Kansas

[2thDoc]

I shot a jake. It had a full fan. I knew it was a jake. It was my last morning (around 11am) and I had to leave to catch a plane. It was my first bow kill. I shot it low and we needed his bird dog to help find it.

that's my story. KRT style.

[carolinaboy06]

At least KRT gave us pictures.

[2thDoc]

I got pics. Gotta get them off my phone. Dont really know how.

[carolinaboy06]

Email, SD card, tapatalk.

[PBiz]

Good job Toof!

[flockbuster]

Congratulations. I can't imagine putting in all the time you have to kill one with a bow. Hell I have enough trouble doing so with a shotgun.

[nitro5x6's]

Nice job Sir!!!

Thwack!!!

[Simple Man]

Good work, 2oofer.

[turbo]

Jake killer.

[PBiz]

Was it like throwing an axe through an animal?

[GobblerHntr]

Guess I'll get the poetry tomorrow.....

Congrats!

[BigBrother]

At last!

Did you do the dead turkey dance?

[Glenn]

About damn time. Geezus. Was beginning to wonder about you.

[2thDoc]

Congratulations. I can't imagine putting in all the time you have to kill one with a bow. Hell I have enough trouble doing so with a shotgun.

i get this comment a lot.

I had easily 12 different gobblers in bow range in 4 days. Too many jakes to count. I need to sit down and tally them up. Its so jumbled and confusing and the days really run together. The land is immense and I hunted public and private in two counties and never once saw another hunter. I only set up in the same spot on a couple of occasions. Certain birds using certain fields would piss me off so I would go in search of a new flock to get annoyed by.

To say that killing one with a shotgun would be simple would be an understatement, IMO. I have no problems with it (other than its a bow only season when I was there this year), but chasing them with the bow is a lot of fun. Its a challenge, that's for sure. Last year, on the last afternoon in 50+mph winds, I was able to take the shotgun and had a dead bird in under an hour. Been there. Done that.

Each year, I see a different pattern. This year it was big flocks using big fields and very rarely could I get the toms on their own. The jakes were, well, jakes but they each have two eyes and one good survival instinct and its real hard to draw on the longbeard when he and his two buddies, plus the nine jakes, are looking right through you and the cedar tree you are behind trying to find the hen making all that racket.

A decoy has is advantages, IMO. I needed SOMETHING to take the heat off of me. Something to at least get their attention for a second. When i used a hen/jake or just a hen, the toms would do a 40 yard circle around me. When is used a tom/hen combo, all kinds of shit happened but it wasn't the time of year where the lone tom would come in looking for a fight. Plus, carrying a strutter decoy across Kansas is not fun....

One afternoon, I was hunting a spot I had not been to but one of the other guys in my group had the evening before. He gave me some pointers about where to set up and I went on my way. This was a 75 acre wheat field with a big hill and pasture to the north. I set up on a 30 yard wide finger that went into the field (about 150 yards long). I was in the lowest point of that finger, well out of sight. I put a strutter and a hen just off the edge of the point and set down to read my book. I had another buddy about 400 yards up against the far treeline. I was warned about some jakes that had entered the field. I guess I was lucky in that they hadn't come out far enough into the field to see my decoy. I knew better than to call (especially on a Spring Allure ceramic). So, i just set there and watched them. About 645 (sunset is 745), I see some more birds up in the pasture and knew it was about time for the birds to head to the roost trees over near the jakes. Well, I am standing up at this point, knowing its the magic hour when all of the sudden I hear wingbeats and look over my shoulder to see 4 huge black bombers coming at me. My friend saw it all and they had been on the top of the ridge behind me until they must've seen my strutter and flew right in from over 600 yards away. I bet it was quite a sight, but the only view I got was the one tom that decided to turn left at my strutter and literally landed on the other side of the blowdown I was hiding behind. He busted his ass, rolled over and stood up running towards his brethren. I tried to draw on him but he was up the hill and merging with the other toms in a second or two. They all came around my strutter and went right for the jakes. I watched them strut and chase and fight for the last 45 minutes at 75 yards before they all went to roost like one big, happy family. That was a cool hunt.

The next morning, in the same finger of woods, I heard the most amazing coyote squealing and literally had ten different GROUPS of birds gobbling all around me. It was just an amazing outdoor experience to be in the middle of it all....and I had a NICE longbeard BY HIMSELF at 30 steps that morning (no decoy) but never could draw. Later, my buddy and I moved and was able to kill the full fan jake at 11am.

Long trip. Hundreds of encounters and some great stories. Heck, if I had a shotgun, the stories would be boring as hell. THey would read "I went to that field with all the turkeys and waited for them and shot one."

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOORING>

[KRT]

that's my story. KRT style.

FYI to all scduckers.....

his text to me was pure turkey poetry!

Good job 2th!

[2thDoc]

We are winning

[Slaya]

A dead Turkey, and a Setter. Awesome, indeed!

[gooseaholic]

Nice Rio! Good color in the fan.

[badfaulkner]

Congrats, Doc!!

[trentsmith]

Upside down pic = not winning

Congrats on the bow kill!! I missed a Jake Friday morning with my bow. 3" to the left of his head.