Prairie Thunder Outfitters provided an outstanding hunt. The guides were knowledgeable and extremely helpful and determined to help me get the bird I wanted. The lodge was fantastic and I loved the décor, especially the waterfowl and deer mounts. See pictures on their face book page. Private rooms and showers along with a fully out fitted kitchen where some food was provided and you could purchase any additional needed. Lunch was mainly at Casey's dinner. The burgers were awesome but a little rich. Beds were very nice and I slept from the moment my head hit the pillow until the wake up call in the am. I was truly impressed by this outfit and consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to hunt with Prairie Thunder. They have the land and they have the turkeys!! One factor that worried me was the Kansas Spring weather and it did not disappoint: winds up to forty miles an hour, thunder storms with hail and rain. In fact the storm was fast moving and very frightening. I could hear the electricity in the cloud overhead sizzling and crackling: never heard anything like it.
My Rio Turkey hunt with Prairie Thunder was scheduled for a 2.5 day hunt but I arrived early and was invited to hunt that evening. Despite a plane flight and two hour drive from the airport I was ready to go. We set up close to a roost and had three jakes come into the decoys but the tom's circled us and roosted in back.
Next day we spotted some toms in a brushy area. We closed to about 70 yards and backed up to a tree. A few yelps and two Tom's came to investigate. They passed behind a brush pile and as they came into view and I could see the beard on the leader I pulled the trigger. 1st bird down. I could not beleive how excited Zack was: you would have thought he killed the bird.
Same day we spotted a huge tom hanging with two jakes. Setup and called in the jakes who then putted at the decoys and scared off the big tom. Changed guides to Carson and that evening set up by a different roost. Huge Tom came in and roosted 60 yards from us with hens. Only jakes came in to decoys. Decided I would only hunt this Tom. Set up on this bird for 4 hunts total. On the third hunt the thunder storm described earlier separated this Tom from his hens. He was not happy.
Easter Sunday morning we set up on the big tom. Found his location by owl hooting. He was with jakes and they gobbled none stop for 45 minutes. When they flew down we were left high and dry. Birds moved out into the fields away from us. However the big tom stayed behind gobbling. We moved into the thicket and set up about 100 yards from him. He responded but stayed in the brush and passed me by: no shot.
He went up into the field and we set up again. He came in very quickly gobbling all the way. He passed by a brushy area in front of me and then moved to the right and put his head up. I dropped the hammer during the last couple hours of the hunt. Totally amazing finish. Many thanks to Carson and Zack.
Awesome story!
Congrats
Nice! Congrats!!
Congrats,glad you had a good hunt .
Congratulations! Thanks for sharing. Sound like you had a great adventure.
It was a great adventure. The action was non stop and the final bird was the most memorable hunt I have ever had. That Rio bird is truly majestic. The first bird's colors were extremely bright and well defined: especially the red and orange. The pictures don't do these birds justice. Heading for the taxidermist.
Congrats! Nice job
Very nice gobbler,congrats!! :happy0064: :happy0064: :happy0064:
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Nice pictures and great story!
That's great. I'm looking into doing a hunt with them as well. This post has definitely swayed me
Way to stick it out for that ol boss gobbler, Congratulations
Congrats on a awesome hunt... :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright: