Urban Turkeys

[Tom7227]

I've been turkey hunting at least 10 times over the past 20 years. My first experiences were down near Caledonia. As I remember it if you saw a bird 300 yards away in a field and stopped the truck to look the birds would start to move. At least 4 times I was out hunting and sitting as quiet as I could. It almost seemed inevitable that I would move my head a fraction, or an arm, and I'd hear the flap of wings and see the birds jump up like mallard and be gone over the trees and down in the valley in a heartbeat.

Lately I've been hunting in Washington County. The birds sound the same and move the same. But they just don't seem as wary. Last week a friend and I were checking out some wood duck houses and three times we drove up to an area where a bird was and they would just sort of amble away like they had all the time in the world.

Yesterday I was out for the first day of my season. Two birds came out of the woods about 15 yards from my blind. I had put up the mesh and couldn't get the gun in position so I took a corner of the net down. The tom didn't like that movement and walked away behind some trees. At about 10:30 I heard the first gobble of the morning. The bird was in an adjacent field but there was a swamp between us. I decided to check it out and so I drove up there. The bird was about 75 yards into the field. I got out of the truck and moved toward the bird when it went below the crest of a hill, but it clearly had seen the truck. As I got to the crest of the hill I saw that it was a big tom with a long beard. When it put it's head up I clearly was in sight of it standing straight up without any camo on. The bird didn't move and so I shot it.

It wasn't very satisfying. In fact after I was done I felt sort of bad about doing it that way. My daughter said it was OK because I'd put in a lot of time turkey hunting and had never pulled the trigger. I'm still not sure it was the right thing to do.

But what I've decided is that urban birds just aren't very wary. What I did was legal, just not the way I had envisioned it happening.

Any thoughts about this?

[DonBo]

Sometimes the payback is sweet. If you've been hunting them for a while without one in the pot, then you probably deserved this one. If you don't feel good about it, then that's something you need to deal with. I've done the same thing a time or two and may never do it again for all the reasons you've already stated. You're very first? I'd be happy about it and move on.

As for the metro turkeys being different? I believe you may have just stumbled onto a retarded one. They've kicked my a$$ more than a few times. The ones I'm hunting now are as wary as any I've seen.

[Musky Buck]

I hear ya Tom, it's why I don't go, yet, I let people hunt my land and I've had 100% success from them, however, this Spring they seem to be getting smarter, they only raid my birdfeeders in mid day, but lately they've been split up like a tom and a hen or 2 or 3 scattered about gobbling like mad. The jakes are in small groups. The hunters still got Toms but they are showing more signs of wariness, I always just thought in my area they haven't been hunted much and maybe having so many around competing for hens they are quick to come into the decoy and range. I think for you Tom you'll have hunts where it's tough and some where it's easy,same for deer, we are hunting the turkey rut so to speak. If you want more challenge I think hunting a later turkey zone and date would maybe be more challenging. Either way don't feel bad, maybe a bird like that would've been toast soon enough either way.