Im hunting the last season....

[bullett]

My daughter and I are hunting the last season and it starts Frida. Just wondering if there still some gobbling going on and if the toms have been responding back.

[mws4dux]

Out right now,one tom gobbled a fair amount on roost and a few times on the ground. He's with three hens now. Yesterday two Toms gobbled a lot till about 700

[paceman]

My last few times they were gobbling like crazy on the roost but then they went quiet on the ground.

[engfish]

The wind down here has made it difficult to hear much the past few days, even early in the morning, but the young man I took out on Friday had quite an experience playing Cat and Mouse with a wily old bird that didn't start gobbling until 9:30. Yesterday we had gobbling from a lone bird at 10:30 that we couldn't get to move out of the woods.

I definitely would ditch the decoys and stop calling once the bird(s) move your way. My young hunter learned that the hard way on Friday morning.

Don't be afraid to put in a couple of long days--especially if you get some early morning gobbling but no action coming your way. Even last year, some of the best action was later in the morning--just about the time I was ready to take a mid-day rest break and grab some breakfast/lunch/nap off of the property.

Good luck!

[piker007]

I think it'll probably be alright. at least I hope so. Im taking my wife out to hunt it.

[bigbucks]

I talked to a gobbler in the woods for almost 45 minutes Saturday morning. Started up with him just before 7:30. He gobbled basically every 20 seconds the whole time, it was a rush. The landowner could hear him from his open house windows. He just wouldn't close in to sight. I wasn't sure if he was gobbling off the roost or what, so I started sneaking towards him. (Keep in mind it's private land & I'm the only one hunting at the time.)

I knew he was just over the crest of the hill under 150 yards. Then I caught a glimpse of him through the underbrush when his head shot out to gobble & he was only about 50 yards. There was too much understory. I just didn't have a shot. I started crawling to get behind a tree on the corner of this little patch of underbrush. I was 10 yards or so short of the tree when he started peeping, oh oh. Here he'd finally decided to come & look for me & I see him bobbing along about 30 yards to my left. I wasn't sure if he'd seen me, so I didn't jump up right away, probably should have. When I realized he was working up to leave at a fast walking half circle around me, I was up with the safety off following his head through the tree trunks. He finally paused at what I thought was 50, but may have been further. I was debating & he started moving again & I had no realistic shot. Glad I didn't shoot. I found out later in the day when I snuck up on another tom out in a hayfield that the Winchester shells I was shooting just didn't pattern tight enough to guarantee a kill at 40 yards with my barrel.

I'd patterned them years ago along with some Federals I'd bought & the Federals shot better, but I had the Winchesters & thought they'd do fine. I wasn't able to connect on a similar shot with the same shells last fall, so NOW I decided to pattern them again along with a box of Federals I then bought. I'm sure the Winchester's would be fine if I was shooting a really tight turkey choke, but I've always just used the standard full & that wasn't good enough. Rolled a jake at 45 yards on Sunday with a Federal.

[Musky Buck]

Yes still gobbling daily in my neck of the woods, I'd scout and pattern some if you can and you'll have a good shot. All I'm seeing right now are Toms, unclear as to why no jakes really, hens must be sitting some now maybe ?

[rbs]

busted a hen the other morning off the nest and the eggs were warm so she was definately incubating them. All the toms are sticking to the woods around here and I am thinking that is the only way to kill them right now is to go in after them. Still some gobbles in the morning and the evening when the wind isn't blowing...which has been one day in the last 2 weeks! Taking my wife out on Saturday morning as well. Good Luck!

[bullett]

Thanks everybody on the info.. I ended up going out to the woods on

Monday morning to listen. I pulled in to the driveway approach and parked my truck at 510 in the morning. I shut the door and I heard gobbling instantly. I walked down the treeline and stayed hidden and there were 3 toms gobbling in the woods that I hunt. Possibly a 4th. So hopefully I can put together a plan so that we can harvest a bird!!!

[Greybeard53]

I'm hunting last season too.

It was nice to see a mature Tom strutting a field edge with five hens on my way to work this morning. I was suprised to see so many hens.

[bigbucks]

They're definitely still out strutting. Saw the biggest tom I've ever seen crossing a hayfield on land I was hunting on Saturday morning about 9. I wouldn't have ever said I'd seen a 30 pound tom, but he just might have been one. My goodness was he HUGE! I shot a 24 pounder last year & he was WAY bigger. I'd say he was 4' tall. His head was the size of a cantalope. I would have been after him Sunday morning, but it was raining so we waited for it to quit & went a bit closer to home. The whole bird in the hand thing happened, because when I got a jake in range he went down.

[Greybeard53]

"Well, he was 4 foot tall,

weighed over Turdy pounds,

with every step there was a shake,

sh-shakin of the ground.

He was strutaful, so beautiful.

Strutted right out of my dreams,

he was created by God,

just for outdoor magazines."

Sorry.....the Yoopers thirty point buck song came to mind.

[bigbucks]

Just talked to the landowner this morning. He said his wife put her hand in that turkey's track after I left on Saturday & it was perfect size match for her thumb, middle finger & pinky. It's a BIG bird (not yellow however).