On Saturday May 2nd I had the privilege of harvesting a beautiful Eastern Turkey. I was hunting with a good friend of mine Eric Roth when we started our quest at 10 am. It was a tough day. Several times we would see some “Toms” out strutting in fields but we couldn’t get them to respond except for a group of “Jakes” 5 to be exact, got within 10 yards of us. We were getting ready to quit for the day and we happen to see a “Tom” strutting in a corn field around 3:40pm. We stopped and snuck into the field. Belly crawling for about 30 yards,we then got into position to shoot. The bird was about 100+ yards out and Eric then began to call hard core. The bird never broke strut until he was in front of us about 25ft. when I shot at 4:40 pm. He had a 9 1/2 inch beard, 1 inch spurs, and weighed 27 lbs. WOW, what a wonderful hunt.
-Curt, Team SnK.

A hard days work

Well the weather has been tough and the birds have shut down. They are still doing there thing. But I think the wind is putting the hush on the gobbling. Either that or we just can’t hear it. The team has been out several times together and seperate and nothing. We have had some hens and jakes come by us but that is all. Hope to update you soon.

I will be adding video shortly. I went out with the other members of Team SnK and we had a bird come in right off the roost. Anyway he got shot but didn’t want to quit. We never found him. But it was pretty cool to get most of that on video. Later in the day we had another bird come in and came right to me. But he saw mobile and decided he would find his own hen. So he turned and walked away strutting. Really sucks cause it might have been the same bird that did that to us at the exact same spot twice last year. But he wasn’t spooked so we might have a chance at him.

I finally stuck my first turkey with a bow. My first bow kill ever. How cool is that.

First bow kill

Here is the story: I went in on the first day of the bow season. And had two toms working toward my location. There were around 50 yards away when I noticed a guy and a kid walking across the open field. It was also opening youth season. Needless to say the toms didn’t stick around. So I packed up and moved to the other end of the property I was on. I no more than sat up for 10 minutes and heard steps coming in from behind me. I slowly unzipped the window a little to see. There were two toms coming in quite but giving B-mobile the evil walk. They came to within 10 yards of my blind and stayed there for 45 minutes. Just behind a tree looking at my decs. I could see one was a good tom and one was a jake. I wasn’t sure which one would show it self first but I made up my mind since I have never shot one with a bow I was going to make it happen with the first shot that presented itself. Finally they decided to rush in to the decs. I drew back and fired sending the jake (the first one to show his vitals) flipping in the air. He went 5 feet and looked like he was going down. I decided I would try and shoot the tom next. I drew back and noticed the jake had got up and started running past me. So I shot again but missed. I thought I put a good hit on him the first time. But was dumb founded when he got up and started to run. I have seen them do this before on video. Anyway the missed shot didn’t deter the tom he wanted a piece of mobile. Unfortunately where I had placed the decs and my blind position there was too much brush for a shot with the magnus bullhead. I watched the two turkeys walk up the hill and vanish over the ridge line. I sat and called for another 30 minutes and decided to take everything down and see if I could find my bird. As I was headed in the direction then went. Two birds walked over the ridge. It looked like the two that I had shot. So I drew and let another arrow fly. 30 yards the jake went down. Again it took off. It turns out these were two more jakes coming in to check things out. I never found that bird. But about 20 more yards lay my first turkey with a bow. I searched for the other one for an hour. But since I was in the wide open when he saw me and he ran after he was shot. He probably went further than I was looking. So the first day my season could have been over. And should have been over. Here is the shot there wasn’t much of a blood trail because of the feathers. But he was piled up 70 yards away from where I shot him.

Looks the same through the other side

Curt and I went out this morning in hopes of getting me a second bird. We sat up early and had a good 20 minutes to sit in silence and darkness before we had our first customer. We heard some turkeys off in the distance and hoped we would have one come in. Curt spotted what looked to be a hen early like 6:20 a.m. She came all the way into our set up and just hung out with the decoys. She was pretty cautious but relaxed and fed around us for about an hour. She wouldn’t talk very much. An occassional yelp but mainly clucks. When she started to leave the first time I thought here is my chance to get one of those toms to come our way. So I started calling and wouldn’t you know it she came right back. We played around with her three different times before finally letting her walk all the way off. A couple times I thought she was going to be right on Curt’s lap. She got within about 5 steps.

About 7:15 Curt saw what he thought was a coyote out on the far hill side. I looked in the binoculars and saw that it was. That hen was walking straight to him. She must have seen him though she flew up in a tree and stayed there for a while before he finally left. She was heading for the birds we had heard earlier that morning.

We decided to move because the birds were really talkative but not coming our way. With a hen on her way to them our job was getting harder by the second. We slipped down the edge of the open field and crossed the creek and back up the other side. By this time the turkey’s response was getting less and less to our calls. I figured it was that slow time in the morning when the breeding goes on. We settled into big blown down evergreen and called a little. We noticed that there where two birds on the far hill. Every time Curt called the birds puffed up. They looked like they really wanted to come over and just like that they got quite and went into the trees away from us.

About that time Curt noticed something move off to the left. It was a coyote. About 15 foot from us coming in. I had my gun resting on the tree so I raised it up and found an opening that was probably two foot infront of us. The coyote came straight in and at 5 yards he felt my 3 inch turkey load across his head. He never twiched. About that time another coyote went running off it was a small dog and was down the hillside. So we never saw it coming. We did see another coyote going toward the two turkeys we saw going into the trees.

We tried several more set ups but the wind really picked up and had gust of 28 miles per hour. And with all that coyote activity. We decided to call it quits for the day.

What a hunt though. The coyote was a male approximately 30-35lbs. With a really nice coat for late April early May. Check him out. Picture might be a little rough it is from my cell.

Went out today on April 8. Got into a bunch of birds. I actually got two shots at toms with my bow but it was a little tricky I didn’t have much cover because the birds where up in the hills. So I spot and stalked them using the terrain as my cover. I thought I had the first one I was on the hill side above where he came out and I under estimated the distance. I shot and it went low. He jumped and landed about two feet away and took off running. Then the rest of the group came out. So I knocked another arrow. This time another tom was in my sites he was farther out. So I used my last pin and sent the arrow flying. This one went an inch over his back the turkeys’ just stood there. Finally they decided to move off. I went down to gather my arrows. I only found one. But it was pretty cool to get on the birds earlier than most people do.

Well Curt and I got together this weekend and were gonna try to finish off our Turkey season. He had a field scouted out and these birds have never been hunted. We entered the field and it was getting light on us. So we hustled to where he had seen the birds a week or two prior to us being there. I was sitting up the decoys and he was finding a spot to sit and wait. About that time an owl called out and there where turkeys gobbling everywhere. A few sounded like they were right on top of us. Got the decs sat up and grabbed a spot to sit. I started calling shortly after and birds where talking everywhere. We had one gobble right behind us probably 100 yards or so.

He came up behind us and I could actually feel the vibration of him drumming. He was that close and after a few times he just left. I couldn’t figure it out. Our decoys where right there. Maybe he was a subordinate gobbler? Who knows. I do know that there was a fence between the field he was in and the one we were sitting on. But I have never had a bird hang up before. You always hear about it but I had never experienced it. We could still hear the other birds and decided to sit there for a while and call. Another gobbler or maybe it was the same one came up behind us again and did the same thing. I had my bow in hand and was ready for him to come blasting past me and straight to the decoys. But he quit again. I looked over my shoulder only to see a gobbler standing at attention 5 feet away from me. He was looking at our decoys but didn’t want to come through the fence. He headed away from us and crossed the fence 40 yards down. Looking back on it now I should have drawn when he went out of sight and I would have got a shot at him. But I didn’t. Anyway he went on the far side of Curt and came out into our field. He was way out there. Never would come in close.

When then proceeded to go after the other birds. We got within about 50 yards of them but they were henned up big time. Every time we got close the hens took them away. Since we didn’t spook them we figured we would be back later that day and get on them.

We went to another spot around 10:00. Neither of us had been to this place before. So we headed in and just tried to locate one and feel him out. Of course everytime we called the wind picked up. We headed down to the creek to get out of the wind. We called out and had one call to us faintly. So we tried again and again and no answer and then he gobbled what sounded to be closer. I had Curt sit close to the creek edge thinking he would have a shot at this tom when he came in. I walked behind his position and yelped trying to sound like a hen leaving. He never regularly answered me but he was responding. So we kept calling. I swore we had him on a string out at about 200 yards. But then his gobbles started to fade. I headed back to Curt to see what he wanted to do.

We decided to move closer on the gobblers position. We found a nice opening amongst the hedge tress in this field. We yelped to see if we could get his attention. He cut us off. That usually is a good sign. Then we yelped some more and nothing I couldn’t figure it out. I tried again and he was coming. You could tell it in his gobble that he was on his way. During this part of the calling we could hear what sounded like hens and maybe another gobbler sound off. We had a little time so I sat the decoys up and got into position. Calling to him every so often to keep his excitement up. He gobbled every so often but nothing steady. I was beginning to wonder if he was hung up or something. Then I saw him. His white head and then his tail. I signaled to Curt and soon he saw him too. It seemed like it took him for ever to come all the way up. He would walk two steps and then fan out. We were getting a great show. He fanned out all the way up to the 25 yard mark. Which was 5 feet infront of our hen decoy. I wasn’t sure if Curt could hear me or not. He was up the hill a little from me and I was down right infront of the creek. I could see everything happening but had some junk in my way to make the shot. I told Curt to take him or I was going to. He thought I was going to make a noise to get the bird to break strut and stick his head up. Normally I would but for some reason didn’t this time. Just then the bird stuck his head up and down he went. What an awesome hunt. Curt with his second bird and me seeing all that action unfold. That is what spring turkey hunting is all about.

The measurements:
beard – 10.25 inches.
spurs – 1.25 inches.
weight – 23 lbs.
Pure Eastern

It took an 1 hour and 15 minutes to call this bird in. But it was worth every second.

My first bird came in fast. I had tried to hunt a group of birds in the archery season. Got close and got some shots on them but didn’t connect. So I figured I would give the gun a whirl and get one down. It was the Sun. of opening weekend. It was cold and blowing snow. I believe the temp. was 28 degrees. Burr. I felt like I was deer hunting instead. Between the wind howling and the snow coming down. I heard several birds gobble that morning. Some sounded off about 200 yards away on the neighbors land. Didn’t have permission there. So I was sitting right on the fence line in hopes to have them come down it like they did last year.

By 8:00 it sounded like the birds were moving off. So I decided to see if I could move up the hill and see if I could see or hear the birds and maybe get one to respond. About half way up I decided to yelp and see if anything answered. Sure enough from behind me one sounded out real close. He slipped in silent and came in behind me. I hustled down and grabbed my decoys. I had b-mobile and a hen sat out. Never got to use b-mobile last year. So he was out for his trial run. I gathered my things and headed toward the gobbler. I sat mobile up and had the hen in my hand ready to place her a few feet infront of mobile. I didn’t know if the gobbler was coming or if he was just close. So I yelped one time to see if he would sound off. Sure enough he was headed straight for me.

I didn’t have time to set the hen up. As I stood up I saw the top of his fan coming toward the hill 60 yards in front of me. I threw the hen aside, grabbed my gun and belly crawled down the hill backwards. Keep the bird infront of me. I only got 15 yards from mobile when the bird topped the hill. He was fully fanned. Looking straight at mobile. He never broke strut. He wasn’t rushing in but he was looking at the decoy the whole time. He started heading off to the right of the decoy. As he moved I moved my gun to keep up with him. Laying completely flat I shot from the prone position. He was 42 yards and toppled over. What a show for mobile the first time out. What a great bird. He was taken at 8:19 a.m.

I got up close to see him and discovered he had two beards. Nice 1.25+inch spurs. Later when I weighed him he tipped the scales around 26.8lbs. He was a eastern hybrid. My third multibearded bird in three years. Kansas season is underway. The birds are responsive. I can’t wait to get after another bird.

I have to give congrats to my brother-in-law Curt. He got his first Tom on opening weekend. Called it in by himself and everything. Here are his details:

He was shot at 7:30 am on Saturday April 12. Tom had a 9 3/4 beard, 1 3/8 spurs and weighed 21lbs and 11oz.

With the hunting season coming up fast. I think I have all my stands in place and mock scrapes made. I will keep you posted.

I finally decided to go ahead and get a faster bow.