Grabbed my Summit T/D this morning and headed out for half day of stumpshooting and shed hunting.
Working down a ridge, I spotted a nice rotten stump to shoot at. Not quite a full draw when the woods exploded with a thunderous GOBBLE!! :scared:
I sat tight and watched the tom strutting his stuff letting the world know he's ready. Wasn't long when I could hear other toms off in the distance gobbling....Good news....had a great day...Bad news....Turkey season is May 1st :mad:
Awesome isn't it Joe? Eastern elk!
Your lucky ive yet to hear a gobble yet and im from NY too. As nice as it is today im going to go roost some birds see what happends im going to go do some more stumping and hit the crow call see if I cant get a shock gobble gosh I love turkeys!
I have heard quite a few so far this week. I have a chance to go and listen before work every day if i please. My son and i went stump shooting sun. morning we had one hammering at about nine AM with owl hoots, i have heard others on the roost before daybreak, i love this time of year!
I went out tonight after some chipmunk hunting and stumping and didnt hear a gobble I think once April gets here theyll start screaming like always we got alot of birds its just a matter of time before they quit having lock jaw
Yep They are Gobbling and Strutting in Virginia and have several hens with em... And We have to WAIT till April the 14th. :rolleyes: :knothead:
Maybe there will be less competition from the Real Thing by Then. :pray: LOL
Yup, I saw 3 big Toms all blowed up today and about 20 hens and jakes. I saw a hen with about a 8" beard today as well. I wish we opened up mid April instead of May 1st. Shawn
Glad to see your feeling better!!!!! :thumbsup:
Strutin' in Tejas too! Been watchin a big ol' gobbler in my hay field every morning. I've got his number in just a few days. CK
Been strutting here in SC for a few weeks now.Our season opened 15 March,even tho there wasn't alot of action yet.I've heard birds gobbling now the last 4 times I've been out hunting.The Gobblers really are just starting to gather their flock,been seeing lots of Toms together with no Hens.............last hunt finally saw a Gobbler with Hens.......hunting partner got him after I got into it with the Boss Hen and brought her in with the Gobbler in tow.
2 big Toms in the backyard this evening strutting their stuff. God are they beautiful...and loud too!
It's going to be a long month waiting to be able to hunt these birds Joe, they are in the same mode here right now.
David
I know how you feel Have to wait till April 23 here. The Birds are early and where late.
Brian
Next week for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Driving home from work yesterday morning saw about 50 turkeys in a field. About 15 toms were strutting all at the same time. Wish I could have stopped and photographed it.
See that Bill.....Moving to California wasn't ALL bad now was it LOL ;)
Good Luck!!!!! :archer:
I went stump shooting/mushroom hunting yesterday. Stumps were plentiful and mushrooms were elusive. However, I did hear my first Gobble of the spring. Leaving today to head to my Northern Missouri hunting ground to take my two boys on the youth season turkey hunt. I hope they are gobblin up there. Anyone finding any morels yet?
Happy Hunting, Jodi
Tomorrow is "The Day" for those of us hunting the northern half of SC. Haven't heard much gobblin where I hunt until this morning, finally heard one bird really crank it up. Guessin that's where I try to be in the morning.
Good luck Jeff........going to try to get some to come in for my turkey hunting partner's son and another youngin tomorrow morning.If you're hunting WMA tomorrow,from the talk around my area you're gonna have ALOT of company.
Thanks varmint, hope your hunt went better than mine...birds have just clamed up...got so bad I decided to come back to work, at least today.
Saturday went great.Birds were gobbling at 6:20am!!!!Still black out.Got within 150 yards of a group roosted where I was expecting to set up with the young boy.Sounded like 4-5 different birds gobbling.Few calls on the wingbone I got from BKA after flydown and Taylor said he could see them coming.Turns out it was a group of jakes.I figured since it was his first bird,I'd tell him to shoot one of the jakes.I had already told him which bird to shoot and was waiting for the shot when I noticed another bird out of the corner of my eye.............a FULL fan.I stopped him before he shot and told him to shoot the strutter.15 yard shot and 14 year old Taylor had his first Gobbler on his very first turkey hunt.7 jakes and 1 gobbler in the group.His was about 18lbs,8 1/2" beard,and 7/8" spurs.I think he's spoiled now..........
Been laid up with back problems since........no work,and worse,no turkey hunting for the last 3 days.
Good luck next time you head out.
Nice hunt! Sounds like a fine bird. Light rain and cold weather didn't stop this big ol Tom this morning from strutting his stuff with about 7 hens. They were about 100 yds out behind my home in my field. Just a tad too far to get any good photos...8am....His beard has to close to 9" long. May 1st seems like an eternity.....
Back problems....that's a bummer. Hope you get over that soon. Sounds like you had a good hunt.
Probably try it again in the morning if its not too windy.
Spent last weekend finishing some woodies. Those Toms were going crazy most the day. Problem is that are season doesn't start till the end of this month. They started early up here and I hope it doesn't pose to much of a problem when the season opens.
Got a couple of hunts in this weekend up in the local mountains. We saw lots of birds. Still lots of lone hens wandering around so it might still be early. Got one big boy to come in to around 45 yards but he had a hen with him who had other ideas and she split!
Good fun...
Let's see some nice photos from you sucessful bowbenders....Keep us guys pumped up that have 3 more weeks to go!
I went out Sunday opening day. I drew a tag for a new area here in WY only 10 permits. Game and Fish introduced some Rio's to this area. Around 1700 I found a track crossing some snow. Followed up hill found droppings. Then a huge lion track. Checking another area just a little more down the road I saw my first Rio big bird heading into some timber on a hill side. Had two gobbling late in day but they were heading up hill probably to roost. I now have an area to concentrate my efforts. All this at 7000 to just over 8000 feet by the way. Snowing on and off all day, drifts still pretty deep. Spring in the Rockies. May use snow shoes this weekend and try the top of the mtn. Seen birds up there durning the summer.
Some hens racing across my property...
(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a281/sf1oak/scan0001-2.jpg)
A Tom sneaking away in the backyard...
(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a281/sf1oak/scan0002-6.jpg)
You didn't get any of the snow down there Joe?
Put a couple on the "hit list" the last couple days.Weren't gobbling too much yet,but enough for me to find them.
We'll see what happens in the next week or so,as the birds are just starting to move into the areas I hunt....
cool pix Joe :thumbsup:
Curt..came back from fishing the Res the other day (caught a nice 21" Brown) and right there in New Paltz were 2 large toms displaying for about 15 hens. Just before the flats....
Took a drive to another spot I can hunt this spring, and found 1 lone tom strutting his stuff for 4 hens. My season is only 2 weeks long in May but I've seen enough to know right now they are pretty hot.
I know of several big birds and tyhey are hanging by the rabbit valley and in the cornfield by the island of trees. I wish we opened up now as it would make it nice to call in groups of Toms. I saw five longbeards by Dads on the way home tonight. Shawn
Im back from the vaca....no turks liked my northern twang in GA. Had fun fishing in Florida though. I have noticed my "backyard strutters" have moved....once Im feeling better Im heading out to find em. I had five or six decent Toms hanging around, but once the snow was gone they didnt need the goose feed from the neighbor's pond....I will find em...lol.