After some searching and internet scouting, my 2 hunting buddies and I decided to hunt the famous Black Kettle. We arrived on the 22nd of April, and the season was two weeks old already, so we expected birds to be a bit touchy. In twelve days of hunting, between the 3 of us, we were able to get a response from NO gobblers. We are not new to this game, and had expected to at least get a bird or two. But, to watch toms within 150 yards absolutely ignore our calls....soft...quiet... aggressive....it made no difference. We observed outfitters throwing out corn across the fence on the private lands to hold birds for their clients.... more than once. Totally frustrated, we started talking with other hunters in the area.... they said to head them off.... sneak up on them....ambush them..... Nah... I want to hunt turkeys, not wait in ambush on a draw somewhere hoping a tom would stroll by sometime today. Not my idea of hunting turkeys.
Did we make mistakes..... sure. I was told by outfitters that after the first week, all the huntable birds move to private lands and completely ignore anything on the government lands.... I didn't believe them.....Now I do.
Scratched Black Kettle off my list of places that I will ever hunt again..... would much rather hunt where birds at least talk back...occasionally. :-))
