Hunting with the Blind
This will be a series of articles written about hunting from what I consider to be the best commercially available hunting blind on the market.
Life is too short to hunt from a crappy blind, get a Double Bull!!
April 7th, 2006
It’s Friday morning, to early for most folks to be up and around, 3:30 central time.
The rain has been falling since we started driving to Arapahoe, NE from our home in Colorado Springs, CO. It doesn’t show any inclination to let up, and I turn on the small television in the motel and tune it to the weather station. The coffee is on and I am dressed and looking out the window for the person who was responsible for this.
I had answered a post on the bowsite from someone who wanted to trade a turkey hunt for elk information. Kerry and Mike were looking for an archery elk hunt in Colorado; in exchange they would take someone out on their turkey spot. After trading some emails we decided on the first Friday in April. The weather had been beautiful all week, with temps in the upper 50s and 60s, but on Thursday as we packed the truck up things were starting to change for the worse.
So here we were, my son Matt and I waiting in a strange town for a person we had never seen before. Man, I hoped these guys weren’t psycho killers or something worse!!
At 4:00 I yelled at Matt and told him to get up and dressed. I had our packs loaded with everything we would need for a ½ day hunt, and the bows were cased. About 4:30 a truck pulls into the parking lot and up to the back of my truck. The doors open and two guys with camo on get out with big smiles on their faces. After introductions we load our gear into Kerry’s’ truck and head out into the dark morning.
During the short drive to the place where we planned on hunting, Kerry and Mike, talked turkey and bowhunting, which made me feel like I had found a couple of old lost friend. Driving down a dirt road, Kerry pulled off onto a muddy side road and after about 100 yards, parks and shuts the truck engine off. We get out and load packs, blinds, and bows, onto our bodies and start walking down an old cow trail. Kerry points to a place and says, you guys can setup there if you like. We quickly setup the Double Bull T5, stash our gear inside and I stake down 3 turkey decoys. Kerry and Mike comment that they are using the same blind, and they will be hunting about ¼ mile away from us. Wishing us luck they depart for their location.
I climb in to the blind, and take a seat on one of the QS3 stools, Matt is aboard the other with his head in his hands nodding off. The rain makes almost a hypnotic sound on the walls of the blind and I find myself dozing off. Suddenly I hear a gobble from behind me and to the right. I ask Matt if he heard it and he mumbles something from his dream. Soon another gobbler is greeting the morning and I tell Matt to wake up, because I can hear turkeys flying down. I start calling with some clucks, and chirps, and I hear a gobble and hens clucking as they move towards us. Soon I can make out a flock of about 25 birds moving down the creek right at us. The birds get to about 50 yards from us and turn and move up the hill away from us. I flick on the camera and capture the video as the birds move away.
The wind has picked up and at times the birds are almost blown off of their feet.
We have to hold the blind down to keep it from blowing away, I’ve staked it down from the inside, but with the wet ground the stakes are not holding. I take Matt’ daypack and tie it to the hub on his side of the blind, and do the same on my side with my pack. This helps a bunch, and we are able to let loose of the hubs and poles from the inside.
There are several more close encounters during the morning but we are unable to connect with a bird. About 11:00 I see Kerry and Mike walking down the creek towards us. They ask us if we had seen anything, and are happy when we report on the number of birds that came through. They tell us that the wind is beating them, and they want to call it quits for the day. No problem we are cold and tired too, so we pack up and head into town for a warm lunch, then back to the motel for a nap.
Back at the motel I have time to reflect on the mornings hunt and equipment that we were using.
The Double Bull blind that I had purchased in January is the T5 model, which is large enough for two hunters and all their gear to fit in comfortably. When the blind arrived, I watched the instructional video on how to set it up, then spent many hours in the back yard practicing setting it up and taking it down. This blind was my 2nd Double Bull; the other is a T2 which is a smaller blind and perfect for 1 person or two without daypacks and a video camera. I’ve never used a blind in the type of wind we saw that morning, there were gust of 50 mph and at times the blind tried to blow away to the south, and into Kansas. However the blind kept both of us dry and the poles flexed but never broke, I am not sure if a lesser blind would have stood up to these conditions.
To setup a blind for turkeys all that is really required is a semi flat spot that will accommodate the blind. You really do not need to brush in the Double Bull when turkey hunting. Same day setups are the norm when after these big birds, and they don’t pay any attention to the blind. The portals can be kept closed or open as long as you do not put your head out of one and get busted. The portals can be opened silently when a tom is approaching the decoys, for the shot. While we were in the blind, both of us wore dark clothing to blend in with the shadows, while hiking to and from the area we wore Predator® camouflage in Deception and Fall Gray.
Decoys should be positioned in a spot where a shot can be made. We set ours up 15 yards from the blind, in a location to take advantage of shooting lanes from all directions in front of us.
That morning I wished we had packed the small heater along with us. It is not to warm in early April to go with out, and I will definitely be bringing it out there this year.
During one of our setups we had 3 long beards coming in from our right, and about 15 hens were coming down the hill in front of us. The hens turned and bolted when they saw my foam decoys folded over from the wind. Lesson learned cheap decoys don’t cut it. This year I’ve purchased the pretty boy & girl, and while they are a little cumbersome to pack, we are taking them with.
In the course of 2 ½ days, we both had multiple shooting opportunities, but failed to connect with any of the birds we shot at. Another lesson leaned, practice shooting from the blind out of the shooting portals. It is possible to miss at 15 yards and less, this year we are putting in our practice sessions and a lot of it involves shooting from the blind.
Well, it is only about 6 weeks until we head back to hunt with Kerry, and Mike, and the excitement is building. This is going to be the year we bag a couple of long beards!
Stay tuned for an update in April.
This will be followed by articles on:
Colorado Turkeys
Colorado Pronghorns
Colorado Elk
Colorado Bear
Colorado Deer
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