I have to say that this year has been one of the best hunting years for me to date. Granted, I haven’t done all that well but that’s not to say I haven’t had a plethora of opportunities around Spokane, WA this year. My buddy Brian and I have also had the opportunity to come up with more and more hunting spots to go to. It’s been quite awesome all things considered. On a pleasantly unexpected note, my father has found a small flock of turkeys that have made its way onto his property. He owns 6 acres on the south side of Spokane so he has plenty of wildlife, but turkeys have been absent until recently. They usually hang out down the road on a property that feeds them.
Being that it’s early fall turkey season in Eastern Washington, turkeys on his property is a good thing. Only downside is a lot of the neighbors are a little finicky about hunting and hunters. They had one couple that tore down a new neighbor’s stand because they didn’t know anyone had bought the property. Others just vehemently oppose hunting, though they won’t go so far as to tear stuff down if they don’t approve. So it’s a little touchy hunting anything on my father’s property because game can easily run off onto another property and we then have to worry about tracking it down and dealing with the neighbors. That is why he has refused to hunt deer on his property.
This is important, because turkey are just as bad. Sometimes they flap around and drop, other times they flap around and fly away. Even others, they do both. Believe me, I’ve been through all of them. I had the truly unfortunate opportunity to take a bird one time that just didn’t know how to die. I shot it, it dropped, I was about to finish it and it jumped up and ran a little way, it stayed put and before I could finish it, the bird jumped up and sped off like a bolt of lightning, probably only to become coyote food. I should mention I’ve been using bow almost exclusively this year for hunting both deer and turkey…my Fred Bear Done Deal compound. Making a really good shot on turkey with a bow can be tough. A shotgun usually is a lot easier because you just point and shoot and a ton of bb’s just go rocketing out the barrel. Anyway, I’ve done pretty well with a bow so far despite learning how difficult it can be.
Back on my dad’s place, we decided to partake of the new flock of turkeys. Partly because we knew they were really large due to good food sources (including, but not limited to, the neighbors). The day I went over, I almost missed my chance. I spent some time catching up with my step-mother and then my father. When I walked back upstairs to check if they were around, I saw them already on the other side of the house walking down toward the pond. It was the last half of their journey across the property before they walk on toward the next house in the area. I think they saw me through the windows too, cause they decided to pick up the pace a little bit.
I rushed out to the car to get my bow, got it out, put on my release, grabbed the only two arrows I had left from the previous deer season and started back. I had to stop and think a second because I didn’t want to spook them. They were working their way closer to the edge of the property as it was. So I decided not to chase them down. I instead decided to run back into the house and go to my parent’s balcony which overlooked the area next to the pond. Kind of a stand if you’re looking at it from a hunting perspective. I got out there and there they were, about 12 hens just eating their way along toward the pond. I looked through them and decided on one I was going to take. Then they started moving and I lost the shot. About then my father finally came up with his bow. I was going to let him shoot, but he told me to go ahead. I keep thinking that he just wants to see me shoot and take stuff cause he almost always lets me shoot first. But he’s usually got a good reason. For him, he lives there…so he can take one any day he wants…and he can hold out for a tom if one shows up.
Ok, I’ll take one. I waited a second while they moved around and picked up another hen that was nearly as large as the first. I pulled back, aimed, and shot. The turkeys spooked a little but didn’t fly off. I missed. I was about 5 ft short…which translates to about 5 yds where I was shooting from…maybe even 10. That particular turkey took off through the grass. Then I spotted another one just as large…which might have been the one I was targeting at first anyway. So I had a second go, right on. I drew back again, with my last arrow, aimed 10 yds higher than last time and let one fly. This time I got a nice hard thump right in the turkey. Unfortunately, I hit her a little far back and rather than flapping and settling down, she decided to get flapping and fly away. Good news is I could see where she was going and if my shot was as good as I thought, she wouldn’t go far. She was going to the neighbor’s though. And I didn’t know if this neighbor was one we had to worry about.
After consulting my father, we decided to hang out in his shop and do our other stuff for an hour just to make sure we didn’t spook the turkey I shot in the event she didn’t die right away. That’s one of the biggest lessons I can teach anyone…after your shot if your animal hasn’t dropped and is lifeless…leave them alone for a while. An hour doesn’t hurt. If you had a really bad shot, which can happen, leave it alone for longer unless you know you have another good shot. Point in fact, my buddy got his deer this season with a bow and he got a lung shot. However, he only nicked the lungs in the back and it was a nice young buck that had plenty of stamina. So it ran a good ways and laid down to die. In the process of trying to find it, we ended up within 20 yds of it without spooking it, but as soon as I approached from another angle, it jumped up and ran even further. So we had to wait a couple hours before we could even think of retrieving it. At least we watched where it went and knew where it would be this time. Make sure you WAIT.
Ok, off my pedestal and back to the story. After my father and I waited a while and played with our rifles a bit (Browning BLR Lightning and a couple of Bushmaster’s), we went over to the neighbor’s property to look for the turkey. My father said these particular neighbors had given them permission to go over to that part of their property if they needed to. We started by looking along this ridge above a creek that used to run around the properties before the road was put in and cut it off. No sign of the turkey. However, I did find the trail the turkeys use to travel from one property to the next. The rest of them properly used it to run along to the next house on their list. I was getting worried that we wouldn’t find the one I shot. I also had tried to look for my arrows before we went to the neighbor’s property and couldn’t find either. One is still in the grass somewhere…but I should have been able to find the other one.
So we circled back toward the barn that was on the property and went around the front. While heading toward the place we started, I happened to look to the left and saw a strangely colored lump in a stand of saplings. At closer inspection, it was my turkey! Yay! I had found it! Not only that but it had my arrow in it! So now I’m only down to one arrow and broadhead instead of none.
I probably would have found the turkey earlier but I saw a cat that I thought might be the turkey. It was colored a lot like a turkey and was hunched in a ball…so with my slightly poor eyesight I couldn’t tell if it was a cat or a turkey but I figured it was a cat. As soon as I had moved toward it, it ran off and I moved back to the ridgeline where I had been, completely overlooking the rest of the area for the time being…where the turkey happened to be.
I got my father and we headed back toward the house with my turkey in hand…until we saw neighbors walking up with their dogs. We decided to drop the turkey and make our way back over empty-handed for the moment. My dad ran interference and talked to the neighbors while I went and got a trash bag. Thankfully they were some of the neighbors that didn’t care. So once they moved on I went back and bagged and tagged my turkey and brought it back over. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a good picture of it with my bow and me and all that due to having to carefully retrieve it.
All in all, a good turkey. I haven’t weighed it out but my guess is it’s a nice 10-15lb hen after plucking and cleaning it out. It will be a darn good turkey for Thanksgiving. Hopefully I’ll be able to get two more before the season is over. That’s one in the early fall at my friend’s place and one in the late fall. Wish me luck!
Tags: bow hunting, Eastern Washington, Hunting, hunting wild turkey, Spokane WA
