Every year my buddy, Marcus, and I take a trip down to Bandera, TX to shoot axis deer and do some work for my friend Dan Anderson. Dan is the owner of the Diamond A Ranch and bed and breakfast out of Bandera and we try to do some work for him to prepare the property for the summer crowd. The property is a beautiful piece of land right on the Medina River and is such a nice relaxing area; I always enjoy my stay there. Marcus and I usually try and make it down during my Spring Break, however, this year coaching duties kept me in town for the entire Spring Break week and our annual trip had to be rescheduled. We decided to pick the last weekend of turkey season to try and make it down so we might have a chance at both axis and turkey. Also new this year was our invitation to the ladies of our lives to join us for a relaxing weekend. Marcus’ five month pregnant wife, Brooke, and my girlfriend, Melissa, would be joining us on our hunting weekend. We figured the girls could use a weekend to relax, shop, and hang out while we hunted.
The night before we were to leave Marcus and I set out one of the pop up blinds near the area we had seen some turkey the first morning out, thinking the next day we would hunt together in the morning exclusively for turkey. That morning we both got up early, the girls again stayed in bed. We set out our decoys two out the left window and three out the front window and planned to sit most of the morning. The idea was I was going to shoot if we got anything in range and Marcus would film the hunt. We got situated in the blind and soon began to call. We never really had any gobbler responding to our calls but occasionally could hear one down behind us in a pecan bottom. We called off and on for about an hour and a half or more and saw and heard nothing responding to our calls. Together we decided maybe we should sneak down to the pecan bottom and see if we could call up the one we had been hearing all morning. Once we got down there and hidden we did not have anything respond to our calls or see anything for that matter. We hung out down there for about fifteen or twenty minutes and decided to head back up to where the blind was to see if we could see anything that direction. We passed the blind and headed towards a road that we were going to look down when all of a sudden Marcus said “Turkey!†We both froze as a gobbler was not but fifty yards away heading in our direction. The gobbler stopped and eyed us for about five minutes as we stayed frozen. He then moved off into the brush and we back tracked and went to the pop up blind to try and coax him in to us.
We sat in the blind and called and waited and watched and called, but saw nothing. We then decided to give it about twenty minutes before we started calling again. After the twenty minutes had passed I hit my box call and all of a sudden maybe seventy or eighty yards behind us a gobbler goes off. The gobble was loud and definitely in response to my calling. We got excited and were ready for anything. About five minutes later Marcus said “There he is!†and in full strut about fifty yards out was a gorgeous red headed monster of a turkey. I had only had a turkey respond to my calls that way once before and it was not in full strut when I shot it with my twelve gauge shotgun. I had put down my box call and started purring and plucking softly my slate call which apparently drives gobblers wild because he came straight in on a string only stopping briefly to try and figure out what the big blind was doing there. His attention was then directed back at the decoys and he definitely wanted to prove his dominance to the lowly jake decoy we had set out. I was watching the camera screen and had to wait for the gobbler to enter the screen before I drew my bow and placed the pin on his drum stick, he was only ten yards away. As soon as I had him in my sights I released my arrow and my Reflex bow flung my arrow tipped with a 125 grain broad head into him knocking him off his feet. The gobbler flopped and tried to get up as I tried to knock another arrow. He decided he needed to get out of there and fast and started to head to my left into the brush. I drew my bow to try and put another arrow into him and when I did my arrow fell off the rest. Marcus was giggling the whole time and started encouraging me to shoot him again. I finally flipped the arrow back onto the rest and shot him again at about five yards out the left window.
The turkey began to flop off into the cedar trees and down a slight hill as Marcus and I jumped out of the blind in pursuit. We looked through the cedars and could see the turkey flopping around soon to be out for the count. We weren’t sure how to put the turkey out of its misery but before too long time took its toll. As we walked down into the thick cedars we came up to my trophy. He was amazing. Both Marcus and I were extremely ecstatic and pumped for our first turkey with a bow and on video no less. We watched the video numerous times and then called our parents to tell them the good news. In my excitement I forgot to tell my mother “Happy Mother’s Day†as I told my folks the story. (I later remembered and called her back). Marcus and I then took care of the turkey and had to pack up and get ready to head back to the real world. We loaded up the vehicles, loaded up the girls, and headed away from our weekend full of memories in Bandera Texas. The turkey ended up having a nine inch beard and was shot at ten yards with 125 grain broad head from my Reflex bow.
Thanks for reading and the video has been posted on Hunting Footage.com and here is the link to it.
The night before we were to leave Marcus and I set out one of the pop up blinds near the area we had seen some turkey the first morning out, thinking the next day we would hunt together in the morning exclusively for turkey. That morning we both got up early, the girls again stayed in bed. We set out our decoys two out the left window and three out the front window and planned to sit most of the morning. The idea was I was going to shoot if we got anything in range and Marcus would film the hunt. We got situated in the blind and soon began to call. We never really had any gobbler responding to our calls but occasionally could hear one down behind us in a pecan bottom. We called off and on for about an hour and a half or more and saw and heard nothing responding to our calls. Together we decided maybe we should sneak down to the pecan bottom and see if we could call up the one we had been hearing all morning. Once we got down there and hidden we did not have anything respond to our calls or see anything for that matter. We hung out down there for about fifteen or twenty minutes and decided to head back up to where the blind was to see if we could see anything that direction. We passed the blind and headed towards a road that we were going to look down when all of a sudden Marcus said “Turkey!†We both froze as a gobbler was not but fifty yards away heading in our direction. The gobbler stopped and eyed us for about five minutes as we stayed frozen. He then moved off into the brush and we back tracked and went to the pop up blind to try and coax him in to us.
We sat in the blind and called and waited and watched and called, but saw nothing. We then decided to give it about twenty minutes before we started calling again. After the twenty minutes had passed I hit my box call and all of a sudden maybe seventy or eighty yards behind us a gobbler goes off. The gobble was loud and definitely in response to my calling. We got excited and were ready for anything. About five minutes later Marcus said “There he is!†and in full strut about fifty yards out was a gorgeous red headed monster of a turkey. I had only had a turkey respond to my calls that way once before and it was not in full strut when I shot it with my twelve gauge shotgun. I had put down my box call and started purring and plucking softly my slate call which apparently drives gobblers wild because he came straight in on a string only stopping briefly to try and figure out what the big blind was doing there. His attention was then directed back at the decoys and he definitely wanted to prove his dominance to the lowly jake decoy we had set out. I was watching the camera screen and had to wait for the gobbler to enter the screen before I drew my bow and placed the pin on his drum stick, he was only ten yards away. As soon as I had him in my sights I released my arrow and my Reflex bow flung my arrow tipped with a 125 grain broad head into him knocking him off his feet. The gobbler flopped and tried to get up as I tried to knock another arrow. He decided he needed to get out of there and fast and started to head to my left into the brush. I drew my bow to try and put another arrow into him and when I did my arrow fell off the rest. Marcus was giggling the whole time and started encouraging me to shoot him again. I finally flipped the arrow back onto the rest and shot him again at about five yards out the left window.
The turkey began to flop off into the cedar trees and down a slight hill as Marcus and I jumped out of the blind in pursuit. We looked through the cedars and could see the turkey flopping around soon to be out for the count. We weren’t sure how to put the turkey out of its misery but before too long time took its toll. As we walked down into the thick cedars we came up to my trophy. He was amazing. Both Marcus and I were extremely ecstatic and pumped for our first turkey with a bow and on video no less. We watched the video numerous times and then called our parents to tell them the good news. In my excitement I forgot to tell my mother “Happy Mother’s Day†as I told my folks the story. (I later remembered and called her back). Marcus and I then took care of the turkey and had to pack up and get ready to head back to the real world. We loaded up the vehicles, loaded up the girls, and headed away from our weekend full of memories in Bandera Texas. The turkey ended up having a nine inch beard and was shot at ten yards with 125 grain broad head from my Reflex bow.
Thanks for reading and the video has been posted on Hunting Footage.com and here is the link to it.
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