Saturday Morning

We debated Friday night how early to set the alarm to allow us enough time to be in our respective positions before the birds left their roost.  Unfortunately, we miscalculated the correct time.  The alarm sounded at 5:45.  I took my time, thinking we had plenty of darkness remaining.  As I was waiting for the shower to warm up, I heard birds chirping outside.  A quick check out the door revealed that daylight was approaching fast!  I alerted David and Casey that we were behind schedule, and we quickly made our way to the farm.  David dropped me off at the gate south of the barn so I could make my way to "The Point", and then continued on to deliver Casey to his position in Kevin's I.C.E. Blind.  Having left his release in the hotel room, David strung up his longbow and decided to walk down the fenceline on the east side of the creek.

I literally ran toward my blind as the tell-tale sound of gobbling told me that the turkeys had already left their roost.  I jumped a hog in a clearing as I made my way parallel to the creek, 75 yards inside the brush from where the turkeys were working.  I circled around to the south, knowing that it would be my only chance to get into my blind without being busted by the turkeys.  I crawled the final 30 yards, keeping a watchful eye on three hogs feeding 20 yards away, and with the help of my Brush Country Camouflage, managed to get to the blind undetected by the turkeys.  I slid underneath the north wall of the blind, taking a deep sigh of relief knowing I had, so far, beat the odds of getting into position to arrow a turkey. 

The tom was strutting in the clearing 20 yards to the north, putting on a show for his four ladies.  I quickly set up the camera so that at the very least I would get the action on film.  Once the camera was rolling, I began putting on my release and situating inside the I.C.E. Blind.  Now comfortably in my chair, ready for a shot, I began calling to the gobbler.  The beautiful bird began putting on an awesome display, strutting and gobbling, now at about 45 yards. 

Because we arrived so late, I was not able to put out my decoys, but was confident that I would be able to lure the bird into position with soft calling.  With the camera still rolling, I spotted movement in the viewfinder and shortly identified the source as a group of hogs coming out of the creek just on the other side of the gobbler. 

The turkey seemed initially undisturbed by the hogs, continuing his strutting routine.  As the hogs came nearer, however, the turkey started walking slowly toward the creek to my right, disappearing into the brush.  I was a little shocked to see the hogs make a sharp turn and follow the bird into the woods!  I heard a loud, high-pitched squeal, followed immediately by a gobble, and then all was quiet until I heard David's voice on the radio, saying "I hate this #$#@# longbow!"

Further inquiry revealed that David had managed to stalk, in an open field, to within 10 yards of a pit-sized hog, but had somehow missed well short of the shoat, the bottom limb of his Massey Longhorn longbow apparently hitting the brush!  He quickly nocked another arrow and managed to get a 25 yard shot at the sow, but was errant on it as well, missing wide left!  While the shoats ran parallel to the road before finally crossing to the creek, the sow moved just out of range, then hesitated trying to figure out all the commotion.  Then she took the same path as the shoats, with David in a sprint down the road paralleling the porker, but instead of cutting across the road as the young ones had, she continued 30 yards from the road until she successfully winded the now huffing and puffing David! 

David met me back at "The Point" and we walked south along the edge of the creek and then along the fence line to see if there werere any turkeys in the neighbor's new food plot.  Not seeing anything, we walked to "The Finger Creek" to check the feeder to see if anything was hitting it.  We didn't see any turkey sign around it, but did see plenty of hog and deer tracks.  We reset the feeder and then retraced our steps along the south fence line, meeting up with Casey at the corner of the fence and the creek and deciding to head to town for a late breakfast.

It was not until reviewing the video footage from the turkey's encounter with the hogs that we realized just how big the boar was!  Have a second look at the size of that thick monster! Click on the photo below for video.

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