Last week, we were in Brownwood. Zach and I went turkey hunting, and he wanted to kill one with his bow. He's not killed anything with it yet. A friend of ours has a place that is just covered up with turkeys, so we went out with our bows. Near his feeder, there wasn't really a good spot to sit with our bows, so we found a good mesquite/juniper bush to use for a blind a few yards away on the trail coming in to the feeder.
I wanted to put out a pile of corn to give them a reason to stop in our shooting lane. I started to just scatter corn, but I decided I needed a way to get the birds to feed facing away from us. So I placed a dead log about 15 yards away from our blind and then piled corn next to it. I figured the turkeys would eat only from the open side - with their heads down and backs turned towards us, giving Zach a chance to draw and shoot.
Here it is....
I got down and looked back at Zach in the blind to make sure he was hidden......
He was hidden pretty well.....
The setup worked like a charm. Turkeys came in, saw the corn and fed with their heads down facing away from us immediately. Unfortunately, there were a couple dozen birds though, and my little feeder wasn't big enough to accomodate all of them. So several birds just kind of milled around, and there were always several eyes facing our direction. We had a couple of them right under our mesquite tree about 2 feet in front of Zach for a while. I had told him that the shot was going to be his call, and I wasn't going to tell him which bird or when to shoot. He sat like a stone for several minutes waiting for an opportunity. He finally felt that he could draw. When he did, the birds started walking off. The feeding birds saw the others leaving, so they began walking too. Zach shot at one walking, and he just barely shot right over it and missed. It was fun anyway, and he was excited to have turkeys in his lap and to actually get to shoot at something with his bow even though he missed. I was kind of proud of my improvised feeder idea. I just needed a longer log with a longer string of corn to get the whole big group of birds occupied. Next time I'll find a longer "feeder" log and maybe it'll work better.
I wanted to put out a pile of corn to give them a reason to stop in our shooting lane. I started to just scatter corn, but I decided I needed a way to get the birds to feed facing away from us. So I placed a dead log about 15 yards away from our blind and then piled corn next to it. I figured the turkeys would eat only from the open side - with their heads down and backs turned towards us, giving Zach a chance to draw and shoot.
Here it is....
I got down and looked back at Zach in the blind to make sure he was hidden......
He was hidden pretty well.....
The setup worked like a charm. Turkeys came in, saw the corn and fed with their heads down facing away from us immediately. Unfortunately, there were a couple dozen birds though, and my little feeder wasn't big enough to accomodate all of them. So several birds just kind of milled around, and there were always several eyes facing our direction. We had a couple of them right under our mesquite tree about 2 feet in front of Zach for a while. I had told him that the shot was going to be his call, and I wasn't going to tell him which bird or when to shoot. He sat like a stone for several minutes waiting for an opportunity. He finally felt that he could draw. When he did, the birds started walking off. The feeding birds saw the others leaving, so they began walking too. Zach shot at one walking, and he just barely shot right over it and missed. It was fun anyway, and he was excited to have turkeys in his lap and to actually get to shoot at something with his bow even though he missed. I was kind of proud of my improvised feeder idea. I just needed a longer log with a longer string of corn to get the whole big group of birds occupied. Next time I'll find a longer "feeder" log and maybe it'll work better.
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