Longbow Longbeard

[CAPTJJ]

Hunting public land with my longbow, an Omega Native hybrid, and shot a nice tom this morning. Haven't heard much gobbling except 3 early opening day. Had a tom come in to roost that evening with a hen and heard him spit/drum and got ready. He knocked my jake decoy over and was on top of him, pecking the head repeatedly. I decided to try headshots far a change this year, and finally he raised his neck at 6 yards, hit him good, right in the neck and bending a blade but the arrow tumbled on past and did no damage to him. He was strutting again right away, only out of range and too many trees. I was dumbfounded, guess the bow doesn't have enough energy, 41# but more like 43-44 at my draw length.

A couple pics right after the shot:







Same area but up higher up this morning where the ground was torn up with scratching, when they don't gobble I like to hunt sign. Calling regularly, mostly clucks and light yelps on a mouth call. Around 9:30 I heard footsteps behind me, look out and see him coming 20 yards away with a smaller tom following. Just enough time to grab the bow, this time with big 3 blade Snuffer tipping the arrow.

He heads right for the jake decoy while strutting.  I am trying to be patient and let him attack the decoy, when I rush I usually screw up. Well, he folded his wings back and started heading away, so I drew, concentrated on the spot and released, hit him square in the back. He runs off arrow sticking out and legs are wobbly, he quickly gets out of sight as it is downhill. I see wings flapping briefly then nothing.  Second smaller tom goes right to him. No reason to wait, jumped out of the blind and the other tom took off, my tom was on his back feet up, didn't go more than 30 yards.

[USMC0331]

Outstanding

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[Howie g]

Modern day Robin Hood !

[Sir-diealot]

Congratulations

[Tom007]

Now that is a feat unmatched. A trophy of a lifetime........

[Sixes]

Congratulations!


As much as I love to bow hunt, I have never had the desire to turkey hunt with a bow

[joey46]

Wow! Nice.

[owlhoot]

Congratulations , heck of a story and accomplishment.

[JeffC]

Congrats on a fine stick and string Tom.

[Crghss]

Good work

[tracker vi]

Perfect shot!!!

[Dtrkyman]

That is awesome, I loved the back shot when bow hunting!

[btomlin]

Great job!  Congrats

[bear hunter]

Impressive

[ElkTurkMan]

That's awesome congrats!!!