He has been feeling neglected since I was spending so much time chasing whitetails ..
I won't take him back in the bush much right now , cause he runs big , and I'm starting to see some real good sign in the last couple days ... boundary scrapes and rubs .
Even Wylie H. ( aka WalkNtall ) has been putting time in the new stand ..'
Today , I had planned to try out the new Boo string on my Y25 Relayer and a new " Tagged Out " , Sight System that Ed Humpert sent me , in an attempt to fill my fall turkey tag before time runs out ...
I was bent on teaching " Axle " some manners in the blind , so I took him along ... ( a plan I was questioning later !
)A brutal windy rainy day was stripping the leaves from the trees in my yard ...
Headed down the lane and snapped a picture of the house on the way out early this morning ..
Drove North approx 1.3 hours to my favorite turkey spot ...
A long drive back the muddy lane at the farm ...
To my blind
Which over looks a cut hay field
That the turkeys skirt to get at the overflow spilled sileage in the corn stubblefield ...
Then it poured and poured and the wind picked up .... the blind was leaking like a siv ...
I got miserable and wet , real quick ... but I did get some encouraging e-mails from misc forum members , telling me to hang in there !
When the 1st birds arrived , " Axle " started to whine ... I clamped his muzzle and gave him a firm under my breath " nooooooo ! " I was just about to line up on a jake when he jammed his head out the blind and barked like a madman , nearly knocking me off my chair !
Needless to say the birds bugged out and " Axle " and I had a " little discussion "
I was still getting , " wait em out R.J. " e-mails from friends ...
And wait em out we did !
Shortly after 11:15 am ... I was looking at my feet , watching rain run off my hooded head , when a long line of hens and young birds parade past the blind ... Axle is laying down and has his leash screwed into the ground with a stake at the LH side of the blind ... I see a bearded birds about 60 yards away and two hens peck each other about 15 yards in front as the rest of the birds filter to my left ... thats when " Axle " starts to rise up when he hears a cluck ...
I know this is it ...
I center the " Tagged Out " crosshairs on the closest hen and let fly my standard 2213 / 130 grain Wasp combo , propelled by my new " Boo string " , as " Axle " spots the rest of the group and trys to jump thru the partially open left side window of the blind pulling the stake out of the ground as he goes ...
Next thing I know I'm sitting in the downpour with no blind watching " Axle " tangled in the blind , trying to scream across the field after one of the flyers ...
I scramble to get the camera under my coat and out of the elements ...
My bird had done a crazy flap dance out of sight around the corner to the corn stubble before " Axle " could get untangled from the tore down blind ...
Here is the " walk up "
The only good thing " Axle " did was find my arrow ... I had searched for it and gave up on finding it .... as I was collecting gear that was scattered about , I noticed him licking the ground out in the field .. I pulled my arrow back out of the grass and took a quick picture .
All I could do was laugh out loud and praise him ! After all , he was having fun !
Packed up the Jeep and headed home ...
When we got home , I set up everything in the barn to dry out ... " Axle " was kinda diggin the blind as an ambush point !
He was eye ballin this Kitty ... , but the kitty's are too fast for him !
A quick gear shot showing my " Y25 Relayer " , with " Boo string " and " Tagged Out " sight system ..
Then ... on to the bird cleaning before the Kitty's get it done for me !
Congrat's to all that braved the weather today ! .... " Can't get em sitting at home " !
