james bao 06 buck

The Triple Tom

John Shelley

Marketing/Advertising Director

Bowhunting North America, LLC

Opening day of deer season always finds me sitting in a stand or blind with the feeling that I love bowhunting for big whitetail bucks better than anything on earth. I usually keep that same feeling right up until opening day of spring turkey season!

I love deer hunting as much as the next person, but I sure love my turkey hunting too. Something about sitting in the darkness of my pop-up ground blind at daybreak and listening to the thundering gobbles from the nearby trees just makes me grateful for every moment I have in the woods. The gobble of a big tom rivals the bugle of a big bull elk as the most awesome sound in the woods.

I’ve been hooked on spring turkey hunting for many years but never more than when I started bowhunting for turkeys. Being that close to such an awesome eagle-eyed animal will get a fellow’s heart pumping. I believe a turkey can see you thinking! Seems a turkey’s hearing is about as good as his eyesight too, so getting drawn on one takes a little bit of skill and a whole lot of luck.

And then there’s the business of shot placement. With a kill zone the size of an orange, you better know your shooting skills are honed and your equipment is finely tuned. There is a whole lot of a turkey that’s nothing but turkey or feathers, so practice is essential.

Opening day this year dawned with me sitting in a blind in an area that would not have been my first choice of hunting spots. Seven inches of rain the day before made getting to several blinds impossible due to high waters and muddy roads. For the first time in many years, I did not get a gobbler on the first morning of the season. The rains and cool weather had the toms pretty much silent on opening day. Several hunters in camp fared much better, but for me it was a shut out.

I spent all of the next week in eager anticipation of the coming weekend. Surely the weather would be better and the birds would be more talkative. Didn’t happen! A cold front blew in on Thursday night and temperatures dropped into the 40’s for the Friday morning hunt. But at least the roads were dry and the creeks passable, so I was able to hunt one of my preferred blinds. The cool weather had again silenced the toms and I only heard one gobble all morning long. I sat until almost noon and then gave it up and went back to camp to tend to a few chores and gather up some warmer clothes.

I left my blind and gear in place after the morning hunt to make it easier to slip into the hunting area undetected. After getting settled in the blind, I made a few soft “clucks” on the diaphragm call and was immediately answered by two gobblers. I moved the video camera into the window of the blind and readied my bow. Seconds later the two toms rounded a grove of trees and came into full view.

Both were great gobblers but I waited for the bigger of the two to move into position and give me a good shot angle. When the big bird moved into my shooting lane I brought my Mathews Switchback XT to full draw and settled the 20 yard pin of my sight on the top of the gobbler’s drumstick and touched the trigger of my Trufire release as he turned to quarter slightly away.

The 100 grain Muzzy MX-4 sliced through the big gobbler and he dropped in his tracks. Turkeys can be very difficult to blood trail and it’s always a welcome relief to see one drop within sight of the blind. This one didn’t go five yards. Sweet!

When I reached my new trophy and began to admire him up close, I got a nice surprise. He had a nice thick beard about 9” long. No wait, he has 2 beards! Oh my goodness – 3 beards! Awesome! My first bird of the season and my first multiple beard bird with a bow! No wonder I love spring turkey hunting so much! What a trophy!

I took a couple of quick pictures and loaded the bird and my gear and headed back to camp where I proceeded to score the bird. He had beards of 5 ½”, 6”, and 9” and spurs 1” and 1 1/8” and weighed an even 21#. Using the scoring methods of The National Wild Turkey Federation, the bird scored 83.25 points. Once entered, I believe this will put my trophy in the top 10 bow kill Rio Grande gobblers taken in Texas according to NWTF records.

I think this settles it for me – the gobble of a big tom is the most awesome sound in the woods!

This hunt was made possible in part by our sponsors:

Mathews, Inc., The Gean-Edwards Company, DoskoSport, Lumenok, Tru Fire Corp.,
Limbsaver, Huntin' Hoist, Sure Grip Gun & Bow Racks, Advantage Max-1 Camoflauge, Nikon Sport Optics, Barnett Crossbows,

Muzzy Products Corp., Wildlife Research Center, Whitetail Pro Log, The Armory, Display It Hardwood Cases and Gator Trax Boats