Rhino Posted April 20, 2015 Report Share Posted April 20, 2015 (edited) This morning was opening day in Missouri. Drove to MO from the Kansas hunt with Tim. I talked to Gene Wensel a couple of weeks ago. Since he can't turkey hunt this year after having a double bypass ~4 weeks ago, I promised him I'd try to kill my 1st MO bird with my bow. This would be my 3rd attempt ever to turkey hunt with my bow. On to the hunt. The last of the rain passed through last night. Woke up to high winds this morning but I already had a plan from birds I'd heard gobbling on the roost a couple of days before heading to Kansas. As dawn broke...no gobbling. Finally 1 bird gobbled in the distance on the roost...once. With the high winds, when the birds touched down gobbling cranked up. I heard 4 birds...2 across a creek to the W and 2 in last year's cut cornfield to the S. Broke out the slate...no response. Called louder...got a gobble back. Broke out the box call for volume...birds to the W & S gobbled. I gobbled back...they all answer. This goes on for ~30 minutes with the birds not sounding much closer. The bird to the W is moving N though...not good. It appears he's not going to cross the creek. The birds to the S finally start closing in. I hit the box call then gobble too...the birds to the S cut me off gobbling. In business. They gradually gobble closer and closer. Throw out one more gobble...their response is loud now. I put the calls down & get ready. Now it's about to get crazy. Suddenly 2 anxious gobblers with 3 jakes come by the left window of my blind inside 15 yards. With bow in hand my jake decoy is 15 yards from the front window with the hens to the left of him. As expected the gobblers have a bad attitude toward my jake decoy. The lead bird knocks the decoy on it's side. Facing away I have a perfect shot at his back. I turn loose my arrow that blows right through him just a tad left of the spot I picked. He appears to be real sick & slowly walks to the edge of the woods on my left, pauses & eases into the woods. The remaining birds are still there. When my gobbler disappeared the remaining gobbler eased toward where he went...then goes into full strut. The bird I hit eases back in ~10 yards closer than his exit point. He squats down there. I'm thinking "Oh boy...he's going to die right there". NOT!!! As the other gobbler struts toward the decoys where one of the jakes is now strutting my gobbler gets to his feet and starts easing back to the decoys too. You gotta be kidding me! I'm going to have to shoot him again. Now he goes into full strut facing me (yep crazy huh?). At 15 yards again I drive a 2nd arrow through him. He's real sick now! The other 4 birds now don't like what's going on & ease out along with my gobbler behind them. I ease out and return later for the recovery. Find him about 150 yards from where I was hunting...stone dead and discover he's a double beard. Bonus trophy! Beards are 10 1/2" & 5 1/4"...spurs are 1 1/4" and 1 5/16". Needless to say the 1st person I called was Gene. Got an attaboy from him. He supposed to come visit us since starting this week he's allowed to drive. Pic to come when I can load them at home. Sent one via text to Tim. Edited April 20, 2015 by Rhino Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted April 20, 2015 Report Share Posted April 20, 2015 Congratulations Al. Sounds like that was a tough and well deserved bird. Look forward to seeing the pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravin R10 man Posted April 20, 2015 Report Share Posted April 20, 2015 Congrats on the bowkill!! You are doing the multi beard shuffle this year!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhine16 Posted April 21, 2015 Report Share Posted April 21, 2015 Congrats Al! Awesome bird! Bet sitting in that blind was tough on a hunter like you, but that's about the only way to get it done with the bow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhino Posted April 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2015 Bet sitting in that blind was tough on a hunter like you' date=' but that's about the only way to get it done with the bow.[/quote'] Yep...I much prefer feeling like I'm in the woods so I can enjoy felling like I'm a part of it. Much easier to course directions of gobbles too. BTW...got a learning experience tracking a bow hit gobbler. Not an easy chore. They like to get under cover when they're wounded. I was about 10' from him before I saw part of him under brush. Spots of blood made the difference knowing what direction he went too. Found him ~50 yards from the last spot of blood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravin R10 man Posted April 21, 2015 Report Share Posted April 21, 2015 (edited) wow..I know they can go when hit, very tough birds..as far as hide, I nearly ran over a huge Gobbler with the wheeler looking for sheds last year, he popped out of the grass he was under just as my tire was to run him over...I nearly crapped out my Gibblets! Edited April 22, 2015 by Mathews XT Man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strut10 Posted April 21, 2015 Report Share Posted April 21, 2015 CONGRATS on a real slammer Al !!!!!!!!! WELL DONE !!!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly Posted April 22, 2015 Report Share Posted April 22, 2015 Awesome hunt Al. Haven't been turkey hunting in years - I may give it a shot next weekend in KY. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoosierhunter Posted April 22, 2015 Report Share Posted April 22, 2015 Unreal story! Now that you have done it with a bow it may get harder to pick the shotgun up. Btw how in the heck do you kill all these birds with monster Spurs plus double and triple beards? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3seasons Posted April 22, 2015 Report Share Posted April 22, 2015 Heck of a bird Al huge congrats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhino Posted April 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2015 Unreal story! Now that you have done it with a bow it may get harder to pick the shotgun up. Btw how in the heck do you kill all these birds with monster Spurs plus double and triple beards? Easier to pick up the shotgun than you think Pat. Tracking turkeys after shooting them with a bow is a whole lot harder than a shotgun. In recent years I've been killing more birds with shorter spurs than hooks like this bird had. As far as killing birds with more than one beard...I've been told my middle name is Lucky....JK. For whatever reason, 4 birds have been killed on the new place I'm hunting in MS. One bird had 1 beard, 2 are double beards, and the 4th bird my triple beard. In MO so far during the past 3 seasons and this season we've killed 19 gobblers. 8 of those gobblers had more than 1 beard. The best is a bird one of our guest killed in 2013 with 6 beards (mount in the lodge). He was hunting with my best friend that owns most of the property. They shot 2 of the 3 birds they called in. The 6 bearded bird and my buddy's had 4 beards. That field has been called 10 beards since then. My best guess is these 2 places have something special in the genetics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maytom Posted April 25, 2015 Report Share Posted April 25, 2015 Congrats on a job well done. Nothing like getting a bird with the bow!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhino Posted April 27, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2015 As promised...finally a pic of my double beard bow gobbler. BTW...bow killed turkeys are messy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbHunterNY Posted April 29, 2015 Report Share Posted April 29, 2015 congrats Al... definitely lucky with the multiple beards but then again must be the spot if you're seeing that many. plus I feel like most are hammering 2 year old birds. might not have enough time to grow anything else. I'd like to take one with the bow every year but I always get stir crazy and like to run and gun. one of these years i'll have the patience and practice to tag out with my recurve. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archerjg Posted May 1, 2015 Report Share Posted May 1, 2015 Congratulations a great bird. Archerjg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RangerClay Posted May 1, 2015 Report Share Posted May 1, 2015 Wowsers! What an incredible story!! Congrats on the great bird. ps. Give NAP Gobbler Getters a try for your next broadhead. No more tracking jobs, they drop on the spot. I switched to them after losing a bird that ran off and I've never had one run off since. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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