By Kendra Petska

As I started to lay out my gear for the first bow hunt of my life, I watched big, wet snowflakes fall from the dreary Nebraska sky.  “How in the world am I going to stick a gobbler in this stuff?” I thought to myself.  It had been snowing off and on for three days now and I was supposed to head out tomorrow to start my turkey hunt.  The Nebraska turkey opener was March 25th and I had exactly four days to immerse this first-time archery turkey hunter in gobbling madness.  My task: to successfully harvest a Nebraska longbeard and get a story on the desk of Michael Deming of Sportsman’s News.  I had three tags in my pocket and anticipation ran high, although the sky overhead wasn’t exactly putting my mind at ease.  Then I reminded myself that IT IS the end of March and I DO LIVE in Nebraska.  One day you are running your heater and the next you are cranking up your air conditioning.  The forecast said it was going to warm up some, so I kept my fingers crossed and tried to keep a positive attitude.

Sam Brinkman and Kendra Peska prove to be a good team.

I’ve lived in Nebraska my whole life.  I’ve always seen the spring gobblers appear out of nowhere this time of year, but I had never really hunted them besides once or twice with a shotgun.  So, I decided this year I would hunt those goofy birds with the Mathews Passion I had gotten this past Christmas.  You might be wondering why I would make such a seemingly random decision.   Here’s where my boyfriend comes into play.  Meet Sam Brinkman, Nebraska native and a mule deer fanatic who has hunted mule deer with Wes Atkinson of Atkinson Expeditions.  Sam and Wes have created a guided turkey hunting operation on Sam’s family ranch of 25,000 acres in north central Nebraska.  Excited to spread the word about the incredible turkey hunting on this beautiful piece of property, Wes asked me to try my luck at chasing turkeys with a bow.  So, I twisted Sam’s arm to be my own personal turkey guide and we headed out.

Nebraska is a game rich environment as you can see by this photo. Hunters are allowed to harvest three birds for the season.

As Sam and I loaded the pickup that first morning, the rain began to fall.  Not only did this cold, wet nasty weather concern me, but the washed out culvert I had to cross was beginning to make me second guess my athletic ability.  The night before we had roosted some birds and decided to set up the ground blind where we thought we had a good chance at them.  In order to get there, we would have to cross the flowing creek that had a washed culvert on both sides.  As we walked towards the hazard that morning, headlamps shining, I mentally prepared myself as to how I was going to get across this thing without taking a dip.  Sam jumped across the one side of flowing water, landed on the culvert and looked at me.  So, I took it back to high school volleyball – I took a few steps and stretched out my 5’4” frame and landed beside him, steadying my balance with my bow and his arm.  We jumped across the other side of flowing water and headed toward the blind, only to have the birds come out of the roost, look at our decoy and slowly wander off, the gobblers staying at a distance the whole time.  Set one, no winners. But, I didn’t go for a swim.  So, I considered it a wash.

Kendra takes aim at a big gobbler on her first ever spot and stalk archery turkey hunt.

Later that day the rain finally quit and the sun began slowly peeking out of the clouds.  I felt as though I might sunburn, since this is the first we’d seen the sun in a week or so.  We regrouped and headed out to scout some more birds that afternoon.  The sun felt great and gave us a better feeling on how this hunt was going to go.  Turkeys must feel the same way about that big, yellow thing because we ran into a group of jakes and toms.  So, we made a set to the west of them beside a tree grove.  We began calling and not five minutes later I could see two bright red heads sticking through the tall grass about 70 yards from the blind. Now, I once had a guy tell me that hunting turkeys is like hunting dinosaurs.  I looked at him like he was crazy at the time, but I did see the resemblance as those two birds slowly made their way toward our decoys, talking back to us the entire time.  It felt like those birds were on a string.  They made their way in from my left to right and just as the first bird went to face our decoy, I let the arrow fly.  He jumped up, did a back flip, cartwheel and started to run to the trees beside us.  The shot felt good and we decided to look at the video before we went to find the bird.  As we made our way through the trees I spotted him and let out a little victory scream, “I got him!”  It was a good feeling to get my first bow kill.  We loaded him up and went off to take some pictures.

Kendra displays two great Nebraska long beards taken with spot and stalk archery tactics.

We began day two driving to a set with the pickup thermometer reading 37.  After trying a few spots with the ground blind, we decided to switch it up a little.  That was where my Prois camo, cedar tree branches and stalking came into the game.  We set up in front of a group of birds working their way down a tree line that afternoon.  I tucked in behind a cedar tree branch and Sam did the same behind me.  After calling a few times we got the gobbler to answer and he sounded close.  Within two or three minutes I spotted him, all fanned out and trying to impress.  He made his way closer to us, but yet kept his distance from the decoy.  Ten more yards and I felt good about my shot.  He started to move in and turned to the right; I drew my bow and waited for him to turn one more time.  He did and I let it fly.  He took the arrow like nothing happened and just moved back towards the trees a bit.  I nocked another arrow and shot again, but missed high!  All this adrenaline over a bird!  But it felt good.  I felt like I was living.  If you had told me a few years ago I would get this amped up over a turkey, I would’ve laughed at you.  But, there I was watching this bird run back through the trees and my heart was racing.  Sam and I looked at each other and I felt disappointed; I just wasn’t sure if I had made a good enough shot.  So we got up, started through the trees and there he lay.  Wow, was I happy to see that pretty bird just lying out there in front of me.  But the best part was we stalked and called in a turkey!  The anticipation of him coming in, paired with trying to stay hidden and draw my bow was amazing and it felt awesome to get it done.

Day three.  The morning started off a little warmer and with the sun shining we set out for a new piece of ground that Wes had lined up for me.  Right off the bat we ran into a good sized group of birds and decided to set up the Double Bull to the north and call them through the trees.  After sitting there for a while we changed our minds.  “Let’s put on our camo and get in front of them,” Sam said, with a smirk on his face.  I looked at him and agreed.  We hustled to tear down the blind and ran back to the pickup to change out of our black.  We made our way across the field and into the first range of hills to the east of where we thought the birds might be and I found the perfect cedar tree branch to get behind.  We set the decoys up and waited.  We called a few times and heard a hen right away, so we knew we were in the money.  After only a couple minutes of calling, I saw the top of a bright red head.  Then another and all of the sudden here came six birds.  No huge gobblers, but I was in such a great spot and the situation was unfolding just how we wanted, so I decided I would take the shot.  As the birds moved toward the decoy I pulled back my Passion and picked out a spot on the closest bird.  It was about a 20 yard shot so I took a second, settled my pin and set my arrow free.  I watched that bright green and yellow fletching fly right where I was staring a hole into that bird.  He jumped up and I knew it was a good hit.  He ran over the hill with the rest of the birds and I looked at Sam behind me holding the video camera, laughing.  We had gotten another bird on a stalk!  Just then I noticed the group of birds I had just shot into crest the hill in front of us.  I counted, one, two, three, four, five.  There were six birds when I shot, so my bird had to be down right over the knob!  After re-living the moment, we got up and started walking towards the spot where they crossed through the trees.  There he was, just 50 yards from where I had shot him.  We laughed and high-fived as we walked up to the final chapter in my hunt.

As I look back on this hunt I try and recall what kind of expectations I had.  And as funny as it sounds, I guess I didn’t really have any diehard plan, except to have fun and do something I had never done before.  I learned that you have to improvise, have some patience, take a few breaths and just have a good time.  Because ultimately, isn’t that why we all hunt?  To have fun?  The big trophy animals are out of this world and holding a huge set of antlers in your hands can rarely be put into words, but at the end of it all, you will always have the experience.  I am really glad I did this and took the time to push myself to try something out of my normal hunting element.  What made it easier was the opportunity for me to get on birds.  And a lot of them.  Even though it was early season and a little on the chilly side, we were able to get into birds and it will only get better as the season goes on and those big gobblers start searching for the ladies a little bit harder. But, I can say after these last few days of snow, rain and eventual sunshine that I did in fact thoroughly enjoy my cold turkey.