Spring Turkey 2015: Part I

This past Spring turkey season of 2015 was really exciting. I had harvested a few turkeys by now and really wanted to improve my calling and work on scouting to become a better hunter. 

I am very grateful to have permission to hunt on several properties, including new permission the the field right beside our house. The benefit of this is when I work until 4 I can still make it home in time to get out for an evening hunt. 

Matt has never shot a Tom so the season started with hopes for him to harvest a turkey. We went out several times together even to the point where we called a beautiful Tom in only to get spooked and leave out of range. A Sunday morning after a long week Matt invited me to go out with him hunting on his dad's property. I decided to stay home and of course he had 3 jakes come into the decoys that morning and harvested his bird.

I was disappointed to miss his hunt and knew from then on I would make time to go even if I had a long week. 

We made plans to hunt an evening at Wing-Ding's where I shot both my Toms in 2014. Matt was coming with me this time and set up in a treestand with the camera. We have never filmed a hunt before and we're just doing it for fun, but thankfully it all worked out.

I set up in a ground blind with my compound bow. I really wanted to take a bird with my bow as this is something I have never done before. I used a wooden box call and immediately received and a response from a gobbler. I called soft and then more aggressively and had a beautiful Jake come in full strut to a Jake and Hen set up by Avian-X decoys. Zink's decoys are so lifelike even the turkeys cannot tell if they are real or not. I came to fill draw at 15 yards and burried the pin into the butt of his wing. My arrow took off and immediately the Turkey was not going anywhere. When hunting you want a clean kill and bow hunting turkeys is especially challenging. He flopped around for longer than I would have liked and although I made a good shot it took a bit of time for my bird to die. I am proud to harvest my first Turkey with a bow I have decided due to the difficulty a shotgun will be my number one weapon for turkey hunting from here on out. I will leave my bow for deer season. 

Here is a photo of my with my first Turkey taken with a compound bow. 

Deer Hunting 2014

Well the 2015 hunting season has officially started for turkey and I realized I haven't even posted about the end of deer season 2014.

Deer season in our area isn't like it was several years back. I have only been out hunting for two deer seasons and Matt has told me things are a lot different. He use to go out and see 30 deer a night, several mature bucks and usually ended the season with a tag filled. Times have changed and the deer population has decreased. I spent the entire 2014 season only seeing 3 deer. And I was out several days per week between October 1 and December 31. 

During rifle season I finally saw my first deer. A small young buck came in to me about 15 yards from the stand. I put my scope on him and considered taking this buck, but decided I would pass. He was probably a yearling and although it would have been perfectly legal to put a tag on this young buck - I still had a month and a half to hunt. I really hoped to harvest my first deer with a compound bow and I also felt strange pulling a trigger on such a young buck, especially since there aren't many mature bucks in our area anymore. I thought I would try my luck a little longer. Although we really needed some meat the season was not over yet.

Rifle season came and went, we never seen another deer. Mike our neighbour had seen a few does and did not have an antler less deer tag. No one in our hunting group had tagged a deer around home yet. We had trail camera pictures of different bucks. A large mature buck was coming to a stand set at Matt's Dads but only at midnight. Some of our other stands had 2 different bucks a 6 point and 8 point. The 6 had been coming in daylight and we were hoping to see this buck. There was also a doe often coming who had no fawns with her in any of the pictures. She was a large doe and we assumed her fawns had been taken early on by coyotes.

The day after rifle season I was sitting in a stand with my bow. A large buck came out in another field about 100 yards away. Just my luck, I thought. Rifle is now over and the big buck decided to show in daylight. This was a mature buck I could tell by his size and I used a few different calls to see if I could get him to come in my way. But no luck. As quick as he came out he walked straight across there field into some cedar trees behind me all out of bow range. I was still very excited. This was my first encounter during my two years of hunting with a mature buck. He would have made any hunter proud to have taken him. Although I never got a shot or seen him again I felt lucky to even have the chance since there are so few deer in our area.

The weeks went on and December rolled around. Matt had seen that single doe several times and even got some neat videos on his xcell camera. He only had a buck tag so could not take the doe, but I had a doe tag so if she kept coming I knew I may have the chance to get my first deer. He went out one night into the stand and one of the 6 point bucks came out. This was Matts first season shooting a compound and we still have many things to learn. As he drew he felt he could not get a long enough draw sitting in the tree to release the arrow properly because when he finally released he shot over his back. We realize we need to be more specific of our  setup this year and test them out more. Also as many of you would know drawing a bow in -30 is completely different than early season. Especially when you are wearing layers on layers of clothes and your fingers and feet are numb. Matt felt disappointed it has been 3 years since he harvested a deer and this ended up being his only chance of the season. However we can only learn from these experiences and hopefully grow to be better hunters because of it.

On December 21, I finally had my chance. I set up in the treestand where the bucks and doe had been coming in daylight. Mike was set up in his stand in another field and Matt elsewhere. I waited quietly on a very cold afternoon with my compound bow and multiple heat accessories I had received as an early Christmas present from Matt's parents. If you are a smaller woman or if you have children you know what it is like to get cold the second you step out of the truck. A hand warmer and heated jacket has made bow hunting in a tree stand a million times more comfortable and I am very lucky to have these items to take out with me. After about an hour of keeping warm I heard snow crunching from behind me. I thought to myself that is way too loud to be a squirrel. So I waited. About 50 yards behind me and to the west the single doe had stepped out. I grabbed my bow and got into position hoping she would come in to shooting range. I am a beginner bow hunter and am most comfortable shooting up to 25 yards, ideally a shot 20 or closer is best for me. It felt like forever as this doe back tracked behind my stand, right into my wind direction. I don't know how I didn't get busted. But she came back to her path and slowly made her way into shooting range. I knew she was around 16 yards and set my pin on her drew slowly and concentrated on my shot. I released the arrow. A clean miss. It went right under her and she jumped back - startled. She took a few steps forward. I knew I was going to get another shot and I reached for another arrow. I put the range finder on her, 23 yards it read. Maybe I had misjudged the first shot (another lesson: always check with the range finder even if you previously scoped out the distances) I set my pin behind her shoulder and pushed the pin into my target, releasing my second arrow. Thwack. That sound I have heard all year practicing finally came to reality. She started to run fast! About 20 yards from my shot I saw my lumenok fall out of her other side. Yes, I thought. I made a good shot. She kept running west and I heard crashing in the cedars. I lost view of her once she hit the brush, but I heard a lot of smashing and thought she must be going down. I climbed down from the treestand and immediately called Matt. Then I instantly started to panic. There wasn't a ton of blood where I first shot her. I thought I must have shot too far back. Doubting myself even after I watched the arrow land. Thinking Matts phone died I walked up to my arrow and sat. I am not experienced enough to track a deer on my own and since there was so little blood I didn't want to mess anything up. I texted Darcy, Matts Dad. I told him my arrow was blood soaked, but wasn't sure if it was a good shot. He asked if the arrow smelled (incase I shot her in the guts) It did not and he told me to wait for Matt that the would help me track the deer. Matt came driving in right where the deer had ran out. I told him I heard her go in the cedars that she left towards the bush. Mike soon followed and we had a tough tracking job. Turned out the fourwheeler drove over some blood spots and once Mike finally found blood on a tree we had found the trail. And the more we followed the more blood poured out of her. She took a loop into the open field and back into the cedars. I was right. I had heard her crashing. Once we got to a spot on the cedars with a ton of blood, Mike thought we should wait an hour just incase the shot was not good, that we don't push the deer further into the bush. We went to Matts parents and had a bite and Darcy recommended we didn't leave her too long because the coyotes would soon be out and she may not be there when we got back. We returned and right behind the cedars where we left the trail she was laying down. We had a look at her and I made a good shot it went through one lung and exited just behind the other. Matt said she was probably down right away. She was only 75 yards from the tree stand and I could not be more happy with my first deer. I harvested her with a bow and it was a feeling that can't be explained. My deer fed several of us as she was the only one harvested at home in 2014. We are still eating her meat and I could not feel more proud to be hunting. She turned out to be a dry doe which was good. I did not want to take a doe with fawns due to the deer population. She was a very big doe and a great first trophy.