Youth getting it done in Kansas

We had our annual Kansas Turkey Camp weekend April 3rd - April 6th this year. We had three youth hunters in camp along with six adult hunters. Logan and Scott arrived in KC Thursday afternoon and we headed over to Topeka to scout for the following morning. Logan, Scott and I headed to an area on the west side of the public ground where we'd seen multiple birds earlier in the week. The area consisted of a big hill with a creek at the bottom that opened up into a tall broom grass field. We got in early and set up the blind and decoys while it was pitch black....I knew there was a rise grass field that we wanted the decoys on, but in the predawn darkness I missed the mark by about 5yrds and placed the decoys below the rise.

Even with the high winds and spitting rain the birds on the roost were wound up and sounding off on the regular. Logan had never really heard a lot of gobbling, so he was pretty excited. We could actually see several birds roosted in the trees from our location. At fly down a group of jakes pitched right into the plowed field behind us. They proceeded to fight and cause a ruckus for over an hour before moving off to the north.

 

 Once the group of jakes moved off I slid out of the blind and crawled to the decoys, so I could move them on top of the rise in the grass field. On my way back to the blind a jake pitched over me and landed on the back side of the rise in the field. I crawled into the blind got seated and made a few soft calls on the VECtor slate call. A couple minutes later we had a red head sneaking through the grass into the decoys. We got the camera fired up in time to get the kill on video...Logan brought the heat!

 

 

 After Logan recovered his bird we settled back into the blind to finish out the morning hunt. The wind continued to pick up and I was making a calling sequence  every 20-30 minutes. Around 10am I told Scott I heard a turkey "putt" in the grass, but I wasn't 100% sure. Right about that time Logan spotted another red head sneaking up behind the decoys. This gobbler had come in silent on the back side of the rise, so we couldn't see him until he was on top of the spread. Logan gave me time to fire the camera back up, just before he torched his 2nd bird of the morning....and with that Little Man was tagged out a couple hours into his Kansas season! 

Friday evening Brian and his daughter MaKenna rolled into town for Kenna's first ever turkey hunt. We elected to hunt a big bottom field Saturday morning that had been holding several stutters all week during our scouting trips. We got in early and had the blind setup and it didn't take long for the first bird of the morning to fire up on the roost....and he was close! We had birds roosted all along the ridge behind us, but only three toms actually pitched into the field. Kenna got a good show for her first sit, but none of the boys would leave their solo girlfriend and come play with us. After a couple hours of slow action Kenna had all she could take, so we packed up and headed in for lunch. 

 

Saturday afternoon's sit was pretty slow across the board, but Sunday morning was a different story all together. Brian and Kenna headed into one of our most productive areas and had birds roosted all over their setup. Shortly after fly down they had several hens out in the field when three strutters showed up on the scene. Brian made some soft calls and the trio couldn't resist...the march was on. Kenna smoked the first bird and his buddies stuck around, so Brian got another shell chambered and the Little Huntress laid down a Kansas Double Tap! MaKenna was tagged out with her first and second gobbler ever....one was an awesome looking rio-eastern hybrid also! 

 

Logan's 2013 MO Youth Hunt

11/2/13
Logan, Scott and Adam arrived Friday evening from Minnesota for the 2013 MO youth season. Scott and I hung a double ladder set this summer just west of The Beach set for Logan. There had been a lot of movement during day light in the bottom for several weeks leading up to the hunt.

Logan and Scott settled into Double Trouble for the first morning's sit, Adam settle into Poachers Pond and I crawled into the Forgotten set. Adam had a small buck work a rub early, but that was the only action for the morning. We headed back to the cabin around 11am for a quick lunch. Adam elected to sit all day and Logan and I headed back into Double Trouble for the evening sit. We didn't see any deer by us, but Adam had four small bucks work past him and Scott had an encounter with a nice 125" eight pointer.

Sunday morning Scott and Logan settled back into Double Trouble, Adam headed into the North Oak Ridge set, and I hunted the Poop Pond ladder. Just after first light I had a spike work into 10yrds before heading back north after three does that crossed onto my ridge. There was a big shooter bumping them around, but they worked back to the northwest. Logan and Scott didn't see a deer again, so we started discussing options for the Sunday night hunt.

Brian offered to let Logan sit over his food plot on a small KC tract he has permission on. Friday evening he'd seen three big shooters in the field while bow hunting. The last hurdle was finding Adam a spot to hunt and our good friend Greg Cole offered to let Adam sit on his KC lease, so we pulled up stales and burned back to KC. We dropped Adam off with Greg and rolled out to meet Brian.

We were settled in the shooting house by 3:15pm and the waiting game started. Within an hour I'd spotted several does filtering through the timber just off the food plot, which was a nice change since Logan had hunted almost 13 hours without seeing a deer. Around 4:50pm Scott said "good buck out front" and we all spotted a nice 2.5 year old ten pointer enter the plot, make a scrape and start bumping other bucks and does around. We got Logan on the shooting sticks but the buck wouldn't stop chasing deer long enough for a good shot. He ended up pushing a group of does off the field. Logan was pretty disappointed, but we told him to keep his head up and more deer would show up. From 5pm on the action was fast and furious...several bucks entered the plot and started bumping does around. We had Logan set up on two other bucks, but the the earlier scenario kept playing out; they wouldn't stop chasing long enough for a clean shot.

With 16 minutes of legal shooting light remaining the last buck in the field pushed several does off and Logan looked at me with tears welling up in his eyes and said " I blew it uncle Pete, that was my last chance at a buck". Right then Scott spotted a small six point enter the back of the field. He started to get Logan set up on the sticks and started glassing the six point. Right when I got the little buck into view through the binos I saw a big set of antlers start to materialize out of the timber behind the little guy and said to Logan and Scott "Holy shit, big shooter coming"  Logan was setting up out the right window, so he couldn't see the big deer and Scott had this perplexed look like...what the F are you talking about, it's a basket racked sixer! He took one look through his binos and realized another much bigger buck was now in the field and told Logan "yep, he's a big 6 point". The big deer worked right down a cut lane in the plot and at 85yrds. he cut right to check on a couple does. I grunted at him and he locked up and looked our direction. Logan was already settled in and touched off the shot. Logan and Scott lost sight of the deer while chambering another round and the deer started clearing the field. I had my binos locked on the buck the entire time and watched the bullet hit home. Ol' Boy pulled up in a small dip on the edge of the field, did a little death wobble and tipped over dead! I looked back at Logan and Scott and said "Buddy you just crushed a giant buck, he's down right on the edge of the plot". Logan went into meltdown mode and Scott and I did a little celebrating ourselves. Brian was actually sitting in my Double Bull blind just behind us and got to see all of the action and help in the recovery process.

Just when we thought the night couldn't get any better we received a text from Adam; buck down! Right at last light a nice young eight point worked into the rye plot he was sitting over. A great shot and short tracking job later and Adam had his hands on his first MO archery deer.

I can't thank Brian and Greg enough for helping us out and getting Logan on his first antlered buck...none of this could have happened without their generosity and Logan is going to owe them both for a long time!!!!