Remember those severe storms the Mid West just had? Well, I decided that was a perfect time to travel to NW Kansas and try my luck on a Rio. Grapefruit sized hail and impassable roads plus tight lipped birds made for a tough yet fun hunt.
Hunting a turkey in the high plains is a rather unique experience. Basically the area either has turkeys or not, you can do a lot of glassing from vantage points to scout areas, listen for them well into the night gobbling on the roost (I heard them @ 9:15pm) and use google earth to identify areas of turkey habitat. That habitat is either creek bottoms with trees or wooded draws. Yes, they will travel great distances through the open plains but for the most part they seem to be going to and from the few trees that exist. I also had to plan my hunts accordingly because if any property had a creek on it, that creek was not crossable. The amount of rain had every ditch and creek rolling. I even fell up to my hip on a 2 foot wide ditch, not sure if it had a bottom to it or not.
I never once set my tent up, the storms produces extreme high winds so I just slept on the back of my truck. That allowed me to stay out wherever till dark and not have a "base camp" to rush back to. I mentioned hearing them gobble at 9:15 pm, here is one strutting at 8:30pm.
The birds were tough hunting, if I had to sleep in 30-50mph wind gust wouldn't be to eager the next day either. I was able to get on a few birds but they stayed on the other side of the line. Since I was limited on where I could go, due to the horrible and impassable road conditions, I decided to slack off on the pressure and leave them alone and go find others. That proved to be difficult, if it wasn't raining it was hot. Those high plains warm up quick and the birds seemed to retreat to cover and lay low. The hens appeared to be moving to the nest later in the morning but still, the Toms wouldn't strike up for me unless I was able to sneak in to some big cover without busting them out.
Big and Beautiful strutting Rio
I hunted Monday afternoon, Tues all day, Wed afternoon (severe weather that morn) and Thurs all day. On Thursday I covered a large section that had more trees than any plains area I have ever seen. Hundreds of acres of oak and cedar, mostly on bluff ground. I spent a few hours out, glassing and blind calling. Seeing nothing but was able to play back and forth with some hens. But where were the Toms?
As I was coming out and back to the truck I spotted some about 1 1/2 mile away in a old crop field, Strutters! I hurried towards them, using the draws and a very wet ditch as cover to close the distance. I was able to get within 300 yards. I started calling, no response though. I broke out a box call and hit it as hard as I could, one strutter that was slightly off my himself hammered back. Score, I just needed to get loud. After about 40 mins of calling, working him in a bit closer, only to have the other strutters come in and lure him back away I knew it was time to change up. It looked like 3 other strutters and a couple hens, so I crawled up the ditch and closed the distance another 125+ yards. While I was crawling they actually moved off and away from me some, dang it! I had no decoy, no fan, nothing...yes I would have tried anything at this point. I just dropped $200 on a KS turkey tag and a lot of hard work, I wanted some birds to come in and play.
Little did I know, the whole time I was calling to these birds I had struck the attention of 3 jakes. Just as I had lost all hope, they all 3 hammered almost excatly from the location I was just sitting at 10 mins prior (I would be lying if I was to say I would not have shot one of them). Those 3 horny and eager Jakes is all it took to shake this whole scenario around, they caught the attention of those other birds and game was on! The Toms turned back around and started making their way, I caught glimps of the hens so I started calling and purring to them. Hoping to have them come in close to me, so maybe the males would swing by. It worked, a little to good though. I had 3 hens with 10 yards of me, while the 7 males were fighting and purring no more than 50 yards out in front. How long could I sit there before the hen busted me? Turns out, not long at all. The led hen started putting and turned away, lucky for me the annoying Jakes got whopped and the Toms were pushing them towards the hens/me. This by default turned the led hen back around, so she ran quickly passed me and luring ALL other birds no more than 10 yards from me.
After an hour of working birds it all came together and my first Rio Grande turkey was on the ground!
A nice 2 yr old with a sterotypical long and slender beard. He looked like he weighed 50 lbs, but was 20 soaking wet. Had the buffed color to him and when strutting had the reddest head I have ever seen.
Nice colors
So that's it, deke and blind free Kansas Rio. Not gonna lie, if I had a deke or a blind I would have used
Especially the blind, I would have stayed dry.
Hunting a turkey in the high plains is a rather unique experience. Basically the area either has turkeys or not, you can do a lot of glassing from vantage points to scout areas, listen for them well into the night gobbling on the roost (I heard them @ 9:15pm) and use google earth to identify areas of turkey habitat. That habitat is either creek bottoms with trees or wooded draws. Yes, they will travel great distances through the open plains but for the most part they seem to be going to and from the few trees that exist. I also had to plan my hunts accordingly because if any property had a creek on it, that creek was not crossable. The amount of rain had every ditch and creek rolling. I even fell up to my hip on a 2 foot wide ditch, not sure if it had a bottom to it or not.
I never once set my tent up, the storms produces extreme high winds so I just slept on the back of my truck. That allowed me to stay out wherever till dark and not have a "base camp" to rush back to. I mentioned hearing them gobble at 9:15 pm, here is one strutting at 8:30pm.
The birds were tough hunting, if I had to sleep in 30-50mph wind gust wouldn't be to eager the next day either. I was able to get on a few birds but they stayed on the other side of the line. Since I was limited on where I could go, due to the horrible and impassable road conditions, I decided to slack off on the pressure and leave them alone and go find others. That proved to be difficult, if it wasn't raining it was hot. Those high plains warm up quick and the birds seemed to retreat to cover and lay low. The hens appeared to be moving to the nest later in the morning but still, the Toms wouldn't strike up for me unless I was able to sneak in to some big cover without busting them out.
Big and Beautiful strutting Rio
I hunted Monday afternoon, Tues all day, Wed afternoon (severe weather that morn) and Thurs all day. On Thursday I covered a large section that had more trees than any plains area I have ever seen. Hundreds of acres of oak and cedar, mostly on bluff ground. I spent a few hours out, glassing and blind calling. Seeing nothing but was able to play back and forth with some hens. But where were the Toms?
As I was coming out and back to the truck I spotted some about 1 1/2 mile away in a old crop field, Strutters! I hurried towards them, using the draws and a very wet ditch as cover to close the distance. I was able to get within 300 yards. I started calling, no response though. I broke out a box call and hit it as hard as I could, one strutter that was slightly off my himself hammered back. Score, I just needed to get loud. After about 40 mins of calling, working him in a bit closer, only to have the other strutters come in and lure him back away I knew it was time to change up. It looked like 3 other strutters and a couple hens, so I crawled up the ditch and closed the distance another 125+ yards. While I was crawling they actually moved off and away from me some, dang it! I had no decoy, no fan, nothing...yes I would have tried anything at this point. I just dropped $200 on a KS turkey tag and a lot of hard work, I wanted some birds to come in and play.
Little did I know, the whole time I was calling to these birds I had struck the attention of 3 jakes. Just as I had lost all hope, they all 3 hammered almost excatly from the location I was just sitting at 10 mins prior (I would be lying if I was to say I would not have shot one of them). Those 3 horny and eager Jakes is all it took to shake this whole scenario around, they caught the attention of those other birds and game was on! The Toms turned back around and started making their way, I caught glimps of the hens so I started calling and purring to them. Hoping to have them come in close to me, so maybe the males would swing by. It worked, a little to good though. I had 3 hens with 10 yards of me, while the 7 males were fighting and purring no more than 50 yards out in front. How long could I sit there before the hen busted me? Turns out, not long at all. The led hen started putting and turned away, lucky for me the annoying Jakes got whopped and the Toms were pushing them towards the hens/me. This by default turned the led hen back around, so she ran quickly passed me and luring ALL other birds no more than 10 yards from me.
After an hour of working birds it all came together and my first Rio Grande turkey was on the ground!
A nice 2 yr old with a sterotypical long and slender beard. He looked like he weighed 50 lbs, but was 20 soaking wet. Had the buffed color to him and when strutting had the reddest head I have ever seen.
Nice colors
So that's it, deke and blind free Kansas Rio. Not gonna lie, if I had a deke or a blind I would have used
Especially the blind, I would have stayed dry.
