Question: Allen, why do you like to hunt Kansas for eastern wild turkeys during the first week of the season?
Treadwell: At that time of year, the turkeys are still grouped-up, so you can start calling with a Hunter’s Specialties Ring Zone call and have 15 or 20 turkeys coming to you at one time, which is an experience most turkey hunters never get to experience. Although having that many turkeys in front of you at once is unique, it also creates a major problem. If you’ve got 20 turkeys in front of you, you have 40 eyeballs looking for you. Because many people don’t have an opportunity to go on this type of hunt, I really wanted to capture it on film for the Hunter’s Specialties “Cutt’n and Strutt’n” DVD.

I was hunting with Jon Massie at Booners Guide & Outfitting in Kansas, and while scouting, we saw a large flock of turkeys feeding in the field. Jon explained that the turkeys would roost in some hardwoods right on the edge of the field, fly down into the field, feed all day and then fly back-up into the trees. These turkeys were very patternable. So, we went out in the field and set up in a place where we felt the turkeys couldn’t see us.

I began to call to the turkeys with a Hunter’s Specialties’ Ring Zone friction call in combination with a Hunter’s Specialties’ diaphragm call to sound like more than one hen. At daylight, the hens and the jakes started flying into the field. As Jon and I kept calling, purring and clucking, about six longbeards entered the field. We had more than 20 turkeys in front of us like we’d hoped, but now I had to try to take one of those gobblers with all the other turkeys watching me. In this type of situation, not only do you have all eyes looking at you, but the longbeards are in that field to be with the other turkeys.

Finally, I had a longbeard right in front of me at 15 steps, but he was surrounded by jakes and hens. So, I couldn’t take the shot. I didn’t see any way I could shoot and not kill two to three turkeys, mostly hens and jakes, besides the gobbler I wanted to take. I had to hold my shot, until the turkey started walking away from me. Finally, when the gobbler reached about 40 yards and had cleared the rest of the flock, I took out my Hunter’s Specialties’ Undertaker Turkey Choke Tube. Since I’d patterned my gun with it and knew the pattern it would deliver, I didn’t hesitate to take the shot at 40 yards. The old gobbler went down.

Hunter’s Specialties has so many great turkey calls and other turkey products that many times we overlook the Undertaker Turkey Choke Tube. But when you’ve got a lot of turkeys around you, and you have to let a gobbler move away from you out to that 40-yard range before you can take the shot, that’s when the Undertaker will prove its value.

Forty yards is a marginal shot for taking turkeys with many shotguns and chokes. However, if you’ll pattern that Undertaker and look at the pattern it delivers at 40 and 50 yards, you’ll have a lot more confidence in your ability to take a gobbler that you may not be able to take without an Undertaker Turkey Choke Tube.

I prefer to shoot turkeys up-close. One time I had this gobbler at 15 yards, but because he was standing in the middle of a flock of hens and jakes, I couldn’t take the shot. When the gobbler finally got past the other turkeys, and I had a clear shot, I was really proud of the pattern and the gobbler the Undertaker Turkey Choke Tube delivered.

To hunt with Jon Massie, visit www.kansashuntingguide.com, or call (785) 293-1936 or (785) 313-0981, or email nontypicaljon@yahoo.com.