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Perfect Afternoon in the Woods

SEIowaDeerslayer

Well-Known Member
Most of the time when we head to the woods we have high expectations but come up short for one reason of another, probably just the nature of the beast. Sometimes we fill a tag, and sometimes there are those rare times in the woods when everything for one reason or another goes right. The afternoon of April 20th was like that for me.

This turkey season started off tough for me. I took the week of 4/16 - 4/20 off of work to just turkey hunt hard for a week. The opener was a bust for me with the 40 mph winds. Mornings all week were tough as nothing seemed to want to come into my setups. Afternoons were productive though, and I called in 3 gobblers all week in the afternoon who all ran away when they saw my custom Pretty Boy decoy "Petey". After the last gobbler on Thursday afternoon ran off I had it and knew I had to switch it up because for one reason or another Petey was super intimidating. I got out my old B-Mobile decoy, took a jake beard off my beard wall and put that on him, and then stuck in a few tail feathers that I had laying around. He was much less intimidating than Petey. I named my new custom jake decoy "Stubs".

Stubs.jpg


My alarm went off at 3:30 on Friday morning but I was immediately greeted with the sound of high winds and rain pounding on our roof. I checked the forecast and saw the weather was supposed to be clearing early afternoon so I decided to go back to bed, go out in the afternoon and sit til dark.

I got to the spot I was going to hunt for the afternoon, slapped the double bull and hen dekes on the 2200, grabbed Stubs and my bow and took off to the timber. On my way to the spot, which is about a 3/4 mile hike, I stumbed upon a nice mess of morels around a big elm tree, so I got a plastic sack out of my pack and loaded up with them. Nice start. Walked about a hundred more yards or so and stumbled upon a toad of an antler with huge bases. This got me super pumped as it was bigger than any shed I had found this year while I was actually shed hunting. Very nice start. The only way I figured this afternoon could get better is if I actually got a bird.

I finally got to my spot which is a roosting area on a big ridge top. I got the double bull set up and set the dekes out and after about a hour of letting the place settle down after making noise getting set up, I started calling. The hunt was slow and I was beginning to second guess my choice in spots when I spotted a gobbler out the back window of my blind working his way up the ridge. I slowly closed the back window, got my bow ready and started making some soft purrs and clucks. No gobbling but after a few minutes I could hear the bird spitting and drumming and wings dragging directly behind my blind. He came around the left side of the blind and went right up to Stubs giving him a stare down. He didn't attack him, just stood there looking at him perfectly broadside. I drew my bow and made a perfect shot on him right through the heart. He did a little death dance and died right where he was standing in front of Stubs. Time of death was a little after 5:00 PM.

I got the bird tagged and the equipment strapped up again and headed back towards the truck. I took a slightly different route back up by where one of my deer stands is and I walked up on another shed! Another monster shed with big bases. The tree rats had gotten a lot of this one but it was still an awesome find. I was all smiles after that and asked myself how could this afternoon have been any better? Probably couldn't have been unless I would've scored a double. Hopefully I can fill my 2nd tag next weekend.

I didn't have a camera with me so my wife had to take the trophy shot of me at home in the dark. I did get a field pic of the bird, shrooms, and sheds with my cell phone though. Enjoy the pics!

Specs on the bird: 25.5 lbs, 1 1/8 spur on both sides, 9" beard. Solid 2 year old.

The bird, shooms, and sheds.
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The sheds.
2012sheds.jpg


Me and the bird.
2012turk.jpg
 
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