I drove out to Kansas yesterday and ran into the wind from you now where. It was blowing about 60mph on the gusts. When I got to where I could hunt, a big old boy was strutting in the road. I drove past him and went back in to get him, guess what he was gone[:@]. I spent most of the afternoon calling for no purpose. Spotted a few nested up hens, this is a good thing but not what I wanted to see. My buddy told me there were gobblers all over his land. Not from what I could see. I had run the outer edges and glassed all the likely spots, no birds. I went back and sat for 3hrs where I saw the old boy. I called hard to beat the wind, but got no response. I picked up my stuff and headed over to where all the birds were being seen a week ago. I set up and called for 1.5hrs and nothing. I had about 45 minutes of hunting time left and I was going to blow it off til morning. As I was getting up, I glassed the area one last time and low and behold there was a gobbler. He was about 200yds away on a little noll. I cranked up the box call and a Split V III. But he had no reaction to my calling. And from where he was at he couldn't see the decoys. I could tell he couldn't hear the calling. And the only way to get closer was to belly crawl across the alfalfa, since he was in the middle of it. This is a dangerous game, but I had to try. The ground has rolls to it and I used the rolls to my favor. I gained about 80yds and hit a hard cutt and series of yelps. Poof, the gobbler went into full strut. He didn't cover ground fast, but was on his way. With a few putts and purrs and clucks at the right time, I kept him on the path to me. About 45yds out he dropped into a roll and I lost sight of him. I was sweating a little because I wasn't sure where he was. And he never gobbled no matter what I through at him. I had to keep myself from easing up to take a look, I would have blown it for sure. Then I saw the tips of his tail, then the top of his head. He was about 17yds out, 3 quick putts and up comes his head and boom down goes the bird. He is a nice 2 year old Rio. It was a hard day but well worth it.
Gselkhunter
Windy Bird
