going to try to post these pics from photobucket
well, that didn't work
try going to photobucket.com and visiting "tradpictures"
Ask someone to post them for you. It would take to long for my 56k to load a lot of pics. But I am sure someone would help you if you posted.
I can do it email them to me at jsnbobb@yahoo.com
(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g218/tradpictures/th_IM000322.jpg) (http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g218/tradpictures/IM000322.jpg)
(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g218/tradpictures/th_IM000320.jpg) (http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g218/tradpictures/IM000320.jpg)
(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g218/tradpictures/th_IM000319.jpg) (http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g218/tradpictures/IM000319.jpg)
(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g218/tradpictures/th_IM000318.jpg) (http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g218/tradpictures/IM000318.jpg)
(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g218/tradpictures/th_IM000317.jpg) (http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g218/tradpictures/IM000317.jpg)
(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g218/tradpictures/th_IM000316.jpg) (http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g218/tradpictures/IM000316.jpg)
Sorry that took me so long to figure out, had to go back and read the tutorial again. look over the hen decoy in the second to last picture and you'll see the gobbler's down in the field, that's his left wing sticking up like a sail, broadhead almost cut it off
Awesome Joel!!!! Good for you bud,CONGRATS!!!
Let's hear more :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Awesome!!
NICE BIRD!!! Congratulations
Congrats! Nice bird....
Nice Gobbler, Joe. Looks like you had a great set-up! :)
Right on Joe!!! That sure is a pretty place to hunt turkeys. Way to go and congrats on a great hunt.
nice :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
NOT FAIR, 2 weeks till our opener, how am I going to get any sleep with all these success pictures! CONGRATULATIONS!!! and thanks for sharing this with us.
way to go, Joel!!!!!
Great shooting and Congrats!! Looks like a "killer" of a set-up to me :) .
Dang boy, way to go!!! You didn't even call me! I'm hurt. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Congratulations!
At first I thought you'd gotten his picture before you shot him.
ALRIGHT JOEL! :thumbsup: :notworthy:
Congrats Joel! :thumbsup: Nice pics too.
nice bird, way to go. :thumbsup: - eric
Nice bird, now wheres the story? Congrats!! Shawn
Congrats Joel!!! :thumbsup:
Good Job :thumbsup:
Now let's hear the story?
GREAT JOB!!!
Great bird, Joel.
Congrats.
That's great! I truly believe that a turkey is the hardest animal there is, to kill with a bow, at least here in Michigan!
Way to go, Joel. :thumbsup:
Well , I'm glad he took his bow this time, the grass must have been too tall for his shotgun??? :bigsmyl: But that's a whole nuther story!! Ain't it Joel, you better tell this one first.
Awesome Joel, that's quite the trophy with a longbow. Now, about the tall grass story??? :saywhat:
First of all, thanks to all the well-wishers, even us blind hogs stumble on one every once in a while. Sorry Mike, my son showed up for a surprise Easter weekend visit when i got home so i didn't call you--in fact, the only two people i did tell were Terry and Matt and that was only because they called me about something else.
Now for two stories: this years longbow turkey and, a few years back, one of the dumbest things I've ever done.
One bird was gobbling from across a county road while i was calling to another, much closer tom. The closer bird was gobbling quite a bit, cutting in on my calls and sounding off whenever I went silent for longer than a few minutes, getting closer all the time. About a half-hour after I first heard the farther bird gobble from the roost, i heard him again, coming closer. Pretty soon the two toms were gobbling at each other and cutting in on my yelps. A group of five jakes walked into the decoys and began "group gobbling" at every call i made and the two I'd heard earlier shut up. i stopped calling and eventually the jakes got bored and walked away. i didn't want them to come back so didn't call for probably a half hour. As i was getting ready to call again, the farther gobbler sounded off and he was only a couple hundred yards out. I called and he gobbled once and never gobbled again. Just as I was thinking of calling it a day (had to be at work at 11), i heard what at first sounded like a small, very hoarse dog barking off to my left. I dropped the window cover on that side and was going to shoo the dog off but instead of a dog i could see the silhouette of a turkey on the other side of the privet hedge. Ducking back out of the window, i raised the flap and then opened the next one to it, one with a shooting lane to the left side of the decoys. The bird was moving right along and went through that lane before i even got my bow up. While i was fumbling with an arrow, the bird walked up to my strutting decoy and gobbled and immediately the tom to my right (the first one i'd been calling to) gobbled back. I'm thinking this is great, i'm about to have two big boys in my decoys. Unfortunately they had other plans and the bird in front of me kept walking toward the other one. I waited till he was about seventy yards out and called but he only gobbled and kept going away. I'm ready to pull my hair out (what little i have) by now and then I thought "hey, if he's going to a gobble, why not give him one from here ?" I grabbed my gobble tube and rattled at him and he gobbled back but kept going away. He went out of my sight and didn't gobble any more. I decided to start gathering my gear and was putting everything in my pack when i heard some soft clucking out front of the blind. Thinking one of the two hens I'd seen was investigating the decoys, i didn't bother to pick up my bow, just leaned up to the one window I'd dropped the flap on. Holy cow ! the big boy had slipped back in on me and was now passing right to left behind my strutter. i grabbed up my bow, nocked an arrow and shot in what seemed like one motion. The WWW (first W is for wicked) smacked him in the left shoulder and he staggered, then started to run directly away with two-thirds of the arrow sticking out on my side. After about 50 or 60 feet he slowed to a stop, settled like a balloon with the air going out and was still, fluttering just a little as his head touched the ground. His left wing was sticking up like a sail, i would find when i got my hands on him that the broadhead had shattered the biggest bone of the wing right below the shoulder joint and gone on in to cut both lungs and stop in the off-side shoulder (I use a Zwickey Scorpio to help keep the arrow in the bird and it fits these shafts pretty tightly ). The left side was not pretty and that's why all the pics are from the right side. His spurs measure just a fraction over an inch, longest part of his beard's eleven inches but most of it's closer to ten and he weighed just a little over nineten pounds---probably just a very healthy two year old but he suits me just fine.
Whoops, look at the time, gotta get to work, i'll get back to the tall grass story on my lunch break.
Well Joe, the long grass story goes like this...
A few years back we had a lease with a lot of turkeys on it but they moved around a lot, all of them, that is, except for one really big ol bird and one of his cronies. They roosted behind the dam of a pond on the place and would gobble like crazy until they flew down----right into the middle of about a seventy acre pasture. I had Schuster down there once and Mike (Squirrelbait) at least a couple of times and we just couldn't get this bird to come near us---he'd gobble to a fare-the-well but never come near enough for a bowshot. He knew he was safe out there.
Eventually it got to be personal between me and him and I took my old pump out of mothballs for a last week of season attempt to end his reign. On the fateful day, I waited until he had already flown down and more or less committed himself to one of his regular routes, following a little valley that ran down the middle of the pasture. Once I could estimate his path, i got down on all fours and began to crawl to what i hoped would be an interception point...
oops, had to go for a minute
anyway, as he got closer, i got lower and lower until i was actually belly-crawling through the knee-deep fescue. And it worked, too---in a while i was within thirty yards of him and he was getting closer. I got worried he'd see me as he got closer so i started getting ready to shoot, still flat on my belly. At the moment of truth i settled the bead on his head, still trying to keep a low profile so he wouldn't bolt. i stroked the trigger and watched with disbelief as the bird not only didn't fall but just stood there as if i hadn't even shot---so i shot again---and again. After the third shot only succeeded in making him begin to putt, i wondered if there had been any shot in those shells ? The turkey finally had enough and took wing and as i raised up and watched him fly away. I looked down and saw three "paths" about three inches wide by six feet long through that fescue grass---I hadn't even come close to hiting that bird ! At first i felt like throwing up but before i knew it i was laughing at myself---and I'm laughing again just thinking about it. Thanks Mike for reminding me.
Tracy, that bow is an 58"/60# Eclipse from Shadow bows in Montana, i beleive the bowyer was Vince Yak and i heard he got so in to whitewater running that he didn't plan to build any more. It's a forward handle longbow design that shoots very well for me (which says a lot for the bow). I have no idea what the riser wood is (it's actually kind of deep maroon in color, possibly purpleheart ? ) but the limbs are mountain juniper. I bought it from Terry Green and it became my go-to bow within a few weeks after i got it. I put the compass in the riser and it's wearing snakeskin limbskins in the picture. It's spoken last rites over turkey, deer and hogs. i'm planning to build a near copy this summer but as a takedown---guess you can tell i really like this bow...
Nice job Joel and great story. Glad to hear your season is going well.
Hi Dave, good to hear from you again, missed you and your brother in Texas this year (we had a great hunt, of five of us from GA, three got good bucks and the other two had chances---one of the GA gang got his first turkey and i beleive we all got at least one hog and two does---not bad for a bowhunt). I beleive Terry's coming back and JC and Schuster are joining us this time, too. If we keep going this way the whole camp'll be trad in a couple more years---by the way, i gave Big David (Shepard, the head guide) a recurve at Christmas and he's been shooting it and called me to tell me he's hooked---he practiced till his fingers were raw, took it out next day and missed a few hogs and deer but got his first trad kill the next day with a big ol Hill Country doe.
Nice read Joel.
I aint been in the woods since TX Sweat...bout a month, and I'm going nuts. Next weekend I'm going to Cohutta for hogs if I don't have anyone ask me to go south. :wavey:
I may try to convince you to head south. let's talk tomorrow when you have a few minutes
Cool...congratulatins. What kind of bow you got, with that compass on there?
thanks Woodduck. Check my second post after LostHawg for bow details---the compass is the Fred Bear compass (large size for old eyes)that 3 Rivers sells