Well, this post is a little deleted, but I just got my hands on my dad’s pictures and scanned them onto the computer.  So here it is, dad took one his good friends from the church he pastors to Kansas turkey hunting a couple of weeks ago.  It was kind of a returned favor, as this friend took dad to South Texas last December on a wild quail hunt for 4 days.  Anyways, no sooner are they set in the Double Bull blind, 3 gobblers, 9 hens and a few jakes fly down off their roost and start making their way towards the decoys.  One gobbler was a real stud (11″ beard or so and probably 25 pound range)…these are Easterns, the other 2 were lesser birds but nothing to sneeze at either…8-9″ beards.  Well, 30 minutes later the birds were within 55 yards, but because dad wanted a closer shot he held off.  Finally they wandered into the creek bottom behind the blind and that was that…no birds yet, but dad shot some wonderful video on his handheld recorder.

They slipped across the field longways to avoid bumping the birds and planned a new approach.  Once the turkeys showed up in the next field, they slipped back down the creek bottom and crept out to the edge where the birds were strutting 150 yards from the woodline.  At this point, a good many steps have been covered and they take their time before calling to the birds to enjoy the scene and catch their breath.  It didn’t take many clucks to bring the turkeys their way.  Unfortunately, the boss gobbler split off from the main flock, but at 25 yards, dad’s 12 gauge barked and down went bird #1.  All the birds took off flying except for the other gobbler and that was a mistake.  Smoking shell #2 = Dead gobbler #2!  Dad’s tagged out 2 hours into his 2008 Kansas hunt.

Barry’s turn.  They decided to take it to the house for the rest of the day and enjoy some charcoal grilled steak at local legend restaurant the Singing Cowboy (sounds like something else don’t it)…  Next morning, another perfectly planned set-up has birds flying down 100 yards from the decoys.  Unfortunately, these gobblers were glued to their hens and wouldn’t come any closer than about 50 yards.  Hoping for a closer encounter, no shots were fired but dad captured some more quality footage of 3 big gobblers doing their thing and 2 bearded hens were also in the flock (5″ beards or so).  The coolest thing was the big boss gobbler’s head…it would go from beet-red to a ghostly white all in the matter of 5 seconds…really spectacular footage!!!

They got back on the same group with a creek bottom stalk and emerged within shooting distance of the toms, but Barry had made up his mind…either call a bird in and shoot it, or no shooting at all.  He had enough experiences and memories for it to be a successful hunt and that was enough for him.  They had to catch a 6 a.m. flight back out of Kansas City, so no evening hunt was attempted.  But it was a great hunt, lots of birds for only 2 mornings hunts.  Dad’s birds had 9″ and 7.5″ beards, a little over 1 inch spurs and both eclipsed the 21 lb mark.