We have a fall season for turkeys in Vermont, and we can harvest hens as well as gobblers then. I was hunting with my bow on the opening day of bow/deer season, which occurred at the same time as the fall turkey season. I was pretty discouraged that I didn’t get a shot at a whitetail. But as I left the woods and reached the edge of a field, I saw what appeared to be a huge black cloud but was really numbers of turkeys moving across the field. I didn’t have a turkey call with me, but I decided I would try to crawl up and get as close as I could to try and bag a gobbler with my bow. I belly crawled to reach the edge of the field. I moved very slowly, and the crawl took about an hour. I was behind a little knoll, so the turkeys couldn’t really see me as I crawled closer and closer.
However, the turkeys did spot something about me three times and moved out of the field into the woods. When they went into the woods and couldn’t see me anymore, I’d get on my knees and crawl quickly. Once they returned to the field, I’d get back down on my belly and belly crawl again. Finally, I saw a hen at 42 yards. I had used my range finder to determine the distance. I nocked an arrow, came up to my knees and took a shot. I couldn’t believe that I hit the hen. I had shot at turkeys before with my bow, and I never had been successful.
I shoot an Easton Nemesis arrow with Blazer vanes and a Muzzy Trocar broadhead. The arrow went in the center of the bird’s back right where I had been aiming. She only ran about 30 yards and then expired. When I went to recover my turkey, I saw that she had left a blood trail, which I've never seen before after a shot on a turkey. I didn’t have to follow the blood trail, because I saw where the turkey was.
Day 3: No Turkeys to Too Many Turkeys in Vermont
Tomorrow: The Greatest Turkey Hunt of Them All in Massachusetts
