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Matthew and Mike Ludwig have been
hunting and being mentored by their father for a few years.
The brothers have taken advantage
of the special youth hunts the DNR offers for bucks, ducks and
turkey, taking a few of each. This year, however, the Ludwig
boys were on a mission that started more than a year ago when
they decided they wanted to take down a turkey with a bow and
arrow.
Most people several years their
senior have a hard time doing so with No. 5 heavy shot, so the
Ludwig boys are ambitious.
"This last bow season I
harvested two deer," said Mike, 15. "But I missed on a
fall turkey so I wanted to redeem myself. During the offseason,
my dad - Muskego assistant fire chief John Ludwig - brother and
I joined an archery club and shot every week there and at home.
My confidence was growing every day and I felt good about
hitting a turkey's vitals out to about 50 yards."
So Dad, the brothers and Mike's
friend, Jared Kurth, 18, went to bed early knowing that the 3
a.m. wake-up call would come soon.
"The weather consisted of
rain, snow and a bit of wind," Mike said. "Jared and I
were hunting one field and Dad and Matthew another. Jared and I
set the decoys and readied the blind and I knocked an
arrow."
At about 6:30 a.m., Jared spotted
a tom across the field and Mike started to "converse"
with him.
"Eventually he slipped
away," Mike said. "But 30 minutes later he came back
and started strutting and gobbling. He gobbled about 10 times
and it was the first time I had ever seen that while in the
field."
After a round of taunting from
Mike's call, the big tom wobbled his way to within 23 yards but
was facing right at their blind and would have seen him draw the
bow.
"Jared was filming him the
whole time," Mike said. "Finally the bird began to
walk away and I drew my bow. I made a 30-yard shot and the bird
fell, and it was all on film. He weighed 25.5 pounds and had a
10-inch beard."
A few hundred yards away, Dad and
Matthew, 12, were hunkered down in their own blind, with a huge
gobbler showing off to some hens.
"We had some big tom walk
within 20 yards of us," Matthew said. "But some
burdock plants were in our way. Dad kept asking me if I wanted
to use my gun instead, but I was determined to use my bow."
Because of a Confirmation test
that day, Matthew had to leave until early afternoon, but the
action didn't slow after the morning rush.
"At about 3:30 p.m. we were
again settled in our blind," Matthew said. "Not even
10 minutes and I spotted another big tom with the reddest head I
had ever seen and he was headed right for us."
The tom got to within 10 yards of
the blind but then was spooked and started to run off. Matthew,
already at full draw, released an arrow but missed."
About 15 minutes later a bearded
hen got within about 3 yards of the two hunters and the game was
back on.
"I decided to shoot it and
at about 10 yards I shot again," he said. "I just
ended up clipping the wing so that was whiff No. 2."
Still, maybe because he was
freshly confirmed, the action kept coming. Three jakes began a
parade of about another 15 turkeys about 30 yards away.
"At about 20 yards I drew
but wasn't sure which one to shoot," Matthew said. "So
I aimed at the jake in the middle. I missed again, this time too
low. The birds still didn't run away and were out about 40
yards. I had one arrow left and decided to shoot. The problem
was that I thought they were about 30 yards out, not 40, so I
missed again low."
With no arrows left, Dad handed
Matthew some 12-gauge insurance and that ruined the day of a
two-bearded jake.
"Even after the
whiffs," Matthew said. "this was one of the best
turkey hunts I have ever been on because there was so much
action."
(Dan Durbin writes a weekly
outdoors column for The Freeman. Call Durbin at 644-7940, or
e-mail him at ddurbin@bastdurbin.com
if you have a story idea.)
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