The 009 Bucks

Well opening morning was exciting. Taylor and I were hunting down in the main food plot about 40 yards to the NE of the stump blind. We had a pop up blind all set up and we were both dressed in black. The weather was not cooperating at it was about 50 degrees and light to moderate rain. Taylor was doing the video and I was doing the shooting. I was excited to try out the new Matthews Heli-m. We heard some turkeys at first light gobbling around us, but nothing was too close. Finally at 8:30 am, Taylor spotted a nice tom about 100 yards away to the SW at the base of the hill. I did some light calling and he started to work our way. I was really hoping for him to gobble and put on a show, but he was SILENT! He worked his way slowly across the hill side to the west of us. He circled us to the north and started to work his way back into the decoys. He finally cleared the side of the blind and offered me a 20 yard shot with my Magnus Bullhead system which is designed to take off their heads. I shot about 2 inches to the right of my target and clipped the top of his back. If you watch it back in slow motion (we will try and post it later) you can see that my height was perfect, but I was just a bit to the right. If I had been two inches to the left, I would have broken his neck. He was a nice mature bird with a 8-9" beard and was probably around 23-24 lbs. Instead, I got about 250 feathers and he got a reverse Mohawk. He flew off and was fine. There was no blood on the arrow at all. Pretty exciting, but I am disappointed to not have taken my first long beard with a bow. Nevertheless, I am now hooked and will not be pursuing them with a shot gun any more. Best of luck to the rest of you this Spring. A special thanks to my camera man, Taylor for his outstanding film work. Buck Slayer - OUT!