Travis birdTravis’s First Archery Turkey

Travis and I hunted “West Park” the morning of April 6. We heard two
or three birds on the roost but nothing after that. We set up twice and
called but produced nothing in the way of turkeys. We did find two dead
bucks from the previous winter. One was a 115 to 120 inch 8 point, The
other was about a 125 to 130 inch 9 point. The snow and no gobbles sent us
back to the cabin at around 10:30 am.
Wes had seen some birds strutting on “Section 25″ so we set up there
for our afternoon hunt. We were in the blind by 1 pm calling every 15 or 20
min and enjoying each others company. Around 6:30 Travis was ready to head
back to the cabin but I talked him in to staying till the sun went down.
About 7:05 we both called and out in front of us a gobbler appeared 100
yards out. He could see the decoys but was apprehensive because of the
cattle that had come in to our right. We hit the calls hard, I mean both of
us on mouth calls and Travis on his slate at the same time. Cutting,
purring, and putting LOUD. Even threw a couple jake gobbles at him. Upon
review of the footage it was remarked that we had thrown everything at him
but the kitchen sink.
Well, it worked because the long beard committed and came around to our
left at a run. When he got to about ten yards I putted twice, he stopped
and Travis let fly. The bird ran a bit and then flew out of sight. We got
everything on camera except the final few seconds before the shot. It was
Travis’s first bird with a bow and both of our first time trying to video a
hunt. What a rush!
We bumped the bird about a half hour later so we decided to let him lay
up for the night.
The next morning Travis was on the camera and I got behind the bow. It
was about 18 degrees at daybreak so by 8:30 am the cold and anticipation got
the best of us and we went looking for Travis’s bird. We both walked to the
last place we had seen the big tom then split up and started kicking through
brush piles. 15 minutes later I kicked him up and chased him down the bluff
yelling back to Travis, “I got him, I got him over hear.” The bird reached
the bottom of the hill and stopped. I skidded in next to him and put a rear
naked choke on him and then Travis showed up to claim his first ever archery
turkey. 2 year old 22 lb bird with a 8 inch beard.