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Jack Paluh, a famous wildlife painter produced some of the most beautiful turkey hunting scenes. It's amazing to imagine how the early settlers hunted the Wild Turkey with the primitive equipment they had. This painting imagines a Native American trying to harvest a turkey with his stick-bow. Notice the turkey feather-fletched arrows, some sort of fur-hide type blind/cover, and the hen decoy? We can only imagine that with an abundance of birds and these somewhat advanced techniques, one can say they probably were very successful. Have a safe summer......

Cool painting. I love turkey artwork.  I'm sure the Indians found ways to be successful on their turkey hunts.


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Cool painting Tom, thanks for sharing. I would think that most hunting they did would be by chance/ luck, they hunted to survive, walk woods and kill 1st thing that gave them the opportunity.   

Thanks, I can only imagine the first settlers seeing huge flocks of birds...wow

Don't know the artist of this piece but it appears to be similar work.

Very cool artwork. I enjoy those types of paintings/ drawings. Z

Pretty sure that's a rock that they are hiding behind. And I am pretty sure that killing turkeys was for survival and not sport. So yeah, tip the odds in your favor as much as possible in that case. I sure would. They also ran buffalo off of cliffs and drapped deer skin over themselves to crawl towards deer. There was a lot more game and fewer people as well, so it didn't affect things much.

Thanks for sharing the art/pictures, this will make you have a different perspective of those times and the wild turkeys ....Remember the pilgrims

In the first picture.   Is that a DSD on the bottom right?   

Nice art work,
Him and Robert Griffing did some cool work from that time period.


I think it's a rock also, unless it's one of those mirror blinds reflecting off the rock behind it

Would love to have this painting on my wall! Just think how far they could have shot with TSS arrowheads. Had to go there didn't I. It's the off season!!!

Great Pics Tom!  What NO camo, TSS or decoys?????  NOPE, just WOODMANSHIP!  We mess this up and we don't eat!

I am surprised Guesswho didn't notice the double beard in the second picture. He would have changed his answer.

They say the Natives used wingbones dating all the way back to 6500 BC!


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Quote from: Lone Star Eastern on July 13, 2023, 03:14:24 PM
They say the Natives used wingbones dating all the way back to 6500 BC!


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It actually looks like the man laying on the ground is holding a wingbone call in his left hand or a call of some sort atleast.

Quote from: Paulmyr on July 13, 2023, 11:28:27 PM

Quote from: Lone Star Eastern on July 13, 2023, 03:14:24 PM
They say the Natives used wingbones dating all the way back to 6500 BC!


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It actually looks like the man laying on the ground is holding a wingbone call in his left hand or a call of some sort atleast.

He's holding a pencil to keep score, the different nations had team competitions back then. It was based purely on how many arrows per turkey to determine the winners.

Quote from: Paulmyr on July 13, 2023, 11:28:27 PM

Quote from: Lone Star Eastern on July 13, 2023, 03:14:24 PM
They say the Natives used wingbones dating all the way back to 6500 BC!


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It actually looks like the man laying on the ground is holding a wingbone call in his left hand or a call of some sort atleast.

Actually looks like he's holding a striker I don't know if they use friction calls then.

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Quote from: Turkeybutt on July 13, 2023, 08:16:08 AM
Don't know the artist of this piece but it appears to be similar work.

I believe that is the same artist for sure....

They sure were proficient with those stick bows......

It does look like the mouth piece (radius) bone he's holding, which is probably all they used as a call.
Henry Davis shows an old hunter using just the longer mouth piece this way in his book.

Cur off the ends and cut to a longer length than regular mouthpiece. Your cupped hands become the bell more so than on a 2 or 3 piece call, they sound pretty good.

Without being there firsthand and having few accounts, it is hard to know all of the methods employed by Native Americans, but certainly plenty of evidedence turkeys were a critical part of their diet, clothing, and utility items. They used wingbones and in Mexico and some southern states they, as we all know, domesticated turkeys. Paluh's paintings are respectfully motivated and beautifully portrayed. I enjoy the one on my wall.

Second print is also by Jack Paluh, his work is magnificent!

I saw this photo and added the caption "What if".
Just think how things could have turned out for the Native American Indians if they had compound bows and not just stick bows..

Quote from: Turkeybutt on July 22, 2023, 07:11:18 PM
I saw this photo and added the caption "What if".
Just think how things could have turned out for the Native American Indians if they had compound bows and not just stick bows..

Actually much worse, instinctive shooters have a hard time with compounds because it is a repetitive motion that they use, Draw, anchor, release in one fluid motion, the breakover point would have messed that up, Fred Bear didn't like them for that very reason and said so. Now understand that if it is just one shot that could be overcome, but the way Native Americans would often shoot repeatedly or in close quarters it would have put them at a very serious disadvantage even with the extended range.

Perhaps with the early colonial muskets but even then I think it would have been worse for them for he reasons stated above.

Upon extensive examination, I believe the laying Indian is actually using a joystick to control the motions of his extremely realistic hen decoy. Geniuses! Pioneered modern day turkey hunting!

Quote from: deerhunt1988 on July 22, 2023, 11:35:59 PM
Upon extensive examination, I believe the laying Indian is actually using a joystick to control the motions of his extremely realistic hen decoy. Geniuses! Pioneered modern day turkey hunting!

Bitter and frustrated. A perfect example of why I started the This Forums Direction post that now has over 2600 views. Good luck in the future. :deadhorse:

Back on topic an artist named David Wright has several affordable secondary market turkey prints. Web site had copyright warnings so can't add pictures. Google
David Wright The Turkey Hunter it should pop up. Lot of Native American themes also.He is pretty prolific.

David Wright does fine detailed work on that time period.

There is some writings on turkey "spookiness" from that time period. In a book "44 Years in the life of a Hunter", by Meshack Browning, a subsistence/market hunter from Western Md. late 1700's- mid 1800's.

He had bought a smoothbore for his wife to use when he was off on hunts, she would walk right up under roosted turkeys at dusk and shoot what was needed to keep the kids and her fed while he was away.


forgot to add the book was written mid 1800's

What if he painted a turkey fan on his head . I love the painting but I think if you had to kill a turkey to eat you would use every trick you could.


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I've always loved that painting as well. Always made me ponder how it was back hundreds and thousands of years ago. Great post!

All these hardcore hunters on here and no one noticed the bird on the right in the second picture had a double beard! :)

Clearly that's the one he is aiming at!

Quote from: bwhana on July 25, 2023, 04:57:24 PM
All these hardcore hunters on here and no one noticed the bird on the right in the second picture had a double beard! :)

Clearly that's the one he is aiming at!

Your way behind on that one sir. I brought that up way back

Quote from: Happy on July 25, 2023, 05:04:25 PM

Quote from: bwhana on July 25, 2023, 04:57:24 PM
All these hardcore hunters on here and no one noticed the bird on the right in the second picture had a double beard! :)

Clearly that's the one he is aiming at!

Your way behind on that one sir. I brought that up way back

Sorry, missed it!  Trying to read without reading glasses is big problem at my age!

My dentist who is also an avid turkey hunter has about 4 or 5 Jack Paluh signed, numbered and framed prints in his waiting area. They are all signed by the artist with a personal message to my dentist. I am sure they know each other.  I never tire of seeing them.  All are the same theme, eastern native Americans using primitive methods to hunt wild turkeys.

A friend has a very similar artwork in his multi million "cabin" estate.   Almost certainly the same artist.  I remember being completely struck by that painting. 
  Love these, thanks for sharing ????
   JT

I love those hunting paintings.

Thank God they were not hiding behind a gobbler decoy reaping..........lmao.

I had read in some old writings the Indians  would use dead turkeys (and geese) as decoys.

Several years back i called in and shot a fall jake.
after meeting back up with my buddy we propped up the Jake with some sticks to use as a decoy, he called in several turkeys from that drove that came in right up to the dead decoy and he shot one.

They used camo, I love those that say they never did, the thought that they did not simply humors me. They would darken their bodies with mud, use plant dyes to do the same we do with camo face paint and wear darker clothes. There is so much evidence in archeology to show this the "Indian's never did that" people make me laugh out loud.

Coo painting! I have this one from the same artist. I got it at the NWTF meeting a long time ago 847/900.(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230731/81ed2a302032026eb37facb6e0e59121.jpg)


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I have that one too.