Great morning! Got up to the top of a ridge with about a 10 acre field that the birds went to yesterday morning when I was set up at the bottom. Bird was gobbling as I was setting up my blind and decoys, which is not the way I usually hunt but was best for the equipment I was using. Once it got light enough to see I realized that there were hens really close in trees and the gig was up, so game over for up here as they pitched off and went to bottom of ridge with the gobbler in tow. Decided to move my blind to other side of field for another morning and head to another spot up the rd! After setting the blind and tossing the decoys inside I headed out to my truck and the bird started gobbling on the next ridge, and I couldn't handle it, I had to go after him! So with no blind and no decoys ,I headed to the back of a bottom field to where it tapers down tight leading into a hardwood ridge and figured that if I could convince him to come check me out that he would use that bottleneck to reach the field rather than travel through thicket. I found two 9-10 ft cedars that were a few feet apart and backed into them standing up and started calling. He was very vocal and gobbled at everything I threw at him for an hour from about 80-100 yards behind me. After I had tried everything I decided to set my bow down and go 100 yards farther away and cut as loud as I could, and he hammered down double gobbling when I cut and gobbled back at him. I ran back to my spot and grabbed my bow and after a minute or two the sweet sound of drumming was closing in. I could not see the bottleneck but knew he was coming so I drew back and he appeared at 24 yards looking for love in full strut! Picked a spot and released my arrow and he flew 75-80 yards and died! I am on cloud 9, as I have been wanting to take a gobbler with a bow for a long time, and to do it the "unconventional" way ( no blind or decoys) just makes it more rewarding to me. I love to hunt these turkeys and I enjoy every hunt, kill or no kill, but this one was extra special! Sorry for the long post.
