Kansas Turkey Adventures

[noharleyyet]

Good stuff K-dad, you have put a lot of work in this thread. I've enjoyed the pics and narrative.

 

[kansasdad]

Fall turkey season has closed in Kansas. As I cleaned out my wallet of the unfilled, and yet not unused hunting tags I thought about those two similar and yet very different words. I did not shoot a turkey this fall, thus the tag goes unfilled. I did get out several times specifically hoping to find a turkey this fall, and used that tag to feed the soul of this hunter and lover of the outdoors. I did not shoot a buck this past hunting season, but I did admire and enjoy the displays of deer life that I was privileged to observe over the hours spent outdoors. (And the young bucks passed over will be bigger and more wily than ever). For short periods of time, I was able to leave my business/practice and do the primal hunter/gatherer thing. Sometimes I was bringing home a harvest of protein, sometimes coming home with nothing but an appreciation for the gift of Nature, and the gift of living and hunting in Kansas.

 

[1_pointer]

Well said. Very fun thread

 

[kansasdad]

Squeezing out a few more memories of a season gone bye, looking forward to 2016 turkey season.


Early morning breakfast and showoff time






kansasson's first tom....the camera just can't capture all the varied color and iridescence.

 

[kansasdad]

Spring turkey season for shotgun hunters is less than 2 months away.

I had thought that this picture might be my favorite one from my time afield chasing turkeys in 2015/16. It is my favorite turkey pic from last season. Unbelievable colors coming off this bird, drenched in sunlight, with drought busting rain bringing up a nice collection of flowers.

 

[kansasdad]

I think that with all the fun I had "hunting" turkeys with gun and/or camera in hand, nothing beats the day kansasson and I went "ninja" on a flock of birds and he scored on this tom. The birds were fun, but that day afield with my son was the highlight of the entire season.




Come on April!!

 

[kansasdad]

Spring season in Kansas is shortly upon us........Tick, tock, tick, tock,....... just say "NO TO TICKS"!!!

As the son of a veterinarian, I grew up taking dogie penicillin, and having horse ointment sooth any boo boos. I am also cheap enough to use the animal equivalent to permethrin to prevent those little crawly things from getting on me. Please remember that this works by making your clothing inhospitable to insects of all kinds, and is not to be applied to your skin.



I was in my suburban neighborhood to see what the turkeys were up to, and I saw some turkeys running around the corner of one of the lake houses, headed my way. I yelped on my mouth call, and got my first gobbles of the year from these handsome gentlemen.

 

[Mudranger1]

Had a couple gobbles this past weekend while doing some recon.wasnt doing any calling tho. 2 more weeks

 

[Ttannahill14]

Best of luck!

I'll be sitting turkey season out. Only so many days allowed by the lady out in the field. I'd rather save them up for fall!

 

[Southwind]

I just bought two new bottles of Sawyers Permethrin today. I scouted Sunday morning for the Governor's Celebrity hunt and they are gobbling but still in large groups. It's coming!

 

[kansasdad]

A little reminder to all who anticipate adventuring after turkeys in Kansas this spring:

Purchasing your OTC (and over the internet) permit/tag combo before April 1st gives you a little bit of a discount compared to waiting until after 3/31/16.

 

[kansasdad]

Kansas does a good job with helping hunters find what little public accessible land there is to find.

Besides WIHA (walk in hunting areas) there are state wildlife areas, state parks and Corps of Engineer lands that may be of value to a turkey adventurer.

The 2016' WIHA atlas is now online: http://ksdot.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=a6467b7c4f714053ab63003607674413

 

[kansasdad]

High temps in south central Kansas last week were in the 60's and 70's. Of,course there were blizzard warnings in far northwest Kansas and tornado warnings in far northeast Kansas, and just for good measure over 600 square miles of pasture burned to a crisp in Kansas largest wildfire being pushed by 30-50 mph winds.

And we wake up to wet snow on Easter morning. Hopefully this will help the firefighters working to contain the remaining fires.

What's a hormonally frustrated tom turkey to do?? Get your gobble on boys.

 

[kansasdad]

My local WalMart had the printed version of the WIHA atlas. Besides the WIHA properties, it also shows the state wildlife areas, and Corps of Engineer areas (mostly around dams, and watershed areas).

 

[kansasdad]

The boys are getting fired up.

 

[1_pointer]

Saw two big groups of gobblers over the weekend with at least one male in each strutting! Just wish I didn't have a month to wait...

 

[Flint Hillbilly]

I have a field across the street from my house where turkeys congregate in NE KS, and Saturday saw the coolest thing. Two toms were chested up and locked at the beak at 100 yards, pushing each other around for an hour. Since then been a lot of struttin. Gonna try archery this year, get a week head start.

 

[kansasdad]

Last day to purchase the two turkey combo tags with the earlybird discount.

This picture is now my computer desktop image. He and his buddies were really putting on a show gobbling/strutting and pushing each other around.

 

[kansasdad]

Need to get out the camo, clothesline and permethrin spray bottle tonight. The goal is to be tick free all season.

 

[kansasdad]

Season opening at 6:25 am for Wichita area turkey shotgun hunters. Saturday will be my first day to get out after them. Hopefully see scenes such as these boys.



And as easy to find as these birds are regularly seen in the pecan grove.



Double gobble yourself over my way big boy(s)