Opening Day bird with a bow!
Contributors to this thread:Massachusetts
From: MA_Bowhunter
24-Apr-17
MA_Bowhunter's Link
I got an opening day bird with a bow! 19.5 pounds, 9" beard, 1" spurs. A nice 2 year old. There a bit of a story (as is always for me!). I set up in a farm field at o'Dark-thirty, and had a couple of distant gobbles, but nothing close. Gave one yelp on my box call, and had an immediate response, cutting me off. He was real close. I shut up, and he gobbled a couple of other times, coming in on a string. I was able to watch him approach out the back of the ground blind. He came into the decoys, giving me a decent shot. The shot was good, but I got very little penetration. The arrow snapped off immediately, and the Tom was obviously hurt, but started to wander off. Took a second shot, but I was shaking so much I MISSED. Oh no! Fortunately, he wandered around the end of the hedgerow row on the right, and I found him about 100 yards away.
Post-mortem analysis showed I hit the wing butt on the way in, breaking off one blade, I think a second didn't deploy, and the broadhead seemed to deflect low, only penetrating about 3 inches. I think when he went to flap his wings, he broke the arrow. Got it all on vid, in the link. Its from a GoPro, and my editing skills stink, so sorry for the not-so-great quality.
I really need to practice more - missing that second shot was rough. :-)
From: BC
24-Apr-17
Nice. Might want to consider a fixed blade. One less thing to go wrong.
From: MA_Bowhunter
24-Apr-17
I do for deer. Had good luck with these mechanicals for turkey in the past.
From: Ungie01201
24-Apr-17
fantastic bird! Congrats! Sounds intense!
From: mrw
24-Apr-17
Awesome job and nice bird!
From: Jimbo
24-Apr-17
Great bird! Congratulations, Eric.
From: EBow10
24-Apr-17
Congrats!!!!
From: UrbanHunter
24-Apr-17
Congrats!
From: Tazman
24-Apr-17
Nice job. It is not easy with the bow, even in a blind, especially if your filming. Congrats!
From: Will
24-Apr-17
Cool!
From: Eastie778
24-Apr-17
Very nice! It's never dull !
From: captain
25-Apr-17
Very Nice bird
From: longbeard
25-Apr-17
Great bird! Yeah you might want to change BH because he wasn't dead enough!! LOL
From: bowandspear
25-Apr-17
Excellent
From: LINK
26-Apr-17
Nice! What expandable were you shooting?
From: MA_Bowhunter
27-Apr-17
Rocket Hammerheads. 100-gr., 2 inch, 3-blade, over the top mechanical. They have worked well for me for turkeys. But to be clear, I'm not blaming the broadhead for anything here - I might have got better penetration from fixed blades (I use fixed blades for deer) or maybe not lost a blade, but this was rough territory (the wing butt) I sent the broad head through. I will continue to use them - I'll just aim slightly back the next time...
