Two Turkeys with One Arrow

[GotaFish]

Following is an excerpt from my hunting log that I type into my phone as I am sitting in my stand and also update later.  I have been doing this for the past couple of years and I find it is cool to go back and have this level of detail years later.

Before anyone else says it, I will say these had to be the two unluckiest turkeys to ever walk the face of the earth and they were also two of the tastiest.  I will be 60 in February, been shooting a bow since I was 4 years old and bow hunting every year since I was 15 years old.  In my nearly 45 years of bow hunting I killed one turkey with a bow and on this day I killed two with one shot, well actually two shots if you count the first one where I missed.

Friday, November 5 

It is a clear morning, 32 degrees and no wind. Woke up about 4:30 AM stayed in bed until 5:45 PM and almost allowed myself to stay in bed. But because the rut is starting and I have to travel out of town Sunday to Tuesday I decided I better go hunt this morning. Made my tea and had some breakfast. Put my camo in the dryer to refresh the scent blocker and warm them up. Put in new contacts and left the building around 6:35 AM. Carried most all my clothes and got dressed by the black pipe ground blind. Scared a couple of deer while I was walking in. Got in the stand at 6:59 AM. 7:30 AM heard two bucks fighting out in neighbor’s field. Through binoculars I could see two deer in the middle of the field and heard another snort wheezing. I rattled and they both looked my way. One of them started my direction, but I never saw him again. About 8:36 AM a deer was snorting from the other side of the neighbor’s field. Then I saw at least three deer running across the bean field and into the woods.  There were a lot of birds squawking and squirrels running around this morning. Heard blue jays, woodpeckers, crows, hawks and I think eagles. 10:00 AM I start packing up, put my quiver on my bow and dial in to a work conference call. About 10:10 AM I see some turkeys coming up the hill out of the field. There are some big gobblers. I put my phone away and grab my bow. I wait until most of the turkeys are behind some trees and slowly stand up. Miraculously they do not see me. They need to go about 10 more yards for me to have a clear enough shot. I range them to be 40 yds. Half way between me and the turkeys is a leafy limb. When the little breeze we have blows the limb goes up and I have a clear shot. When the breeze stops the limb is blocking me. I shoot and the arrow is just low and I will come to learn buries in a tree root. The Turkey I was aiming at leaps, but the others do not really react. Then a Turkey comes over and appears to be inspecting my arrow. I knock another arrow, draw my bow, range at 40 yards, get to my draw point, bend at the waist, aim just a littler higher this time and place the pin on the bird. I let the arrow fly and the bird starts flopping.  Awesome, I just got a Turkey with a bow at 40 yards. The other birds scatter and I quickly climb out of my treestand to go over and claim my prize. When I get there to my surprise there are two dead birds. Both are young hens shot through the head. Basically, both birds were decapitated. It appears the rage hit the first bird just above the eye taking off the top of her head, then with the blades deployed the other bird was hit in the neck just below the head and decapitated. I retrieve my first arrow from the tree root sans broadhead (there goes $15). My brother drives up in the UTV to help me look for my arrow. We look for a pretty long time before I find it about 15 yards directly past the birds. So the arrow traveled 40 yards, decapitated two Turkeys and traveled another 15 yards. It is pretty good to shoot a Turkey in the head with a bow and arrow, but to get two in the head with the same arrow is probably a one in a trillion shot.

In addition to my surprise that I had two birds, I was surprised they were hens.  The first few birds I focused on were definitely large gobblers.  On several occasions this fall I have come upon groups of Turkeys on our property and they have been a mix of gobblers and hens.  This time of year I thought the gobblers hung out in bachelor groups and the hens & young ones hung out together.

Later when my friends and family ask me if I was aiming for the turkeys head's I say of course I was 😊

We all know that is not true, at 40 yards I was aiming at one turkey and somehow decapitated two.

Sorry the photo is upside down, it has taken me a month to figure out how to get it off my phone and onto the site.

Also in case you are wondering, the broadhead in the photo is not deployed because that is not the actual arrow I used to shoot the two birds.

 

[rps]

11 minutes ago, GotaFish said:

Following is an excerpt from my hunting log that I type into my phone as I am sitting in my stand and also update later.  I have been doing this for the past couple of years and I find it is cool to go back and have this level of detail years later.

Before anyone else says it, I will say these had to be the two unluckiest turkeys to ever walk the face of the earth and they were also two of the tastiest.  I will be 60 in February, been shooting a bow since I was 4 years old and bow hunting every year since I was 15 years old.  In my nearly 45 years of bow hunting I killed one turkey with a bow and on this day I killed two with one shot, well actually two shots if you count the first one where I missed.

Friday, November 5 

It is a clear morning, 32 degrees and no wind. Woke up about 4:30 AM stayed in bed until 5:45 PM and almost allowed myself to stay in bed. But because the rut is starting and I have to travel out of town Sunday to Tuesday I decided I better go hunt this morning. Made my tea and had some breakfast. Put my camo in the dryer to refresh the scent blocker and warm them up. Put in new contacts and left the building around 6:35 AM. Carried most all my clothes and got dressed by the black pipe ground blind. Scared a couple of deer while I was walking in. Got in the stand at 6:59 AM. 7:30 AM heard two bucks fighting out in neighbor’s field. Through binoculars I could see two deer in the middle of the field and heard another snort wheezing. I rattled and they both looked my way. One of them started my direction, but I never saw him again. About 8:36 AM a deer was snorting from the other side of the neighbor’s field. Then I saw at least three deer running across the bean field and into the woods.  There were a lot of birds squawking and squirrels running around this morning. Heard blue jays, woodpeckers, crows, hawks and I think eagles. 10:00 AM I start packing up, put my quiver on my bow and dial in to a work conference call. About 10:10 AM I see some turkeys coming up the hill out of the field. There are some big gobblers. I put my phone away and grab my bow. I wait until most of the turkeys are behind some trees and slowly stand up. Miraculously they do not see me. They need to go about 10 more yards for me to have a clear enough shot. I range them to be 40 yds. Half way between me and the turkeys is a leafy limb. When the little breeze we have blows the limb goes up and I have a clear shot. When the breeze stops the limb is blocking me. I shoot and the arrow is just low and I will come to learn buries in a tree root. The Turkey I was aiming at leaps, but the others do not really react. Then a Turkey comes over and appears to be inspecting my arrow. I knock another arrow, draw my bow, range at 40 yards, get to my draw point, bend at the waist, aim just a littler higher this time and place the pin on the bird. I let the arrow fly and the bird starts flopping.  Awesome, I just got a Turkey with a bow at 40 yards. The other birds scatter and I quickly climb out of my treestand to go over and claim my prize. When I get there to my surprise there are two dead birds. Both are young hens shot through the head. Basically, both birds were decapitated. It appears the rage hit the first bird just above the eye taking off the top of her head, then with the blades deployed the other bird was hit in the neck just below the head and decapitated. I retrieve my first arrow from the tree root sans broadhead (there goes $15). My brother drives up in the UTV to help me look for my arrow. We look for a pretty long time before I find it about 15 yards directly past the birds. So the arrow traveled 40 yards, decapitated two Turkeys and traveled another 15 yards. It is pretty good to shoot a Turkey in the head with a bow and arrow, but to get two in the head with the same arrow is probably a one in a trillion shot.

In addition to my surprise that I had two birds, I was surprised they were hens.  The first few birds I focused on were definitely large gobblers.  On several occasions this fall I have come upon groups of Turkeys on our property and they have been a mix of gobblers and hens.  This time of year I thought the gobblers hung out in bachelor groups and the hens & young ones hung out together.

Later when my friends and family ask me if I was aiming for the turkeys head's I say of course I was 😊

We all know that is not true, at 40 yards I was aiming at one turkey and somehow decapitated two.

Sorry the photo is upside down, it has taken me a month to figure out how to get it off my phone and onto the site.

Also in case you are wondering, the broadhead in the photo is not deployed because that is not the actual arrow I used to shoot the two birds.

 

My cousin Steve worked for AFGC his entire life. He also was an avid hunter. One fall he was out for turkey when a rafter of turkeys came within range. He fired. When he walked up, he discovered he had killed two gobblers.

He wrote himself a ticket.

The judge threw it out.

Steve did taxidermy too. He mounted the second bird and donated it to the AFGC. He ate the other.

[Johnsfolly]

Congrats @GotaFish on getting a couple of hens. Pretty awesome to do it with one shot!

I had a couple of opportunities to kill two birds with one shot of my shotgun. Both were out in KS. The first was a couple of jakes. I was holding out for the gobbler that was coming in behind them. So I held off and didn't  fill both of my tags. In hindsight maybe should have since the gobbler never came in 😒.

The second time was with two gobblers. They were following behind a hen. One was a chocolate colored bird. Every time I aimed at him the other gobblers head was within my pattern. If I hadn't already shot a gobbler I might have pulled the trigger. Instead they both walked.