Season C

[bassphish2005]

Just bought my lic. ,and I am not sure of what to expect...6 inches of snow last night but they are saying 60-70 degrees by the weekend. I dont know if I should be a sit all day hunter,or spend my time ''running and gunning' all over? Any advise?

[sticknstring]

Weather looks really nice for C. Birds should be splitting up and hammering at the call. If you've got a big farm or several places to hunt, a run & gun style of approach would work well. If not, find a good looking spot with some activity and wait them out. They'll come check you at some point. That way you're not blowing birds off the property by tromping around. Afternoons can be just as productive as mornings, if not better. Those toms tend to get a little lonely late in the day and often become suicidal!

[bigbucks]

If you're not seeing or hearing turkeys by 8:00am I'd probably be moving/searching, unless you KNOW FOR SURE they are coming to where you set up & they're just a little late.

[Borch]

SNS has some good advice about not blowing birds off your property. Just remember that there is zero foliage on the trees and undergrowth right now. It's hard to be stealthy without cover and these birds have eyesight that you wouldn't believe.

When it's like this I make fewer movements and when I do they're carefully planned to provide as much cover as possible.

[Nightcrawler]

That 6" of snow was a blessing for me Tuesday morniing, I kicked up 7-8 places like turkey scraching and sit 2 hen dekes on two. the dirt out over the snow looked liked just feeding hens. 4 toms came out 600" away looked my way . game on I think all the dirt on the snow was also an attractment. Away ,1 dead tom , 20=4 lbs 3/4 spurs and a bouble beard 10" and 4 1/4"..

running and gunning was out with the snow , you could look right through the woods.

felt if I was closer to the roost I would get busted with the snow and openness. Worked for me.

[bassphish2005]

well,I will see what is happening in my areas when I go on a final scouting mission Friday afternoon.I hope to find a few birds that are moving around and maybe I will sit all day Sat. and just wait.

[bassphish2005]

Well sitting tight was the ticket,puched out a jake Saturday afternoon when sitting on a field edege with three decoys just sitting out and I was 'lounging'ín a blind.Five jakes came running right into the decoy's and I just had to pick one out.It was so warm out and the birds had not been moving since we saw a lone hen in the morning so I decided to punch my ticket on a sure thing.Not a trophy but a bird in the hand sure feels good.

[Borch]

Congrats on your bird!

You never know when they will so up and it sounds like it worked out for you.

[ANYFISH2]

congrats on your birds, Nightcrawler and bassphish.

Happy Birthday Borch!

[sticknstring]

Quote:

congrats on your birds, Nightcrawler and bassphish.

Happy Birthday Borch!

X2!

[DonBo]

Good job! No shame in taking a jake.

[nbadger23]

Went out with a a couple of friends this morning to watch their hunt. They said the birds were very quiet Sunday morning and they were the same this morning. We were sitting in a brushy fence line and hadn't heard a thing by 6:10 so one of them let out a few soft yelps. That got a hen across the field from us fired up and then finally a gobble around 6:25 or so. We ended up with 10 hens and a strutting tom 60 yards out in front of us but could never get them close enough. Lots of yelping and gobbling and strutting in the field

As we were heading out around 8:30 I spotted a strutting tom with a hen at the next fence line over. We headed for the closest fence line so we could get to the other side and make our way over but we could see we had spooked them a bit. We continued our walk out and I snuck over to the next field to take a glance. I caught the tail end of the tom heading into the 20 acre woodlot so we quickly got up to the other side of that woodlot, and setup on the edge. A few clucks and yelps did nothing so the decision was made to push it and cut the distance to where we thought they were. We had the terrain to our advantage so walked the field edge slowly and were able to hear a hen yelping over the hill in the field, likely down in the corner. We got as close to the hill as we could so as to conceal us and popped in the woods.

A few yelps and clucks and she came to a string on us and she was close, about 15 yards out in the field walking around clucking, trying to find the hen she heard. The tom was gobbling his head off but unfortunately he did not follow, which would have been great because watching him crest the hill so close to us would have been fun.

After she walked off, back down the hill, my friend eased out of the woods and looked over the hill to see what was up. He could see the tom down in the corner, strutting. Odds are we weren't going to call him in since the hen had already come up once w/o him.

I had found a deep ravine that comes out near that corner a few weeks ago and I knew it would hide him so the two of them took off in the woods to circle around, hit the ravine, and hopefully pop up on him. I stayed back and slowly made my way as I didn't think getting 3 people in on him would work. Pretty soon I heard one shot and celebration!

This is where things get odd. My friend had hit the corner of the field, still hidden in the ravine, and couldn't see the bird anywhere. He eased out of the ravine to see what was up and 10 yards in front of him he sees a blue head, but not like you'd think. The tom had crawled into a brush pile and looked to be sitting in there. Once he saw a human he tried to get out but struggled doing so and that was just enough time to get the gun up and give him a headache!

[Archerysniper]

10 yards in front of him he sees a blue head, but not like you'd think. The tom had crawled into a brush pile and looked to be sitting in there. Once he saw a human he tried to get out but struggled doing so and that was just enough time to get the gun up and give him a headache!

I have noticed that the birds have been crawling into the blown down oak trees around here and eating the acorns.