I went out to Kansas to hunt with a good friend of mine for their archery season opener. It was an insane 3 days of hunting. The jakes were out of control and would run toms off every time a tom stepped out of the timber. It was the craziest thing that I have ever seen. In three days of hunting the numbers of birds that we put in the decoys at 20 yards or less was stuff I would not have believed if I had not been there to see and film it. These numbers are not exaggerated ... at 20 yards or less we put 100+ jakes, 80-90 hens, and 2 long beards in the decoys. If I had been gun hunting I could have filled 25+ tags with long beards. The long beards did everything to avoid the jakes and pulling the jake decoy led to pulling in a real nice bird. On the first day, I did let one longbeard walk at 12 yards as it just wasn't the shot that I wanted to take. He was on alert and not coming another step closer to the jake decoy so I let him walk.
However, I did kill a nice Eastern/Rio hybrid over the hen decoys. I took his head completely off with a Magnus Bullhead at about 8 yards. 24#, 1 1/4" spurs, and 10 1/2" beard. All on video, but life is too busy right now so a video edit might not come for several weeks. I might make the trip back out in a few weeks to fill my second tag.
All in all it was an amazing hunt. Here are a few photos.
However, I did kill a nice Eastern/Rio hybrid over the hen decoys. I took his head completely off with a Magnus Bullhead at about 8 yards. 24#, 1 1/4" spurs, and 10 1/2" beard. All on video, but life is too busy right now so a video edit might not come for several weeks. I might make the trip back out in a few weeks to fill my second tag.
All in all it was an amazing hunt. Here are a few photos.
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