Many times as a turkey hunter your best hunts are those where you try something different and you end up learning a new technique. I had been hunting a new location this year just for a different challenge. I had called in several 2 year olds and a bunch of jakes but I was still holding out for the boss gobblers that I knew were around.

I had arrived at the farm a little late with a hunting buddy of mine and we go started up the hill behind the farmer's barn about 5:45 or so and the birds started gobbling about 6:00 a.m.. We were trying to get down into the bottom of this ravine and set up on this grassy opening I had seen birds on before. We were on our way down when a bird gobbled right across the ravine from us about 75 yards away. Since we were in a decent location and I wasn't sure we could circle the bird and get up on his level, we set up right there on the flat in the ravine's bottom and tried to call him in.

Hindsight is always 20/20 and after a tree full of hens started chiming in I knew we were probably out of luck there unless I could call the hens in also. I tried with a lot of aggressive calling and it worked to some extent since we had 2 of the hens come our way but there were at least 10 more that just dropped out of the tree on the ridge and worked their way west along the top. I decided to move on by myself about 7:30 a.m. and go to another strut zone where I had tried to shoot a bird the previous time we had gone out.

This farm is a typical Flint Hills farm/ranch where you have a wooded creek bottom with corn, wheat and bean fields in the bottom ground and many wooded gulleys or ravines leading up into the pastures. The tops of the hills and most of the wider valleys are bare grass. This particular farm has a series of gulleys that run anywhere from 1/2 mile to 1 mile back up into the pastures.

I was going over to the next gulley to the south and I quickly got there and began working my way below the ridge to a prime strutting location to the west. I had seen some birds about 3/4 mile away up on the hill to the west so I wanted to stay down out of sight. I made my way to the strut area, circled around it and came up a row of trees on its west side. I had seen this longbeard previously working this area around the shoulder of a hill. There was also a spring fed stock tank there and a lot of green grass. I started yelping on my American Friction Cut-n-Paddle box. I didn't hear anything at first and then after a few minutes I tried again with some cutting mixed in and good loud cackle. I thought I heard a gobble to the northeast, which is where I expected the bird to be.

I turned that direction and waited awhile longer and yelped some more. This time I heard a gobble but it came from the west. I got turned around again and confirmed it with some cutting. There was a bird that was down to the southwest of me but he was working his way north and east towards me. I stopped calling for awhile and tried him one more time. This time he gobbled back a lot closer and he was coming from the NW. I shifted to cover that area and right after that he comes in walking and half-strutting his way across the grass.

This boy was on the move and going diagonally across in front of me. It looked like the huge bird I had seen strutting there previously and he was working directly towards the strut area. I needed to stop him so I clucked and he stopped and lifted his head up. I shot him and he folded.

This was a really nice old bird with sharp 1 5/16" spurs, which were pink with black tips. He was also one of the most vocal birds I've ever called in since he came from about 1/2 mile away and gobbled all of the way up to his last step. I was really impressed with the Cut-n-Paddle I was using. This was my first season using this call and it was amazing the response I was getting on birds, especially while locating birds at long distances.