Its been some time since our last post and an update regarding our spring turkey season, so here goes.
I haven't been able to sneak away at all this spring to hunt but there was a long weekend coming up so Sam and I devised a plan to
make a bonsai road trip to Western Kansas. In true Bonzi trip fashion we decided to leave the Fort right at midnight because what would a last minute hunting trip be without a good old fashioned all niter.
After a long and uneventful drive fueled but copious amounts of energy drinks and coffee we were right on schedule or so we though. But in our sleep deprived zombie comas that would turn out be the theme for the rest of the trip we had forgotten entirely about the time change and the fact that sunrise would be an hour earlier then we were used to. So after we noticed the horizon starting to lighten we begin to scramble, after a flurry of studying maps I declared, "Turn south in 3 miles," to Sam. Just looking not to waste first light we pulled up to a piece of ground that neither of us had ever seen before right at first light. After a flurry of reorganizing gear we were ready and looking for birds but our last second spot was well empty, so begrudgingly we piled back into the truck and were off to our original destination. After looking over a few other fields we decided our best bet
would be to take a gamble on a large flock of birds that were tucked in right next to local farmhouse. Given the set up we figured we had around a 50/50 shot of the whole flock moving our direction. After setting up and blind a decoys we settled in for the wait, which given our lack of sleep was painful, Sam curled up on the floor using his camera bag and was out. This is where things got a little foggy for me as I was drifting in between dozing, calling and scanning for birds. And then I full on fell asleep which is tough to do sitting up in a blind chair, when I came to I was falling backwards and taking the whole blind with me. Which was almost disastrous because in doing so my
Invasion CPX ended up hitting Sam square in the knee and we were both running the Horstooth Half Marathon the Sunday that we got back to Fort Collins. After quick status check Sam's knee appeared to be fine along with the bows and camera gear we had a good laugh and settled back into the blind. Another few hours with only a short visit from a single hen and it was time to pack it in. Literately as soon as we had packed up the decoys and the blind we heard a tom sound off and because there as a steady wind blowing we knew the bird was close. But our guess was he wasn't close enough to hear our calling. We climbed up a small hill behind us so we could overlook the valley and within a few seconds our
Minox BL's 10x44's
were able to locate our mystery bird along with the rest of the farmhouse flock. They had decided to roost in the same river bottom we were set up on about 200 yards down. Using the terrain we were able to sneak with in around 50 yards of the flock and set up the blind and decoys again this time with only 80 yards of open pasture ground and a small rise separating us. Within a minute of starting to call again two big toms poked their heads over the hill and were on the way in. Then came the first messed up opportunity of the trip, poor shooting and almost no faith in ground blinds lead me to rush a longer shot then need as soon as the birds showed any sign that they thought there was something wrong. In retrospect there was no need to shoot as soon as I did, up to this point I have had almost no faith in hunting out of blinds but Sam is trying to convert me. It also helps that this was my first hunt out of our new
Dark Horse Double Bull Blind which is a huge step up from my previous blind. One that Sam and I were able to use is that were you don't have a pack or bag for your blind the
Eberlestock Backpacks A1X1 works great to haul in a blind and might be the only way to do it in the future.
After the shot the toms not as spooked as one might think just went back over the hill and rejoined the rest of the flock. But it seams even thought there were 30 plus birds in the group we had messed up our shot at the only two with any interest in us. Just to put a nail in the coffin Sam made a strong play with a decoy and his shotgun that didn't totally fail but it did manage to push the birds down the valley ways which was fine by us since we were both starving.
After a quick trip into town and managing to amaze/horrify the crew at the local pizza joint with our large volume eating skills we decided to find a place to camp for the night. We came prepared to camp, but lazy mixed with lack of sleep steered us towards a dive hotel room. I would almost always rather camp then spend money on a moldy, smoke infested hotel room but more than that sleeping in hotels when hunting makes me feel like I'm getting soft but and lazy but, well we couldn't find anywhere to camp and we were tired. Plus the hotel was cheap, super cheap the way that only a truly remote small town hotel can be so lazy won out.
After an all to short nap we were back into Zombie mode and headed back to the field. More coffee and some driving brought us straight into what can only be described as a turkey hunters paradise. There were birds everywhere we looked. After a quick tour of the area we decided our best bet would be to set-up about as close to a huge flock of birds that were of course 200 yards or so out side of the property that we could hunt. Considering the flock had 12 to 16 strutting toms it was hard to look elsewhere and we were confident that we could pull at least one old longbeard across the property line. After about an hour and a half of calling at the birds with some of the most aggressive annoying calling I have every made with a box call a big old tom decided to break form the group and head our way. Usually I am not to much for real aggressive calling but during this trip almost every bird we called to the more aggressive the calling the better, but I sure didn't sound very textbook. As the tom made the journey over to our set up he would gobble and then go back into full strut but almost as soon as I would stop calling he would stop, there was certainly no rush on his end. After his long and drawn out strut over to our set up including a portion that brought him within 10 to 15 ft of
me but on the other side of the fence row he crossed the fence into our field perfectly within shotgun range. This is where I messed up the second opportunity of what was a roller coaster of a day. I missed, again with a shotgun at 15 yards! I'm still not sure how, and honestly at that point I was so punch drunk from having slept less than 2 hours total in the last 50 + hours it struck me as more funny than anything but I felt bad for Sam because it was amazing video up until the point I missed. I was also pretty embarrassed because I honestly cant tell you how I missed other than I rushed another shot with a shotgun I was unfamiliar with, but those are excuses. Who cares it was time to get some sleep, its just a turkey.
Day two began and we felt like totally new people, what a difference a few hours of sleep can make. We also had a plan and a spot to be at first light. Right at first light Sam and I were able to witness the largest, nosiest flocks of birds leave the roost I have ever seen but unfortunately the turkey pairde didn't head our way. After about an hour of calling I looked back up the valley and could see two lone jakes that were obviously interested in our calling and unlike every other tom they didn't have any hens, this could work. Today we had gone full circle and I was hunting with my
Bowtech Invasion CPX again and using the new
Dark Horse Double Bull blind. Within 20 minutes of first sighting the two birds they were topping the small rise 40 yards away from us and headed straight into the decoys. This time my goal was to wait for the perfect shot and see how close we could get them into the blind, which turns out was really close. Seconds later both birds had worked their way to within 5 yards but the entire time they were coming in they were to close together for a shot most of the time they were touching. After about a minute of both of the birds being within 5 yards there was finally some separation and luckily I was able to draw without being seen. At the shot my arrow was deflected slightly because I hit the bottom of the blind window but overall the
Easton Flatline arrow and
Montec G5 broadheads looked like they would do their job. We decided that giving my bird as much time as possible would be a good idea so we settled back in and started calling for Sam there were still plenty of birds in the area. After giving the bird around 2 hours we decided to go get my bird, at the end of a longer than desired tracking job we were able to find my Jake and put an end to my hunt.
Overall it was a fun hunt if not frustrating at times. But since we were turkey hunting it was much less devestating when I messed up a bird then if it were on a 6x6 bull. The biggest gain from the trip for me was seeing new country and learning some new places to hunt for this up comming fall. One of the greatest joys in hunting for me is researching and learning new hunting land and this trip was no different. Just to give everyone a preview of this fall I do have an archery deer tag for western Kansas and plan to spend some time trying to track down a few of the bucks that we were lucky enough to pick up sheads from durring the tirp. We did hunt the rest of the day for Sams bird but I will let him tell you the story of his hunt.
