Tracker56
Well-Known Member
Hey Y'all,
Been busy with work and little and finally getting a chance to wrap my season and share some pictures. The Good Lord has blessed me with a wonderful 2013 Spring turkey season, all in all my best season to date, finished with my 4th bird on second to last day. 3 nice toms and a bearded hen, bird 1 & 3 with the 870 and 2 & 4 with the Mathews Creed. I don�t consider myself an expert hunter my any stretch of the imagination. I was fortunate that God placed me in some pretty awesome situations this Spring. Pray you all had successful seasons as well!
#1 � April 17th - 21.7# - 9.72� � 1 1/8�
Was fortunate enough to get a few hours away from work the morning of my birthday and scored after an almost major screw-up. I had the go ahead to hunt until 9:00 and then I needed to head back to the office. It was a beautiful morning in God�s creation and had a little action all morning surrounded by hens but only gobbles in the distance. At about 8:40 I decided I was going to call it a day and gathered all my things, unzipped blind and crawled out. To my surprise, as I peered to the W over the top of my blind there were 4 hens milling around at about 50 yards. Decided to duck back into the blind and managed to do so without spooking them. It wasn�t 10 minutes when I saw victim #1 come strolling over the hill towards the hens and past my blind at 30 yds. Let the 870 bark and down he went. Happy Birthday!! Thank you Lord for putting me at the right place at to right time.
#2 � April 29th � 15# - 8� (bearded hen)
Decided to drag the Creed out to blind for a quick morning hunt and had some real young sounding gobbles off to the NW early on, but nothing got real close. There is a fence about 100-110 yards away in that direction and it sounded as if they were hung up. They would gobble at any call I would throw out there, but never close enough. At about 6:45 I caught movement to the E of my blind through a window that was open just a crack. I saw a blue head come around the corner and it let the air out of my balloon a little until she turned at 15 yards and I saw a decent length beard sticking out. Then instinct took over and the Creed got to feed that morning. The Rage chisel did its job and she was down in 5 yards and dead before I could get out of the blind. Thank you Lord for this opportunity! First turkey with an arrow and a bearded hen to boot!
#3 � May 8th � 20# -10.5� � 1 1/8�
Was fortunate to take long lunch the 8th and head out the blind for a mid-day hunt. As I approached the spot I noticed some hens about 150 yards over the hill to the SE of my blind. Not wanting to spook them in hopes to draw them in as my �decoys�, I went around the NW of the property to get to my blind, and as the good Lord would have it, as I came over the rise I saw 3 red heads about 100 yards to the N. I immediately dropped to the ground and shook my head in disbelief. Once I gathered myself I set everything aside and only kept the essentials, the trusty 870. As I army crawled through the 2 foot tall grass I could hear the gobblers off in the distance. To my surprise they continued to make noise as I closed the distance across the field. As soon as I thought I was within 30 yards I stood, picked one out and BANG! Dropped in his tracks, then to my surprise the biggest of the bunch (which I never saw) came out from behind a tree and started jumping up and down on my bird then the other 2 came to join him. Crazy birds!! Sometimes they appear as the dumbest creatures on the planet and other times evil geniuses!! 25 minutes from parking truck til pulling trigger isn�t a bad day in the woods�
#4 � May 11th � 20# - 9.5� � 1� (spurs were rounded off from wear-n-tear)
Number 4 was on a new property I started hunting this year in the burbs. Archery only on a 4.5 acre plot of land, did a lot of turkey �watching� but was tough to get them on the land I had permission to hunt. It took the perfect car door slam from the neighbors, then a perfectly timed light shower that pushed the 5 hens and tom under the cedar trees near my blind for cover. The biggest issue with this hunt was the fact that my range finder battery died as the turkeys were approaching, son of a gun!!! Fortunately, when I set up the blind I had set stakes all the way around it at 20 yards to help with those quick opportunities. It came in real handy that Saturday. As the turkeys dipped down in a low spot I quickly unzipped � of my windows so I could be prepared for any direction they were to come from and then laid on the floor of my blind and watched out a pin sized hole in the side of the blind to keep tabs on everything. Making sure they would get close enough without seeing any movement form me. After about 30 minutes the tom slowly worked his way towards the blind and towards one of my 20 yard stakes. As soon as he hit 22 yards and he was quartering away, I rose to my knees, drew and THWACK!! It sounded like I hit a brick wall. The tom ran away limping and my arrow hanging out of his hind quarter. Not wanting to spook him I gave him 45 minutes and started tracking in the general direction. Luckily there was a property line fence I�m pretty sure he was not very capable of crossing so I followed it until I found him piled up, about 80 yards. That sucker broke my lucky arrow and turned himself into one UGLY bird after flopping in the wet grass and coming to rest up against the fence. God blessed me with an AWESOME season!!
Been busy with work and little and finally getting a chance to wrap my season and share some pictures. The Good Lord has blessed me with a wonderful 2013 Spring turkey season, all in all my best season to date, finished with my 4th bird on second to last day. 3 nice toms and a bearded hen, bird 1 & 3 with the 870 and 2 & 4 with the Mathews Creed. I don�t consider myself an expert hunter my any stretch of the imagination. I was fortunate that God placed me in some pretty awesome situations this Spring. Pray you all had successful seasons as well!
#1 � April 17th - 21.7# - 9.72� � 1 1/8�
Was fortunate enough to get a few hours away from work the morning of my birthday and scored after an almost major screw-up. I had the go ahead to hunt until 9:00 and then I needed to head back to the office. It was a beautiful morning in God�s creation and had a little action all morning surrounded by hens but only gobbles in the distance. At about 8:40 I decided I was going to call it a day and gathered all my things, unzipped blind and crawled out. To my surprise, as I peered to the W over the top of my blind there were 4 hens milling around at about 50 yards. Decided to duck back into the blind and managed to do so without spooking them. It wasn�t 10 minutes when I saw victim #1 come strolling over the hill towards the hens and past my blind at 30 yds. Let the 870 bark and down he went. Happy Birthday!! Thank you Lord for putting me at the right place at to right time.
#2 � April 29th � 15# - 8� (bearded hen)
Decided to drag the Creed out to blind for a quick morning hunt and had some real young sounding gobbles off to the NW early on, but nothing got real close. There is a fence about 100-110 yards away in that direction and it sounded as if they were hung up. They would gobble at any call I would throw out there, but never close enough. At about 6:45 I caught movement to the E of my blind through a window that was open just a crack. I saw a blue head come around the corner and it let the air out of my balloon a little until she turned at 15 yards and I saw a decent length beard sticking out. Then instinct took over and the Creed got to feed that morning. The Rage chisel did its job and she was down in 5 yards and dead before I could get out of the blind. Thank you Lord for this opportunity! First turkey with an arrow and a bearded hen to boot!
#3 � May 8th � 20# -10.5� � 1 1/8�
Was fortunate to take long lunch the 8th and head out the blind for a mid-day hunt. As I approached the spot I noticed some hens about 150 yards over the hill to the SE of my blind. Not wanting to spook them in hopes to draw them in as my �decoys�, I went around the NW of the property to get to my blind, and as the good Lord would have it, as I came over the rise I saw 3 red heads about 100 yards to the N. I immediately dropped to the ground and shook my head in disbelief. Once I gathered myself I set everything aside and only kept the essentials, the trusty 870. As I army crawled through the 2 foot tall grass I could hear the gobblers off in the distance. To my surprise they continued to make noise as I closed the distance across the field. As soon as I thought I was within 30 yards I stood, picked one out and BANG! Dropped in his tracks, then to my surprise the biggest of the bunch (which I never saw) came out from behind a tree and started jumping up and down on my bird then the other 2 came to join him. Crazy birds!! Sometimes they appear as the dumbest creatures on the planet and other times evil geniuses!! 25 minutes from parking truck til pulling trigger isn�t a bad day in the woods�
#4 � May 11th � 20# - 9.5� � 1� (spurs were rounded off from wear-n-tear)
Number 4 was on a new property I started hunting this year in the burbs. Archery only on a 4.5 acre plot of land, did a lot of turkey �watching� but was tough to get them on the land I had permission to hunt. It took the perfect car door slam from the neighbors, then a perfectly timed light shower that pushed the 5 hens and tom under the cedar trees near my blind for cover. The biggest issue with this hunt was the fact that my range finder battery died as the turkeys were approaching, son of a gun!!! Fortunately, when I set up the blind I had set stakes all the way around it at 20 yards to help with those quick opportunities. It came in real handy that Saturday. As the turkeys dipped down in a low spot I quickly unzipped � of my windows so I could be prepared for any direction they were to come from and then laid on the floor of my blind and watched out a pin sized hole in the side of the blind to keep tabs on everything. Making sure they would get close enough without seeing any movement form me. After about 30 minutes the tom slowly worked his way towards the blind and towards one of my 20 yard stakes. As soon as he hit 22 yards and he was quartering away, I rose to my knees, drew and THWACK!! It sounded like I hit a brick wall. The tom ran away limping and my arrow hanging out of his hind quarter. Not wanting to spook him I gave him 45 minutes and started tracking in the general direction. Luckily there was a property line fence I�m pretty sure he was not very capable of crossing so I followed it until I found him piled up, about 80 yards. That sucker broke my lucky arrow and turned himself into one UGLY bird after flopping in the wet grass and coming to rest up against the fence. God blessed me with an AWESOME season!!
