tree_ghost
Well-Known Member
3 seasons worth of hard work culminated this morning when my wife arrowed her first bird!!! The morning was full of excitement. We had birds all around hammering hard at first light. There were at least 6 birds that I could distinguish. If the birds would have held true to their pattern thus far in the season the gobbling would have ended there. Instead they broke the mold of the 2016 season and when their feet hit the ground they responded with loud authoritative gobbles. At 6:15 we laid eyes on 4 longbeards behind us establishing the pecking order of who was going to have the first shot at stealing our hen decoys from the Jake decoy that was courting them. By 6:25 the two larger birds approached our decoys and began some intimidating posturing towards our jake. Once the opportunity presented itself my wife came to full draw and let one fly...my first reaction upon the arrow arriving at its destination was "dead bird" but to my dismay the Tom took off in a desperate sprint towards the tree line. 10 steps into his getaway he stumbled hard and I came barreling out of the blind like a demon possessed banshee. The Tom, sensing the danger that was quickly approaching, mustered all of his might and took to the air. I couldn't believe my eyes...right in front of me I witnessed what I was sure to be a dead bird elude us once again. My stomach immediately had knots in it and I could hardly swallow. As the bird neared the treeline in flight he did what I thought was the strangest thing...he landed in the field. Hope sprang up in me like a cold mountain spring and I knew we had a shot at recovering this old Tom. Once he was on the ground he picked a small opening in the treeline and bounded in. My instincts screamed at me to stay in hot pursuit but thankfully my mind was not completely disabled from the massive dose of adrenaline that was coursing through my veins. So I stopped running after him. I went back to the blind to talk the shot over with my wife and give her congratulations on a well executed operation. She was apprehensive at the least thinking that once again she was going to be bettered by those Wiley foul of TN. We gave it 20 minutes and made our way back the the treeline where we lost sight of the Tom. We took to the trail and immediately found feathers and blood. We were encouraged and moved forward...there 10 yards ahead of us laid her first longbeard!!! The entire county probably heard us celebrating this great accomplishment. I couldn't be more proud of my wife!!!
10.5" beard
1-1/8" Spurs!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
10.5" beard
1-1/8" Spurs!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
