Our Kansas Adventure

[PA_Spike_King]

2008 Kansas Turkey Adventure

by PA RIDGE RUNNER and PA Spike King

First off I would like to thank my Mom and Dad for putting this hunt together with me and my Sister and Brother-in-law for helping and letting us stay at their house while PA and I hunted and ate their food. LOL

And second but not the least my wonderful wife for permitting me to leave her with the kids for 9 days and not pull her hair out while I was away. Thank you dear I love you.

Now off to our adventure.

This year instead of just me and the wife heading to Kansas my son Eric came along too. Despite the OUTCH price of gasoline, I drove. The trip is just over 1100 miles from central PA we drove our 2007 chevy Impala and it got over 31 mpg and as high as 34 mpg. Trip was uneventful, just the way we liked. My wife and I left on the 10th and met Eric who flew to Kansas City on the 11th. After a somewhat quick stop at Kansas City Cabela to get a couple of AR type pistol grip stocks for our shotguns we were off to Topeka and our turkey adventure.

Eric and I started out turkey hunting Saturday morning in the midst of a cold snap that had snow flakes flying in the air. We wore just about all the hunting clothes we took just to stay warm. I still shivered and shoot which I blamed on the weather but the flock of about 20 to 25 birds may have had something to do with it too. That first morning with great anticipation, we sat up near a roost and had to watch the trukeys fly down to our left and they just kept on going. We did learn that there was at least one maybe two longbeards in the flock and learned the direction they preferred to travel after flydown. Plans were made for an ambush the following morning. Eric decided it was his turn to shoot first so I was designated caller.

Sunday morning turned out weather wise the same as the previous day with snow in the air. We circled the roost area and set up just beyond the flydown area in the dark. As it got just light enough to see a little we could see turkeys roosting in the same trees as the day before. I began to call softly and the dominate gobbler started sounding off. Man did he make some pretty early morning music. I was reminded of the song "The Hills are Alive with the Sound of M

Music." Both of us got a real shot of adrenaline from the music. In only a few minutes I descoverd that the tom had flown down first and was parading in front of where we were the day before. I started to pour on the most seductive calls I could muster in my excited state. After a few more very tense minutes I enticed the tom to start towards us. As it turned out he walked right into Eric and at just 19 yards his dominance ended in a hail of copper coated #6 shot and a very fine 2 year old bird was tagged.

Monday morning we went back to the private land but had no luck hunting the other side of the property from the roost area. We then decided to explore some public land where we had seen turkey when hunting deer there. We parked the truck and walked down an access road to a really huge cut cornfield next to Lake Perry. After surveying the area we decided to just walk to the opposite end of the field to a small rise and just sit there and observe. The trip across the field revealed many turkey and deer tracks so we were encouraged. After sitting there for nearly an hour Eric said "Dad, two turkeys just came into the field near the road we walked in on." My view was blocked by some trees from a drainage ditch in the middle of the field but the turkeys finally cleared the trees and I was able with my binos determine they were both longbeards. I got out my box call and really cranked it out and got the one to gobble and strut but they continued on their way about 500 to 600 yards away. All we could do was watch and guess what they were going to do. You can imagine the frustration of not being able to do anything to get closer. Shortly after disappearing behind the line of trees we were set up in they reappeared feeding back the other way. This time they cut down toward the lake about 250 yards in front of us. While they fed down the field suddenly there were four turkeys. The other two were jakes though. We watched the two longbeards till they entered the woods to roost. We now had a plan. Tuesday we woke up to hard rain and decided to wait till the evening to try to intercept the birds. The weather cleared by noon and we got underway to the big cornfield and set up near where they entered the woods the day before. We set out several decoys and toward evening we spotted the two birds. They had a bunch of hens with them this time. To our dismay we spotted the flock right about where we had sat the day before. As the day wound down the turkeys headed our way, crossed the drainage in the middle of the field and both of us sat there in a fever pitch. Finally the flock began to show up with the two toms near the back. Once they got near they saw the decoys and the two toms hestitated at about 30 yeards. That hesitation was just enough for me to draw a bead on the lead bird and at the shot he went down like a ton of bricks. Eric then shot at the back bird hitting it but not killing it. It took off flying but not very well. It got about 50 or 60 yards and just hung in the air wings flapping but going anywhere. We both jumped up and i went to my bird. It was done with many pellets to the head. Eric ran after his bird and fired two more times but it still struggled on. Now he is faced with a dilemna and in his excitement exclaimed he left his vest back at the tree. I knew what he meant, he was out of shells. I ran to him and gave him my gun and said use this it has two left in it. He then went up to about 15 yards of his bird it raised its head and he shot and a double was ours. This was our first every double on turkeys. The field and nearby woods resounded with victory yells. Had anyone been nearby I am sure they would have thought two crazy guys were out in that field yelling and doing a crazy dance. As we stood there in utter amazement both turkeys started to flop. We immediately put our foot on their necks and got promply flogged for the effort but we didn't care we had just scored a double on a couple of fine birds. Mine was a 20 pound bird with about a 10 1/2 inch beard and not quite 1 inch spurs. Eric's was 19 1/2 pounds with about a 10 13/16 inch beard and 1 inch spurs.

We took the next morning off because we did not get to bed till about 11:30 from doing up two turkeys. We decided to try a spot on public land that we had seen turkeys before but never hunted them there. We sneaked in and set up in a fence row without much cover at all. I put out a couple of decoys and retreated to a fence post but felt very exposed. It was early so I just sat there and played with a couple of calls. What I did not hear was a couple of gobbles to my messing around. Eric heard him but was about 20 yards away on the other side of a big juniper. When I finally looked up there was a very nice longbeard in full strut about 60 or 70 yards away in full view of me. My gun was leaning on the fence beside me and my hands were full of pot call and striker. He put his head down and was feeding so I thought maybe if I moved slow enough I could get ready, well it was a great plan but not for old sharp eyes he saw me and didn't like my looks and turned around and off he went. My heart fell into my boots. A while later a hen came up the field and got all fluffed up at my hen decoy. She eventually wandered off. Just before dark another hen had sneaked in behind us an saw Eric and took off running. At dark I gathered up my stuff and we walked to the road going back to the truck. Suddenly a couple of gobblers sounded off down the field. About half way back to the truck another gobbler sounded off. Strange thing is we did not get to hunt there again as another hunter must have known about the gobblers and beat us there.

A couple of days later after Eric flew back home I went back to the private land and set up but no luck. I Picked up my stuff and walked a road along the edge of the property. I came to the top of a hill and paused to call. To my amazement I got a really raspy call in return. I quickly moved off to the edge of the road and set up. After a couple more of my most seductive yelps I could hear the turkey was coming closer. In a minute or so I could see a turkey coming. Things did not look just right but it soon came in to less than 20 yards. I could plainly see it was a hen turkey but that hen had a 6 or 7 inch beard. Other than the beard the hen appeared very hen like. What she did not realize was she was a legal turkey and was looking at instant death from a hunter with a tag in his pocket. I finally whispered bang and she walked off putting all the way. I was looking for a longbeard or nothing.

On the morning of the last day of my hunt in Kansas I tried to hunt the flock we got our first bird from but apparently we had bumped them one time too many and they had moved. That afternoon I set up on what I figured was the return route of a flock roosting just off the property. After sitting there for a couple of hours attracting all the ticks in the area. I heard a noise behind me. I very slowly turned my head to see a tom standing only about 25 yards away. That bird had came in silent and was looking at me. I figured that to get a shot I would have to shoot from the opposite shoulder. My plan for getting a shot was quickly stopped when I could not for the life of me see a beard on that tom. He was a big bird but had no beard showing at all. After I decided not shoot I put my binos on him but still could not see any evidence of a beard. He finally walked off putting all the way and I followed him with the binos for over 80 yards and never did see any evidence of a beard. That concluded our 2008 Kansas adventure. We counted each outing as a success as we saw turkeys on nearly all of our outings and managed to kill three mature toms and scored our first ever double.

Thank You Dad for puting our hunt into words and fulfiling a dream hunt for me, I would not trade it for the world.

[Tim Andrus]

Congrats ! sounds like a good time

[snapper]

Good deal...sounds like a great time! We shoulda held the spring fling there and all went turkey hunting in Kansas.

[aksheephuntress]

...This was an awesome story, and I love the pictures!

...Congradulations on a memorable hunt!

[PA_RIDGE_RUNNER]

My son-in-law could qualify for the OTPG as he has a 300 win mag. Doubt if my daughter would find enough places for all of us to sleep though. I have hunted turkeys in Kansas for 5 or 6 years now and each time is a real blast. This was the first year that I had two tags and did not fill them both. The bugs and ticks can be bad but the lure of big old toms keeps taking me back.

[pendog]

Kansa is a great place to hunt, i finished up the 3rd leg of my grand slam there a couple years ago. Looking forward after my Florida bird to going back there for more fun.

My nicest bird of the two, 3 year old kansas beauty.

A "pure triple", My bro and sister in law and myself called in three long beards and 3 shots fired at the same time. It was once in a lifetime.

[maytom]

Awesome story and pic's!! Congrats!!!!

[toddyboman]

what a hunt congrats