The Hunting Public (THP) is known for producing interesting and informative content for hunters pursuing whitetails and turkeys, and they also cover DIY trips for pronghorn, elk and mule deer. The vast majority of their adventures take place on public land, but the hosts will visit private land occasionally.
In the YouTube video below, THP contributor Ted Miller, an Iowa resident with access to crazy-good private land for whitetails and wild turkeys, uses trail cams to capture the reverse camera angle during a recent turkey hunt. As you’ll see, he’s eventually successful killing a gobbler, but not before two “swing and a miss” attempts.
A couple takeaways after watching the 10-minute video:
When a turkey is head-on, and this is especially true on a strutting tom, your arrow must hit above the beard to penetrate the heart/lung area. In the video, Ted’s arrow hits nothing but feathers. His arrow needed to enter the turkey at the base of the neck. Click here to see an outstanding photo essay from Mathews Archery showing where archers should aim on wild turkeys when the birds are in a variety of positions.
While bowhunting, Ted has his decoys set up at no more than 10 yards, which is perfect in my opinion. However, many bowhunters don’t realize that when shooting at ultra-close range (5-10 yards), there’s a good chance you should NOT be using your top pin. Click here for an article I wrote that explains the reason in detail. I don’t know which pin Ted was using (he doesn’t explain his bowsight setup), but if I had to guess, I’d say Ted used his 20-yard pin, when he would have been better to use his 30-yard pin, even though the shot distance was about 7 yards. I understand this sounds counterintuitive; again, read the article.
As a shotgun hunter, if you place decoys at 17-20 yards, and will pull the trigger only if birds are interacting with your decoys, then it makes little sense to use a full choke. Your pellet pattern is needlessly small at this range with a full choke, making a miss much more likely. As happens in the video, when multiple toms arrive, it’s common to have them moving constantly, making a killing shot to the head/neck of a single bird very difficult. A modified choke would probably be the best choice for 20-yard shots, but test your patterns before the hunt to make sure. Of course, making this bird encounter more complicated for Ted is the fact he doesn’t want to shoot one of his trail cams.
Enjoy the unique reverse camera footage. The video is one of the best of wild turkeys beating up a decoy that I’ve ever seen. Congrats, Ted!
