[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJjtLAkRSAY"]Cade Turkey Hunt March 2016 - YouTube[/ame]
Just remember to up the settings to HD.
My uncle was nice enough to get my oldest son onto a very big Tom a couple of seasons ago at his place. It took a few long hunts and patience, but it finally paid off with my son getting a very nice Tom. Since then he has really gotten into turkey hunting. We decided this spring he would try to get the first one with his bow. He practices almost every other day at home and shoots/competes in 4H and 3D tournaments so he is probably a better shot than his dad at shorter distances.
Our first opportunity was the special youth-only weekend at our family place near Fort McKavett. I had my video camera and gopro set up and ready to go. I think I will just start turning the gopro on to record when I set up for turkey hunting from now on instead of using my phone as the remote and just take my chances with the battery going dead. The action just can happen so fast there is no way I can take the time to get the gopro recording when doing it remotely. I bought the Dave Smith Breeding Pair decoys a couple of seasons ago and the Toms come in pretty fast. While the decoys are expensive, they have been worth every penny especially for getting the birds in close range for my son and more importantly completely making them unaware of us in a popup blind just steps away.
We were probably in the popup blind for 30 minutes when I noticed a hen coming in to the feeder. Not a few seconds behind her I saw a Tom come flying in towards the decoys. Before I could get the video camera going and recording he was already attacking the decoy. My son got drawn and made what I thought was a good shot at 10 yards. The turkey jumped and ran to about 20 yards. I decided quickly we weren’t going to chance it and my son dropped him at 20 yards with the 20 gauge that I handed him. After recovering the arrow, reviewing video and cleaning the Tom we realized he made a pretty good shot. He got about 8-10 inches of penetration into and through the vitals area. We were both really excited. He was an old heavy Tom with good spurs. He had worn his beard down pretty good to about 6 inches.
Since it was early in the hunt we decided to stay longer in hopes of getting a full-fledged bow kill. About 30 minutes after my son shot the first gobbler I heard the “drumming” sound behind us. For whatever reason we never heard any gobbling during the weekend so my calling was going unanswered. After hearing the “drumming” 2-3 times behind us I cracked one of the back windows and caught a glimpse of a big Tom coming in hot towards the decoys and not 5-10 yards from the blind. I didn’t have time to get the video camera going and just told my son to get his bow drawn. About the time he got to full draw the gobbler came into a view. As the Tom was going into full strut my son released the arrow and dropped the Tom in his tracks 4-5 yards from our popup blind. I was in a state of shock. He wasn’t kicking or flapping or anything. While the shot looked perfect I know how hard those suckers are to kill with a bow. I told him to get another arrow nocked and ready. I was just worried he might get up and run off… which has happened to me and some of my hunting buddies in the past. I had nothing to be worried about. When we got up to him he had long since expired. I was easily as excited as my son. This Tom was probably a little younger than the first one with slightly smaller spurs, but it had a 9 inch beard.
Needless to say we were both excited to get back to camp and show mom and my youngest son.
Just remember to up the settings to HD.
My uncle was nice enough to get my oldest son onto a very big Tom a couple of seasons ago at his place. It took a few long hunts and patience, but it finally paid off with my son getting a very nice Tom. Since then he has really gotten into turkey hunting. We decided this spring he would try to get the first one with his bow. He practices almost every other day at home and shoots/competes in 4H and 3D tournaments so he is probably a better shot than his dad at shorter distances.
Our first opportunity was the special youth-only weekend at our family place near Fort McKavett. I had my video camera and gopro set up and ready to go. I think I will just start turning the gopro on to record when I set up for turkey hunting from now on instead of using my phone as the remote and just take my chances with the battery going dead. The action just can happen so fast there is no way I can take the time to get the gopro recording when doing it remotely. I bought the Dave Smith Breeding Pair decoys a couple of seasons ago and the Toms come in pretty fast. While the decoys are expensive, they have been worth every penny especially for getting the birds in close range for my son and more importantly completely making them unaware of us in a popup blind just steps away.
We were probably in the popup blind for 30 minutes when I noticed a hen coming in to the feeder. Not a few seconds behind her I saw a Tom come flying in towards the decoys. Before I could get the video camera going and recording he was already attacking the decoy. My son got drawn and made what I thought was a good shot at 10 yards. The turkey jumped and ran to about 20 yards. I decided quickly we weren’t going to chance it and my son dropped him at 20 yards with the 20 gauge that I handed him. After recovering the arrow, reviewing video and cleaning the Tom we realized he made a pretty good shot. He got about 8-10 inches of penetration into and through the vitals area. We were both really excited. He was an old heavy Tom with good spurs. He had worn his beard down pretty good to about 6 inches.
Since it was early in the hunt we decided to stay longer in hopes of getting a full-fledged bow kill. About 30 minutes after my son shot the first gobbler I heard the “drumming” sound behind us. For whatever reason we never heard any gobbling during the weekend so my calling was going unanswered. After hearing the “drumming” 2-3 times behind us I cracked one of the back windows and caught a glimpse of a big Tom coming in hot towards the decoys and not 5-10 yards from the blind. I didn’t have time to get the video camera going and just told my son to get his bow drawn. About the time he got to full draw the gobbler came into a view. As the Tom was going into full strut my son released the arrow and dropped the Tom in his tracks 4-5 yards from our popup blind. I was in a state of shock. He wasn’t kicking or flapping or anything. While the shot looked perfect I know how hard those suckers are to kill with a bow. I told him to get another arrow nocked and ready. I was just worried he might get up and run off… which has happened to me and some of my hunting buddies in the past. I had nothing to be worried about. When we got up to him he had long since expired. I was easily as excited as my son. This Tom was probably a little younger than the first one with slightly smaller spurs, but it had a 9 inch beard.
Needless to say we were both excited to get back to camp and show mom and my youngest son.
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