Hard to believe the season is roughly only a month out - i've actually been noticing Tom's breaking away from the flocks in my area. No strutting or gobbling thus far that I have seen. Any one else?
Fox valley area
Turkey Hunting
2019 Reports
Displaying 1 to 15 of 61 posts
Turkey season needs to get here now more than ever.. less than a week in of this chaos and already going nuts.. I need some simplicity and excitement back in my life. If we get quarantined like the Bay Area, which i do see coming, i'll be buying as many tags as I can for some peace of mind and living in the northwoods lol. Still seeing flocks of Tom's together.. i feel like i have seen twice as many tom's as hens so far this spring.. haven't seen any strutting or heard any gobbling quite yet.
Jzzz... yes they are in big flocks right now...one of the places I hunt my cousin called me on monday and told me he saw 100 birds on his field the other day...I've been seeing flocks of 5 to 14 Tom's in a group this fall and there will be a ton of 2 year olds next spring...i.pove turkey hunting way more than deer hunting..I cant wait til mid April...merry christmas... happy new year....if you need help next spring or want to do a hunt together let me know....I mean I know you know what your doing but going w someone sometimes is fun too
Wadu
Brent, as soon as you put a turkey tag in your pocket you’ll stand out like a sore thumb. They truly do have incredible vision and awareness, but that seems to get trumped by a 6th sense of knowing when they’re being hunted.
I usually get a fall turkey tag just in case when bowhunting. I swear they pick me out the second I think about drawing back.
I have a question (coming from a guy who doesn’t turkey hunt)
I posted this a few years back as well, but couldn’t find it.
I’ve always heard that turkey’s have great vision, and how important being camouflaged is.
The above said, I can’t tell you how many turkeys I’ve seen from tree stands over the years, wearing blaze orange from head to toe. I’ve had some turkeys walk directly under my stand, which leads to to think that turkeys don’t look up (or they don’t care much about color.)
Given how many turkeys I’ve seen over the years from tree stands, it would seem like sitting in a tree would be the way to go if a guy was looking for a turkey.
Missed one this morning for the first time in years.. had to leave for work by 6 so snuck into the roost in the dark.. had a pile of hens active early.. to my surprise (and luck) there were no toms with them. A few distant gobbles. The hens were super aggressive this morning, clucking and cackling like i've never heard in response to me.. worked perfect though as it drew a tom across a 5 acre plowed field.. no blind so i had to do a 180 without being detected by the 7 hens 80 yards in front of me.. managed to crawl around and face the right way (or so i thought).. he popped out about 80 yards to my east so i once again had to maneuver and get in position to attempt a shot.. he stepped into the woods about 80 yards out - i was laying on my stomach at this point and he was strutting, spitting, and drumming.. the hens began to call again and he started to circle.. due to the time of the morning and position of the hens, i knew this was my only shot. he stepped in the lane at roughly 55 yards and i let it fly (3-1/2" #5 shot) i know i can hit that distance as i've shot out to that before.. he jumped and flew across the road to live another day. Super exciting 1 hour hunt, disappointed in myself for the outcome, but will be back again this weekend.. Side note: that WILL be the last time i shoot a 3-1/2" turkey load in that position.... i'm going to be feeling the effects of that one for a while.. :/
Went out to set up decoys for next morning hunt, decided I had nothing better to do so thought might as well stay and see if there's any evening activity. About 6:45 two toms can in silent. Could tell second one was bigger so waited till he came out from behind brush. Shot he just ran away, quick look could see the first one was just standing there, so took a whack at him, down he went deader than a door nail. Paced it off 64 steps so I estimate about 55 yards. That's stretching the old Mossberg but with turkey choke and 3" Super X # 4's, knew it was doable. Ten inch beard, 1 1/8 spurs about 22 lbs. average bird, Crawford county. Only problem now is all I got to do is now work for the next 2 days.
To the comments below in regards to the gobbling, or lack thereof.. I was listening to a podcast recently and Mark Drury was talking about turkeys and their patterns... i never really looked into Turkey behavior like i have deer.. one part he mentioned that i began to pay attention to was anytime there is a northeast wind, he says in his experiences the gobbling is essentially non existent on those mornings... after seeing several posts about very little gobbling i went to Wunderground and checked, sure enough, there was a NE wind on Saturday morning.. I wonder if there is any correlation behind this or just some strange coincidence.. kind of cool to wonder about though. Congrats everyone!
A fair amount of gobbling on the roost this morning, but nothing close...or so I thought. At 6:30 had a hen enter the field. As I was watching her to see if she had a tom in tow, this guy came from behind the blind and strutted right in to challenge my jake decoy. Second bird of the season.
Displaying 1 to 15 of 61 posts
