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Main Boards => PowWow => Topic started by: suburbanirma on April 09, 2018, 06:19:30 PM

Title: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: suburbanirma on April 09, 2018, 06:19:30 PM
Got my vehicle loaded with turkey hunting gear and am heading to Kansas early tomorrow morning. I have a 12-hour drive and hope to get to my hunting area in time to set up my blind on public ground. I'm using some wind drifter (Ultimate Predator) turkey decoys and am going to try out Magnus Bullheads. My shot, if the turkeys cooperate, should be 7 yards and closer. I'm zeroed in from 10 yards and closer with the Bullheads. Taking along some Woodsmen, too. Getting pretty excited.
:)
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: Car54 on April 09, 2018, 06:40:52 PM
 :archer2: Good luck,  and don't forget to take pics. 
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: Charlie Lamb on April 09, 2018, 07:25:27 PM
Get some buddy!!! :archer2:
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: Orion on April 09, 2018, 07:34:45 PM
Go get em Tom.  Good luck.
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: Terry Lightle on April 10, 2018, 06:29:34 AM
Drove across Kansas Friday,birds busted up in the South but not in the North,at least the ones we saw.Have fun!
Terry
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: Hoosier_hunter157 on April 10, 2018, 07:51:22 AM
What's your arrow setup with the bullheads? You shooting the 125s?
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: Kopper1013 on April 10, 2018, 09:05:06 AM
Good luck to you!! Definitely a goal of mine to get a turkey with stick and string
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: sam barrett on April 10, 2018, 04:29:48 PM
Good luck!  Can't wait to hear about your hunt.
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: Cyclic-Rivers on April 10, 2018, 06:18:33 PM
Good luck Tom. Probably no snow down there...
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: suburbanirma on April 10, 2018, 10:08:19 PM
Arrived at my Kansas hunting area late this afternoon. Met up with my friend, Doug Walden, who took me out to a spot he found that looked good on public land. I set up my blind and will try it out with my new decoys in the morning. It was refreshing getting reacquainted with green grass, dirt, and temps in the 60s. Yahoo!
I am shooting axis nano arrows, 29.5 inches, five-inch feathers, and 125g Bullheads.
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: Gator1 on April 10, 2018, 10:14:30 PM
Oh buddy have fun.  We could get 20 inches of snow this weekend in Minnesota.
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: NIGEL01 on April 10, 2018, 10:41:30 PM
Yeah, we may be hunting turkeys in two feet of snow!  Good luck Tom!
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: Bow man on April 11, 2018, 05:37:57 AM
Hope you have a great trip
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: doubleo on April 11, 2018, 05:21:18 PM
Good luck Tom, enjoy the weather! The weekend looks like total crap around here!
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: Hermon on April 11, 2018, 09:42:05 PM
 The turkeys were gobbling hard this morning.  Going to try my luck the next few days.
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: ksbowman on April 11, 2018, 11:32:40 PM
Boy Glenn, I haven't seen or heard any here on our farm or the neighbors yet. Usually by this time they are scattering up and down our creek bottoms but, not this year yet.
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: Hermon on April 12, 2018, 05:00:50 PM
Hi Ben, yesterday must have been a fluke as they were quiet today.
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: suburbanirma on April 12, 2018, 10:33:13 PM
Spent the day yesterday in my turkey blind. Not much going on until after 5 p.m. when four jakes came in to my set up. It was really windy and my feeding hen decoy was bouncing around like it was on speed. The jakes didn't like that and stayed out of my comfortable shooting range.
I got to my blind at zero dark thirty and listened to much gobbling from across the river. Nothing came my way, however. At 10 a.m. I went out and tethered my decoy so it didn't spin and zigzag around. I put two sticks into the ground to prevent lateral movement. It still bobbed up and down as if it were feeding.
At 11 a.m. I saw a hen skirting my position at about 50 yards. I hen yelped at her but she kept going. About five minutes later I saw two gobblers heading my way. They marched right in to the decoy less than 10 yards in front of me. One was strutting and the other tom was checking out what the hen decoy was pecking at. When the strutter deflated and stuck his head up I loosed my arrow tipped with a Magnus Bullhead.
There was a loud whack, and my bird jumped into the air and then streaked away. It turned and tried to fly back to where it came from but fell short. It staggered on for a bit, and then I lost track of it. His partner followed the wounded bird and also disappeared.
After about five minutes I left the blind and retrieved my arrow which had one of the three blades broken off. I walked over to where I last saw my turkey and spooked its partner that clucked and sprinted away. I looked down on the trail I was standing on and saw lots of blood. I peered over the embankment of a muddy stream and saw my turkey lying in the water next to a log on the other side of the creek.
When I retrieved the gobbler I saw that the Bullhead had sliced through about a third of the neck at the wattles.
The tom weighed in at 21 pounds and sported an 11-1/2" beard and spurs measuring 1-1/4". I used a 56# takedown recurve bow that I built for myself about 20 years ago.
I still have three more days to hunt and hope to get another crack at a gobbler.
[attachment=1,msg2791738]
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: Bisch on April 12, 2018, 10:43:17 PM
Way to go!!!!!

Congrats on your bird!

Bisch


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: Ray Lyon on April 13, 2018, 04:32:23 AM
 :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: trubltrubl on April 13, 2018, 05:31:57 AM
Congrats ...nice job , thnx for story
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: Jim Brennen on April 13, 2018, 07:49:21 AM
Congrats, that is awesome. Great story
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: Cyclic-Rivers on April 13, 2018, 02:03:12 PM
Congrats on the Tom, Tom!  Definitely crummy weather here all weekend sleet rain and hail here! About 12 inches worth this weekend
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: doubleo on April 13, 2018, 04:16:48 PM
Congrats on a great bird, Tom! :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: suburbanirma on April 13, 2018, 09:48:27 PM
Friday the 13th dawned in southern Kansas with a chorus of distant gobbles muffled by a constant roar of the prairie wind. I set out a lone hen decoy (tethered to reduce lateral movement) and then disappeared into my popup blind. Despite my hen-yelp pleading for a gobbler to come to my position nothing happened at all until about 10 a.m. when a quartet of jakes approached the decoy. After a botched shot at one of the birds with my Bullhead, they merely moved away about 20 yards where they looked around and eventually lay down. I soft-yelped at them for about a half hour, and they again approached the decoy. This time my bow was armed with a Woodman broadhead. I picked out one of the bigger jakes, drew the arrow and sent it through the bird's heart. It ran off about 15 yards and tumbled down. The other jakes ran to it, fanned out and strutted there for several minutes.
Thus ended my Kansas archery spring turkey hunt.
I used my backup bow, an ILF setup for this chapter of my adventure.

[attachment=1,msg2791903][attachment=2,msg2791903]
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: BowMIke on April 13, 2018, 09:58:29 PM
Congratulations on a great hunt. Good Shooting!
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: Orion on April 13, 2018, 09:59:33 PM
Now that's doing it double right. Congrats on a good hunt.  Thanks for taking us along.   

Looks like the weather is going to be pretty bad the next 48 hours.  You might need to camp out there for a while.
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: knobby on April 13, 2018, 10:50:01 PM
Congratulations Tom. Looks like Thanksgiving came early this year.
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: snakebit40 on April 14, 2018, 02:51:40 PM
Congrats Tom! What a great way to start your spring!!!
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: BrushWolf on April 14, 2018, 03:18:36 PM
Congrats on two great birds.

Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: cacciatore on April 14, 2018, 04:03:08 PM
Way to go,a double
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: Orion on April 14, 2018, 07:32:23 PM
Tom.  Weather black here is terrible.  Did you hole up there for a few days or are you making your way back?
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: suburbanirma on April 14, 2018, 09:08:10 PM
Jerry, I'm holed up here in Kansas until tomorrow morning. I'll check the weather maps then and decide what to do from there. Just take my time, I guess.
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: Ray Lyon on April 14, 2018, 09:09:02 PM
Congratulations Tom.  Wait a couple of days to come back.  Northern Michigan got 8" of snow last night and probably another 2-4 coming tomorrow.
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: BRONZ on April 14, 2018, 10:07:26 PM
Well done sir! Tagged out with stickbows. Impressive!
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: Carcajou on April 15, 2018, 08:11:17 AM
2 Birds down!! Way to go,quite an acoomplishment. Ive only done that once in my Turkey hunting career, where Ive harvested 2 birds back to back with a bow. Thanks for sharing.
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: Cyclic-Rivers on April 15, 2018, 08:59:51 AM
Congrats on # 2  tom. 

Good idea to wait to come home.  Up by you, we received 12 inches yesterday.  another 8 last night and there is no sign of it slowing down.  My turkey season starts next week, probably the first time I will have hunted turkeys in a couple feet of snow.  Unfortunately, they are all holed up in town at peoples bird feeders right now.
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: Warden609 on April 15, 2018, 08:23:38 PM
 :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Heading to Kansas for turkeys
Post by: 23feetupandhappy on April 16, 2018, 03:16:34 PM
Sounds like you had a fantastic hunt, Congrats!!!!!

:clapper: