So it is about mid-way through the Kansas Turkey hunting season.
The birds where a little slower this year to disperse from their bigger fall/winter groups.
They seem to be caught up now in the season to where they should be.

We started out in a spot we had scouted the weekend before. There were a few nice toms in the area.
We have had a history with the bird we were hoping to tag on this windy Kansas morning.
For three years in a row this bird has been so close to riding home with one of us in the truck but for some unforseen reason he kept illuding us.

Our first trip into this place we called him up to a fence line twice and he wouldn’t cross over. He paused on our decoys. Something about B-mobile just didn’t do it for him. But he came in right off the roost.

Our second trip, we called him in the afternoon he came down the same fence line gobbling and strutting the whole way. I was filming and Curt sat on the far fence line. While Brian was the shooter closest to me. He was only 10 feet away from me. And let me tell you my heart was pounding. This bird was huge. Anyway he came a few feet away from the decoys and again B-mobile turned him off. This is crazy cause I have never had birds leave when they saw that decoy! They may skirt it a little but usually they can’t help themselves and they have to come check it out.

Well Curt scouted him out in this same field along the same fence line again a week ago. We couldn’t get together until this weekend so we decided that today was it. That bird was going down. Well wouldn’t you know it. We didn’t even hear a tom that morning. The wind was too strong or something. But we had hens landing all around us. It should have been a prime spot.

We wanted to get after the birds. It was still really early like 8 or something. So we headed down the road to another spot. This next place is really thick on the backside and an open field on the front side. Usually there are birds in the field then they move to the back field. We figured they would be going to strut zones soon so that is where our game plan was taking us.

We spotted several birds in the open field. We quickly drove the section and got on the back side of this place. Threw our gear on and off we went. We no more than made it 3 feet from the truck and noticed a hen in the thick field. Well she saw us and headed back toward the woods. THAT WASN’T PART OF OUR PLAN!

We decided to skirt the trees and make a stalk for the birds in the field. Made one heck of a stalk. I might add! Got there and not a single bird. Then I see a hen topping the hill in front of us. We weren’t sure if it was a hen or a jake because this thing was a couple hundred yards out. But as it came closer to our calls. You could see it was a hen. I quit calling around 65 yards out and she came all the way in but veered off to our right to where the other birds were.

So we backed out and headed further down. Well we didn’t see this one but we bumped another hen. MAN!!! This time she flew toward the neighbors field. That was a relief. Cause we really didn’t want her going right back in and bumping those thunder chickens we were trying to stalk. Well we made our way up to the fence and again nothing there. There was enough curve to the fence the first time that we couldn’t see all the way down the open field. But for sure now there was nothing else in that field.

Ok there is only one place they could have gone. Back into the thick stuff we just came through. They must have been ahead of us. There was an old abandoned road that we knew was on the far side of this property. We slowly crossed the creek twice to get over to it. We also knew that this road would open up to a thick pasture where we killed a turkey two years earlier.

So we were almost to the opening of this pasture. I decided to cut on my box a little in the hopes that a gobbler would sound off. Hey it has worked in the past why not know?

So I did this and yelped a couple times and cutt again. Nothing. I was just getting ready to say let’s go a little further in and try it again. Just then Curt says turkey. Sure enough there was the red and white heads coming down the fence row.

We were in the open. So we squated down. I had a mouth call in gave some purrs and a single yelp. That is all it took. These where two jakes. And usually we let them walk and only focus on the toms. But as our time in the field gets more limited the further the season gets because of other obligations. And because these birds where playing right into us. We elected to take them as soon as they got real close. Twenty steps away for the first bird and maybe thirty for the second. We did the three count. And I fired. I noticed my bird went right down. Curt’s was still standing there, like what happened. I noticed Curt fighting with his gun. His bird jumps and with one load boom he is done. I think we both fired at the same time. That bird didn’t even twitch when it hit the ground. Our first double ever hunting together for turkeys.

The really cool thing about all of this is that these two birds came in together and obviously lived together but one was an eastern and one a rio. I have never seen that happen before.

Two birds in and two birds down. We were headed home.

Shaun
Team SnK

I left the house early in the morning with high expectations. I didn’t have a chance to scout the night before which is normally breaking my number one rule. What I did have going for me was the fact that I’ve been deer hunting this piece of land for ten years and turkey hunting for five.

I had a real good idea of where they would be. I set up well before light. I put my camera in place, which taping my own hunts has prove to be quite tricky. About the time it just starting to get light the gobbling started. I couldn’t help but get a big grin on my face. I was in the right place, but will they work with me. Every hunt I’d been on so far this year the birds were unbelievably hened up.

I decided not to call till the toms hit the ground. I had shot myself in the foot earlier in the season by calling at them on the roost. I new they had been strutting here regular this year. Finally they started flying down towards me off the roost. Now I’m pumped. All I had to do was call them to me.

I waited until the last bird was down and let out with some yelps. They started inching towards me. INCHING TOWARDS ME!!! Believe it or not the hens were making more progress than the toms. They led those toms right to my jake decoy. The next problem was trying to figure out which one I wanted to shoot. Which is a great problem to have, but can also make or break a situation. The alfalfa was about 16″ tall so trying to pick the longest beard was out and spurs impossible. I decided to pick one of them that had been strutting since he hit the ground.

I made some sharp cuts to bring his head up. I took the shot. He hits the ground and jumps right back up. I can’t believe it. I’ve never had to take more than one shot on a turkey! I had to wait till he got away from the rest of the birds. I took another shot and the game was over.

It wasn’t the biggest bird I’ve ever shot but a shooter none the less. It definitely wasn’t the best shot I ever made. He had 8 1/2″ beard and 3/4″ spurs.

JW Strobel
Team SnK