two birds at bao

Two Birds at BAO

Spring turkey season had arrived and I found myself on a turkey hunt at Brazos Archery Outfitters near Newcastle, Texas. I was hunting with my husband James and we were trying to gather footage for our upcoming bowhunting DVD.

We knew of a particular place where the turkey were roosting so we decided to slip in there early and try to call in some birds after they flew down from the roost.

As usual things did not go as planned and we were running late for the morning’s hunt. James decided to drive in and drop off our gear to save some time. While James was setting up our Double Bull Matrix blind, I went to park the truck. As soon as I got out of the truck I could hear the turkey gobbling on the roost. It sounded like they were getting ready to fly down.

I worked my way back to where James had the blind up as quickly as I could. When I arrived James had just finished setting up the blind and was putting out the decoys.

Once inside the blind I began setting up the camera gear. I was running the camera and it was James’ turn to be the shooter.

It seemed like as soon as we jumped into the blind I could hear some turkey flying down from the roost. James hit the call a few times and several gobblers sounded off.

In a few minutes we had a group of jakes heading our way. The jakes were working their way towards our decoys and having breakfast at the same time.

When the birds hit 20 yards, I gave James the thumbs up to shoot. James drew his Mathews Switchback XT and the next thing I saw was a jake turning a flip as the arrow knocked him from his feet. The bird manage to get it’s footing back and scrambled off with the rest of the birds. James had made a good hit and the bird went down with in 100 yards from the stand.

James had his bird and now it was my turn to hunt. We quietly traded places and readied my bow.

James started calling again but this time there was no response. As time ticked by James continued to call. Every so often a tom would gobble, but it always seemed like they were a long way off.

The adrenaline of the earlier activities had worn off and I started to doze off a bit. I was in and out of consciousness when all of a sudden James punched me in the arm and said “Get your bow!” After recovering from being scared half to death, I grabbed my bow and started looking for whatever it was James wanted me to get my bow ready for. I looked to the right and then back to my left. I saw movement to my left and boy was I surprised. A nice tom with a good beard was heading my way. At first I thought I was dreaming, but once I got focused on him, I realized I wasn’t. There really was a long beard heading my way.

Instantly my heart started pumping faster and faster and my breathing got heavier and heavier, almost to the point that I couldn’t control it. If you have been bow hunting, you know exactly what I’m talking about! I started telling myself to calm down, control your breathing and do this right. At this point I was shaking almost uncontrollably and couldn’t stop. I just knew I was about to blow it. Thank goodness Mr. Tom hung around for while! He wasn’t in a hurry to go anywhere so he gave me plenty of time to settle down and get ready for a shot.

Our decoys were set up in the middle of a ranch road. The Tom had his eyes glued on them as he slowly inched into bow range. The Tom stopped right behind a big pile of cactus and peered at the decoys over the top. It seemed like an eternity but it was probably only about 5 minutes. I took advantage of this time to calm myself down and get ready for a shot.

The Tom started to walk again and just as he did, two hens appeared on the right side of our blind. He immediately crossed the road and headed toward the hens. The Tom followed the hens around in and out of the cactus to the right of our blind. I had a clear shot but the camera did not so I had to wait. The hens eventually led the Tom back in front of the blind and into the camera’s view.

James gave me the signal; I raised my Mathews Switchback XT, clipped on my Tru-Fire release and came to full draw. Once I reached full draw and felt my anchor point, I exhaled and released my arrow. My Carbon Express Maxima Hunter arrow disappeared into the turkey. It was a perfect shot! The turkey ran off about 75 yards before expiring in the brush.

This was the perfect hunt. I didn’t have to wait too long to see animals and we both scored on a bird! If only every hunt were this easy hunting would be a breeze, but then again if they were all this easy, it wouldn’t be called hunting.

Donna Ferguson

Vice President

Bowhunting North America, LLC

This hunt was made possible in part by our sponsors:

Mathews, Inc., Carbon Express, The Gean-Edwards Company,

Rynoskin, DoskoSport, Lumenok, Tru Fire Corp., Limbsaver, Huntin' Hoist,

, Beard Buster, Sure Grip Gun & Bow Racks,Advantage Max-1 Camoflauge, Nikon Sport Optics,

Barnett Crossbows,and Wildlife Center Research