jkratz5
Well-Known Member
This marks the 5th straight year that we have made a trip out to chase Rios in Central Kansas. Myself, my brother Steve, Jmoose (Moose), his brother Joel and my buddy from Indiana, Kyle arrived in Kansas late Weds. to a blustery 30 degree temp and 40mph winds. Central KS had received about 1/2" of ice overnight so needless to say it wasn't the best turkey weather. However, I had a little honey hole all scouted out from the year before and with aerials so we decided to scout upon arrival and were happy to see 60+ birds working a wheat field on this farm. We all quickly decided that the weather wouldn't keep us from giving these birds a shot and made our way into position on the birds through a deep creek that cuts through the property. As we popped up out of the creek I noticed a bunch of hens starting to crest the hill just 30 yds out so we quickly set up. For the next 15 minutes a string of 40 hens worked their way by us between 15-30yds, without a single long beard to be seen. Finally, a red head pops over the hill, followed by several more, unfortunately all jakes. After the 10th jake the first long beard appeared, a bit farther out from the rest of the birds so I made a few soft purrs and two of the long beards made their way toward us to investigate. I gave it the ol, 1, 2, 3........and the firing squad sent five 3 1/2"ers flying. First two birds DOWN!!!
Day 2:
The next morning we awoke to sun, no rain but some fairly cool temps and high winds (wind chill around 11 degrees). Kyle and I headed to the same honey hole from the night before and jmoose and his brother headed to another one of our favorite KS spots. We were suprised by an early gobble less than 50yds away as we were walking in and didn't want to move any farther so got setup. The morning sunrise soon awoke 10 more gobblers and they sounded off like thunder for the next 45 minutes. At fly down, the birds unfortunately flocked up and headed a different direction. Kyle and I made a mid morning move and spotted several long beards working an open pasture. We moved within 150yds of the birds and setup. A few soft purrs later broke the boss tom from the others and he worked to 30yds putting on the strut show. After a few minutes of admiring I dropped the hammer on his pumpkin and #3 was down.
Shortly after we called in another nice bird, not much to this one just a setup and a silent Tom coming to investigate. I ended up letting the Xtrema II bark around 11:00, 4 birds down and I was tagged out.
Meanwhile the moose brothers had seen a pair of nice toms working a pasture on a nearby property and setup on them. Within 15 mintues of there setup I got a text that said "Double Down". They ended up calling both birds into the dekes and stoned both longbeards. 6 birds down in about 6 hours of hunting, we were well on our way to a quick limit.
Day 3:
The morning started off much slower. In fact no birds were taken until about 12:00 that day. We had decided to meet up for lunch and on the way we spotted a couple toms working one of our newer farms. Looked like it could be an easy run and gun so we decided to give it a shot. My brother, Kyle and I headed toward the birds thru a small creek and got to where we thought was within 200yds. The first time I hit the slate I got a thunderous response back from both birds. A little more coaxing and we had a beatuiful Rio standing at 15yds. He let out one last gobble at 15yds and my brother provided the head mash. Bird 7, down!!!
That evening, the three of us headed back to one of our honey hole walk-in areas. We have absolutely pounded the birds off this ground in the last 3 years and we love to hunt that spot in the evening. We settled in about 6:00 in a nice open pasture between some timber and CRP. After an hour and a half of BSin, laughing and an occassional yelp 4 hens appeared on top of the CRP ridge about 100yds in front of us. They immediately started yapping and trying to pic a fight with my Brothers ugly foam hen decoys
, and a few seconds later the ol strutter made his way over the ridge. Couldn't have wrote the script any better as all five birds worked slowly toward the dekes, with the the tom bringin up the rear spitting and drumming. We tried to let the tom come and beat up on the Avian Jake but he was more interested in the ol hag hen. Finally, we had enough and I gave him a couple loud cuts to bring him out of strut. He let out about half a gobble and Kyle let the Benelli eat. 8 down!!!
Bird 9 was another cool hunt. We were all a bit wore out so we decided to take it easy Saturday morning. Come late afternoon we were back at it but decided we were going to hunt 4 guys together. As we were walking back on a piece of ground that Moose and I had discovered the previous year, I looked up to see 4 strutters in some cut milo. We were able to duck down and get the dekes setup without disturbing any of them. After some love notes and a short wait we were greeted with a series of gobbles as one of the gobblers broke of and headed down the fenceline in the milo field. He appeared at about 60yds, once again putting on the show. However, he decided he didn't want to duck the fence and got hung up strutting up and down it trying to pull our hen from our Avian Jake. Finally, Moose had enough and folded him on the other side of the fence. 9 DOWN!!!
The final hunt of the trip was by far my favorite. Kyle, Joel and I headed to the spot where we had taken birds on night #1 and again as we appoached spotted 3 toms and about 20 hens working the winter wheat. We had been wanting to try "The FAN" trick the whole trip and decided it was now or never. Kyle and I snuck down a fenceline with the fan in front of us and began closing in on the birds. We got to 100yds without anything being to concerned. However, by this time it was getting hard to cover up two guys with one fan so I decided to sit back and watch the show as Kyle continued toward the birds. He closed to about 50 yds of a few of the hens and about 75 of a gobbler when all of the sudden the boss Tom decided he had enough. He went into full strut, turned right toward the fan and started making his way right at Kyle. At about 50yds I think he realized something was up (not for sure but he came out of strut). This is when Kyle decided to bring the gun up, drop the fan and then drop the hammer. BOOM!!!! Not even a flop and a number 10 took a dirt knap. I jumped up and ran over to Kyle, we were sceaming and laughing at what had just happened as we never thought the fan trick would work.
Once again we had tagged out in Kansas. We definitely made some great memories, a few more KS friends, and even learned a few things along the way (like my brother is a freakin animal as he fell on a cattle grate the first day and broke his knee cap, but continued to hunt the entire time, sorry about the knee bro but glad you are tougher than me and could smack some birds still) Can't Wait til Next Year Fellas :way:
A couple of Kansas landscape photos. Doesn't look like much is out there until you get into some of the bluff country, absolutely beautiful area.
Me packing out one of my KS Rios
Steve and Kyle at the Walk-In Honey Hole
Steve with an awesome bird with the ol hag and the Avian X
The Crew and 10 Toms
One more Hero Shot!!!
Day 2:
The next morning we awoke to sun, no rain but some fairly cool temps and high winds (wind chill around 11 degrees). Kyle and I headed to the same honey hole from the night before and jmoose and his brother headed to another one of our favorite KS spots. We were suprised by an early gobble less than 50yds away as we were walking in and didn't want to move any farther so got setup. The morning sunrise soon awoke 10 more gobblers and they sounded off like thunder for the next 45 minutes. At fly down, the birds unfortunately flocked up and headed a different direction. Kyle and I made a mid morning move and spotted several long beards working an open pasture. We moved within 150yds of the birds and setup. A few soft purrs later broke the boss tom from the others and he worked to 30yds putting on the strut show. After a few minutes of admiring I dropped the hammer on his pumpkin and #3 was down.
Shortly after we called in another nice bird, not much to this one just a setup and a silent Tom coming to investigate. I ended up letting the Xtrema II bark around 11:00, 4 birds down and I was tagged out.
Meanwhile the moose brothers had seen a pair of nice toms working a pasture on a nearby property and setup on them. Within 15 mintues of there setup I got a text that said "Double Down". They ended up calling both birds into the dekes and stoned both longbeards. 6 birds down in about 6 hours of hunting, we were well on our way to a quick limit.
Day 3:
The morning started off much slower. In fact no birds were taken until about 12:00 that day. We had decided to meet up for lunch and on the way we spotted a couple toms working one of our newer farms. Looked like it could be an easy run and gun so we decided to give it a shot. My brother, Kyle and I headed toward the birds thru a small creek and got to where we thought was within 200yds. The first time I hit the slate I got a thunderous response back from both birds. A little more coaxing and we had a beatuiful Rio standing at 15yds. He let out one last gobble at 15yds and my brother provided the head mash. Bird 7, down!!!
That evening, the three of us headed back to one of our honey hole walk-in areas. We have absolutely pounded the birds off this ground in the last 3 years and we love to hunt that spot in the evening. We settled in about 6:00 in a nice open pasture between some timber and CRP. After an hour and a half of BSin, laughing and an occassional yelp 4 hens appeared on top of the CRP ridge about 100yds in front of us. They immediately started yapping and trying to pic a fight with my Brothers ugly foam hen decoys
, and a few seconds later the ol strutter made his way over the ridge. Couldn't have wrote the script any better as all five birds worked slowly toward the dekes, with the the tom bringin up the rear spitting and drumming. We tried to let the tom come and beat up on the Avian Jake but he was more interested in the ol hag hen. Finally, we had enough and I gave him a couple loud cuts to bring him out of strut. He let out about half a gobble and Kyle let the Benelli eat. 8 down!!!Bird 9 was another cool hunt. We were all a bit wore out so we decided to take it easy Saturday morning. Come late afternoon we were back at it but decided we were going to hunt 4 guys together. As we were walking back on a piece of ground that Moose and I had discovered the previous year, I looked up to see 4 strutters in some cut milo. We were able to duck down and get the dekes setup without disturbing any of them. After some love notes and a short wait we were greeted with a series of gobbles as one of the gobblers broke of and headed down the fenceline in the milo field. He appeared at about 60yds, once again putting on the show. However, he decided he didn't want to duck the fence and got hung up strutting up and down it trying to pull our hen from our Avian Jake. Finally, Moose had enough and folded him on the other side of the fence. 9 DOWN!!!
The final hunt of the trip was by far my favorite. Kyle, Joel and I headed to the spot where we had taken birds on night #1 and again as we appoached spotted 3 toms and about 20 hens working the winter wheat. We had been wanting to try "The FAN" trick the whole trip and decided it was now or never. Kyle and I snuck down a fenceline with the fan in front of us and began closing in on the birds. We got to 100yds without anything being to concerned. However, by this time it was getting hard to cover up two guys with one fan so I decided to sit back and watch the show as Kyle continued toward the birds. He closed to about 50 yds of a few of the hens and about 75 of a gobbler when all of the sudden the boss Tom decided he had enough. He went into full strut, turned right toward the fan and started making his way right at Kyle. At about 50yds I think he realized something was up (not for sure but he came out of strut). This is when Kyle decided to bring the gun up, drop the fan and then drop the hammer. BOOM!!!! Not even a flop and a number 10 took a dirt knap. I jumped up and ran over to Kyle, we were sceaming and laughing at what had just happened as we never thought the fan trick would work.
Once again we had tagged out in Kansas. We definitely made some great memories, a few more KS friends, and even learned a few things along the way (like my brother is a freakin animal as he fell on a cattle grate the first day and broke his knee cap, but continued to hunt the entire time, sorry about the knee bro but glad you are tougher than me and could smack some birds still) Can't Wait til Next Year Fellas :way:
A couple of Kansas landscape photos. Doesn't look like much is out there until you get into some of the bluff country, absolutely beautiful area.
Me packing out one of my KS Rios
Steve and Kyle at the Walk-In Honey Hole
Steve with an awesome bird with the ol hag and the Avian X
The Crew and 10 Toms
One more Hero Shot!!!
