I swear the following is true. I have a witness. His name is Brian. He and the jake in question are pictured with me at the end of this story.
We were turkey hunting on April fifth (my last day), 2007 over a wheat field in Kansas’ first ever ten-day archery only season. A flock was roosted in some tall trees about 250 yards to our west along a creek. We gave them a fly down cackle and some wing beats. While they softly talked amongst themselves they weren’t convinced that it was fly down time. About fifteen minutes later they went sailing down in the direction of Brian’s truck. I think they were going to try to vandalize it – or steal it – I don’t know.
As the flock landed and went their separate ways three jakes came across the field from west to east, but stayed about sixty-five yards out. We couldn’t pull them in with our calls or decoys. They wandered to a grassy spot and out of our view. About twenty minutes later they came back. I didn’t think they were going to come into range so I was taking lots of pictures. You can see the three birds in the picture coming from east to west in front of our Double-Bull Matrix blind. However, they did slowly close ground.
It was my turn to shoot and Brian said in a gruff manner, “You better put that camera down and grab your bow.” So I did. No appreciation for good wildlife photos… Anyway, the two larger and older jakes stayed out about thirty yards, but the last younger jake came to twenty. Danger Will Robinson! I let him have it with a 1 3/4″ Wasp Jakhammer broadhead. Feathers exploded! He took off and headed back to the west about sixty yards. I ranged for Brian so he could take a thirty yard shot at one of the other jakes. Miss! Right in front of the breast. They took off toward the wounded jake.
He was sitting squat and low to the ground. Within seconds one bird grabbed him by the back of the head with its beak. He swung him around in circles at least twice. The other bird took a peck at him. The jake doing the swinging drug the wounded bird over a terrace and out of sight. They reappeared at the end of it. The hit jake was still being dragged towards the woods and a creek bottom seventy yards away to the west. When three to four yards away from the woods, the dragging jake hurled the wounded bird toward the woods and creek bottom. He flew up, but dropped down and ran into the trees. We thought.
We waited an hour, encountering more turkeys during this time-frame, but no action. We found a bloodtrail and followed it to the woods edge. There he was, but we were too late. He was off running, then flying. We followed to the likely spot and found him hiding under a bush. Brian delivered a coups-de-grace with an arrow to the neck. Upon inspection my initial shot turned out to be a very low abdomen hit that basically took out the entire end of the turkey.
So, was this just dominance or a valiant effort to save a fellow turkey? Heck, I don’t know, but he was tasty.
happy hunting, dv
Coming up on Mostly Archery:
- Taking Pictures of Your Trophys
- Overhauling My Bow - Strings, cables & more
- An Outfitter Report – Javelina and Hogs in Texas
