Kansas Tom

[ksbowman]

Last night I put 4 hens to bed near my popup blind. I've had it set for a while and have got to hunt it when I've seen turkeys roost the night before near it. The gobblers have been hened up every time til today. Our turkey population on our creek bottom has been down and it seems the last couple years the gobblers take a while to get the hens bred ( more hens than gobblers). This morning things changed. I got in the blind at 5:30 and with the cloud cover it was very dark. Set my decoys and settled in. About 5:45 a couple of gobblers started talking and I gave a couple of soft yelps and the hens started answering as well as the closest tom. The hens I'd seen the night before started flying down at 5:50, a lot earlier than on previous sets. They hit the ground about 20 yards from my decoys, but didn't pay any attention to them. On the two previous sets I'd called hens into them. I was using a Zink diaphragm Z combo call that I really like. One side of it gives a raspy old hen sound while rolling it over with your tongue you can make a young hen sound and it makes it sound like multiple hens. The tom was responding so I made sure not to call too much. Less is always better when calling. At 6:10 he stepped out of the grass and when he saw my decoys he immediately began to strut. He was about 40 yards away and putting on a show. Then he folded up the show and came trotting to the dekes. He stopped at the Jake and half strutted with the jake between us. I picked my bow vertical with an arrow on the shelf. He then walked around the jake and was facing me at full strut. I decided to shoot him at the base of his neck while he was facing me at 10 yards. I drew the Bear A mag, then slid on my seat into the shooting window , concentrating on my spot and released. The arrow was right on the mark and came out near his vent hitting the ground. He deflated turned and ran 22 steps and collapsed. Never shot one head on before, but I like the results! Here is a " seen of the crime"                                                                                                                                              

[ksbowman]

Kind of funny, last year I shot my Tom with a B mag and this year I shot this bird with a Bear A mag, 52# at my draw length, Easton xx75 2215's and Zwickey 4 blade Deltas.                                                                        

[ksbowman]

[Sam McMichael]

Good shot!

[steadman]

congrats bud!!

[Jayrod]

Well done Great bird!

Way to go!

Congrats,

Bisch

[Zwickey-Fever]

Great Job!!

[Cocklebur]

God job Ben! You are deadly with those Bear takedowns.

[Hermon]

Outstanding job Ben.  Congrats!

[doubleo]

Great shot! Congrats on a beautiful gobbler!  

[Jon Kaw]

Good shooting.  Congrats!

[Paul/KS]

Way to go Ben!
Nice bird and a great shot.    

[SAM E. STEPHENS]

Beauty.....

,,Sam,,

[CDK]

Nice shootin!    

[Tater]

Congrats, nice gobbler..

[Kip]

Good job Ben  

[Warden609]

       

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Congrats

[dhaverstick]

Great story. Thanks for sharing!

Darren