RE: Team 2 !!! "THUNDERSTRUT"
I'm almost embarrassed to say I missed a great dominate gobbler on the 2nd day of the Kansas season. We hunted in the afternoon in an area we saw a strutter, but couldn't get to in the morning. We were working three birds on one side of the field, I positioned my father in-law between me and the birds. He's never turkey hunted before. Unfortunately, after 30 minutes or so, we couldn't pull them over.
Meanwhile, I heard a gobble behind me. I turned around and slid down the birm I was sitting on to some trees. I was able to pick out the tom about 200 yds away across a creek in full strut. He started answering my calls and before too long he crossed the creek. Slam dunk I thought as soon as he saw my decoy, but he had three hens with him and another gobbler later appeared.
He answered every call, but wouldn’t come over, just kept at the end of the field. He started to come, but a hen started putting, she eventually came within 10 feet of me. I froze and she went back. He finally moved off, and I thought I’d circle around and cut the distance. Right when I packed the calls and put an arm down to stand up, I turned and saw a hen 15 feet from me, next to my decoy, between my father in-law and me. She eventually went to the field so I got more aggressive with the calls. Never leaving full strut, I saw him through the trees and he started to come down. Took the shot at 25 yards, MISS. Off he went. Funny thing was, my father in-law couldn't see a thing, could only listen.
Went to range today, found out scope was 1 ½ ft. low at 25. Learned my lesson to sight in.
I’ll get him soon! The whole episode was 1 ½ hours of me calling, him strutting and gobbling. He must have gobbled 150-200 times. It was amazing. Good Luck.