So I’ve been cooped up in court for most of the past several weeks. I did manage to get out and do some work for the upcoming Kansas turkey season on Thursday. I checked for activity, filled feeders and built blinds. I took a few minutes to take pictures of a feeder I put up on a piece of ground I’ll be hunting for the first time this year.
The first trick is to find a place where turkeys will find the feeder. This seems obvious, but it’s the most important thing you can do. Turkeys won’t travel far out of the way to find your feeder, so your best bet is to put it somewhere they already frequent. In the situation at hand I knew that turkeys used this area because we saw them there during that last season and heard them gobbling about a week ago. We also deer hunted this area a great deal this past fall.
Find a tree on the edge of cover that has a reasonably clear area below it. Try to keep from picking a tree that has thick cover around it. If it’s too wooly the turkeys will not be comfortable and it won’t work as well. You’ll see that I cleared the ground around this feeder to give it a more open feel.
For the feeders we use 5 gallon buckets with 4 – 1 inch holes drilled in the base. A lid and a “hat” and you’re good to go. The hats are semi-optional but they keep the rain from collecting on the lid and running down the side into the holes. The hats are just sheet metal riveted.
Generally you want to hang them about knee high or so. If you hang them too low the squirrels and raccoons will figure out how to use them. Here’s a close up:
Next you’ll want to throw a bunch of corn on the ground to help them find the feeder. This is true even with established feeders at the beginning of the season, but it’s especially true if you’re setting up a new feeder.
Finally, I built a blind about 30 yards away.
The toms will almost never use the feeder. That’s not the purpose. The goal is to keep turkeys traveling through a given area. The hens will absolutely use the feeders, but for the most part the toms will just stay back and watch the flock. In all the years I’ve been running feeders the only tom I’ve ever seen eat at a feeder was in Texas. Everything eats at a feeder in Texas.
To build the blind I hauled some locust limbs around a tree. Then I covered those limbs with Red Cedar branches. I like for the cover to be about eye level when you’re sitting down. It’ll cover your movement but won’t block your ability to shoot. I built this one wide enough for two hunters figuring that I’d take The Wife or someone else over there.
I’ll keep you updated on it’s progress.
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