wapsiguy
PMA Member
Myself and two friends made a trip to Kansas to try our luck chasing turkeys. We left before 5:00 am on Wednesday morning and were out hunting that evening by 4:00 in 40 mph winds. We did see and hear a few toms and made a plan for the morning hunt.
Our first setup had my friend Matt a shooter one and since I was sitting next to him at the same tree so I guess I was shooter 2 if there were more that 1 bird that came in. We had a gobbler with 150 yards or so on the roost and he gobbled a dozen or so times and read the script and danced into the decoys and was laid to rest at 6:42.
We had heard other birds gobbling south of us so we headed that way and made a setup. These birds would answer us but didn’t seem to be getting closer so we moved the hunt to them getting across a very steep rimmed crick that was in between us. There were several turkeys in a large freshly planted wheat field. We counted a band of 6 jakes, 3 toms and several hens but all were over 300 yards away but were still receptive to the calling. Two of the toms were chasing a single tom around the field and we thought that we had at least a 50/50 shot of getting these birds into range if we just stayed patient. We only had less than 5 yards of grass/brush between us and the open fields so we sat out 2 hen decoys at arms length, more to make me feel better I guess.
There were some dips in the field so we lost track of the birds every now and then so we were caught a little off guard when two gobbles rang out to our left 75 yards out. Here come 2 toms on a string straight at our decoy spread. Trent counted to three and birds 2 and 3 were down at 8:33am. :grin:
After a late breakfast and a well deserved nap we headed back out to another farm where we had seen a strutter on our way back to where we were staying. We were on more of a recon mission for the morning than anything. I put 2 hens and a jake out at 25 yards and we all sunk into a line of hay bales and waited for some action. It didn’t take long to get a response from a bird and before we knew it he was in sight across a 300 yard wide bean field in full strut. He ended up picking up a jake and a hen part way across and after he made it clear to the jake who was in charge they all walked into the spread. The hen was pecking the head of the DSD hen while the tom was bumping chest with the jake. We waited for them to separate and did the count down for the second time that day. 6:42pm and exactly 12 hours to the minute after Matt shot his bird that morning. Matt was all over the jake and had absolutely no problem shooting one and neither do I as it is all about the hunt and what makes the hunter happy. :way:
We now had 5 of 6 tags filled and Trent was up. We stayed in the same spot and sat back down to finish the night out. Not 45 minutes later Trent noticed 3 red heads pop up right where the tom had come from and after further inspection we confirmed all 3 to be jakes. These birds also came directly into the decoys and hung around for 20 minutes or so and as hard as Matt tried to get his brother to shoot Trent held off. As the 3 jakes worked there way towards a hen that was to our right I snuck a peek behind us and noticed at least 10 more birds in a picked sorghum field. I couldn’t find a tom just more jakes, actually 6 more of them and 3 decided to check out the calling and decoys. Matt wore Trent down and convinced him to go for the 6 birds in one day and our hunt was thru at 8:13pm. :drink1: :drink1: :drink2:
This was the best turkey trip I have been on especially being that none of us had ever turkey hunted this ground before. Trent had bow hunted deer for two years here and had of course seen plenty of turkeys but seeing them in the fall and spring is totally different. I have no doubt in my mind that we could have taken 6 toms on this trip but to be able to say we filled all our tags in one day was just to damn tempting. We still had 2 more farms that we didn’t hunt plus the walk in areas. We ended up heading home 2 days early and made it in plenty of time to celebrate mother’s day.
Our first setup had my friend Matt a shooter one and since I was sitting next to him at the same tree so I guess I was shooter 2 if there were more that 1 bird that came in. We had a gobbler with 150 yards or so on the roost and he gobbled a dozen or so times and read the script and danced into the decoys and was laid to rest at 6:42.
We had heard other birds gobbling south of us so we headed that way and made a setup. These birds would answer us but didn’t seem to be getting closer so we moved the hunt to them getting across a very steep rimmed crick that was in between us. There were several turkeys in a large freshly planted wheat field. We counted a band of 6 jakes, 3 toms and several hens but all were over 300 yards away but were still receptive to the calling. Two of the toms were chasing a single tom around the field and we thought that we had at least a 50/50 shot of getting these birds into range if we just stayed patient. We only had less than 5 yards of grass/brush between us and the open fields so we sat out 2 hen decoys at arms length, more to make me feel better I guess.
There were some dips in the field so we lost track of the birds every now and then so we were caught a little off guard when two gobbles rang out to our left 75 yards out. Here come 2 toms on a string straight at our decoy spread. Trent counted to three and birds 2 and 3 were down at 8:33am. :grin:
After a late breakfast and a well deserved nap we headed back out to another farm where we had seen a strutter on our way back to where we were staying. We were on more of a recon mission for the morning than anything. I put 2 hens and a jake out at 25 yards and we all sunk into a line of hay bales and waited for some action. It didn’t take long to get a response from a bird and before we knew it he was in sight across a 300 yard wide bean field in full strut. He ended up picking up a jake and a hen part way across and after he made it clear to the jake who was in charge they all walked into the spread. The hen was pecking the head of the DSD hen while the tom was bumping chest with the jake. We waited for them to separate and did the count down for the second time that day. 6:42pm and exactly 12 hours to the minute after Matt shot his bird that morning. Matt was all over the jake and had absolutely no problem shooting one and neither do I as it is all about the hunt and what makes the hunter happy. :way:
We now had 5 of 6 tags filled and Trent was up. We stayed in the same spot and sat back down to finish the night out. Not 45 minutes later Trent noticed 3 red heads pop up right where the tom had come from and after further inspection we confirmed all 3 to be jakes. These birds also came directly into the decoys and hung around for 20 minutes or so and as hard as Matt tried to get his brother to shoot Trent held off. As the 3 jakes worked there way towards a hen that was to our right I snuck a peek behind us and noticed at least 10 more birds in a picked sorghum field. I couldn’t find a tom just more jakes, actually 6 more of them and 3 decided to check out the calling and decoys. Matt wore Trent down and convinced him to go for the 6 birds in one day and our hunt was thru at 8:13pm. :drink1: :drink1: :drink2:
This was the best turkey trip I have been on especially being that none of us had ever turkey hunted this ground before. Trent had bow hunted deer for two years here and had of course seen plenty of turkeys but seeing them in the fall and spring is totally different. I have no doubt in my mind that we could have taken 6 toms on this trip but to be able to say we filled all our tags in one day was just to damn tempting. We still had 2 more farms that we didn’t hunt plus the walk in areas. We ended up heading home 2 days early and made it in plenty of time to celebrate mother’s day.
