Turkey season finally blew in – literally! 50+ MPH winds battered birds and beast this past weekend.  The 2^nd weekend of spring turkey season found us back at the Johnson Ranch at Newcastle , TX   hunting birds with Brazos Archery Outfitters.

The first weekend offered some tough hunting as the Toms were “henned up” really bad and were just not responding to calling.  A couple of hunters did manage to take a bird but overall, the hunting was tough.

I was hoping things would be better on this 2^nd weekend and was pretty disappointed when I arrived at the ranch on Thursday only to be greeted by gale force winds. Even if the Toms were more responsive, it was going to be difficult to call them in such high winds.  But I came to hunt, so I went to an area where I had seen birds the previous weekend and set up my Double Bull blind. 

Trying to set the blind up in such wind was quite a challenge, but with the help of my hunting partner we managed to get it set up and staked down and guyed out.  The fact that the blind held up in these conditions is a testament to the quality of Double Bull blinds. Even in the horrific winds, there was no wind flap noise and the blind stayed together when we have several other brand blinds that were totally destroyed this weekend.

I hadn’t been in the blind more than a few minutes when I heard a muffled gobble in the woods near the edge of the crop field where I had set the blind.  I made a few yelps as loudly as I could with my diaphragm call and the gobbler answered and started my way. In a matter of minutes the big Tom was approaching my shooting lane. I readied the bow and as soon as the cameraman gave me the signal, I touched the trigger on my Tru-Fire release and the arrow found its mark! The gobbler went down hard and died within 5 yards of the blind! This was the first arrow ever fired in a hunting situation with my new Mathews Swtichback XT. Perfect hit!

The winds were still blowing just as hard when we headed to the blinds on Friday. The gobblers had really clammed up and the hunting was pretty slow. Lots of birds spotted but few could hear the hunters calls to respond.  Bryan Chandler of Houston , TX did manage to coax in a nice bird and put a great shot on him and found him after only a short tracking job.

On Saturday Courtney Farris of Austin, TX was having some problems with her video camera and I offered to tag along and video the hunt  with my camera since I wanted to see what kind of birds were hanging out in the area where she was hunting. The winds finally subsided around noon and the Toms responded with constant gobbling all afternoon.  After passing up several Jake birds, Courtney made a great shot on a nice Tom with a 5” beard and dropped him in his tracks!

Even though the winds almost blew my wig off – it still turned out to be a great weekend with Brazos Archery Outfitters. We’ll try it again next weekend and hope for calmer skies.

John Shelley

Pro Staff

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,

 Wac'em Broadheads,, Beard Buster, The Beckham Group, Sure Grip Gun & Bow Racks,

Advantage Max-1 Camoflauge, Nikon Sport Optics, Barnett Crossbows,

and Wildlife Center Research

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