My turkey
The beard was about 8″ long
The turkey and me.
This morning I decided to look for some walk-in places that I had never been to before. I drove out west and south of Topeka, Kansas. I found a large place, about 500 acres, that had a few row crops on it but most of it was in CRP but all of the land that bordered it was in corn or soy beans.
You can’t train dogs on walk-in properties in Kansas but they allow turkey hunting in the fall with dogs. They, also, have an early prairie chicken season but it’s over for now. I have to turkey hunt to be able to run my dogs. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it.
At the first place I turned Lucky and Blaze out. It was already nearing 70 degrees but we had a good south wind. We went down a hedge row beside a soy bean field about 1/4 of a mile then a half mile across the bottom. We came back to the road and there was a weedy draw that ran along the road and back to the first hedge row we came down. We were all the way back near the first hedge row and I was heading for the truck when I checked the Garmin GPS. It showed Blaze on point in the cover almost to the hedge row. When I got close to her she moved up about 10 yards and went back on point then moved again. She pointed again but before I could get close I heard a covey flush. The dogs were hot and dry so we headed for the truck. I watered Lucky and Blaze then put them in their box.
I drove to a different area of the same farm and turned Tur Bo and Dolly out. We went down a weedy fence row beside a corn field for about 500 yards. The GPS showed Dolly on point in a draw at the end of the corn field about 125 yards ahead of me. While I was walking to her and watching the GPS it showed Tur Bo near Dolly on point. He must have been honoring. I got within about 40 yards and they were both moving. I don’t know what happened but Dolly came close to me just seconds later and didn’t act like she had been chasing birds. We worked our way back to the road without seeing anything. I watered Dolly and Tur Bo then put them in the dog box.
The only dog I had not hunted was Luke. I drove to another farm and turned him out by his self. This farm was about 450 acres of mostly CRP with some draws running through it. I wasn’t going to go very far since the temperature was about 75 degrees but Luke had another idea. We went about 1/4 of a mile through the CRP and I made a turn to work back to the truck but Luke went on about 150 yards and the GPS showed him on point. When I got close he was moving but when he came by he was all muddy so he wasn’t on point he was wallowing in water to cool off. We started back to the truck and when we got within about 1/4 of a mile I checked the GPS and he was on point about 100 yards away but not toward the truck.
I hadn’t turned off the extra GPS collar and I could see that it was about 400 yards to the truck and Luke was on point 100 yards the other way. I thought he’s probably found some more water but I started to him. I got within about 20 yards of him and I heard some turkeys putting then I saw one flying through the trees. I took a step or two to get a better look and one flew out of the timber in front of me. It was flying from my right to the left. I was shooting my Francotte 12 gauge side by side choked skeet and a little tighter than improved cylinder. It has 2 triggers so the choice of chokes can be quick. I pulled the back trigger shooting the tighter choke and down he came.
The first thing I noticed when I got to him was the spurs. Robin Barrows and I killed 6 turkeys year before last and all but one of them had been hens. I wasn’t expecting a gobbler. By the time I got to the truck I was wishing that it had been a smaller bird. I watered Luke and put him in the dog box.
I started looking for something to tie the turkey tag on with. Usually there is some string or wire ties or something but not today. The only thing I could find was a stapler that I carry to stitch a cut dog up with. I put the tag around a leg and stapled it. The tag was still on when I got home. I’m not a real turkey hunter but I thought I should weigh and measure him. He weighed almost 18 pounds with an eight inch beard and one inch spurs.
Now if a Conservation agent asks me what I’m hunting I can say, “I’m a turkey hunter.”