By Jared Blohm
The sun was just starting to pop up over the horizon as a loud gobble echoed into the clearing. It was close and from the top of a tree. Overcast skies and a cold rain had dampened our enthusiasm to get out too early that morning, but our pace quickened noticeably after we knew a gobbler was roosted nearby.
My dad and I had made the drive to northeast Kansas from Wisconsin the day before. We got in an afternoon hunt with Flambeau/M.A.D. Pro Staffer Todd Wilson after we arrived, but rain, wind and tornado warnings cut the hunt short and left us looking for our first Kansas bird the next morning.
Now in the tent blind, I strained to hear our treed gobbler sound off again. Todd coaxed a response using a M.A.D. Classic Aluminator Pot Call, but the gobbler was on the ground now, and further away. It had flown down into the field on the other side of the treeline.
A little later, in the distance, we could see turkeys working the field edge as they slowly circled behind the treeline to our rear. There were three gobblers and they were going to be tough to pull away from the hens they were with.
The turkeys were silent and out of view for over a half hour when a shadow to our right caught my attention.
“Hen!” I whispered as the first of three hens popped out of the trees and into the open field.
Todd called softly, drawing the hens closer to our Flambeau Master Series Flocked King Strut and 3-Position Hen decoys.
“TOM!” I whispered excitedly as I pointed below the blind’s window in the same direction the hens had come from.
The tom was silhouetted on the top of a hill just inside the treeline.
“Here they come,” Todd said quietly as two more gobblers stepped ahead of the first and carefully into the field, staring toward the decoys.
As the third tom cleared the treeline, I took the 35-yard shot.
And I hardly even noticed the rain as I posed for photos with my first Kansas turkey.
Jared Blohm is the managing editor of Trapper & Predator Caller.