Jay Kelley
AH veteran
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2011
- Messages
- 236
- Reaction score
- 377
- Location
- Levelland, TX
- Media
- 1
- Articles
- 1
- Member of
- NRA, DSC
- Hunted
- USA (Kansas, Virginia, Texas)
Except for upland birds - especially pheasants, but quail also. I love spending the day in the field. However, after my first turkey hunt, I'm thinking turkeys might be on that list as well.
The idea came while hunting pheasants near Edson, Kansas last year at the Kurht Ranch. One of the other hunters, a friend of mine, invited me to come back and hunt turkeys. I said I'd do my best.
I got a week off schedule early in the season, bought my licenses online and I'm sure I was pretty annoying to Troy (my friend who invited me) as I know very little about turkey hunting and asked a lot of questions.
I was told that camo would not be needed (I don't have any - just khaki, brown or olive) because we would be in a blind. Also, I bought some Winchester Long Beard 3" #5 shot and an extra full choke tube for my old Baikal side by side and spent a little time at a local range checking patterns.
I got to Colby, KS on Thursday night, April 14 and spent the evening at a birthday party for another friend. (Too) early the next morning, I picked Troy's son Sean up at his house and we were at the blind and set up about an hour before sunrise. Sean is 16 and already an expert turkey hunter. He had taken a nice tom the morning before.
The morning passed slowly. We saw several birds, but they were way too far out to even think about a shot and I didn't have camo, so we had to stay with the blind. About 9 or so, a jake came by, but the shot would have been very long and while I was deciding whether or not to take him (glad I didn't) he popped down into a ravine and out of sight.
About 10, we were both thinking we might have got skunked for the day. The fact that heavy rains were expected at any time sort of blackened my mood, but a bad day hunting is still a good day. I was thinking that I might be able to get a few days off in May to come back as the rains were expected to be seasonally heavy and last through my visit.
Then Sean turned and whispered excitedly, "There are several birds coming up the levee toward us."
We didn't know whether they were hens, jakes or toms, but it soon became evident that the lead birds were at least jakes and probably toms. They kept coming from the northwest toward the blind, but as they got about 45 yards or so away, they turned and began to walk to the east. The two lead birds were toms, followed by three jakes. I decided to take the lead bird.
Mr. Winchester said his ammunition was effective out to 75 yards, but I had only patterned it at a pistol range. Still, I was confident that I'm a pretty good shot and the patterns at 25 yards were very tight. The toms was also stopping from time to time and sticking his head up to look around, giving me an excellent target.
The first bird dropped like he had been hit with a hammer. The second bird, instead of running away, continued on toward the downed bird. I took him as well, although with being a little off-balance (my old Baikal double kicks like a mule anyway and a full choke with 3 inch #5 loads didn't help) plus the adrenaline, my shot wasn't as good and it took a follow up as well as wringing the neck to finish him.
I think I might add turkey hunting to my list of hunting addictions...And I'm planning to get some camo. Sitting in a blind was ok, but I can't wait to try calling under a tree.
