No doubt the weather has been really bad. It was wet, windy, and cold for most of my trip, but we managed to take advantage of the small windows we had. On opening day my best friend Sean and I returned to my favorite farm and walked in the dark to my honey spot. We were almost to where I wanted to setup and he grabbed my vest and pointed out a turkey roosted about forty yards to our right. The moon was almost full and I raised my binoculars and could see it was a gobbler. He had his head under his wing and was sleeping. We were very quiet and careful as I set out the B-Mobile decoy and one hen. We backed off to two trees and settled in. It was super early, but very cool watching him on the limb so close. Got to watch him wake up, stretch, etc. Funny but he never gobbled. Just as light started to increase a turkey gobbled down in a meadow below us. He gobbled pretty good, but the one close to us never did. I was disappointed. Finally the one below us flew down and I could see two more with him. Turns out all three of those were gobblers. They slowly made their way to us and were about 60 yards when the one very close to us pitched down about 10 yards from our decoys. Immediately went into full strut and walked over to B-Mobile and the show began. He flogged, stomped, pecked, this poor decoy. One of the best shows I have seen in some time. Sean being the good friend he is, held off until the other three gobblers came in. They had to cross a small stream and a four strand barbed wire fence before running into our setup. I picked one out that had a really thick long beard and waited for Sean to shoot. He finally decided to shoot and I followed up with a clean kill myself. Another opening day Missouri Double. Really awesome hunt.
Because you can only kill one bird the first week of Missouri, we jumped over to Kansas to a farm near White Cloud in the NE corner of Kansas. Loaded with turkeys, but proved to be difficult. I was lucky to setup blind on the edge of a field that was bordered by a small stream and some timber. The turkeys were roosted on the edge of the field and pitched down and eventually walked my way. Not sure why but this gobbler doubled back and came off my left shoulder. There were two more gobblers in the flock that stayed in the field, but this one was sneaking down the edge of the small stream in the timber. Guess he was going to put the surprise attack on the decoys. Just as he walked behind a blown down tree, I spun around and pointed my gun where he was going to pop out. When I did several of the other turkeys saw me and got nervous. He walked out upright and alert and I had to go ahead and shoot him. When I did he flipped off the bank of the stream and landed in a deep pool and just got soaking wet. I was so disappointed. He looked horrible. I had to just laugh when I was taking the pictures. Body wise, he was a huge bird. I know he was wet, but not sure how much that added to the weight. He topped the scale at 27 pounds. I will post all the pictures and measurements/stats next.
This my friends wraps up my turkey season. I had planned a trip to Montana, but not going to be able to make it. My family has been so understanding, especially my wife and now its time to get back to work with them and my career. I want to say I really enjoyed this season. Been fun interacting with everyone. Hope everyone enjoys their season as much as I have.