Rusty (my son, 12) and I just finished up our 2016 Kansas trip and even though it was the slowest hunting I've experienced in KS we killed our birds in 3 days with marginal weather and me bowhunting. It was Rusty's first time up there and I was looking forward to showing him what a difference it is compared to down here.
Our first afternoon found us in a corner of a corn stubble field bordering pasture land. We had set up a tent blind and put out dekes. The only action was a pair of jakes and a couple hens feeding through the area. We didn't see or hear a gobbler. The next morning we set up in the same spot and heard a few birds hammering away, but it was all on ground we didn't have permission to hunt, so we sat and called. The same pair of jakes keep coming back and forth and after about the fifth trip to my hen decoy I decided I wanted a jake fan, so I drew back as Rusty filmed with my cell phone and smoked the bigger jake at 21 yards. He ran about 5 - 10 yards and piled up! The other birds went along as nothing had happened so we sat tight. A half hour later I yelped loud on my slate and a bird gobble behind us to the left, really close. I told Rusty he is close enough to kill and looked out the left window over my shoulder and saw a big white head sticking up just above the tall grass. We couldn't see his body and he was acting like he wasn't going to come in the field, so I told Rusty to kill him there. He crushed him! We walked up to him and saw he was a 22.5 pound triple beard! Going to the taxidermist, not bad for the first morning.
That afternoon it was raining off and on, we decided to go hit another farm and put the blind out. As we pull up I see a flock of birds around 700 yards away in the stubble. I pull out the binos from the truck and see a strutter, a few other toms, and a couple hens. I decide to try fanning them, so we load the 20 gauge, grab the fan and go sneaking down a fence row that would put us within 350 yards out and above them. Once there we high crawl around 100 yards then start belly crawling while showing them the fan. They had started moving to our left while we were in transit, but the strutter saw the fan and was holding his ground strutting at us. Rusty and I were covered in mud, and he keep asking when you going to call dad? I told him no calling, just crawling as we inched closer and closer showing the fan. Once we got about 150 yards from the tom, he had enough and charged us! He dropped his wings and made a b-line towards us foolishly thinking it he owned the farm. I slipped a few yards back and advised rusty as soon as he crested a slight rise in front of us to shoot. A second or two later he crested and Rusty let the TSS fly at 8 yards. The bird went down with a few flops. I kept the fan up and a few of the other birds started to charge, I swapped the fan for the gun and drew down on one of the longbeards at 10 yards. I then decided to pass and try to kill my last bird with the bow, so we dropped the fan and birds busted out of there in all directions. We sat there in the mud having a great time talking about what we just did. After a minute or two we got up to go look at his 2nd KS longbeard and it was a monster bird. 1.5 inch razor sharp hooks, 11 inch rope, and 23.25 pounds! That bird was the most fun I've ever had hunting turkeys and I'll remember that one forever.
Day two found us back in a tent with me trying to whack one with the bow, it was slow. Did a little scouting mid-day and decide to go back to where Rusty killed the triple beard the next morning.
Day three, a few gobbles heard off in the distance, but nothing close as the sun came up. This morning I left the strutter in the truck and put out a jake and hen. Not long after fly down a jake came by and beat up my dekes for 15 - 20 minutes. He put on a show at 12 yards, but eventually got bored of the dekes and wandered off behind a bearded hen. I cut on the mouth call once they got out of sight and a bird gobbled in the pasture to our north and he was close. I tell Rusty to get ready and no sooner a pair of hens pop out at 25 yards dragging a nice tom. We let him get to 20 yards, I draw the bow and collect another nice longbeard. All in all a great time.
