Post your observations, activity, and techniques used to harvest your bird. Good luck everyone!
Turkey Hunting
2018 Turkey Reports
Hunt 80 acres but only about 14 of it is woods. There is a lane all around the land and one down the middle. Sit on a blind in the middle of the one that runs down the middle. Basically it is field hunting. A ton of gobbling with I'm guessing up to 6 different birds early. Turns light and nothing on the fields. Finally about 7 a Tom shows up in a corner in strut. Goes into the next field over and stays there in strut for about 1 1/2 hours. Was hopeing sooner or later he'd move my way. If I called he would gobble but stayed put. Just happened to look down lane to west and there stood a Tom. Don't know where he came from as it's all open fields that way. Very slowly worked his way down the lane toward me. Droped him at 26 yds. Sure was a great morning weather wise also. 23.96 double beard. nice spurs but did not measure
Just wanted to post this pic of the turkey I shot earlier this week to show the toughness of these birds...the shot was with a Mathews Mission MXB320 crossbow at about 35 yards...the bolt hit the turkey in the back right above the hind legs....it's all bone back there...I was using a Muzzy 100 grain 3 blade broadhead for crossbows.....the bolt actually deflected off the back and did not enter the body cavity....the turkey which should have dropped right in its tracks managed to stay on its feet and flew for about 300 yards across a cut corn field....very tough birds
Wadu
May 6, 2018. 6pm
Juneau County, Public Land
#17, 9&1/2" beard, 7/8" spurs
After choking and missing big time on a gobbler Sat morning, was able to redeem myself Sunday nite. Seen 2 gobblers fanned out and few hens on the backside of a field next to the woods. Decided to put the sneak attack on them. Had to cross a ditch that went up to my waist n the middle of it. And belly crawl 50 yds up and down a big sand hill to get into position. After 30 mins of watching and crawling when they looked the opposite way, i finally got into position to drop the closet gobbler. Still was a 40 yd shot. What an awesome hunt!!!
May 4, 2018. 4pm
Juneau County, Private Land
#23, 10" beard, no spurs
As soon as we got out of the truck, we could here this bird gobbling just off the food plot. Got n the blind and within 10 mins had 2 jakes come right to decoys. Then not even 5 mins later, this guy come walking n full strut the whole time right to decoys. Girlfriend dropped him n his tracks! Funny thing about him, is he had NO spurs at all. Just really small bumps where they were suppose to b. Wierd!
I was lucky to get this nice Tom near vesper wi this morning...24lbs 11.5 beard...1.25 spurs....after messing with the birds for nearly 2 hours about 5-6 Tom's and a Jake came out of the woods into a cut corn field and approached my one hen decoy...I shot and hit the bird with my mxb320 but it flew about 300 yards..then when I did find it..it tried to run in the woods away from me...I dove and got a hand around its neck and said not today...your coming with me..
Wadu
Had two toms 15 yards from my blind at 5:30 this morning but they were so close together, I couldn't get a shot. They wanted nothing to do with my decoys and I swear they were the Siamese Twins of the turkey world. They were never more than 2 feet apart the whole time I watched them. Gobbled and strutted in unison even 100 yards from my blind. Very frustrating!
Tim
"Gobbler # 5 for the season!"
Juneau County, public land.
18" lbs 11 oz 1 " spurs 10" beard
Roosted 3 nice toms last night, first spot we stopped rain was coming down hard, we waited it out till the rain stopped. Call few different times, with no response. Second spot we saw a few birds in a field, couple Jakes with 5 hens. drove up a 1/2 mile past the area i had the toms roosted night before, got out call 2 times tom gobbles 100 yards away. walked in 150 yards off logging road called and he gobbled. Got set up called a few times tom gobbled 3 times "Bang" done by 6:30 am.
Anyone looking to get out and hunt, I still have openings for the 5th/6th season.
Good luck,be safe!
20" lbs 7 oz
Public land Juneau County.
First time hunter, zone 1 Afternoon kill just before the storm!
Still lots of tom's around, A lot of tom's are locked down with hens till late morning. Late afternoon and evenings birds really have been fired up!
Good luck,be safe!