Kansas Turkey Hunting Roadtrip

Todd Graf and Josh Sturgill hit the road a few days ago in search of turkeys in Kansas. And in true Kansas fashion, the first day offered everything the boys had hoped for with an opportunity for a double right from the start.

Here’s an update from Sturgill on the first morning hunt…

We had a nasty storm blow through and then the weather turned sunny and stable, with lows in the 40’s and highs in the 70’s. Our decoy set consisted of a full strut decoy, a submissive hen, and one feeder hen. The birds gobbled great off the roost on the first morning. We had a number of birds come our way but they would not commit to the decoy spread. They simply circled us about 40 yards out.

Later on, we had one bird gobbling several hundred yards out. Then he went silent. Thirty minutes later a bird went crazy, gobbling 30 feet behind our blind. The gobbler walked right in to the decoys. He avoided the strutting decoy and walked straight to the hen. He stood right by the hen decoy pecking her and chest bumping her. I had won the coin toss, so I was up to bat first while Todd filmed.

Sturgill prepares to shoot when the first bird of the trip slipped into the decoys.

The short shot was perfect and the bird only took 5 steps before tipping over. I grabbed the bird, tagged it, and swapped out my bow for the camera as Todd was now behind his bow.

Thirty minutes later, Todd spotted a bird working his way down the tree line towards us. We gave a couple purrs and he hammered back. He continued to gobble and quickly made his way to our setup. The bird came to the exact spot I had killed my bird and Todd put an arrow through him. Two birds down on the first morning in Kansas!

The guys have more time, more tags, and plenty of birds in the area. Be sure to check back to see how their hunt wraps up. And be watching for this hunt on a future episode of Bowhunt or Die.