Wild Turkey Feather Wreath Tutorial

By Sarah Honadel

It may still be winter, but that means spring turkey season is right around the corner. If you’re like me, you’re already starting to prep—and that includes figuring out what to do with your turkey. As a hunter, one of my goals is to use as much of my harvested animal as possible. This not only includes eating the meat, but also the antlers, hide, feathers, etc., depending on the animal.

After harvesting an Eastern Turkey during Kentucky’s spring turkey season, I wanted to find a way to make use of his beautiful wing and tail feathers. I already had a turkey tail fan mounted from the year before, so I decided to make a wreath.

The end result looks stunning, and I’ve received countless compliments on it. The best part: it was almost free, and really easy to make!

What you’ll need:

·         8” round floral foam

·         Variety of turkey wing and tail feathers

·         Masking tape

·         String/twine

·         Materials to add your own touch, such as ribbon, letters, antlers, etc.

Instructions:

Place the floral form on a flat surface and insert the longest wing and tail feathers around the middle of the form. I usually start with spacing them 2-3 inches apart, then continue going around and filling in that first layer. You should end up with about a half inch between each feather. Be careful not to insert the feathers to far, or you could break the form (like I did!).

Continue inserting feathers around the form, up the side and into the front until the wreath is full. For the feathers on the front of the form, you’ll want to insert them diagonally into the form (not straight in), so the wreath is flat. Just add feathers until it looks full and you can’t see any of the foam form. The shortest feathers should be in the front. I also like to slant mine a little to give it more of a circular look. There really is no right or wrong way.

Make sure to insert short feathers into the center to cover the form.

Once you have all of your feathers in place, you should have the basic wreath.

Because there are so many feathers in the form (and I actually broke my form), I use masking tape to cover the back to help hold it together and make it sturdier.

To finish, I added a simple burlap bow. You could use any type of ribbon to make a bow, or use something else like antlers or letters to make it match your own décor or style. Add a string or twine on the back to hang.

Now you just need to hang it! 

Tips:

·         Hang your wreath inside (rather than on the front door), such as over the mantel, to prevent fading and to prevent the feathers from getting wet from condensation that can build up between doors.

·         To dust/clean, use a slightly damp cloth and gently wipe; you don’t want the feathers to get wet.

·         Change the bow and other décor to match the season, holiday or other room décor.

·         You could also make a similar wreath with duck and/or goose feathers, although you might need to use a larger foam form since the feathers aren’t as long.

What crafts have you made with your turkey feathers or other harvests? Share photos in the comments, or share on Instagram and tag @waddysarah and @arrowridgecreations.

Late Season Blues

By Samantha Andrews

 

This year, was the year that I would take one of the big bucks we had been seeing. I saved my vacation time in order to put more time in the stand. We put more food plots in and moved stands to new locations. We used cover scents and played the wind to our advantage. We passed on the small bucks in order to grow the herd and never educated the does. Sometimes, when you do everything right, everything is against you. 

Here in Minnesota, the archery season lasts from the middle of September to the last day of December. From the moment last season ended, I had been looking forward to getting back out and sitting in a stand. The private property that we hunt is a mixture of farm crops, woods, river bottom, and swamp. 

 

The season started off all wrong. Hot, humid and the mosquitoes had never been thicker. I think even the deer were looking for lounge chairs by the pool. Okay, that might have been where my mind had been wandering while I was sweating my camo off and a bit light headed from being a quart low on my own blood supply. I couldn’t wait for the temp to drop and a hard frost to happen. With my Thermacell packed and ready to go, I still went out. I saw plenty of small bucks and does with fawns in tow but wanted to see them grow. I grew frustrated as the weeks went by without as much as seeing more than forked horn. Time for a change up! Duck hunting opened and I’m able to not think about the tall ten I have been dreaming about. I was able to switch gears and still enjoy the outdoors while filling the freezer. After a couple weeks of successful of duck hunting, I was ready to get back to archery before rifle hunting began. 

Another little snag happened shortly before the rifle opened. My husband discovered that three of our ladder stands and two trail cameras had been stolen from the property. I was heartbroken and felt as though someone came into my home and stole from me. All that time I had spent in those stands and the deer that we saw on those cameras, it was gone. After a police report was filed, my husband and I hunted elsewhere and tried to hold our heads up high. During the time, residents that surrounded the acreage that we hunted tagged out on three of the bucks that we saw on the cameras. Another kick to the gut. Although it’s better seeing a neighbor take them rather than road kill, it still hurts. It was prime time and we had nothing to show for the hours spent out in the stand.

After a Thanksgiving trip to western Minnesota, we were re-energized and ready to get back out there. Tyler wanted to get out for a quick hunt when we got back home. On the night that I decided to stay home, I get the text from him saying, “BUCK DOWN”. Finally! He took a nice eight pointer and we have meat in the freezer. 

There is something about archery hunting that I just don’t understand. When I don’t see anything after a long sit in the stand, the walk back to the truck is frustrating. I consider selling my all my equipment to take up some other crazy hobby like underwater basket weaving. As I drive away from the property, I wonder where I should sit the next day. Even though it’s a good possibility that I might be eating tag soup this season, I can’t give up. When life doesn’t go your way, you look at life and say, it all works out in the end. It’s been a cold winter so far and ice fishing has started. It will be a great way to close out archery season.

It's Hit or Miss

By Jenny Burden,

Huntress View Team Member

The Story

I’d been sitting in my tree stand for 10 hours. 17 feet above the ground, I spent from dawn until pre-dusk waiting, listening to the acorns fall, the squirrels squabble, and every few hours, the leaves rustle under the hooves of deer moving just out of my reach where I sat with my bow. 

The day before, I’d seen him. A gorgeous 8-point whitetail buck who ran right under my stand, munched some acorns, and ran off before I could put down the book I’d been reading and grab my bow. It was 3:00 in the afternoon- I was definitely surprised! I resolved to come the next day and wait, all day, to see if I got another chance. 

After many false squirrel alarms, I finally heard the crunching of the leaves and rustling of the mesquite branches. His rack popped in to my view, and I grabbed my bow, arrow already nocked, and stood. It was later in the afternoon, about 4:30, and although the sun hid behind the limbs of my giant oak tree when I sat, it glared viscously in my eyes when I took my shooting stance. The buck was only 15 yards away, but I couldn’t see him through the sunny haze. I sat back down, which relieved the trouble mostly, but not perfectly. My heart pounding, I drew my PSE Surge, took aim, steadied my breath, and as he stepped forward to grab another acorn, released…

The Shot

At least he stuck around for a photo shoot!

The shock of what happened caught me so off-guard that I literally said, out loud, “Did I really just miss??” (Full disclosure: There were a couple of swear words before that sentence.)

And I had. My arrow had sailed a good foot in front of his chest, thumping into the earth, doing no more damage than a falling acorn.

There in the grass shone my lighted nock, still quivering from the force of the impact in the dirt. The buck had scampered about 10 feet away at the noise, but remained calm, simply confused as to what made that noise. Had I had a second arrow on me, I could have taken another shot, but my 2^nd broad head had broken on the walk in when one of the fixed blades had fallen out. Instead of a redemption shot, I had to sit for 10 painful minutes as he finished his snack and meandered off in to the brush. I was then able to recover my arrow, climb back in to my stand, and see if maybe, just maybe, he’d come back. He didn’t, and at dusk, I went home with nothing but 12 fewer hours left in my life and a numb butt. 

The Aftermath

After my initial self-loathing, sadness, and anger on my mile-long march back to my car, I decided I had to take conscious steps to recover from my disappointment. That buck, which I now considered MY buck, was the one I wanted now for so many reasons, but I knew if I let myself get swept up in criticizing my mistakes, I’d be bitter the rest of the season, and it was only October! 

Missing a great deer is disappointing. It’s heartbreaking. It’s tough. But, it is not the end of the world, and doesn’t necessarily say much about us as hunters, other than we were just, frankly, off. To help myself. I decided to:

1.    Take a break and recover! I had been in the stand all day for two days, consumed by the hunt. I loved my time in the woods, and still had an awesome time, despite not tagging my deer, but I knew that if I tried again immediately and failed again, I wouldn’t retain that positive attitude. Hunting is a passion, and obsession, and a privilege. But, more than those things, it is fun, and we always have to keep that in mind so that this sport is nothing but a healthy, beneficial activity to us. So, I didn’t hunt the next day. I went surfing instead.

2.    Practice, check your equipment, and asses what failed! Before my surfing excursion, I did take my bow out at my house and check it over. Everything was tight and aligned. I went to my target and practiced a bit, wearing a hat (which I’d need next time!), and shooting both standing and sitting, all the way out to 40 yards. My groups were not perfect, but they were far from way off. Something else was up. 

40 yards, seated, with a hat on

3.    Do a little reading and research. Since my shooting was well, I thought to check other possibilities and did some reading on shooting the fixed broad heads I now only had one left of. I had no idea that fixed options had to be tuned, and if they were too loose, not balanced exactly right, etc. they can be thrown off. I had my bow paper tuned with these broad heads last season, but had since removed them, changed arrows, re-fletched the arrows, and generally made lots of changed. I had never re-tuned them. The shot I had taken was my second miss. Both I had simply figured were because of poor form, the sun, or some other excuse, but it is highly likely more was going on (although always keeping your form on point is the most important!)

4.    Fix what you can. I was going hunting the next day, and knew I needed a few things: a fresh attitude, a hat to block the sun, and more than one broad head. Since I didn’t have time to shop online, I went to Academy and stared at the options. I knew that my shooting style, time limitations, and other factors meant that selecting a highly reviewed mechanical was the way to go. I had always been hesitant because mechanical options have their own failure risks, but settled on the Rage SlipCam 2” tips, very much enticed by the free practice head that came with them. I took them home, shot the practice head, and it landed right with the field points. I was ready to go.

 

It’s Hit or Miss

One week later, on the opening day of Texas’s rifle season, I was back in my tree stand. I had attempted to take him 4 times since that day, but either I did not see him, or he did not come close enough. I passed on several good does and spikes because I didn’t want to risk taking them early in the hunt and missing a chance for him to come.

Then, after having sat in the rain that morning, I was back in the afternoon. I had been in the stand for three hours when my husband, who hunts with his rifle, texted me from his stand to say he’d seen my buck and a smaller one following a doe in my direction on the other side of the fence (my stand is along a property line.) About five minutes later, I looked over my shoulder and saw the doe, obviously agitated and trying to stay ahead of a pursuer. She had crossed to my side of the fence and was underneath me quickly. Glancing up, I saw him, nose down, following her about 30 yards back.

I stood immediately, thankful for the cloudy day. As he came closer, I drew and held. I checked my shoulder to make sure it was lowered, my eyes to ensure I was peeping through the correct one, my grip, my cant on my bow, everything. I worked down my checklist of my form mentally and ensured that I was ready. Then, as he took a step forward, broadside to me at 25 yards, I released.

I heard the thunk of the impact and saw him jump. My lighted nock danced in the air as he spun a circle, jumped the fence (yes, because of course he did!) and tore off through the woods. My arrow came out, but I followed him with my eyes as far as I could, then my ears, until I heard him crash.

Scrambling down from my stand, the pressure, anxiety and relief washed away with every rung of the ladder. I was so elated, but knew I needed to find him first. After reading horror stories of hunters losing their bucks, bad blood trails, failed broadheads, I knew there was room for error. I hopped the fence (we have permission from the landowner to retrieve game we shoot that might make it over there) and found the first splatters right where he’d landed across the fence. The trail was light, but regular, and my arrow lay another 20 yards in. I dutifully tracked every drop for about 30 minutes, until I came up cold.

My husband joined me and asked me to point in the direction I’d last seen him. I gestured up the hillside and not a minute later he says, “Oh, isn’t that him, right there?” Sure enough, I apparently married a bloodhound, as he walked right to him. He was there, he was down, and he was oh so mine! 

It was a perfect lung shot, and he ran no more than 100 yards from where I shot. After taking many photos, we loaded him up and headed home right at dark, ready to self-process my harvest and package him up for many dinners to come.

Second, third, or seventh chances don’t always come, so I’m thankful mine did. Whether it was “my” buck, another buck, or just my next deer with my bow, I know that keeping a positive mindset, returning to fundamentals, and double-checking my gear led to my success the next time. Everyone makes mistakes, everyone misses, and this probably won’t be the last time. The lesson, however, is that so long as we keep in mind the joy of hunting, the power in ourselves to make chance, and the fun of the sport, we can learn those lessons, move on, and continue to enjoy the pursuit long after the sting of a miss fades away. It’s hit or miss, but here’s to a lot more hits than misses!