Iowabowtech
New Member
Well, it's been a slow 1.5 yrs for this turkey hunter. Last year I went 0 for 2 and I was beginning to fear this same this year. I've mentioned on a few occasions how the birds have been skirting my setup badly for some time now so I decided to employ a new tactic last evening...the old bottleneck on the way to roost trick.
After a dry run of mushroom hunting I got set up at 2:00 pm. I even decided to brush in the blind a little although I know most people don't agree it's necessary, I was willing to try anything after the dozens of near misses in the recent past. So I tucked into a recently made brushpile. And on this occasion, I had only 35 yards in fromt of me to a very sturdy fence. I see them cross through this area on fairly regular occasion so I figured even if they didn't respond to calls/dekes, they may just come through eventually for roosting desires. After an hour, I saw a hen to 75 yards left, she spotted the DSD jake and standing hen combo and proceeded on her way. It was slow until about 5:00 pm when I spotted at least 2 gobblers in full strut with an unknown quantity of hens to my right. They were a good 150 yards or more at that point with some scrubby trees in between so I was only catching glimpses. I proceeded to give a series of clucks, purrs and an occasional yelp for the next hour.
Frankly I'm not sure if they were responding or if they were simply headed to roost but at 6:15, they were within 100 yds. Shortly after and out of nowhere, a tom I hadn't even spotted came litteraly running into my setup from behind me to challenge the jake. I didn't even wait for him to go into strut. As soon as he went from run to walk, he took an arrow at 15 yds. It was exactly 6:30 pm.
You have to love the silence involved in archery hunting turkeys because the rest of the group was still hanging well out of range but they didn't seem phased. In fact both toms were still strutting away. So I set back down, made another series of light calls just to say "it's ok, come to daddy" and the elected to put the calls away for the night. They were heading my way still but it seemed like they were taking about 1 step every 5 minutes. Finally, the toms couldn't stand the DSD jake anymore and headed my way in full strut and wing to wing. In fact, as they made it into my shooting window, I had to wait or I was looking at a double skewer. They really didn't seem to be quite committed to coming all the way in though and were hanging up at about 20-30 yds and walking toward the roost location. Finally, one of the birds stopped and allowed just the moment I was waiting for. At exactly 7:00pm and 26 yds, gobbler #2 took a dirt nap.
It's amazing how luck can turn in this game. Here's the scene...bird #2 laying in the upper right. Bird #1 made it across the fence and died on the other side.
After a dry run of mushroom hunting I got set up at 2:00 pm. I even decided to brush in the blind a little although I know most people don't agree it's necessary, I was willing to try anything after the dozens of near misses in the recent past. So I tucked into a recently made brushpile. And on this occasion, I had only 35 yards in fromt of me to a very sturdy fence. I see them cross through this area on fairly regular occasion so I figured even if they didn't respond to calls/dekes, they may just come through eventually for roosting desires. After an hour, I saw a hen to 75 yards left, she spotted the DSD jake and standing hen combo and proceeded on her way. It was slow until about 5:00 pm when I spotted at least 2 gobblers in full strut with an unknown quantity of hens to my right. They were a good 150 yards or more at that point with some scrubby trees in between so I was only catching glimpses. I proceeded to give a series of clucks, purrs and an occasional yelp for the next hour.
Frankly I'm not sure if they were responding or if they were simply headed to roost but at 6:15, they were within 100 yds. Shortly after and out of nowhere, a tom I hadn't even spotted came litteraly running into my setup from behind me to challenge the jake. I didn't even wait for him to go into strut. As soon as he went from run to walk, he took an arrow at 15 yds. It was exactly 6:30 pm.
You have to love the silence involved in archery hunting turkeys because the rest of the group was still hanging well out of range but they didn't seem phased. In fact both toms were still strutting away. So I set back down, made another series of light calls just to say "it's ok, come to daddy" and the elected to put the calls away for the night. They were heading my way still but it seemed like they were taking about 1 step every 5 minutes. Finally, the toms couldn't stand the DSD jake anymore and headed my way in full strut and wing to wing. In fact, as they made it into my shooting window, I had to wait or I was looking at a double skewer. They really didn't seem to be quite committed to coming all the way in though and were hanging up at about 20-30 yds and walking toward the roost location. Finally, one of the birds stopped and allowed just the moment I was waiting for. At exactly 7:00pm and 26 yds, gobbler #2 took a dirt nap.
It's amazing how luck can turn in this game. Here's the scene...bird #2 laying in the upper right. Bird #1 made it across the fence and died on the other side.
