Kelly first was featured here with a stud of a moose from Canada, and later with her goofy pronghorn from Oregon.
Well now she had added a nice gobbler to the wall, with her bow no less. In true Western fashion she received permission to hunt on a neighbor’s ranch. She did it solo, even though she had never been to the site before.
Here is the story in her words:
This ranch where I shot the tom is located about a mile down the road at a neighbors ranch. My boss maintains their road for free and in return they let him (and his friends) hunt turkeys if they are there. And they are there…for now. My boss informed me yesterday that I would be hunting this morning. (what a good boss, eh?)
I set out my one Montana Decoy turkey about 15 yards out and I climbed into the blind at about 5:45am this morning. It was pitch dark and pouring rain but I managed to find the blind in the dark (I had never been there before), get inside and get the windows opened way before it started getting light. So I arranged…and rearranged my ‘nest’ until I felt I was perfectly placed and facing the right direction. That lasted for about a minute. I rearranged again because it just didn’t feel right. (this is the first time I’ve ever sat in a blind…not used to the confinement or the…just sitting there waiting.
Anyway, I kept looking thru my binos for some movement of ANY kind. Finally…I saw something…a rabbit. wrong critter. I kept watching and attempting to listen beyond the heavy dripping of rain on the top of the blind. It was plenty light and I thought for sure if there were any turkeys in the neighborhood that I should see something by now. So…I got out my Primos “The Freak” turkey call. I barely got a noise off it and “GOBBLE GOBBLE” went off RIGHT ABOVE ME! The blind was in a wooded area with some really tall oak trees. There were turkeys roosting right above me! I took the striker and called again with the same result…and then I heard a bunch of turkeys fly down behind me, which were blocked by some heavy blackberry vines. But I looked across the drainage and running across the adjoining field right at me was 2 more turkeys. At that time, the one in front looked like a hen, the one in the back was a tom.
The group that flew down behind me began working their way back into my view. Hen, hen, more hens, and little jakes….nothing I wanted to shoot…yet. I keep watching for the two to come out that were headed towards me from the field. I called again. Jakes answered immediately and then BAM…out comes the 2 I was waiting for. Sure enough, the one is a hen. The second, a pretty decent Tom that I decide if he gets clear of the fence, I’ll take him. Although he was on the other side of the fence, it was still the same folks property. I just didn’t want to shoot threw a woven wire fence for the obvious reason. Hens began flying over the fence towards me. I’m thinking, ‘this is good’. But the Tom holds up for about 10 minutes behind a stack of old lumber. I can only see his head pop up every now and then. And then, here he comes. He is within about 20 yards but still on the other side of the fence. After some of the other hens started working their way away from me, I decided I’d better do something. I figured if he got up RIGHT against the fence with no or little space between he and the fence, that I would take him. At 23 yards he did just that. I shot, heard a ‘thunk’, but then saw the tom turn and start running…with no arrow in him. He ran out about another 25 yards and then just toppled over. I hit him right threw his vitals and ended up with a brand new broken arrow! But it’s a broken arrow I will cart around with pride!
I took him by home to show hubby and where he snapped a few pictures and then loaded him back up and took him to work, where my boss was. He was elated! We measured his beard and I was pleasantly surprised by a 9 3/4″ reading. I was back at work by 8:00am.
