Winter Time Blues

The winter months can be tough for a bowhunter. That time at the beginning of the year when all you can think about is the next upcoming big game season can seem like an eternity. Having a mild winter like we have this year can make counting down the days until turkey season even more nerve racking, but it also offers the chance for some good preseason practice. When preparing for hunting season I feel it is imperative to practice like you are going to hunt.

If you plan on hunting turkeys out of a ground blind you should practice shooting out of your blind, this will help you determine what your shooting position will be while hunting out of a blind, whether you want to shoot sitting in a chair or from your knees is valuable information to know when a worked up gobbler is making his way into your decoys. Since I will be chasing gobblers this spring with the Heads Up Decoy tom turkey decoy in the bowmount, I practice often with the decoy on my bow, from my knees since this is most likely the position I will be in while using the decoy this spring. I feel it is very important to practice with the decoy on your bow well before season starts because even though the decoy is light, it does take some getting used to shooting with it mounted to the end of your stabilizer. A good example of this was when I went to practice with the decoy on my bow a couple weeks ago, I put the decoy in the bowmount and adjusted the mount since I had previously had it adjusted for the whitetail decoy, when I went out to shoot I noticed I was hitting consistently to the right. Upon further inspection I realized that at full draw the decoy was slightly covering the left side of my sight guard, not enough to even come close to covering up my pins, but it was enough to

cause me to either torque my bow slightly or adjust my anchor point enough that I was throwing off my shot. With a quick adjustment of the bowmount my sight picture was clear and I was back to shooting spot on. It's things like this that you might not think would be a big deal that can cost you an animal in the woods, so it's best to use and know your equipment long before you go to use it in the field. So before turkey season rolls around it is a good idea to figure out your game plan you want to use to tag a bird and practice and execute the plan in your back yard first to help prepare you for when that big gobbler comes strutting into your decoys.