The third day of my Kansas trip started out in the woods carrying a 12 gauge shotgun with a turkey choke screwed into the end of the barrel. We were hiking in to a spot where Brad had seen 5 toms the week before, when I looked up and saw birds roosted in a tall tree only 125 yards away. It didn’t appear as if the turkeys had seen us, so we hunkered down right where we were and waited for more light to start calling.
Pretty blurry but you get the point.
Didn’t take long for the birds to fly down, and it wasn’t long before they were close enough to see only hens and jakes.
All blowed up, but no beard. Jakes.
Not exactly what we were looking for, so we moved on to another spot or two. No birds to be seen or heard though.
After breakfast, we spotted a couple toms strutting down on the riverbottom. After a little strategizing, we were walking down the backside of a levee and into position. Unfortunately, no amount of strategizing can prepare you for a wad of deer exploding right into a good turkey set-up.
After helping Brad’s brother clean up some of his storm damage (toppled pole barn that had 2 trucks inside, trees, branches, basically a $10,000 mess) for a couple of hours, it was time to go hang stands.
Stand #3
Stand is the white splotch (bad “Paint” job…sorry) with the green food plot. Several funneling necks of timber collide. Several 110-120″ bucks spotted out of this plot last year during muzzleloader season in September, but no shooters.
Stand #4
Located in the middle of a large bedding area, this stand has a specific deer in mind…one that should push 180″ this fall. A hunter had a disappointing encounter with him last rifle season, but hopefully we can seduce him into the back corner of this timber jungle with a little seductive calling. Worth a shot!
Stand #5
What more really needs to be said. A no-brainer 4 lane funnel highway with CRP on 2 sides and crops on the other 2 sides.
Stand #6
Didn’t actually put this one up on this trip, but I checked it out to make sure it was safe and shooting lanes were clear. A major creek runs right past the stand and helps to funnel the deer even more dramatically.
Stand #7
This might have been my favorite set. Several trails following fence lines, creek beds, and natural openings intersect to create one humdinger of a set-up. This spot should be good from September’s muzzleloader season to the last day of rifle season. Crop fields to the northeast and southwest.
That was it for hanging stands on Saturday, but there was one more order of business…finding a turkey! With bad weather expected on Sunday, Saturday afternoon might be our last legitimate chance.
As we were driving back towards the house for dinner, we both looked into a back field and saw a couple of turkeys strutting at the same time. They were right where I had seen the 6 bearded birds on Friday morning while scouting.
Brad knew the way to go, so we parked the truck, manned the Teryx and off we went. After parking, it was a couple hundred yards to the creek and after wandering around for a while we found a shallow spot to cross.
Up the edge of the field we crept, and a quick glass with the binoculars revealed 7 birds – 2 definite gobblers. To make matters even more interesting 1 was an Eastern and the other 1 was a Rio/Eastern hybrid. We didn’t have any decoys to set out, but Brad’s calling got the birds interested almost immediately. It wasn’t long before they were sounding off at every crow that squawked, every cut on the slate call, and every bird that tweated a little too loud. They were hot.
The distance closed from 300 yards…250…200…150…75…50… Then things got interesting. There was a cedar bush directly in front of me and we were hoping to call the birds past that obstruction into the corner of the field where the shot would be clear. The birds had other ideas. They strutted, gobbled, drummed, and put on an absolute Broadway show for the next 10-15 minutes…you guessed it, directly behind the cedar bush.
Finally, they swung to where I could have a shot, but it was still between 40-50 yards, a little farther than I wanted to shoot if I could help it.
In all the commotion of the gobblers doing what they do best, we had kind of lost track of the other birds. They sure hadn’t lost track of us though. I could see movement close and I was whispering “Jakes at 10 yards, jakes at 10 yards.” Brad didn’t hear and stroked the slate call every so softly again to elicit yet another thundering answer from the 2 strutting toms. But the jakes…well, they threw their heads up in the air like a strobe light had just gone off. We were pegged and it was just a matter of time.
Brad said that if I wanted one of those birds, it was time to squeeze the trigger. Again, I really would have preferred a 20-30 yard shot, but things don’t always play out the way you want them to. Just as the jakes were prancing off, I downloaded a load of #5′s on the nearest gobbler. Even with some hard calling the birds wouldn’t come out of strut, so his head being tucked down complicated matters even further.
Instead of crumpling up, he did a backflip, got to his feet, and took off running. I got to my knees and fired twice more before he was in the woods. Brad was confident I had broken his wing and he wouldn’t be far. He was right on one thing, I had broken his wing, but he was going far.
After tromping through the underbrush for a solid 30 minutes, it was time to call in the reinforcements. Maggie and Angel, the fearless chocolate lab turkey finding, duck retrieving, pheasant flushing, superdogs. It even took them a while to find the bird, but after 150 yards or so, the bird got up running/flapping/flipping/flying and got across the creek before I could a clean and safe shot at him. I cranked a shot off once he was on the other side, but I have no clue whether I touched him or not.
Because we really didn’t have the luxury of taking our time to find the shallowest driest way across the creek, we just plunged in. Now, I’m getting kind of irritated plus I’m soaking wet half way up my thighs.
Fortunately, the chase was almost over. I found the bird on his last breath only 75 yards away and after a little hand to hand combat, I had my first turkey!
I made some comment about wishing my first turkey hadn’t been such a hillbilly affair, but Brad said, “Look at it this way, you’ve got one heck of a story for your first turkey.” So, I’ll take Brad’s perspective and make it my own.
It wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t pretty (as you’ll soon see with the turkey pictures), but I got my first turkey…and what can I say, we earned it!
So, here is the battle worn, 4 loads of #5′s tattered, creek doused, lab chased, Gabe strangled, rag-tag turkey.
You do notice one thing though, don’t you…a big old smile on my face! And well I should, even though he was beaten beyond recognition and might resembled a turkey buzzard rather than a wild turkey by the time we got done with him, he was a fine bird. Slightly in excess of 20 pounds, 10.25″ beard, and 7/8″ spurs. You definitely can’t tell from the water logged pictures, but he had a little bit of Rio in him, so I can’t really call him my first Eastern or Rio Grande turkey.
Brad and I.
Beard outstretched. One little stray thread picked me up an extra 3/4″ and pushed the measurement over the 10″ mark.
Jet black spurs. Kind of unique.
The one good thing about the bird winding up in such bad shape is that I don’t have to worry about a taxidermy bill for a wild turkey until at least next year.
Hope you enjoyed Day #3 as much as I enjoyed living it out and bringing it to you. Check back tomorrow for Day #4 and Day #5.
Oh by the way, I did shave the turkey beard off my chin when I got back to Alabama. That being said, the Penguins just closed out the Washington Capitals in a butt-whooping of a Game 7 victory. So, I do not look a bit cleaner cut because the Penguins are out of the Playoffs. Lord Stanley hopes are still alive!
