Bohning Archery

Resource Center

Articles

SECOND BIRD

Article by: James Brennan

My second Nebraska bird was taking in a very strange way by stalking. I had been sitting in a small pass between two valleys and in a travel route for these mountain birds. I would see them on both morning and afternoon hunts but they never came close enough to my set up. For three nights the birds would do the same thing. Assemble in a huge group, establish pecking orders and fight and peck one another on their way to the roost. With my hunt coming to an end tomorrow I decided to put my HECS to the ultimate test. I would climb out of the blind and work my way around the front of the steep rock bluff where the birds were staging before flying up to their favorite roost. They use the high peak as a run way to get a good running start and pitch down to an old dead pine. The problem I had was that due to the fact of hunting in the blind that afternoon I had on my usual black top and face mask. It was too cold to strip down to a camo layer so I figured I would give it a shot anyway. 

Dressed like a black ninja cow I worked my way around one side of the bluff as the birds worked the other side. I rounded the face and instantly found close to 40 birds working the hill side. There were a number of mature Toms, several Jakes and a slough of Hens. I figured that I would just walk right at them and see if I could get close enough for an archery shot. To my total disbelief I was closing the distance on them. Several of the birds now only less than 15 yards away did not fly run or give the alarm putt. In fact these birds went about their fighting as if I was not there. In full black top walking on a light colored sand bluff I was able to close the distance on 2 mature long beards to a close distance of 9 yards. These 2 birds were walking straight up the hill at me and I came to full draw. Both birds saw me draw and just kept coming. As I settled my top pin on the closest bird, which was now at 6 yards I shot right where the beard comes out of the Merriam's. A quick flap and a few flops later and  my bird died within 15 seconds and went less than 10 yards. I could not believe that it worked. No doubt without question my HECS made this possible. While I was recovering my bird the rest of the flock walked around me and pitched into the pine for the night. HECS is the real deal.

Image 1

SEE MORE ARTICLES