Opening Day 2005 for Turkey in the Ocean State has come and gone with success!

I woke up at 3:45 a.m. full of anticipation. It was lightly raining but the weather man said it would stop and sure enough on my way across the bridge the rain ceased. I met up with my friend Jay Howell at 4:45 a.m. for an early morning shotgun hunt. After setting up with plenty of time before sunrise we patiently waited for a hint of light. I noticed the moon was breaking out between clouds and felt confident that as the sun rose the field we were sitting in would come alive with spirited turkeys. Well Jay and I were the only turkeys in the field! As soon as there was enough light two turkeys took flight from the tree directly over us!

Lesson #1: Do not take a stand directly below roosting turkeys!

After several hours of patiently waiting, watching tremendous numbers of song birds including cardinals, wrens, finches, robins, chickadees, etc. we decided to move.

At the second location just down the road I decided to trade in the shotgun for my bow hoping for a change of luck. Well it worked. Not long after entering the field we spotted five birds together near some pines. After placing the decoy and carefully backing into cover it took only a few calls to get their attention. They came quickly and I got my first ever Ocean State Turkey at 30 yards with a perfectly placed arrow shot. He is not a huge bird but it was a tremendous accomplishment to do it with a bow at such a distance and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

He will be on the grill shortly!