This being my first out of state hunt I was pumped up months ahead. This trip was my graduation present to myself. I decided to go with our own MRA outfit and could not have asked for anyone else better to hunt their property. Jeremy really knew what he was doing and set up Mark and I on birds from the get go. Mark and I were not in Kansas a mere 45 minutes before we were standing in the middle of a country road watching 8 big strutters showing off for a girlfriend. Eventually they flew up for the night and we hunted that property for the next 3 days. Unfortunately, the gobblers those days did not want to play. Had tons of hens and jakes come in but Mark and I were not there for jakes.
The second morning we woke up to a blizzard. Over six inches of snow on the ground along with at least 40 mph winds. I battled it out but only heard 1 gobble that morning and decided to go back to the truck. Amazingly, that afternoon all the snow was gone. I could not get over how all the snow disappeared so quickly.
Well then comes Saturday morning. I can honestly say, when 5 am showed up I didn't wanna get out of the warm comfy bed. But it was my first morning hunt that didn't include a snow storm so I was not going to lay in bed. Plus, being it the last morning Mark and I decided to try another property that Jeremy told us he had seen plenty of birds on. Once we set up around 7am we still hadn't heard a gobble. But around 7:15 Mark says "there is a bird out in the field". A gobbler was 70 yards away from our set up just staring. He did this for 10 minutes. He would gobble some, but was really interested in Tommy, just wouldn't come in. Eventually he walked into the tree line and we could not see him anymore.
Shortly after we had a hen fly off roost 20 yards from us. She fed around our decoys for a while but then went in the direction where the gobbler went into the woods. My first thoughts, "We set up in the wrong area because the area they were moving was opposite what we thought". But then I was proved completely wrong. What Jeremy told us the birds would do they did. It was like they were reading a script.
As Booner peaked through the blind window he quickly looks over at me and says "He comes a bus load of birds". My excitement started to kick in. As I saw a line of birds march into our decoy set up I tried to find a gobbler. None to be found. 8 hens..wow.
"Here comes a strutter Joe". I look through the window Mark is looking through and see a big ole black ball. I immediately knew I wanted to shoot this bird so I attach my release to my D-loop. Fast forward 15 seconds I was at full draw and the gobbler was in full strut in front of Tommy spitting and drumming so loud I nearly fell out of my chair. Finally I could not take it anymore. I put the pin on his chest and squeezed the release. As soon as I shot I heard the arrow hit him...not just hit him, but hit him hard!! Next thing I heard is Mark asking if I hit him... "Oh yeah, he is done." And done he was. He made it 40 yards into the woods and piled up. After that my Rio laid and waited for me to come get him.
Like many of you know this trip was a graduation present to myself for graduating college and I could not have asked for a better trip. Covered in birds the whole trip and Mark and I had more fun than people should be allowed to have. Thank you Jeremy and Mark for making this trip so much fun
Anyways, Whitetail Affliction meet Big Roy.
25 pounds of a pure brawler.
Gotta love it... SPILL IT!!
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