Kevin’s Turkey Story

Kevin Diekroeger drew a fifth season, Fayette County turkey tag in spring of 2018.  Kevin has some property in Missouri where he does some turkey hunting along with several of his family members.  He also usually draws a turkey tag to hunt public ground in Illinois, but has no private ground in Illinois to hunt.  He really enjoys coming out to the Sonnemann Woods to hunt turkeys.  

Kevin came out the afternoon before his season started.  He set out his ground blind.  That evening after a Sandy Run dinner, Kevin headed out into the Clubhouse Field to owl hoot trying to find where turkeys were roosting that evening.  

The next morning Kevin and I headed to his blind.  I went along to try to get some video footage.  Kevin is a much better caller, so I was just there to watch and record the hunt.  As it turned out, I was just in the way.  Kevin set up his blind on the west edge of the Cabin Field, close to the big woods.  About half hour after sunrise, two different toms started gobbling from the west in the timber.  Just a bit of calling and soon they were headed our way.  Shortly after, a third tom started gobbling and coming in from the south.  That bird was focused on the decoys  and was headed in fast.  I slunked down in the blind, trying to give Kevin a shot over my lap, no video of this shot.  The big tom got to about 15 yards away when Kevin pulled the trigger, but I could see that with crowded blind and awkward direction from where the bird approached, his gun was not well seated on his shoulder.  Bang!  and then wingbeats, then some expletives, and some good-natured laughter.

We headed back to the lodge for breakfast and after a short nap, Kevin decided to try a mid-morning hunt.  He trekked off to the north west corner of the timber to the small food plot.   Kevin set up on the edge of the small open spot in the timber on his ground seat nestled up to the base of large oak.  After making a few hen clucks, being quiet and then a few more raspy hen clucks, a tom gobbled from the south deeper in the timber.  With just a bit coaxing the big gobbler worked it’s way to the edge of the opening, and this time, with his shotgun seated well against his shoulder, Kevin didn’t miss.  

I came out to see his trophy and while waiting on me, Kevin found a nice pile of huge yellow morels.  We searched and found a few more mushrooms and then went back for pictures and lunch.    That afternoon Kevin did some fishing and we shot some rifles and handguns.  Little celebration that evening with dinner and after breakfast the next morning Kevin hit the road with some more turkey stories to recount.