jkratz5
Well-Known Member
Last week my brother, myself and three of my good buddies headed to Kansas for our annual turkey hunting trip. This is our third year in a row chasing Rios in Kansas and once again he trip proved to be a blast with plenty of birds getting smacked.
We arrived Weds and got the first hunt in Thursday morning. All five of us headed to one of the honey holes we had found the 2 previous years and split up on the farm. The birds got a late start, with gobbles starting about 7:00 on the roost. Shortly after the birds were on the ground and my brother broke one away from 15 hens. After dancing around the dekes for a bit he let the 10gauge rip and bird #1 was on the ground.
After a slow rest of the morning we decided to head to a few other properies, with Justin (jmoose) and I heading to one property and the other three guys heading to another. Moose and I spotted 7 birds strutting in a milo field on the north end of the property we were hunting and decided to make a move on them. We got setup within 150 yds and after a couple soft yelps on the mouth call two of the birds were on their way to us. Once in the timber we lost one of them but the other made his way to 20yds and we put the 1,2,3 double BANG on him. Was a pretty sweet setting to smoke a bird in
About the same time we heard rom the boys on the other farm and they had also smacked a big tom. He came in putting on a show spittin and drummin and tried to beat on the dekes a bit before taking a load to the pumpkin. 3 birds down by 12:00 on day 1, we were well on our way to a great weekend.
Thursday produced some more great hunts, the morning was hot and heavy with gobbles but left everyone a bit frustrated with all the birds hanging up around 75yds or so and no shots fired. My brother stuck it out in one spot until noon and just as he was dozing off for his midday nap he heard some soft purrs. When he opened his eyes he had 2 hens and 3 toms less than 5 yards from him working toward his dekes. He actually had to let them walk through his dekes and out 20yds or so in order to get his gun up. After a few minutes teh 10gauge ate again and he was tagged out.
Justin and his brother hunted a new piece of ground that afternoon and were able to smack a great bird after a short sit, bringing the total to 5. That evening most of the guys decided to stay in but my buddy and I decided it was to nice of an evening to pass up hunting. We headed to a spot that we harvested 5 birds off the year before and shortly after setting up were greeted with gobbles to the north and south of us. We continued to ge responses from birds until 7:30 or so but were beginning to get worried that the birds would hit the roost before getting to us. Just as we were thinking off packing it up for the night I hit one last series of yelps and a thunderous gobble rang out from 100yds. A minute later puff daddy was heading over a small ridge right too us. He stayed in strut until 30 yds or so when he decided he had had enough. He let out one last gobble and ran into the dekes. He headed right for the Zink Jake and jumped on his back and gave him a beating with the wings. He then proceeded to the front of the jake and wrapped his neck around the jake for a couple of minutes. Finally, he popped his head and I let the Xtrema eat. 6 birds down!!!!
Saturday was a wash. Bad storms producing 97 tornadoes in Kansas didn't do the Turkey hunting much good but made for some awesome sight seeing and storm watching.
Sunday was our last day to hunt and we had work to do with 4 birds left to take down. We hunted some brand new ground and it paid off big. Justin and I got on two birds with a little sneak action getting within 125yds of the birds using the terrain to our advantage. Once we were setup I gave a couple of soft yelps on the mouth call and two big toms ran right too us. At 15yds we decided they were close enough and we dropped the hammer on them. These were two very large birds, mine 24lbs, 1 1/2 and 1 5/8" spurs and 8" beard and Justins 24lbs, 1 3/8" spurs and 11" beard.
On the other side of town the rest of the guys had also put down two birds, a silent warrior at noon and one that did the whole song and dance around 4:00. After just over 2.5 days of hunting we had put 10 mature toms down and had some great hunts.
As always the people in Kansas treated us great and we met a few people that we will keep in touch with for a long time. Thanks to my brother and my buddies Justin, Joel and Kyle for a great few days in Kansas. Looking forward to doing it again next year. Below are some pics of all 10 birds, when I get the rest of the individual bird pics I will post more.
Kratz
We arrived Weds and got the first hunt in Thursday morning. All five of us headed to one of the honey holes we had found the 2 previous years and split up on the farm. The birds got a late start, with gobbles starting about 7:00 on the roost. Shortly after the birds were on the ground and my brother broke one away from 15 hens. After dancing around the dekes for a bit he let the 10gauge rip and bird #1 was on the ground.
After a slow rest of the morning we decided to head to a few other properies, with Justin (jmoose) and I heading to one property and the other three guys heading to another. Moose and I spotted 7 birds strutting in a milo field on the north end of the property we were hunting and decided to make a move on them. We got setup within 150 yds and after a couple soft yelps on the mouth call two of the birds were on their way to us. Once in the timber we lost one of them but the other made his way to 20yds and we put the 1,2,3 double BANG on him. Was a pretty sweet setting to smoke a bird in
About the same time we heard rom the boys on the other farm and they had also smacked a big tom. He came in putting on a show spittin and drummin and tried to beat on the dekes a bit before taking a load to the pumpkin. 3 birds down by 12:00 on day 1, we were well on our way to a great weekend.
Thursday produced some more great hunts, the morning was hot and heavy with gobbles but left everyone a bit frustrated with all the birds hanging up around 75yds or so and no shots fired. My brother stuck it out in one spot until noon and just as he was dozing off for his midday nap he heard some soft purrs. When he opened his eyes he had 2 hens and 3 toms less than 5 yards from him working toward his dekes. He actually had to let them walk through his dekes and out 20yds or so in order to get his gun up. After a few minutes teh 10gauge ate again and he was tagged out.
Justin and his brother hunted a new piece of ground that afternoon and were able to smack a great bird after a short sit, bringing the total to 5. That evening most of the guys decided to stay in but my buddy and I decided it was to nice of an evening to pass up hunting. We headed to a spot that we harvested 5 birds off the year before and shortly after setting up were greeted with gobbles to the north and south of us. We continued to ge responses from birds until 7:30 or so but were beginning to get worried that the birds would hit the roost before getting to us. Just as we were thinking off packing it up for the night I hit one last series of yelps and a thunderous gobble rang out from 100yds. A minute later puff daddy was heading over a small ridge right too us. He stayed in strut until 30 yds or so when he decided he had had enough. He let out one last gobble and ran into the dekes. He headed right for the Zink Jake and jumped on his back and gave him a beating with the wings. He then proceeded to the front of the jake and wrapped his neck around the jake for a couple of minutes. Finally, he popped his head and I let the Xtrema eat. 6 birds down!!!!
Saturday was a wash. Bad storms producing 97 tornadoes in Kansas didn't do the Turkey hunting much good but made for some awesome sight seeing and storm watching.
Sunday was our last day to hunt and we had work to do with 4 birds left to take down. We hunted some brand new ground and it paid off big. Justin and I got on two birds with a little sneak action getting within 125yds of the birds using the terrain to our advantage. Once we were setup I gave a couple of soft yelps on the mouth call and two big toms ran right too us. At 15yds we decided they were close enough and we dropped the hammer on them. These were two very large birds, mine 24lbs, 1 1/2 and 1 5/8" spurs and 8" beard and Justins 24lbs, 1 3/8" spurs and 11" beard.
On the other side of town the rest of the guys had also put down two birds, a silent warrior at noon and one that did the whole song and dance around 4:00. After just over 2.5 days of hunting we had put 10 mature toms down and had some great hunts.
As always the people in Kansas treated us great and we met a few people that we will keep in touch with for a long time. Thanks to my brother and my buddies Justin, Joel and Kyle for a great few days in Kansas. Looking forward to doing it again next year. Below are some pics of all 10 birds, when I get the rest of the individual bird pics I will post more.
Kratz
Nice work!
