Hunting the great Meleagris gallopavo

The elusive and cunning meleagris gallopavo.

For those of you who do not know I took up hunting this fall. I decided to make it as hard as I could on myself and hunt using a traditional bow, a Fred Bear long bow to be exact. I decided that turkeys would be a good animal to start with since they are more plentiful and hopefully easier to figure out than deer or elk. I will save everyone the suspense by telling you now that I was not able to bag one of these wild birds. I spent about 10 days total over two months trying to get one and had a ton of fun.


Here I am on the hunt. This is a good pic of the type of terrain I was in.

I pretty much did everything short of bringing one home. I was able to find a good spot to hunt them on public land, was eventually able to find them every day I went out, stalked them, ambushed them, was able to get numerous shots off at them, and eventually found where they roost at night. Here is one of the more exciting days that I had out.



My quarry, in early morning light, at about 80 yards. These guys got away, damn!

The day previous I was unable to locate a single turkey so I was discouraged heading out this day but by 11:30 I was in a group of them. I hunted this group until about 3:30. I stalked them, tried pushing them in a direction and then running around them and waiting in ambush, and was eventually able to split them into two groups which they really do not like. They prefer to stay in a flock and will run a louie-with-bow-and-arrow gauntlet to be able to get back together. I was able to get three shots off during all of the running around and stalking. I finally spooked them enough to fly to a different area. I immediately followed in pursuit. As I came over a rise I spotted my quarry and…a three point black talk deer. The buck did not hear me approaching because the turkeys had already spotted me and were causing a ruckus in the leaves as they walked off. I was already within 40 yards of the buck but in the complete open. I moved slowly and quietly towards a bush for cover aa the buck moved towards me. We got to within 35 yards of each other. My effective bow range is within 25 yards so I was not able to take a shot but it was very exciting none the less.

Jasmine and I saw lots of wildlife while out looking for turkeys and the experience was something entirely new and full of unsuspecting realizations. I had a great time and am looking forward to heading back out in the spring although maybe this time I will head out with a compound bow.


Here is a pic of Mt. Mcloughlin which Jaz and I had a view of during clear days while out hiking. It was very striking once it was covered in snow.