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Cart*This is a guest post from bowhunter extraordinaire Ray Howell.
All I can say is a good set of optics opened up a whole new world for me in the outdoors. Things that were invisible before, I can now clearly see with my TRACT TORIC 10×42 binocular. It’s like putting on a set of reading glasses; without them everything is blurry and I can’t read, yet it’s all right there. I won’t go anywhere in the outdoors without my TRACT binocular whether scouting or hunting. I can focus them quickly to see right through the trees and pick out critters or parts of their bodies at long distances.
Bowhunting turkeys is a blast for my wife Karen and me. That’s why we made the trek to hunt Nebraska this year. In the evening, we would watch the birds from a long distance to see where they were going to roost for the night. Then we’d go in after dark and set up our blind within 100 yards of them.
We’d sneak back in the next morning long before the sun even thought about rising, put out the decoys and slip into the blind. The excitement of listening to the gobbles, watching the turkeys fly down and strut right up to our decoys is beyond words.
It was agreed that Karen was going to get the first opportunity. Two toms came in close, gobbled, and strutted right up to the decoys just like they read the script. Karen looked calm, but I knew her heart was trying to pound out of her chest. This is what we talked and dreamed about all year and the moment was finally upon us.
She clipped her release, drew her bow and and let fly an arrow. And boy was it perfectly placed! The big tom didn’t go 10 feet. I almost got a shot at the second tom but he slinked away before I could draw a pin.
When the events that had just transpired sunk in, we began jumping around hooting and hollering like a couple of little kids. It was such an awesome experience. Thinking we hadn’t disturbed the other turkeys too badly, we decided to keep the blind where it was.
Later that afternoon, we snuck back in to try our luck once again. Using my box call, I yelped softly and almost immediately had a response. With a few more gentle calls a tom started coming closer. He ended up coming right up behind our blind and when he gobbled it was so loud it seemed like the whole blind shook.
It was my turn to start shaking as my heart rate increased considerably. When he came around the blind and I saw how big he was, I was shook up. As I slowly lifted my bow, he gobbled again and that was about all I could handle. I drew and followed up his leg line with my 20 yard pin and released a well-placed arrow. Karen and I had an incredible day finding and being able to put our set up in the right place to harvest two magnificent toms. Thank you Lord for the incredible gift of a wonderful wife and hunting partner!
Ray’s Nebraska gobbler died mid-flight, but not before he’d flown across a swollen creek.