Thunder Chicken Down

Spent this past week chasing Turkeys aka Thunder Chickens in Central WI and was able to harvest this dandy 21 lb bird with a 10" beard via my Mathews bow.  It was far from easy....probably one of the most challenging animals I have harvested with a bow.  

Judd was also able to harvest a great big bird-weighing in at 24 lbs and having a 10" beard.  Judd took this bird at 25 yards with his Benelli shotgun at about 11:15 on the same morning as I shot mine.  He was able to work around and get in front of this bird after he saw it and set-up on it.  It came right into him on the ground and he was able to put a whoop'n on him with some tungsten.   

It was a great week in the woods with Pete, Mike, and Judd.  The emotions and energy was like a roller coaster.  The confidence around camp stayed high for the better part of the week but there were times when we were all in the dumps wondering how an animal with a brain the size of pea could out smart us!?    

They have incredible vision and when you are on the ground in their "home" you have to be invisible to even have a chance to get close enough to shoot one with a gun much less a bow.  I hunted all week out of a Primos Vision ground blind which when set-up correctly can greatly increase your odds of getting a bird into range without it seeing you.  The birds were not responding to the calls very well at all.  The toms we had been seeing were all "henned" up as some might say.  They were with hens and you could not call them off....go figure.  

The first morning of the hunt brought ideal conditions and we had 3 great toms work to about 60 yards before they hung up and didn't ever present us with a shot.  They slowly worked off into the woods and wanted nothing to do with us.  That evening we saw one hen and that was it.  The second morning Pete and I opted to sneak into an area where he had heard birds roosted the morning prior.  After getting set-up we realized we were surrounded by birds.  After a few hours of not hearing or seeing anything they all of a sudden appeared at 70 yards coming out of the woods into a cut corn field we were set-up on the edge of.  4 toms and 3 jakes fed while one hen milled around the field.  After 30 minutes we tried to call them into our hen decoy to get a shot-but they didn't want anything to do with us and skirted back out of the field into the woods at about 50 yards. That evening we made a move to another set to try and get at a tom coming back into the woods to roost.  With-in 5 minutes of being in the blind we had a dandy tom at 85 yards-but he was busy strut'n to a hen it looked like.  He strutted in the same 5 yard area for close to 2 hours before the hen finally snuck out the back of the woods and he followed.  

At this point I was starting to get frustrated and was wondering how we were ever going to get a bird in range with a bow.  It is tough enough to get them into range, but now I also was going to have to make a shot through the thick woods at a bird on the ground.  The field edges just were not working for us and had committed to the woods-not the ideal way for me to shoot a bird with a bow.  

The next morning we sat another new set very close to where we had the birds come out to the cut corn field and once again we had birds all around us, but nothing we were able to get close enough to shoot with a bow.  3 jakes wandered by us at about 35 yards but we just weren't happy with the shot nor shooting a jake-I was being greedy.  I was committed to shooting a tom or going home eating a tag sandwich.  That evening I once again returned to the same blind hoping to catch a tom working his way to roost coming by-but I saw nothing more then a few squirrels and chipmunks.  I was hearing a few birds gobbling so I figured it may be a good spot to sit again in the morning.  

On 4th morning of our hunt I returned to what had become my magical spot.  I had lots of confidence but was starting to doubt myself with only one day left and no bird with-in range the first 3 days.  Shortly after getting to my blind I saw 3 dandy toms skirt over a ridge at about 50 yards and had them strutting in when all of a sudden they turned and walked straight away from me.  They saw something they didn't like.  I was hunting over a Primos Killer B decoy with a real fan on it and a Primos She-Mobile hen decoy.  This didn't seem to entice them like I had hoped but wasn't about to give up on my set-up yet.  Like I said, I was committed and confident I was going to get it done.  If not I was going to be ok going home knowing I tried my best, hunted hard, and stuck to my guns.  Doubting yourself will destroy your chances of accomplishing any tough task.  

At about 8:15 I woke up from what had been a short nap and I saw the tom I shot and one other one making there way around my decoy.  At that point I realized the birds were going to work there way out the back of a small chunk of pines they were in and present a shot in a small clearing on the far side.  The clearing turned out to be 32 yards and when the birds stepped into the clearing I let the arrow fly out of my Mathews and smacked the front bird with an arrow flying 330 fps!  It all happened so fast I wasn't sure what to do or think.  The bird ran about 30 yards and just stood there.  I watched it for a long while and eventually it went out of sight.  Now I had to find my arrow and figure out where my bird had died.  I grabbed the boys and after a short search we located the bird and I was overwhelmed with the feeling of accomplishment.  Setting my mind on taking a tom with my bow was not hard to do-actually accomplishing that task was where the challenge came in.  It was not easy, but was worth it.  I had accomplished what I set out to do.  The hunt will all be documented in a video that I am working on and should have done later today or tomorrow-so stay tuned.   

I will be chasing thunder chickens in MN for the next 2 weeks-hopefully my success continues.  I will leave you with this comment....  If you have dreams and aspirations don't ever give up on them-pursue them now or you are allowing yourself to die a little every day.  Hard work and persistence will pay off-I promise!