Atchman2
Well-Known Member
It is now my tradition to go to Kansas every spring for Rio Grande turkey hunting. I'm blessed to have a wife from the state of Kansas and therefore plenty of places to hunt and relatives with places to hunt or access. Usually I stay with my brother in law Kyle Grafel, they have a farm in northwest Kansas near the Nebraska/Kansas line. It is also not very far from Colorado, if you want to go over there (about 60 miles) The bad thing is it took me all day last Saturday to get there! The airlines were on time, it is just that there are very few flights. This time I landed in McCook, NE. The previous time I landed in North Platte, NE and my in laws came to get me. So 12 hours from the time I awoke until the time I landed.
Another nice thing is that I can leave stuff out there. I have blinds, some calls, my predator hunting stuff, and my Barnett Crossbow (with broadheads and arrows). It is one of their recurve crossbows. Compared to my brother in law's new crossbow it is a toy! However, I'm just hunting birds-not deer, so it is perfectly fine.
The first day we messed up our setup. The blind was just too far away from their travel routes, landing zones, and strut zones. In the middle of the day we moved it down to a place where we suspected the turkeys would come to roost. My brother in law was across the creek in another blind. We thought we had them coming and going. Turkeys however are SO unpredictable you may as well roll a dice or pull a card. They came in from the south and flew in from a nearby hill to the roost. It didn't matter right? Now we knew where they were going right?
The next morning they flew a totally different way than we expected. That evening my blind location paid off, but they turkeys would not stop moving. One blew right by me at 30 yards. I threw up a shot, but underestimated the range and it hit the ground between its legs. They pretty much ignored us and roosted in exactly the same place.
Wednesday morning was a bust as well. I didn't see anything and my brother in law saw some but they were too far away and ignoring calls. We moved his blind to the corner of the field near the fence they seemed to enjoy walking beside. When we went back that afternoon to hunt, a young bird ran across the road in front of us headed for our field. Within half an hour my brother in law took it out with his Barnett Crossbow...one on the board!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnDybL6-p3A
This morning Kyle let me sit in his "lucky" blind.
On top of that he let me use his new Barnett Crossbow! I was set!
We got there very early. On the way in, one of my diseases decided to mess with me, and Kyle nicely stopped the vehicle until I recovered enough to go on. Parking near an old farm implement we walked down through the pasture and crossed a couple of fences to get to our blind. Kyle setup a jake and a hen decoy about 15 yards away from the blind and we waited for the turkeys to fly down from the cottonwood trees behind us. Right at shooting light they did...on the other side of the creek in the other field.
No matter they have been walking south every morning, and a few minutes later they started that way. We were in the perfect position. Minutes later a hen "putted" behind us. A "putt" is a bad thing as they do that when they see something they don't like. Sure enough instead of coming up and into our decoys, the gobblers followed the hen for a ways and came up 50 yards to my left.
I had to make a quick decision. I didn't have time to move my cameras or even range. Turning to Kyle I told him I was going to do a "hail mary" shot. I didn't know the range, and I didn't have a brace. However, I shoot hundreds of freehand air rifle shots every month, so it was in my "wheel of skills".
The Barnett Crossbow is incredibly powerful and flat shooting. I guessed the 30 yard line and let fly. The turkeys took off running the one that I shot, flew up the hill and I lost sight of him. Kyle said, "I think you hit him!". I was about 99% sure I missed. We waited a few minutes and then went to find the arrow. It was over 150 yards away in the middle of the field. I picked it up and found no indication of a hit.
As we walked back to the blind I told Kyle, "look there is a possum in that tree". It sorta looked like a turkey, but it was still pretty dark. Kyle said, "no it is YOUR turkey". I was still was not convinced until we got out the binoculars and saw the beard hanging down. We reloaded Kyle's crossbow, grabbed my rangefinder, and started sneaking up on it. I found a spot where I could thread the arrow through the limbs and let fly. WHACK! I hit it dead center of its chest! It fell smashing through the limbs and and landing....IN THE CREEK! Kyle crawled down to get it and we celebrated! One tag filled in KS and one to go!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piN8cUuHlBY
(By the way, the shot was blind luck! We ranged it and it was a headshot, at 40 yards, on a MOVING bird).
Nice 2 year old bird!
In the creek!
Another nice thing is that I can leave stuff out there. I have blinds, some calls, my predator hunting stuff, and my Barnett Crossbow (with broadheads and arrows). It is one of their recurve crossbows. Compared to my brother in law's new crossbow it is a toy! However, I'm just hunting birds-not deer, so it is perfectly fine.
The first day we messed up our setup. The blind was just too far away from their travel routes, landing zones, and strut zones. In the middle of the day we moved it down to a place where we suspected the turkeys would come to roost. My brother in law was across the creek in another blind. We thought we had them coming and going. Turkeys however are SO unpredictable you may as well roll a dice or pull a card. They came in from the south and flew in from a nearby hill to the roost. It didn't matter right? Now we knew where they were going right?
The next morning they flew a totally different way than we expected. That evening my blind location paid off, but they turkeys would not stop moving. One blew right by me at 30 yards. I threw up a shot, but underestimated the range and it hit the ground between its legs. They pretty much ignored us and roosted in exactly the same place.
Wednesday morning was a bust as well. I didn't see anything and my brother in law saw some but they were too far away and ignoring calls. We moved his blind to the corner of the field near the fence they seemed to enjoy walking beside. When we went back that afternoon to hunt, a young bird ran across the road in front of us headed for our field. Within half an hour my brother in law took it out with his Barnett Crossbow...one on the board!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnDybL6-p3A
This morning Kyle let me sit in his "lucky" blind.
On top of that he let me use his new Barnett Crossbow! I was set! We got there very early. On the way in, one of my diseases decided to mess with me, and Kyle nicely stopped the vehicle until I recovered enough to go on. Parking near an old farm implement we walked down through the pasture and crossed a couple of fences to get to our blind. Kyle setup a jake and a hen decoy about 15 yards away from the blind and we waited for the turkeys to fly down from the cottonwood trees behind us. Right at shooting light they did...on the other side of the creek in the other field.
No matter they have been walking south every morning, and a few minutes later they started that way. We were in the perfect position. Minutes later a hen "putted" behind us. A "putt" is a bad thing as they do that when they see something they don't like. Sure enough instead of coming up and into our decoys, the gobblers followed the hen for a ways and came up 50 yards to my left.
I had to make a quick decision. I didn't have time to move my cameras or even range. Turning to Kyle I told him I was going to do a "hail mary" shot. I didn't know the range, and I didn't have a brace. However, I shoot hundreds of freehand air rifle shots every month, so it was in my "wheel of skills".
The Barnett Crossbow is incredibly powerful and flat shooting. I guessed the 30 yard line and let fly. The turkeys took off running the one that I shot, flew up the hill and I lost sight of him. Kyle said, "I think you hit him!". I was about 99% sure I missed. We waited a few minutes and then went to find the arrow. It was over 150 yards away in the middle of the field. I picked it up and found no indication of a hit.
As we walked back to the blind I told Kyle, "look there is a possum in that tree". It sorta looked like a turkey, but it was still pretty dark. Kyle said, "no it is YOUR turkey". I was still was not convinced until we got out the binoculars and saw the beard hanging down. We reloaded Kyle's crossbow, grabbed my rangefinder, and started sneaking up on it. I found a spot where I could thread the arrow through the limbs and let fly. WHACK! I hit it dead center of its chest! It fell smashing through the limbs and and landing....IN THE CREEK! Kyle crawled down to get it and we celebrated! One tag filled in KS and one to go!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piN8cUuHlBY
(By the way, the shot was blind luck! We ranged it and it was a headshot, at 40 yards, on a MOVING bird).
Nice 2 year old bird!
In the creek!
