they wanted the DSD jake. A few minutes later we had 4 toms "the rat pack" beating the crap out of the jake. And all hell broke loose. They made so much noise shock-gobbling and purring I just sat back in aww.
Shawn flung the first arrow and it was a clean miss. Brady was next and connected good right at the base of ones neck. Shawn reloaded and connected with another. Here's where we all learned a lesson. SHOOT BULLHEADS and aim for the head PERIOD. Unfortunetly we never recovered a bird. I couldn't believe it. I figured I'd step out of the blind and they're be dead birds all over. It also would have been both of these guys first archery birds. I've never been so sick. Frustrating to say the least.
Anyway here's a highlight reel of the whole morning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4yU4zEwPAQ
It wasn't long and the longbeards started to show. About 45 minutes after day break we were surrounded. We had strutters 200 yds to our South working our way, 2 appeared to our west 75 yds away and 1 to our east 100 yds away. They kept their distance until the hens started hitting the field. I noticed another bird coming out of the timber to our east. That bird turned into 6 longbeards and 3 jakes. It was unbelievable.
For the next hour and half the "Rat Pack" as I called them harassed every tom that tried to enter the field. At one point in time we could visible count 13 Toms. Most of which were no more than 60-80 yds from our setup. Soon we had 6 birds walk by at 35 yds and park 20 yds behind the blind. And back and forth and back and forth they went. No shots. Finally the rat pack pushed a lone tom down in the timber.
Sweet now maybe one of these loners will close in. It wasn't long and 2 birds worked within 30 yds directly behind us. While they were messing around with the jakes another lone tom appeared in front of us and started towards the dekes. He caught movement from the timber and fled as the rat pack entered the field. This time they wanted the DSD jake. A few minutes later we had 4 toms "the rat pack" beating the crap out of the jake. And all hell broke loose. They made so much noise shock-gobbling and purring I just sat back in aww.
Shawn flung the first arrow and it was a clean miss. Brady was next and connected good right at the base of ones neck. Shawn reloaded and connected with another. Here's where we all learned a lesson. SHOOT BULLHEADS and aim for the head PERIOD. Unfortunetly we never recovered a bird. I couldn't believe it. I figured I'd step out of the blind and they're be dead birds all over. It also would have been both of these guys first archery birds. I've never been so sick. Frustrating to say the least.
Anyway here's a highlight reel of the whole morning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4yU4zEwPAQ
