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2021-22 Traditional bow kills

tyson12590 said:
Sorry in advance for the length of this post but I am celebrating, and Id like to share. Today is opening day of turkey season here in Michigan. My wife got her first bow kill of any kind and it was big gobbler with her recurve. She is shooting an old unbranded 66" recurve I bought off craigslist for $10. It pulls 27lbs at her 24" draw length. She is shooting 480 grain arrows with a magnus stinger 2 blade. We have been practicing a bunch and I put the decoys at 4 yards from the blind. This bruiser came in and attacked my jake decoy. She hit him high and forward in the neck but he bled out. It was an awesome hunt.

My wife did some hunting with me when we were dating over a decade ago. Back then she shot three turkeys and one doe with a gun but she never got super excited about it. I was fine with that as I never pressured her to hunt long term. I just wanted her to shoot some deer and turkeys so she could better understand my passions. After she got a few animals she decided to stop going. Three years ago when I switched to traditional archery she was reading a book about marriage that encouraged her to try to participate in some of my hobbies even if she didn't love them. She told me that if I could find her a low poundage longbow or recurve she would start shooting with me in the yard. I found a cheap recurve and she loved it. She said it was much more fun than shooting her compound. She shot it really well and inside 15 yards she was (and still is) more consistent than me. Because of the light draw I ruled out deer hunting for her but I began to think it would work for turkeys if we kept the shots within 10 yards. I came up with a great idea for practicing shot placement. I borrowed a projector from work and projected videos of turkeys on a target in our basement. As soon as she shot I would pause the video and we would discuss the placement. It gave her a lot of confidence.

We had an action packed hunt with birds gobbling in two directions. She made a good shot and it was an awesome hunt. All day she has been saying that it was by far her most fun and most exciting hunt she has ever had. She said she wants to go watch me try to shoot one next week and she wants to do it again next year. I never expected her to get into hunting again but a traditional bow made all the difference. I am rejoicing at the great hunt God blessed us with today and a wife who is not only my wife but also my best friend. This day will not soon be forgot.
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That is not an easy accomplishment. Congrats to both of you.
 
I tagged out with a nice jake this morning with my wife watching. This is my first kill with one of the Osage longbows that I made. It felt great. In the future I want to try to get one without a blind, but I want to get some more traditional turkey kills under my belt. After shooting this jake a big Tom came in and attacked my decoy. Check out the video if you would like. ( What Happens After You Shoot a Jake - YouTube ) I probably should have waited and not shot the jake, but it was a great hunt regardless. Already excited for next year!
 

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tyson12590 said:
I tagged out with a nice jake this morning with my wife watching. This is my first kill with one of the Osage longbows that I made. It felt great. In the future I want to try to get one without a blind, but I want to get some more traditional turkey kills under my belt. After shooting this jake a big Tom came in and attacked my decoy. Check out the video if you would like. ( What Happens After You Shoot a Jake - YouTube ) I probably should have waited and not shot the jake, but it was a great hunt regardless. Already excited for next year!
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Congratulations! It's an accomplishment to kill a turkey with trad gear, no doubt.
 
tyson12590 said:
I tagged out with a nice jake this morning with my wife watching. This is my first kill with one of the Osage longbows that I made. It felt great. In the future I want to try to get one without a blind, but I want to get some more traditional turkey kills under my belt. After shooting this jake a big Tom came in and attacked my decoy. Check out the video if you would like. ( What Happens After You Shoot a Jake - YouTube ) I probably should have waited and not shot the jake, but it was a great hunt regardless. Already excited for next year!
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Curious why you are calling that bird a jake? Looks like a full fan to me. What did the spurs look like?
 
tyson12590 said:
His fan was pretty full, but he was definitely a jake. Tiny spurs, tiny body and a 4-inch beard.
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Cant always go by the beard. They can lose part or all of their beards for multiple reasons. I brought it up because we are not allowed to shoot jake's here and if that turkey came in to a hunter here and strutted or was strutting, he would have most likely gotten shot due to the fan.

Straight from our turkey regs.

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