Justin Zarr and Dustin Decroo spent some time in the state of Kansas last week chasing public land turkeys. The guys gathered some intel from a friend and hit the road for a 9-hour drive out for a quick, day and a half of turkey hunting in Kansas. They arrived in town with just enough time to go out and roost some birds in an area they were hoping might still be holding some birds. After hearing gobbles from the roost, they made plans to get all their gear setup for the following morning hunt before heading to town to buy licenses and find a hotel.
The first morning’s hunt found the guys in the new Mantis ground blind with a bunch of birds sounding off from the roost. Unfortunately the birds flew down and went the other way. The guys held tight hoping some birds might return to the field they were in to investigate their calling. Sure enough, up in the morning, three jakes popped out behind the guys’ blind and made their way to the HS Strut decoys. Justin picked out the biggest bird in the bunch and dropped the string, killing the first bird of the trip with his Mathews Triax.
The guys shot some photos, moved the blind closer to where the action was at flydown and made plans for an afternoon setup to get Dustin on a bird. With everything in place, they headed town for food and to fix a flat tire before heading back out for the afternoon.
The afternoon hunt started off slow with the guys calling periodically in hopes of catching a bird slipping back towards the roost. Eventually a couple gobblers and hens made their way back in to the field to investigate Dustin’s calls. The turkeys came across the field but held up about 30 yards out. Dustin, shooting the new TenPoint Shadow NXT crossbow, figured they were close and sent a bolt toward the biggest of the two birds. And just like that, the guys had each killed a bird on the first day of turkey hunting in Kansas. Dustin’s killed a beefy bird with a 11.5″ beard. It was a great way to kick off the 2018 spring turkey season.
Be watching for these hunts with the guys turkey hunting in Kansas coming soon to the Bowhunt or Die web show at Bowhunting.com.