Unfortunately, it was still standing, so I went in, moved my cameras, hit the scrapes, and left. I then went to another farm and checked the cameras there. There was nothing overly impressive so I decided on hunting the third farm with my climber. I thought I had remembered everything for each possible stand I would be hunting, but I was wrong, I had forgotten my climber. Luckily I had my ground blind, so I decided to set up just inside the field edge, in hopes of catching something on its way to dinner.

I was set up just after 3:30. The area I was in was about 75 yards north of the stand I was hunting the weekend prior, when I saw the turkeys for the first time. I made sure to pick up tags on the way out, this time, incase they showed themselves again. Ten minutes after getting set up, I notice movement straight ahead. I originally thought it was a small deer. I pulled up my binoculars and saw 4 turkeys through the brush. A few minutes later, I had three birds inside 40 yards, and the rest were close behind. They paralleled my location at 35 yards to the south on the way to the field. When they hit the logging road to the east of my blind they decided to head in a direction that would bring them with shooting range.

The camera was rolling when the lead hen stepped in my lane at 12 yards. My shot placement was perfect and she fell within feet. The rest of the birds immediately gathered around her. Had I wanted to, I could have done some damage to the whole flock. I eventually couldn’t take the excitement and had to scare the birds off so I could go check out my first ever turkey. She weighed in just over 13 lbs. I was so excited to get home and show everyone, I ended the hunt two hours before dark. Even though it was just a hen, I had felt like I shot the biggest buck of my life. I have many family members who turkey hunt and no one has ever been able to get one with a bow. I’ve always heard it’s really tough, but this bird had no idea I was ever there. Hunting them out of a blind is definitely the way to go. I will definitely be using it next spring when I look to harvest my first turkey with a gun.