# Primitive Turkey Hunt



## Flint Arrow (May 8, 2012)

Hey people check out my Gobbler taken with my Rivercane Arrow and Osage bow. I used a deer antler tine point with cross pegs of oak ...bird arrow! All made with stone tools. The arrow was made for shooting at head/neck area and did its job. The bird was hit center neck at 17 yards and broke his neck bone....he did not move one inch....to make this even more special for me its was filmed for television. We were hunting on Briar Creek in Screven county Ga. I had been trying to do this for a while and finally got lucky. I used a dried gobbler tail fan tied to a sharpened stick for a "decoy" and shot the gobbler with his head inches away from the turkey tail....he was confused about the tail fan not having a body attached. He made a great dinner for the family. This is my first time posting hope my pictures are attached....


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## dtala (May 8, 2012)

dang man, 17 yard NECK shot!!!!!!

thats some serious shooting. I killed one with a stone point neck shot year before last but it was at FOUR yards......

  troy


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## Flint Arrow (May 8, 2012)

Here are the photos! The Gobbler was also taken from a natural blind made from brush etc. I have taken alot of deer with stone tipped rivercane arrows but this turkey hunting using only natural materials and primitive bow without aid of camo clothing proved to be a very very tough thing to accomplish....i learned a few things along the way hunting with Joe Mole of the NWTF and i have great hopes that next year will be good for a primitive hunter after turkeys.


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## Nicodemus (May 8, 2012)

Congratulations on a great accomplishment! That is something to really proud of!  

I do believe we might know each other.


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## Flint Arrow (May 8, 2012)

Thanks Nick...we do know each other, i use to see you fellows at the GON show and Buckarama's ....i have been reading this forum for a long time and decided to join in and speak to the rest of the tribe.


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## fishtail (May 8, 2012)

Dang Flint, you gotta give us more pictures and details!! Decoy and all!
What'd the arrow weigh?
That's a pile of work that went into your accomplishment!
You gotta give us a link when the film is done too!


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## fishtail (May 8, 2012)

Oh, what about your draw length and the arrow dimensions?
Sorry but this just amazes me.
Very nice job!


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## Son (May 8, 2012)

Out of sight, what an accomplishment.


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## gblrklr (May 8, 2012)

That is an awesome accomplishment!  Congratulations!

What call did you use?


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## Flint Arrow (May 8, 2012)

Hey fellows i will have to resize some photos and post them tommorrow. I shoot a long cane arrow 40 inches with foreshaft...they weigh on average about 600+ grains. I love the deer tine points ... they are durable. They are work to make with stone tools but worth the effort.The cross pegs are for a marginal hit....i was very lucky and the antler tine point hit the gobbler dead center the neck. I will send some photos of my gobbler tail fan and my full body primitive decoy. I really like the fan because it is very light and easy to handle. I made a gobbler decoy from a piece of semi punky cypress for the body and covered it with a skin from a gobbler taken by my friend last year. It was glued on with deer hide glue and i craved a head out of a root that had the general shape of a gobbler head...this was done with stone tools....it came out very well and i had several gobblers come into it ...two this year at 6 yards but could not draw because of the birds looking my way. The decoy worked great but simple fan is easier to handle. Don't know when the footage will air...but i will post when i hear that it has been edited and has a time slot. It was a very exciting hunt and when i finally shot the gobbler i laid down on the ground and took it easy for a couple of minutes...i was elated and exhausted from hard hunting. Thank you fellows for the nice comments on my hunt!


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## Nicodemus (May 8, 2012)

Flint Arrow said:


> Thanks Nick...we do know each other, i use to see you fellows at the GON show and Buckarama's ....i have been reading this forum for a long time and decided to join in and speak to the rest of the tribe.




Welcome to the forum, Thad! Good to see you here. We all need to get together some and catch up on everything.


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## XIronheadX (May 8, 2012)

Quite incredible. congrats


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## Ta-ton-ka chips (May 8, 2012)

Wow. Absolutely fantastic! 
Congrats.


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## TNGIRL (May 8, 2012)

That is awesome!!! what a great hunt!!!!!


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## dpoole (May 9, 2012)

Awesome !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Bone pile (May 9, 2012)

Stone and bone very nice
Bone pile


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## Nugefan (May 9, 2012)

great job on killin' the turkey , congrats to ya ....


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## Miguel Cervantes (May 9, 2012)

That is hard core hunting right there. Congrats..


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## shakey gizzard (May 9, 2012)

Sweet!


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## TNGIRL (May 9, 2012)

Looking forward to more of your pics of your arrow and decoy. 
Please don't forget to give us the info on when and where when it shows!!!!!I want to watch for sure......COOL BEANS!!!!!!


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## chehawknapper (May 9, 2012)

Great job Thad! Keep it up!


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## longbowdave1 (May 9, 2012)

What a great story and a fine accomplishment with the primative ways! Hats off to you!


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## fishfryer (May 9, 2012)

Please add my congratulations to all the rest. That's definitely doing it the hard way!


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## Perkins (May 9, 2012)

One of the best Posts Ive ever seen. Congrats!  thats awesome


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## Killdee (May 9, 2012)

I can only say wow!! I'll be waiting on the additional pic's and showtime.


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## Flint Arrow (May 9, 2012)

*Turkey Decoy, Gobbler Fan*

Well i finally got the photos resized...the full body decoy works very well, it was made with stone tools and the body is a semi-punky cypress with a real turkey skin glued on with deer hide glue. The head was a root i found that looked somewhat like a gobbler head and i fashioned it with a stone knife and painted it with natural earth pigment. The tail is just a gobbler fan stuck in the ground behind the body. It has fooled several big Toms.
 The fan works and is very mobile ...it makes me laugh when i think about all the work i put into the full body decoy and killed the bird using only the fan. It also makes me laugh when i think about the money people spend on decoys. Also just another picture of me and my bird. Thanks for everyone's great comments ...you people are great!


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## longbowdave1 (May 9, 2012)

Awsome work on the decoy and the fan/decoy!


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## Killdee (May 9, 2012)

longbowdave1 said:


> Awsome work on the decoy and the fan/decoy!



Ditto, I dont really use or like decoys, but just using a fan like you did, I can see that coming in handy on a tough to kill Tom. I may have to throw a fan in the truck and give it a try sometime. I'm still highly impressed with your accomplishment with the all primitive gear and clothes.


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## jcinpc (May 9, 2012)

most impressive and this is no way intended to hijack y our threah. Just wanted to show you how long this has been used,lol I dug these out of a wetland Woodland site. This was a bone manufactoring area. The bone pins and socketed antler were found by turkey leg bone and other pieces. you were "dead" on with your work


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## ChoctawBow (May 9, 2012)

Love the D-bow.  Is it a bend-through-handle design?  Also interested in your string.  Is it rawhide or gut?

Thanks for sharing this awsome adventure.


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## Tailfeather (May 9, 2012)

Perkins said:


> One of the best Posts Ive ever seen. Congrats!  thats awesome


Yep....very cool.  Congrats!


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## Al33 (May 10, 2012)

Congratulations Thad on an awesome accomplishment!!!! I love the fact you go the extra mile to be truly primitive in your hunting pursuits even to the point of making and using primitive tools and materials with primitive tools and materials. Just awesome!!!!!


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## Carp (May 10, 2012)

Congratulations!


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## trad bow (May 10, 2012)

Awesome deal Thad. I hope to get one next year with my self bow and cane arrows although I didn't use all primitive tools to get there. But that will be the next step. Again Congrats on one he** of a achievment.


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## fishtail (May 10, 2012)

This is about as much an excellent thread I've seen!


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## Paymaster (May 11, 2012)

Wow! Now that is awesome. Thanks for sharing.


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## Flint Arrow (May 11, 2012)

Hello what do you think keep the bone from decay and the acidic soil from dissolving this antler point.... i am asking because i try to learn all i can about southeastern native people...it's what motives me to build and hunt with primitive archery. You see it has a deeper meaning to me because my mom's family is part of the Family Tree American Indian Q1a3a1  Q-M3+ Haplogroup Project which means they tested native thru several lines. So i try to learn all i can. I have some relatives that live not too for from the Withlacoochee in Ga....i don't know them but they matched us thru dna and they tested native also....i was amazed at how the old antler point you found looked liked the antler point i made and killed the gobbler with and that they were in association with turkey bones...amazing


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## chehawknapper (May 11, 2012)

Thad, a friend of mine, who dives for artifacts regularly, showed me an antler atlatl point he found that matched the dimensions almost exactly of one I had on one of my darts. He called me up excitedly about his find and said that he would have never even picked it up had he not seen mine first. Your antler arrow point is a style that can be found in many museums and dates back even to paleo periods - just larger in size. Great small game points but they have even been found still stuck in the bones of large animals and humans.


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## jcinpc (May 11, 2012)

the only thing preserving this bone in Florida soil is the water or in this case the swamp we dig in.
 I have found a few different site we dug that had bone preservation only because the area flooded yearly and there were a high concentration of what we call "crunchies" in the dirt, more like iron rocks. I found 2 sites likes this I gave our local archy`s. They were inland archaic midden sites. We found all the butchered bones they used and points in the fire pits that had the pot lids or fire pops on them showing the point was in the meat when cooked


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## jcinpc (May 11, 2012)

Flint Arrow said:


> Hello what do you think keep the bone from decay and the acidic soil from dissolving this antler point.... i am asking because i try to learn all i can about southeastern native people...it's what motives me to build and hunt with primitive archery. You see it has a deeper meaning to me because my mom's family is part of the Family Tree American Indian Q1a3a1  Q-M3+ Haplogroup Project which means they tested native thru several lines. So i try to learn all i can. I have some relatives that live not too for from the Withlacoochee in Ga....i don't know them but they matched us thru dna and they tested native also....i was amazed at how the old antler point you found looked liked the antler point i made and killed the gobbler with and that they were in association with turkey bones...amazing



I know, that is why I had to post my finds, you were right on the money with it and it also makes me think about things at that site. these bone artifacts are alot harder to find because of the acidic soils here.
I also had to rethink about this find. I had thought it was a broken atl atl weight and it probably still is, but what if they used antler for the same thing you did? Antler would be perfect for it but maybe wood was easier to use, didnt have to drill it


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## jcinpc (May 11, 2012)

these are what we callbonepins, but they are really fish gigs because we find these in low water areas and I wont say the rest but these are made from thecannon leg bone and quartered and sharpened on both ends. I have found antler handles other cool bone artifacts there


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## Gadget (May 11, 2012)

Wow.......Impressive for sure!


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## Flint Arrow (May 12, 2012)

This information is very cool...we went from a turkey hunt to   prehistoric bone artifacts. We used present day activities to resurrect the past. This seems like a great way to learn something forgotten. At any rate i enjoyed the information.


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## jcinpc (May 12, 2012)

you brought all this to life by doing what you did. You were thinking outside the box and it worked, goes to show you that the ancient ones were  dumb at all. They knew what they were doing( except for when the Spaniards got here)lol


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## broadhead (May 13, 2012)

I don't know what to say other than that I am in complete awe. The Screven County portion of Briar Creek  with which I am familiar is a beautiful stretch of water and swamp.  The manner and respect with which you took the turkey  and shared your story is impressive to say the least. Please post more.


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## Flint Arrow (May 13, 2012)

Hey...thanks for the good comment....i have been hunting Briar Creek for about 25 years and it is a place i feel at home...many great hunting memories. I took my first deer with a flint point and cane arrow on Briar Creek many years ago. I have roamed many miles of that creek and it really is a very special place to me......full of native history and lots of game. Nothing is better than camping with a lean to and roaming the woods during the day with primitive bow looking for a rabbit to shoot or finding a nice arrow point in the process.  When you come back to the fire for the night you would always have a story to tell or one to hear! Sometimes i wish i could back up time and do it all over again.


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## GLS (May 14, 2012)

Thad, that's quite an accomplishment, one  of many as far as your primitive skills go.  I believe you've taken at least one Pope and Young buck with your stone age weapons.  Gil


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## Flint Arrow (May 14, 2012)

Yes, back in 1997...also taken in the Briar Creek area...


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## Flint Arrow (May 14, 2012)

Here is a picture of the Pope and Young taken in October1997 with hickory bow, rivercane arrow and flint point. That was a great time...one i will never forget. That year i shot a doe on opening day "bow season" on persimmions. I shot another doe on the 3rd weekend of bow season on muscadine grapes and took the Pope and Young on the last weekend of bow season hunting a rub trail. After gun season came in i did not get another chance at a deer and i hunted hard the rest of the season. Also is the remains of the flint point and foreshaft.


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## Nicodemus (May 14, 2012)

I questioned why so many bone and antler artifacts were found in Florida, and almost never in Georgia, and was told that our clay stained water destroyed such artifacts, and tannic acid water preserved them. Makes sense to me.


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## GLS (May 19, 2012)

Thad, did you do any calling? Gil


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## Flint Arrow (May 19, 2012)

Yes, using a mouth call...Joe Mole with the NWTF...the fellow that filmed the segment makes and sells calls ...he gave me maybe 10 calls to use on the hunt. He makes a very cool custom mouth call that sounds very good. I would give you his web-site but i don't know if that is permitted here? Maybe it is o.k to send it private if you like.


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## Flint Arrow (May 20, 2012)

Here is some more bird arrows that could be used for small birds or neck/head area on a turkey. You can use your imagination and create many types from many types of materials. A simple sharpened hardwood foreshaft with cross pegs would work and is less work than a bone or flint point. These will fly proper short range 15 yards or less if you make them as balanced as possible. Also i would use a heavy arrow for stable flight and max punching power to deliver a lethal blow to your intended game. Also i would use flu-flu or semi flu-flu feathers. Semi flu-flu make less noise. They really make a big difference in controlling this type of arrow and you don't lose much speed in this short range. Primitive archery is and will always be a short range challenge and that is one thing that draws me to it. The arrow with the bone cross pegs was a little too weak and has been remade and beefed up...it flys very well. I think i could knock out a mule with the flint tipped arrow, heavy and accurate.


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## Jody Hawk (May 21, 2012)

That is definitely something to be proud of. Sometimes it's hard enough killing them with a shotgun.


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