opening morning turkey

Opening Morning Turkey

This is a story of the opening morning turkey that almost wasn’t! I was surprised on how early it was getting light, so I was a little late getting to the stand, but that wasn’t the worst of it. When I got there I found the roof of my pop up ground blind had collapsed and was covered in ten inches of water. The weight of the water had broken two of the carbon rods on opposite sides. My only hope was to drain the water and make repairs as quickly as I could. When I had my blind set back up, I climbed in to find myself sitting in a steamy mud hole. It was now 6:30 am, and it has been light for a good 45 minutes.

It wasn’t 10 or 15 minutes later when I had gobblers answering my new Heartbreaker box call, and they came running into the feeder I was sitting in front of. The gobbler I shot came in full strut, and then relaxed when he got to the scratch grain. I settled the 20 yard pin on him and watched as the arrow passed through. The turkey walked off and crossed a fence which was still BAO land. I could here the other birds hollering at him while he lay on the ground, which is typical when a bird is hurt of dying, so I got out and headed that way. When I exited the muddy blind I was surprised to find the group of about 12 gobblers he had been with, were 150 yards from where I made the shot. When I crossed the fence the birds ran. Thinking I would find the bird lying there, I was surprised when I arrived at the spot only to find a small pool of blood, but no turkey!

To make an already long story short, I looked for a solid hour. It was only when the bird flapped his wings just before expiring that I was able to locate him. He had gone another 150 yards from where he first lay down, a total of 300 yards from where I made the shot! The quartering away shot had hit the front of the left breast and exited the top of his neck, taking out the crop. I shot him with my Mathew’s Legacy, using a Spitfire mechanical broadhead. You could have stuck your hand in the wound! I only hope he isn’t that tough when I batter and fry him in peanut oil!!

Jim Beadle

Bow Hunter