Idaho archery gobbler

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Renegadehunter

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I went out Friday morning to do some turkey hunting. It was a beautiful morning and a chilly 37°F. I was at my property in the Craig Mountains, about 4350' elevation. I arrived about 20 minutes before shooting light. After stepping out of the pickup I listened carefully while getting ready and heard one gobbling down the timbered ridge from me, a spot that I find them year after year. I grabbed my old Alpine bow that I had brought, I keep it as a back up and like to use it for turkey rather than changing the setup on my main bow which is set up for 3d shooting this time of year, as well as a small "Hunter's seat" that I've had since I was 16 or so. It is basically a green plastic box that has camo material fastened to it and a curved top for sitting on. The top flips open and inside are two hen decoys. It has pockets on the side and I retrieved my Primos double reed from one of them and placed it in my cheek. The Alpine Denali bow's quiver is carrying some 100 gr. 3 blade fixed original Muzzy broadheads with adder points between the BH and insert. These are on some old Goldtip 5575 carbon arrows. I'm wearing head to toe camo with a hat that has netting sewn into it that I can drop down and cover my face with.
I slipped off down the ridge towards the bird I could hear gobbling. After getting roughly 200 yards from the gobbles I found a spot to place the decoy about 20 yards away from a nice tree to sit in front of. It was still a little too dark to shoot yet and the Tom was still in his roost, so after getting settled I just gave him 3 yelps to let him know there was a hen nearby and then waited for him to hit the ground.
After another 10 minutes or so the Tom's gobbles started sounding further away, so I knew he had left the tree. I gave him a few yelps, which he answered immediately. There is a natural clearing between him and I, so I knew I'd be able to see him coming from quite a ways. Another 10 minutes pass with him and I trading some calls, and I saw him appear on the other side of the clearing. He worked his way towards me, hanging up a few times to peck at the ground. I give him some clucks and yelps each time he did this, which resulted in his gobbling back, fanning out and strutting for just a few seconds, and then continuing towards me. He is working in pretty slowly, so rather than drawing my bow when he goes behind some of the trees on my side of the clearing I decide that I'll wait until he comes clear into the decoy and starts strutting and I'll draw when his tail fan is blocking his head. The Tom's pace quickens when he finally notices the decoy and in short order he is about 30 yards from me. Rather than strutting around the decoy though, he would start to fan out and then quit again. This isn't giving me the chance I need to draw. After about a minute he seems to realize something isn't quite right and starts to wander off to my right. This is the worst direction for him to choose, it is difficult to swivel much that direction as a right handed archer. I never get a chance to draw as he wanders off over the hill and out of sight. I reposition and attempt to call him back, but he is having none of it, even though he gobbles in response, and continues off into the trees.
Well...that just the way it goes sometimes when using a bow and no blind.
While sitting there I had also heard some gobbles coming from the other side of the county road, very faint as it was quite a distance from my location. The other side of the county road is my Aunt and Uncle's place, so it is accessible to me. I gather my gear and head that way. After crossing the two fences and the road I continue towards the still gobbling birds. There are several of them. I cross a large opening and get into the timber on the side of a ridge that drops into a shallow draw with a spring fed creek running down the middle. I stay in the timber on the ridge and side hill towards the birds. After getting closer I can also hear hens yelping. Stopping and listening to the calling leads me to understand that there is a dominant Tom that has several hens, and scattered out around this group is 3 more Tom's. "Satellite" Toms hounding the main group, much like lesser bull elk will do during the rut. One of these satellite Tom's is being extremely vocal and I choose him as the most likely to come in to me. I continue down the ridge towards him until getting within about 100 yards from his frequent gobbles. The decoy is placed at the edge of a clearing and I sit 20 yards from it. It is a nice set up, the Tom will have to come through some good cover which will allow me to draw.
I give some yelps. 4 different Tom's respond. I call 3 or 4 more times over the next 10 minutes, and the one being the most vocal is responding before I even finish my yelps every time and is getting closer. Soon I catch movement through the thick trees and know he's coming. There is a slight gap just before some good cover at the edge of the opening I'm in and I watch it closely. When I see him go through the gap I draw. He comes out of the thicker cover into my opening, sees the decoy and goes into a full strut. He's a mere 14 yards from me. I settle my 20 yard pin a bit below the vitals, knowing I'll shoot a bit high at this distance, and squeeze the trigger of my release. The string drops and I see the nock of my arrow disappear into the bird. He somersaults and begins flopping around on the ground. I quickly go to him and secure my prize. The arrow is laying right behind where the bird was when I shot, slowed down so much by the adder point when it went through him that it is just laying on top of the ground. The bird has about 3/4" spurs and zero beard...there is just a bare patch where it should be. Don't know what happened but it appears it has been torn off somehow, I'd guess from fighting. I didn't weigh him, but would guess him to be about 16 lbs. Definitely a young bird. I'm not too picky when bow hunting them without a blind and am still pleased with him, he will be great after a round in the smoker.
I spent another few hours looking for mushrooms, Brains and morel, and then returned home with a nice bounty from the woods I so love to spend time in. Saturday I took my girlfriend out turkey hunting, I called in a couple different birds for her, the first one saw something he didn't like and started putt-ing and left right away and the second one resulted in her somehow missing a shot at about 15 yards. I think she was too excited and didn't get her head down on the stock, from my position I saw the wad go right over its head. She was a bit embarrassed, as we all are when we miss a "for sure" shot, but we still had a lot of fun. I finished off the weekend on Sunday with an unknown yardage 40 target 3D shoot with beautiful weather throughout. Idaho is starting a "soft" reopening effort and it was nice to get to do a 3D shoot finally. They spaced the targets out quite a bit, which made for a nice flow and we didn't see any bunching up of people, maintaining distance was easy. Hope everyone else had a good weekend.
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Wow great report and what a beautiful bird! Are those meriams? Love the light edge on feathers. Great job with the bow. Only hunted them once with bow in fall. Got a jenny. I have a hard enough time getting them with shotgun on public land out east
Congratulations
 
Yes, Merriams are what we have here. I also love the lighter tan tips they have. I like to save them for a backing behind a whitetail buck rack, like I have in my avatar pic.
 
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;)Congrats on your archery trophy:thumbs up::thumbs up:
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p.s. I'm still working on it. Maybe someday I'll achieve that prestigious hunting accomplishment.
 
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