Opening Day Jynx?

Opening day 2014 brought with it perfect temperatures as the morning brought the thermometer down to 40 degrees and the high for the afternoon was 55 with very little wind. –Perfect for shooting a buck that I had patterned. –Over the course of my bow hunting career, now twenty-seven years, I have never, to my recollection, drawn my bow on a deer opening day. This was about to change!

As I climbed up my stand and got settled in for an afternoon hunt in mid-September this opening day of the 2014 bow season I thought to myself, “what a perfect day to shoot a deer.” -The sun was out and the temperatures were cool, which would make for good deer movement. Additionally, in the event that a deer would be shot, it could hang over night without the worry of any meat spoiling. Typically, this is not the scenario I’ve grown to expect on opening weekend as it seems like it is usually raining or sultry hot and muggy with mosquitoes swarming and buzzing you like a flock of famished buzzards.

After a couple of hours on the stand I was very settled in and quite comfortable. –I had really missed sitting up in the stand reflecting on life and simply relaxing over the past few months. –For me, this is my total Zen. No deer for the first couple of hours, but that would soon change as a medium sized doe soon showed up as she came in from my backside. The only sound that she made was her hoof hitting a log, which put me on alert and let me know she was creeping near my stand. Soon thereafter, another deer showed up walking along the same trail, a young eight point. Things were looking better and better. Both deer nearly walked under my stand with no scent detection, which is always a good sign. After watching the two deer for a couple minutes both deer went on alert as another deer approached coming across a food plot that I had recently put in. –I immediately readied my bow as I saw a nice rack on this deer. The buck had his ears back and trotted within 15 yards of my stand as he chased the smaller eight point. After a few minutes, which seemed like an hour, he was standing at 29 yards and presented a slight quartering away shot for me. I drew back on him and settled the 30 yard pin right on his heart. Upon release I hit exactly where I was aiming and the buck took off with my arrow still in him, about 90% through, but with the fletching just sticking out. My eyes told me that I had buried the pin perfectly and made the exact shot that I wanted, but sometimes the mind can play tricks on you, and I was not about to get too over confident. All in all, I felt very good about the shot though.

I then waited about 15 minutes before lowering my bow from my stand. I summoned the troops, consisting of a couple of my good hunting friends, Nick and Steve, along with Steve’s older son, and my older son, JD. (Probably a lot of overkill in terms of a tracking team, but we all like to get in on a good track and I wasn’t about to leave anyone out.) We waited until dark and took to the trail with our headlamps on. Immediately we found good blood that soon turned to great blood. JD, my six year old, was leading the charge to find the buck as the blood trail was perfect for him as it glistened with the light of our headlamps even as the buck ran through the pine timber. Within 100 yards JD called out that he had found him. –What a way to start the year! Upon investigation it was discovered that I indeed had shot exactly where I was aiming as I “center punched” the buck through the heart. Obviously, it is great shooting a deer, but what made it all that much better was that my son and good friends could join in on a perfect opener, which could not have been scripted any better. We were able to hang the deer and the butchering commenced the following day. Fresh venison awaits.

Turkey Errors

I am always amazed to read through turkey hunting stats following each and every turkey season. It seems as though the success rates across the board are astronomically low. When talking with a group of hunters who are in a close circle to me it seems as though the success rates are drastically different than some of those others. Are some that much better hunters? I don’t know that some hunters are that much better, but simply have learned over time to stay away from those common mistakes that can lead to holding a tag and no bird where we have all been at many times… Here’s a list of some of those errors that I have made myself over the years and continue to work to improve.

1. Not Scouting Enough. Many turkey hunters have this perception that they can enter into the woods at o’dark-thirty, start locating birds off of the roost, set-up, and successfully kill a bird minutes later. Sure, this may work once in a blue moon and on television here and there, but truth be told, scouting birds and learning their basic travel routines, and ultimately determining your set-up spot(s) in advance will yield you much greater results time and time again. Additionally, you will not find yourself scratching your head near as often when you accidentally bump that gobbler out of his roosting tree and set yourself up for failure within minutes into a hunt. Any scouting in advance is a huge advantage, which will pay dividends. Turkeys, like other game animals, do things very much routinely. –Figure out their routine and half of the battle is already won.

2. Calling Too Much. Don’t get into a calling match with a tom, especially off of a roost. Sure, you may be getting response gobbles, but it is simply because that bird wants the hen he perceives (you calling) to come to him as this is what happens in nature. By adding additional gobbles to the area you will also alert other hens that may perceive the hen you are trying to be as competition and may either begin yelping more themselves, will drag the tom off the opposite direction, or will simply head his way, thus giving the tom little to no need to seek another hen at this point. I am a firm believer in making your location known off of the roost, but don’t be afraid to “play hard to get” with the tom after he has pinned down your location. He will work your way with some very subtle calling mixed in with scratching of the leaves. This last spring I encountered more situations than ever before where a tom would be “committed” only to hold up just out of range gobbling and strutting.

3. Let the Birds Work. We live in a society where patience seems to be rarer than ever before. Everyone wants immediate results. Watching toms follow hens around the woods for a long time you will notice that many, if not most times, the toms are actually 100 yards or more behind the hens as the hens pick through the woods foraging for food. Meanwhile, the toms will be behind strutting and keeping a watchful eye on their hens waiting for a time when the hen is ready to be bred. Many of these toms are not gobbling as they have no need to as they have already located their hens and don’t want to give away their location to other toms. The bottom line here is that if you have a tom that you have fired up and he goes silent do not get too quick to move locations as many times this bird may still be lingering near watching your set with a close eye. There really are not a set number of minutes or hours that I will wait one of these guys out, but usually try to add some additional time on when I think I should move on.

4. The Roost is a Friend and Enemy. Setting up on a bird off of the roost is great. It is possibly one of the very best times to kill a tom. However, you must be cautious. -Don’t try to get too close to the roost as these birds may easily be bumped and their routine will get thrown off for quite some time. I make a general rule of no closer than 125 yards. You will inevitably make a little noise coming into your location and setting up in the dark and this should provide enough of a buffer under most circumstances, however if you are hunting along a field edge, with a full moon, or when it is dead calm you may want to even extend this yardage out further to adjust for those conditions.

5. Set Your Decoys Close. Far too many hunters set their decoys in a position 25 0r 30 yards from them. This is way too far for a number of reasons. First of all, you want to have your decoy(s) in such a position whereas if the tom comes in and works them close you will have a chip shot with either your gun or bow to make a clean kill. 30 yards can be a bit of a poke with even a shotgun if the target is not standing completely still. Additionally, some birds will simply not commit 100% and may strut 10 yards from the decoy expecting the decoy to either come fight with him or if it is a hen decoy to come follow him. If your decoy is set up at 30 yards this means a minimum of a 40 yard shot and you may have additional barriers to shoot through. I have found that in most instances I like the decoy to be somewhere between 8 and 12 yards from me. This is by no means foolproof, but it seems to work well.

6. Don’t move. The turkey has great vision; however I have found that they have a difficult time picking motionless hunters out. Even the slightest twitch of one’s finger can set a turkey into a tither and rushing out of your decoys 100 times quicker than it ever came in. Turkey blinds on the market today have certainly helped eliminate and hide many of these hunter’s movements and are wonderful in taking youth out turkey hunting, for those long day sits, or when the weather may be poor. There are a couple of keys here that will assist with hiding movement in the blind. First, close any windows that you will not need open as it will help to darken the inside of the blind. Next, make sure to move yourself to the back of the blind from the direction you intend to set your decoys up and will have birds hopefully working in. As stated in number 3 above, many turkeys will work their way into a spread totally stealth. Therefore, it is essential that you reduce movements at all times. If I had a dollar for every bird I have spooked over the years by turning my head or itching my nose… Well, you get the point! Don’t move.

By simply reducing some of the errors made while turkey hunting I am certain that your encounters will drastically increase and with that you will be left holding more birds and less tags in the future. -Gobble-Gobble!