Husker Girl gets first Jayhawk Turkey!!

My hunting story involves a turkey hunt with a good friend. Gwen had recently moved to Kansas for work and had never killed a Kansas turkey. I made it my duty to make sure she got one. The previous year she shot a bird. It dropped & flopped just like they're supposed to. Well the high fives & hugs started. We laid down our guns and went to retrieve her bird. We got about 3 steps from our guns and that stinking bird got up and ran off never to be seen again!!! Frustration sure set in and we tucked our heads and went home.

         Fast forward to the following season. Gwen & I were back at it on the same property. We had the birds roosted early. But as they do often, they scooted off the other direction. After doing some scouting around we found some birds on another property. After securing permission from that landowner we took off after the birds. We worked through a creek and up to the edge of a cut soybean field about 300 yards away. We spotted 3 toms at the far East side of the field. They were just sitting around enjoying the shade as it was a warm day. We decided to move slowly along a tree line on the East side of the field. We made our way to approximately 150 yards from the bird's location. There was a patch of grass about 4 ft tall and 15 ft wide about 25 yards from where the birds. So Gwen & I did what any self respecting turkey hunter would do and made a plan to belly crawl the 125 yards to the patch of grass. After what seemed like a 3 day crawl we found ourselves at the grass spent, tired & hurting. There was a slight elevation change so we had to get 5 yards into the grass to have a shot without spooking the birds. We did that much to my surprise. After we got ourselves situated I told Gwen to get ready and on the count of 3 we would rise up enough to shoot and make our claim. Well the count of 3 came. We both came up, Gwen on the right & me on the left got on a bird and let the shot fly!!! Bot of us were true to our aim and 2 birds started flopping. We immediately moved quickly to retrieve our birds. Remembering that earlier experience we moved like lightning I'm sure. Birds in hand we could then celebrate and then collapsed in blissful exhaustion. Celebrating our bounty.

         So that is one of my favorite hunting stories that holds a very meaningful place in my heart. Both birds were 21 lbs, 1" spurs & 9" beards. Every year when the memories pop up on social media we both just smile and text each other Remember the most satisfying turkey hunt we've had". Oh and most exhausting!!!

Tim

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