4/15 was the shotgun opener, and I was sad to see that three other cars already in the parking lot as I arrived two hours before legal shooting time. I headed for the same ag field, but knew I might have to alter my desired location to set up if the others were there before me. Hustling along with red headlight I made it right where I wanted without seeing anyone else. Mission accomplished as I never saw another hunter that entire morning.
Trying to get close to the roost area, I settled back into the trees further than I had ever attempted. By doing so I hoped to not tip my hand to the birds, and possibly ambush any birds coming on to the field from the woods behind me. Last year on shotgun opener there were still gobbles up and down the watercourse that feeds the lake. This morning there was a lot fewer birds gobbling, and I didn't hear gobbles from up or downstream from the field I was hunting. That said, I counted more than 75 gobbles from the roosted birds.
I zigged, they zagged once again and I had a great show of turkey behavior as the three toms and four hens entered the field and strutted in the early sunshine but on the other corner opposite to where I had set up.
The humper is quite proud of his appearance
The two brothers on display. Note that one has a full fan, the other one is missing a central feather.
The next day I decided to do an afternoon hunt, and a pattern began to emerge. The "humper" tom came onto the field first, and within half an hour the "brothers" joined him. Every afternoon they worked the same areas to feed and strut. And then half the time they would do a grand counterclockwise tour of the field, and the other half stay on the eastside and go into the woods on their way to roost. I first noticed this as I was sitting on the west side and they were on the east side!
Mrs kansasdad and I were talking about the emerging pattern, and I shared with her how I was feeling snake bit.......me picking the wrong side every dang time. I asked for a direction to go and she said "southwest". As I was going for an afternoon hunt, I walked in the backdoor way and headed for the southwest side of the field. Right on cue, the humper arrived at 4:50 and the brothers about twenty minutes later......on the eastside. They fed and strutted and the boys battled a bit with the two picking on the single tom. Down in the southeast corner there were two decoys and two hunters who haven't yet figured out how important facemasks are when you are trying to hide from turkeys. The birds started their counterclockwise tour which would put them in front of me and I was ready.
The boys down in the SE corner started to lean on the slate call and all three toms responded with gobbles, and the humper did what he liked to do. The hens wanted to keep going with their routine, the toms thought otherwise. With no decoys out, I hoped they might think that the seductive gentle calling produced by me would be a lead to a direction change by the toms, or at least have the hens continue my way.
The hens did indeed come closer, but they were pulled more to the center of the field as the toms were more enthralled with the SE hunters than ol' kansasdad. As the flock of birds continued down this very large field, they seemed to become leery of the Avery brand jake/hen decoys (I have the same set!) and started to lose momentum as the shadows lengthened. The hunters in the corner weren't very good at holding still, and one of the hunter's face was a shiny as a disco ball. Veering directly east, the flock headed into the woods and closer to their roosting trees.
Friday night I headed out and settled in for an eastside intercept. I found a very thin shooting lane 23 yards from the edge of the field, which also might offer a shot at two trails inside the woods as well. The humper came out on cue, and was out into the center of field, and just about ready to make his first gobble, when I heard a loud PUTTT! and looked through the screen of shrubs to see a streaking turkey running full out towards the west. Five minutes later two hunters (the face maskless ones from the night before) were sneaking through the woods, and it seemed that they were surprised to see me. They motioned to me that they would retreat back the way they had come, and after 10 minutes, I heard them calling again.
The humper reappeared on the far side line, joined by the two brothers. Once again I had zagged as they zigged and were on the opposite side of the field. They stayed on the opposite side all evening and finally melted south down to the lakeside trees.
Tuesday afternoon I tried a sneak into the west side trees. Can HuntTalkers guess where the birds showed up and loafed for the late afternoon and evening?? The pattern remained steady....humper, brothers, hens and then head towards the roost zones late.
Wednesday I zigged and finally they also zigged towards me. There had been huge rain bands that started the night before, and continued throughout the night. Several more heavy thunderstorms rolled through, and all morning there was light spitting to heavy rains. Looking at the radar, I tried to figure out if there would be any way to hunt and not get drenched.
The radar showed that around the time the birds were showing up on the field there would be a break in the rain. I told my wife that I knew that by staying at home I wouldn't get a turkey, and I wanted to go out to the wildlife area. The drive out was with the intermittent wipers going, and the gravel roads were full of water as I turned off the highway. No one had been in the parking lot, and there were no footprints in the trail towards the back field.
The rain had stopped and I found my same tree with the skinny shooting lane to the strut zone. I settled in and scanned the wet field with the binoculars, seeing no turkeys at first. The first hen came out of the west side and she fed out into the usual feeding zone. I was sitting far enough back and the shrubs in the under story had really started to leaf out, so it was hard to see most of the open field. I kept watching the hen feed, and then I heard a nearby gobble. Within three minutes I saw the two brothers out in front of me, and it seemed that they were headed towards the trail off the field to my left. The same one that they had used when I chose to not shoot with my bow because of deflection potential.
The first brother entered the woods and scooted quickly away from the edge. I saw that there was a possible shooting lane but decided to go for the second brother. I found the second brother in my visual field, but had my barrel trained down the shooting lane. This tom was moving at a fast walk, and I knew that his vital zone would be in the shooting slot only momentarily. As the tom started to enter the same trail that his brother had used, I anticipated his arrival and pulled the trigger just as his beak cleared the right tree in the gap. He was instantly down and flapping wings and ended up 8 yards away from the impact zone. The brother with the missing tail feather was going to take a ride home with me that night.
I walked it off, and discovered that the shot was 50 yards on the button. One small sapling also paid the price of growing in the shooting lane.
I turned around to look and try to see what a turkey might have seen and couldn't see where I had been sitting.
I took some "as he lay" photos for that thread, and then tried to take some posed photos as well.
The rain started spitting again. I texted the traditional "BOOOOOOM" text to the family group text to announce a successful tagging of a turkey, and then strung him up on the turkey sling and slipped my way back to the parking lot.
Thanks Kansas for a great spring season of south central turkey chasing. If I were to try to get a second bird this spring, I will have to drive hours away, as only the north west and north central zones are open for a second turkey tag.
I'm glad I finally zigged when the birds zigged.
