I was fortunate to get a chance to chase easterns in Kansas this past weekend. Chris Parrish, Randy Milligan and Dirk Durham were on the hunt.
-Chris Parrish is arguably one of the greatest turkey callers and hunters of all time. His intuition on approach and setup is only matched by his ability to call.
-Randy Milligan is a dang good caller as well and an amazing host. His property and knowledge of the land made it easy to get where we needed quickly and undetected.
-Dirk Durham is just Dirk. Funny as heck and always makes the hunt a little more fun.
Friday morning we were able to setup in the dark about 150 yards from a hot bird. After listening to him gobble 100 times on the roost as his hens squaked he was taken away as soon as they hit the ground. Chris was able to call him to the edge of the opening but 100 yards wasn’t quite close enough.
After that we went as chased some other gobbles we had heard that morning. We got in tight on them and setup within 100 yards. After some yelping from Chris we had them pop out at about 80 yards but once again they decided to follow the hens.
Later that evening we setup along the clover edge where the turkeys that morning all walked along. Sure enough at about 5 o clock the 4 hens were heading our way with 2 long beards in full strut behind them. Even with the best caller in the world there we all knew it was a situation where we just needed to be quiet. After about 10 minutes both birds were in range and Chris and Dirk were able to double up. Both birds were 3.5+ years old. Chris bird had 1-3/8” spurs, weighed 26 lbs and a 11” beard. Dirks wasn’t far behind.
Later that evening a thunder storm moved through and brought a ton of rain. We decided to not hunt the roost at daylight and wait for the break in the weather at 9. As we made our way to the spot we bumped a few hens out and started to make our loop. Nothing but a bunch of whitetails for the first hour. As we walked down an old farm road towards a clover plot I was able to spot a hen ahead. We waited and she jumped into a wood pile (her nest) and disappeared. Our plan was to sit on a cut corn field edge and do some cold calling. Chris let out his first set of cuts and yelps and we got a response about 300 yards away. Within a couple minutes I could see the bird making his way to our single hen decoy. Cautiously approaching and gobbling it took about 10 minutes for him to make his way to us. He started to get nervous and clucked a few times and I shot him at about 45 yards (#9 tss and an Indian creek choke are bad news for turkeys).
3 birds in 2 days with crummy weather wasn’t bad. The turkey hunting was great but nothing compares to making life long friends while doing it.
