Kansas Hunt___________(Story and Pictures)

[FlyingZ]

Gatrapper and myself went out to central Kansas near Salina for some Rio longbeards last week.  After 6 hard days of hunting I got my two and here's how it went down.

Bird 1
After a poor morning we decided to glass from a knoll overlooking a large multi-sectioned food plot.  Other than a couple deer in the distance we did not see any turkey.  After deciding it was time leave, Gatrapper spotted 2 hens and a strutter right below us in the food plot!  They had been blocked by the branches of a large oak tree which prevented us from being spotted, luckily we had been pretty quiet up on the hill.

We beat feet back to the car and got our gear on, walked back to the knoll to pin point the gobbler and then slithered down the backside of the knoll.  There was no way we could make a frontal assault on the bird.  It was while we were walking down the backside of the hill that Gatrapper said it might be my bird from the day before.  Hmmmm.  (Background) The day before we set up before dawn on a roosted bird that was gobbling in the tree at 1 minute intervals.  He must have done this all night long, cause he was still doing it when we drove up.  Anyway, it was a classic set up where he was following a couple hens to a morning food plot.  We had a hen decoy set up on a path to the plot and here they came.  The hens were past the decoy and in Gatrappers lap when I thought we were gonna get busted and I jumped the gun and shot and MISSED the gobbler-game over.

Back to the pm hunt.  Since we knew where they previously roosted and it might be the same bird, we set up at the other end of the path from the food plot with the hen decoy in front of us.  It was 7:00pm now and shouldn't be too long til they start heading for home.  Although we couldn't see the turkeys from our setup, we could hear a hen cluck and a gobble every now and then.  We stayed put and got startled at 8:00pm off our 3 o'clock by an object moving through some thick vegetation, but luckily it was a deer.  Got the heart racing!  At 8:30pm we saw three turkeys moving off the edge of the plot into the woods at about 125 yds-WTF, game over?  Not knowing if a gobbler was part of the exiting group, we decided to hold tight.  A few minutes later our patience was rewarded when 7 hens moseyed onto the path with the gobbler pulling up there rear-yes!  The hens slowed their pace and one hen even jumped into her roosting tree.  After spotting the decoy the Tom passed them up to get to the decoy, but he never made it, he puffed up and I shot him at 43yds.  We are convinced it was the same bird from the day before, a nice three year old Rio with a 10 inch beard a little over 1 inch spurs and 22-24 pounds.  It was good recovery cause I was depressed from missing that bird with a shotgun and thought he may have been out there wounded-whew.



Bird 2

We are on day six (last day with pat day max temps in the low 90's) and after averaging 5 miles a day walking all over the place I wasn't in the mood for a long haul hunt, but that's what I got coaxed into doing.  After setting up on a roosted bird and getting foiled after daybreak, we went to the knoll to glass.

Gatrapper spotted a strutter two miles away on a ridge in an open field and I was hesitant to say the least because of the distance.  We talked for about 15 minutes about how/if we should do it when we picked up some more birds on the ridge line about 500 yds from the strutter heading their way.  Gatrapper used the "it's the last day routine " on me, "Ok let's do it."  



We geared up and started walking hugging tree lines and putting vegetation between us and them.  Eventually we ran out of tree line to hide in.  Gatrapper put out the hen decoy on a slope and we leaned against a burnt tree.  He called and pretty soon we saw a couple hen heads and the gobbler come over the ridge, but they were still at 100 yds and never came in range.  They disappeared over the ridge and Gatrapper coaxed me into taking off the vest and belly crawling to the ridge top.  I made it to the top unseen where I spotted 7 hens, maybe a Jake in there, plus the Tom, but I was still at 100 yds from them, damn!  Gatrapper is low crawling too and made it to the decoy and was holding it and calling.  We are literally out in the open prairie in 4 inch tall grass belly crawling.  I make it to shooting distance ( hard to tell being so low) and I slowly raise up to my knees to shoot, squeeze the trigger, but the safety was on, damn again!  Click the safety off, still not seen, squeeze the trigger and drop the bird.  He's flopping all over and we both sprint over to ensure he doesn't get up and run.

Ended up being a 67yd shot, but he had a lot of life in him when we got to him.  This was a 2 year old Rio Gobbler with a 9 inch beard and 3/4 inch spurs.  2 hours later we were driving to the airport...exhausted.  Were we lucky or good?  You'll never know if you don't try.  Thanks to my son, Gatrapper, for the motivation and expert calling all trip.

[gatrapper]

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[drenalinld]

Great birds, stories, and pics. Thanks for sharing.

[mmusso]

Congrats! Great story

[lohaus]

Congrats.  Nice story.  I'm glad I have company in the 'belly crawl' club.

[Hognutz]

Congrats on the nice birds.. Great story and pictures, as well..Mike

[LX_Trkyhntr]

Congrats on the great hunt with your son and the great gobblers!!!

[J.Davidson]

Great story and great birds as well!!!!

[Jay Longhauser]

congrats on the birds

[Basser69]

Great birds! Thanks for sharing the story with us 

[DeWayne Knight]

Very nice!

[turkey slayer]

Congrats! great birds!

[hookedspur]

Great story and great birds as well!!!!

[Wrangler95]

 


Very nice gobblers,congrats!!

[OLE RASPY]