Afternoon Kansas Turkey Spring Season Hunts
Late in the day Kansas turkey hunt.
Good hunter, dependable producer of good hunts and a good friend to the Association. Kevin C with one more in a yearly tradition of Kansas success. In this case a midday tom, see no morning shadow.
On many hunts the best spring season wild tom hunt is typically the first hour or two of the morning during the morning gobbling period and peak hen receptiveness on our private land and elsewhere.
Typically, this is more a result of hunters from morning hunt only states rather than hunters from all day long spring season localities. The all day long hunter has much more opportunity to study his toms and develop additional success techniques. The beauty of Kansas spring season is you can turkey hunt all day, unlike Missouri where you have to stop at 1 pm. This gives one more spring turkey season option and the capability to learn turkey patterns far more thoroughly than those that just study the morning activities.
Hunters with several seasons of afternoon Kansas spring turkey season under their belt have had consistent good luck with prime time between 12 and 2 pm. The attractions are toms on the prowl, typically not henned up and strutting areas are habitual even if for only a short string of days. Part of that habitual behavior is linked to the hens during the egg laying and pre nest sitting behavior of the days second feeding period starting as early as 11 AM and running through 3 PM.
A classic example is a hen that gets serviced at first light, moves off for a drink and some quick feed, lays an egg and is back grazing a greening up wheat field. The toms have the hen timed to the wheat field and a strutting area is developed. A pattern repeated many times over during the Kansas spring turkey season.
Just like mature deer, turkey and specifically mature gobblers seem to know the best time of the day to move is the time of day the least amount of human activity occurs. We don’t know for sure if this is a primary reason for this turkey movement, but it definitely makes sense as we all have seen how fast a turkey can run when we are spotted.
Another factor contributing to Kansas mid-afternoon turkey movement could be it’s the time of the day the hen sit on their eggs in the nest, which leaves the gobblers on the prowl. Any time the toms are not following a hen is always a plus and a more frequent observation during Kansas afternoon turkey hunts than elsewhere.
Traveling Kansas Turkey Hunter
Kevin's pictures are as valuable as proof of self guided turkey hunter success as they are of Kansas habitat showing a great deal of the background terrain where the birds occupy during the spring turkey season. Thank you Kevin for some very good pictures.
Here are a few very belated pics from last spring turkey in [location deleted]. Last year's pics didn't come out at all. The hunt did last for a few days and all of the land was great and did not see anybody anywhere. The toms came to the call like they had never heard anyone call before. The hunt was pretty short. I pulled up to the property at 11 PM after an all day drive from PA. Caught a few hours of sleep in the cab and got up ready to hunt in the morning. I had an aerial photo since I had never been on this property before. I walked out to where I figured my starting point would be and waited for daylight. A few gobblers responded to an owl call, so I set up at the field edge about 100 yards away. Called in six long beards and shot the biggest one. The other five decided to put the spurs to him, so picked out the next biggest and shot him and watched the remaining four put the spurs to him. Very short hunt, but very memorable. I have never come home with an unfilled turkey tag. Can't wait for the spring season to start. Keep up the great work, I have nothing but good to say about this club. The properties, the staff and the other hunters I have talked with are all top notch. Thanks again, and looking forward to many more turkey seasons in MAHA.
Kevin
All day long wild turkey hunting can be extremely difficult if not using a blind.
The majority of the Kansas turkey hunters we have talked to that do turkey hunt all day do hunt from of a blind. They have reported seeing as many turkeys on the move mid-day as they do the first couple hours of the morning.
Those that do not hunt from manmade blinds are split between those that erect natural cover blinds and those that set up in thicker than the surrounding brush. The few that purely stalk without any more camouflage than what they are wearing are rare. When digging into how these hunters developed their skills they all to a man started chasing turkeys long before they could get driver's licenses.
The biggest distinguishing aspect of the blind over the non-blind hunters seems to be largely based on where the hunter grew up leaning their turkey hunting skills.
Local hunters are far more likely to hunt from a blind while those from the south, southwest and northern and eastern big woods are not. One hunter distinguished this observation that central mid-west hunters learn quicker the roost, feed fields and water source all work towards keeping all day long flock movement to a predictable pattern in a relatively small area discernable by the hunter. This observation is frequently compared to some Texas hunts in low scrub country where regular near and long distance observation of flock movement is rare as it is in the big woods. The effect is local hunters find through adapting their observations to local terrain is simply more eyes on all turkeys not just toms from the flock and repeatedly so during the day. Those blind hunters that do move during the day further describe the move as from one concealed position to another simply as a reaction to short-term changes to the daily flock routine.
To further support the collective comments from a good many spring turkey season hunters through the years is our seemingly casual conversation with those hunters making the most reservations before tagging out. The bulk of the group lies in two categories. The first, is the relatively new turkey hunter and the second is one that describes how he is more in the run & gun category of hunter and yes, this turkey hunter is more likely to travel from hilly/wooded or thicker scrub country.
If having a couple of days for turkey scouting/hunting it is very helpful to watch the turkeys all day the first day to become more familiar with patterns and determine their primary food and water source as well as nesting area. Pinning down an unknown roost for the next morning's hunt is a bonus.
Southern Kansas turkey hunters found a regional difference and spring tactics.
Kansas wheat in spring with spring turkeys.
This picture was taken on March 31 in southeast Kansas. Its value is to gauge the state of green up for camouflage selection and for spring turkey behavior.
Below. A setup on the edge of a spring plowed previously planted in a Kansas wheat field. Typical farm ground of our Kansas private land. The turkeys forage through the plowed field and the edge was the only cover. Lonely hen call worked this time - at least for these hens. The toms stayed out with other hens - such is the nature of spring turkey.
Robert sent in a picture of his third for the season tom. This Kansas turkey hunt account included that this tom was freelancing and not a hen in sight. Robert didn't know the tom was in the area. He had hen decoys out and used the put purr combination until he saw this bird coming in from down the field along the edge. Robert stopped all calling and let the decoys do the work as the tom was strutting and moving in on the decoys without making any sound. Once in easy shooting range with a head shot it was over quick and this late afternoon bird was tagged. It was the only bird he saw on that day.
Kansas green wheat and fresh green sprouts seem to be a primary turkey food source both early morning and mid-day throughout the season. When the wheat fields grow past a foot tall the flocks tend to shy away from them early in the morning. Some say the reason is the dew on the tall grass makes their feathers wet and they do not like being wet the first hour or two in the morning, especially if the temperature is cool.
When the sun dries the wheat In the middle of the day we’ve heard the turkeys use the tall wheat, but decoys are not visible. This is just a thought that we would like to pass on to those interested in the feedback we’ve heard from our Kansas hunters over the years.
While at this point it may appear we speak of wheat fields a lot for Kansas turkey, it is that Kansas has more wheat than Iowa or Missouri and the turkeys do use the wheat for much grazing during the early half of the spring season. No experienced Kansas turkey hunter will pass a wheat field without at least a glance to see what is there.
Another observation from our all day long self guided Kansas turkey hunters is if the turkeys are not pressured they tend to fly down to the open fields in the morning and move to the timber and tops of the ridges mid-morning and slowly work their way back to the open fields mid-day. With this in mind connecting the dots with aerials before the hunt anticipating the turkey movement of hens to nest areas, water, forage, strutting and roost as well as a day spent scouting may payoff with a quick harvest, or the chance at being selective on a big tom. Rarely while on a turkey hunt does a hunter just stumble into a flock or individual turkeys.
Turkeys have nothing but time and are constantly looking for something to run from. With this in mind, sitting all day is a turkey hunter advantage and foreign to many ridge runners or public land hunters. This turkey hunt advantage is largely made possible though non-pressured private lease land. This leaves it to the MAHA hunter to run the turkeys off the farm they are on. One hunter told us a tom's biggest fear is a human on foot. If they don’t ever see a human they are much easier to work.