Hunting & Fishing Any Turkey Hunters?

Smokin250

Smokin250

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Minuteman
Mar 26, 2014
93
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Amelia, Ohio
#1
Anyone out there been seeing any birds? Our season starts next Monday the 21st, and I haven't seen a bird yet while out driving around. I have been out a couple of times in mornings listening for them and not a gobble one. Wondered if anyone else has seen any movement, or have killed in (in states that are open).
 
#2
I went for the first time in about 15 years last Saturday. My neighbor invited me to go with him. He is a pretty good turkey hunter and puts on birds right away. We had 5 different birds gobble at us though the morning but couldn't get anything to come in. Most of them would gobble once and that was it. We would set up and call for half an hour to 45min on each one but nothing ever showed up.

He said it has been a strange year here and he hasn't had much luck. I know there is quite a few miles between us but we have all had a colder than normal winter so things may be delayed up there too.

Good luck!
 
#4
Just had a couple hunters bag out in one morning on our ranch in central Texas. Here's a picture of their hunt last week.
 

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#5
Dang those are some incredible birds.

The past few years have been goofy lately... The birds will gobble on roost but shut up then get henned up as soon as they hit the ground. It makes for next to impossible hunting.
 
#6
I got skunked this morning for the first time this year. I was lucky enought to hunt TX and NE and killed five between those two states. I will try again tomorrow in KY and see what I can make happen
 
#8
Smokin250 said:
Dang those are some incredible birds.

The past few years have been goofy lately... The birds will gobble on roost but shut up then get henned up as soon as they hit the ground. It makes for next to impossible hunting.
Click to expand...

Be in the same spot between 11 and 2. Those toms will come back to your spot after they're done servicing the ladies they flew down with....


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
#14
knockemdown said:
VERY nice gobblers, gents!
That triple bearded sucker is badazz!!!

We open up May 1st...
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Thanks, it literally took 5 days of hunting in a row to kill that SOB. He was with hens 90% of the time. So you couldn't call him. And when he was by himself and would come in , he'd stay just out of sight and strut and drum. He was SMART. Ended up killing him by leaving ALL my calls in the truck, and waiting for 5 hours on the edge of a field that he would strut in. He finally came in with 6 hens ON THE WRONG SIDE!! At 14 steps none the less!! I waited for 12 minutes while they fed trying to get as many heads in the grass as possible. Then had to throw my gun up in the air, come down with it on the other shoulder and shoot. IT WORKED. CRAZY BUT ABSOLUTELY TRUE!!
 
#15
That's excellent, man!
i can definitely appreciate a good duel with a crafty old gobbler. Played grabazz with a beauty last year, and finally tag teamed it, with my buddy getting a shot on it. Figured he was henned up, as he just STFU shortly after daybreak. We eased around his preferred patch of hardwoods for 5 hrs, and finally heard a hen answer my soft calling. Ramped it up slowly, mimicking the hen, note for note, and easing to stay in front of them...
Finally, the exchange got to a frenzy pitch, and here comes two hens! We hunkered down and waited. One hen darn near stepped over my legs as she came through purrin' & cluckin', trying to find that 'other' hen! My buddy actually had gone prone with his 12 ga., as we got pinned down by their fast approach. Best part was, here's comes big boy, 30yds behind the last hen!!! With the hens passing me, I let out a soft yelp and big boy BOOMS a gobble right in my buddy's face! Man, they are friggin' LOUD when they're that close in the woods!!! Buddy gets a clean shoot off and rolls his azz @ 18yds. One of the more memorable turkey hunts I've been lucky enough to enjoy! Walked a mile back to the house, and he was still grinnin'! My dog wasn't impressed, though...
TURKEY2013048_zpsd8223319.jpg


Congrats again, great fun messin' with them big boys!!!
 
#16
knockemdown said:
That's excellent, man!
i can definitely appreciate a good duel with a crafty old gobbler. Played grabazz with a beauty last year, and finally tag teamed it, with my buddy getting a shot on it. Figured he was henned up, as he just STFU shortly after daybreak. We eased around his preferred patch of hardwoods for 5 hrs, and finally heard a hen answer my soft calling. Ramped it up slowly, mimicking the hen, note for note, and easing to stay in front of them...
Finally, the exchange got to a frenzy pitch, and here comes two hens! We hunkered down and waited. One hen darn near stepped over my legs as she came through purrin' & cluckin', trying to find that 'other' hen! My buddy actually had gone prone with his 12 ga., as we got pinned down by their fast approach. Best part was, here's comes big boy, 30yds behind the last hen!!! With the hens passing me, I let out a soft yelp and big boy BOOMS a gobble right in my buddy's face! Man, they are friggin' LOUD when they're that close in the woods!!! Buddy gets a clean shoot off and rolls his azz @ 18yds. One of the more memorable turkey hunts I've been lucky enough to enjoy! Walked a mile back to the house, and he was still grinnin'! My dog wasn't impressed, though...
TURKEY2013048_zpsd8223319.jpg


Congrats again, great fun messin' with them big boys!!!
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Thanks. That's a big old bird you got there!! I love it when you hear that last few gobbles where they are so close , you can hear their heads shake while the gobble and it doesn't even sound like a gobble. More like a turkey yelling in your face!! Those are FUN. Hell, it's ALL fun. Turkey hunting is just like a drug. ADDICTING. I LOVE to shoot, I mean I love it. BUT THE GUNS GO INTO STORAGE FPR THE MOST PART IN APRIL!!!!
 
#17
They are like pidgeons here in the Sacramento area - I see them off the freeway on the golf course and strolling around my very suburban neighborhood.

I will be going out on the 24th to one of the local wildlife areas. I need to drive an hour to the nearest public land.
 
#18
Tons on the Kansas/Nebraska border, right in the center between the two states. Out past Inavale on the dirt roads you'll find 'em running in and out of thickets to raid the crops or leftovers on the other side of the road, looking for food.

In AL, I had to stalk these motherfuckers and it's damn near impossible in the woods. You gotta be GOOD to walk up on one of those bad boys, they're damn smart birds (but lazy, that's their Achilles heel)! The ones in AL looked like the big tom above. But they were rare and hard to find. Anyway, they were everywhere just N and in center of the KS/NE border, easy enough to the point you could just walk down the road and find a thicket and wait. They need those trees to roost, and there aren't many trees where I'm talking --limited choices and all.

I know of a good ranch in NE in particular, PM me if interested, I haven't been there in forever. He doesn't have hunters on the land because nobody ever asks, and his only concern is you don't hit a cow. If you hunt yotes for him, he may let you on for free and there's plenty of old ramshackle pioneer houses out there to camp out in (6 I know of). As you can guess, growing grain and having pastures, there's rich game on that 5 sq. mile property. Hell, you could drive to Red Cloud and ask around, I'm sure SOME farmer would LOVE to trade some beer money for hunting rights.

Birds in NE were more like your average wild turkey, not a very big bird, not at all like the one shown above. But you get a few and it's a feast.
 
#19
Strykervet said:
Tons on the Kansas/Nebraska border, right in the center between the two states. Out past Inavale on the dirt roads you'll find 'em running in and out of thickets to raid the crops or leftovers on the other side of the road, looking for food.

In AL, I had to stalk these motherfuckers and it's damn near impossible in the woods. You gotta be GOOD to walk up on one of those bad boys, they're damn smart birds (but lazy, that's their Achilles heel)! The ones in AL looked like the big tom above. But they were rare and hard to find. Anyway, they were everywhere just N and in center of the KS/NE border, easy enough to the point you could just walk down the road and find a thicket and wait. They need those trees to roost, and there aren't many trees where I'm talking --limited choices and all.

I know of a good ranch in NE in particular, PM me if interested, I haven't been there in forever. He doesn't have hunters on the land because nobody ever asks, and his only concern is you don't hit a cow. If you hunt yotes for him, he may let you on for free and there's plenty of old ramshackle pioneer houses out there to camp out in (6 I know of). As you can guess, growing grain and having pastures, there's rich game on that 5 sq. mile property. Hell, you could drive to Red Cloud and ask around, I'm sure SOME farmer would LOVE to trade some beer money for hunting rights.

Birds in NE were more like your average wild turkey, not a very big bird, not at all like the one shown above. But you get a few and it's a feast.
Click to expand...

No offense intended to ANYONE. But he's right. The birds down here in the SE states like Georgia , Ms, AL, TN are HARD to kill. I once went to Texas to hunt Rio's for my bachelor party. A place called Shamrock Tx in the panhandle about 30 miles from OK. Well, we started out and it was OUTRAGEOUS at the amount of Turkeys. It was a 4 day hunt and after 2 days I hadn't killed anything. I got to thinking.... AND that was the proem. I had been hunting Easterns so long that I was still in that mindset. After that, well lets just say I killed 4 in no time. 3 of us came back with 10 birds.
 
#21
The boy, his friend and a couple buddies all have one in the bag. Down here it opens up the last sat of March for 37 days. I'll post pics when a buddy shows me how to do it. Laugh if you want. Darn yardbirds. That 3 bearded one is badass.
 
#31
Merrium's are beauties! Congrats guys. Unfortunately, my season has been unproductive. Only had time to be out 3 times, have seen toms all 3 times, but never was able to connect. Still got to hear the morning thunder though.
 
#37
We've had a strange year here as well...birds haven't been talking much. Buddy and I have had some action here and there...mostly mid morning so that's been interesting. We are only allowed to hunt until noon. I'm still after 'em with a bow...for another week anyway. Best of luck when your season starts. People around here are shooting birds...
 
#39
Infinity said:
We've had a strange year here as well...birds haven't been talking much. Buddy and I have had some action here and there...mostly mid morning so that's been interesting. We are only allowed to hunt until noon. I'm still after 'em with a bow...for another week anyway. Best of luck when your season starts. People around here are shooting birds...
Click to expand...

It was VERY srtange in MS as far as gobbling activity. I'm not sure what it was because we had PLENTY of 2 year olds. I killed a 5 year old, a 3 year old and a 2 year old. The only one that absolutely hammered was the 3 year old. I would hear anywhere from 7 to 15 birds gobbling on the limb but it would go quiet as soon as fly down time. (Hens I guess) But usually in the past they'd start gobbling again at 8:30 or 9:00. Not this year... I only had 4 mornings where they hammered. Got alot of Jakes coming up to 2 year olds for next season so maybe the gobbling will pick up.
 
#40
Nice Rio there! NY does not allow any rifle for turkeys, would be cool to kopfjaeger one with a rimfire!

Been having some 'issues' with getting a pair of big boy gobblers to cooperate, and think I figured out the reason. Found two trespassers had set up a blind right near their roost site...caught them red handed Saturday AM, after they completely fucked up my hunt by shooting at a jake and missing it 3x! Anyhoo, got things sorted out proper, doubt they'll be back. But those two idiots had seriously messed up the gobbling activity...

Had the gobblers sooo goobered up, they would absolutely not respond to a non-live hen. All Saturday til noon, nada peep. I snuck back in there Sunday AM, watched one big boy gobbling at me from his roost tree, not 75yds away. Figured I'd have 'em on the fly down, but that sucker just stayed up there til broad daylight! I watched him craning his neck down between the branches and LOOKING for a hen to fly down to! Finally, a hen came by and he flew down to her and they went on their merry way. Unfrickenbelievable...

Eased around a couple hrs, with ZERO response to calls. Sat and waited them out in one open spot and seen two big gobblers cruising a cut corn field. Watched them get into an old apple orchard and they gobbled a couple times. I took a 1/2 mile circle around them and made a move to that position. Wound up belly crawling in the mud up to a clearing, to where the two big boys they had some hens collected. They were only about 90yds from me, so I just lay prone in the muddy bank below the clearing and waited them out. It had begun raining during the move, and was getting pretty soaked while enjoying the show. What a beautiful sight to behold! All was forgotten about trespassers and I got to enjoy Nature doing its thing...

About 45minutes later, the hens began easing toward me and I finally got a clear shot of the bigger tom. They weren't gettin' any closer, so took a 50yd. shot with the SBE. 3.5" #5s hammered the big gobbler into the grass. 22.8lbs, 1" hooks and crazy long beard...
437401F0-557A-4A01-90A7-9B42DB8B8BEC_zps4pa80tkx.jpg

Poachers 0, me 1...
 
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#41
Took my 15 yr. old daughter turkey hunting. Got a gobbler to come past about 30 yards out, she balked,couldn't pull the trigger. We talked about it awhile, she has pulled the trigger on deer before, but this got to her. We went out early the next day,got the tom to gobble and waited for an hour as I tried to get him to come in on the decoys, no luck. Went home And decided to go back and stalk the bugger later. We had a great time, I got him to gobble and cluck, we got just out of range to him! Damn fun. I set her in a good spot and walked off in a long arc to try and drive him by her. No luck, he must have spotted/heard us. She didn't get one.
It was kind of quiet in the truck on the way home as we thought about the events of the last two days hunting, then she says:
Well what are we going to go hunt next? That's my girl!
imagejpg10_zps93024202.jpg
 
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