Melissa Bachman is an avid turkey hunter who travels to several states each spring in pursuit of gobblers. We recently highlighted one of her 2020 turkey hunts on this site when she arrowed a jake decoy after killing a mature tom. Click here to see that exciting video.

In early May 2020, Melissa and her husband, Ben, set up their pop-up blind on a green field edge with hopes their DSD turkey decoys would lure a mature tom into bow range. As you’ll see in the video, Ben is running the camera and calling, while Melissa is focusing on shooting. After Melissa is successful, the two swap chairs and Ben takes Melissa’s bow. 

You might be wondering: How can Ben, who is much taller than Melissa, shoot the same compound bow?

“At home we shoot our bows in the yard all the time,” Melissa said, “and Ben will shoot my bow just in case a situation like this ever happens. My draw length is 25.5 inches and his is much longer at 29-inches. When we went out hunting that evening, we didn’t plan on it working out to get two birds, although we each had several tags. Once I shot my bird, we immediately saw another strutter out in the field and quickly decided to switch roles. I ran the camera and Ben took my bow. He’s a good shot with my bow out to 30 yards. Fortunately, Ben’s turkey came inside 20 yards, and he made a perfect shot and dropped it right in front of the decoy. In order for Ben to use the peep on my bow, he has to anchor differently, but obviously he has it figured out!”

As for gear, Melissa said, “We were shooting my Mathews AVAIL, which is set at 64 pounds with the 25.5-inch draw. Also shown in the video are my HHA Sports bowsight, Easton AXIS arrows with Nockturnal lighted nocks, and Rage Turkey Xtreme broadheads.”