All right, who got one this morning?

[setterguy]

Wondering if anyone was lucky enough to fill out this morning...what a beautiful morning to be in the woods. Good luck to all hunting, and leave a few toms for us hunting later seasons.

[2044Mustang]

I'm not going until the third season but my daughter took her first turkey during the youth hunt at chester woods park this past weekend. A dandy tom 23 #s and a 9" beard. Talk about one excited girl, not to mention dad. I can only hope I'm as lucky during my hunt.

Good Luck to all!!

[fishingbuddy]

I had the great fortune of bagging one... Thanks to the land owner who let me hunt on his land. It was really fun.

First one!!!!

[Cooter]

At least one WI longbeard gone to the happy struttin grounds today - my coworkers son got one to cooperate today around 7.

[setterguy]

Congrats FB, lets hear some details on the hunt! I love hearing the stories and picturing myself in the same situation and wondering if I would have done the same thing...

[Hotspotter]

FB:

Yep, we want a story, and pics. We're all interested!

Put it in the stickied thread up top if you could, "Stories from the hunt."

Thanks,

Joel

[Eye-lander]

Not successful yet, but I have a bead on them. I have put to roost a group of 6-7 hens and a group of 3 longbeards and a jake 2 nights in a row now. The 2 groups are roosting about 200 yards apart on a side hill of a slow sloping raving in a large basin. Both mornings I positioned myself in-between them.

Same story both days. The hens fly down and walk off away from me. The gobblers then fly down, and they have been actively gobbling on roost. They then shut up and have walked within 60 yards of me in a single file line after the hens. Of course the only one that comes into my pair of hen decoys is the jake. I let them have a fluster of cuts this morning to try top stop them but it was if they were in a trace! They have taken the same path, although slightly different lines. Is there anyone who thinks that if I add a Tom decoy to my setup that they would stop and challange, or just hope that they stop 1 of these days?

Lots of activity where I'm at. But there are so many hens around the Toms are shutting up by 8:30 and disapearing.

[Hotspotter]

Think about breaking them up when on the roost. 9pm is a good time

Trick is getting in the middle of them and scaring them all different directions. Last time I tried that they all flew the same way.

Joel

[Eye-lander]

I am back home tonight, so I can't do that now. But that thought actually came to me today. My thought was that if I spread them out, I could call agressively with no group fot the Toms to go to, and maybe I could finally be "the" place to go to!! I have my daughter with me tomorrow for her first turkey hunt, so I think I'll get in between them 1 more time and see if we can't get lucky. Otherwise I am gonna scatter them girls. Have you had to do this before and did it work? Like I said before, I thought of it but thought it was extreme. Yet this is the first time I have had this happen to me in my four years of chasing gobblers. It's been fun playing this cat-n-mouse game with them. I just want to win the game in the next 2 days. I plan on posting a picture with my daughter carrying my turkey out of the woods. I need another picture for my wall!!!!

[Eye-lander]

Thanks for your input JNelson! I'll post on how things worked out. If I am unsucessfull Friday, I'll give your idea a try.

[buckpredator]

I've done this method twice and both times it worked very well. the next mourning locate the gobblers and the times Ive done it they were very vocal and I had my bird within an hour of sunlight.

[seamonster1]

yesterday had 2 gogglers hened up on the next hillside- could see them strutting away.Got one of them to come down and 1/2 way up my hill only to stop 100yds away. think they could see my truck. So this morning set up the hill they were on- no gobbling at 8 thought to myself- are they here and silent or not here and should i move.One last yelp before i go- yep, 30 yds under he lets out his first gobble.

Alright I think, I'm in a blind so grap the gun and wait. his head goes back out of sight and i wait 20 minutes no more gobbles.Do I talk or not? I decide to sit tight.another 20 minutes and nothing. i promised myslef to be patient this year and not get "busted" like i have so many times. so another 20minutes. nothing still- ok now I'm getting impatient. One last yelp and time to give it up. No response. So decide to crawl out of blind on opposite side. As i'm doing this, what do I see his head coming over the hill-I pull the gun under the blind and sit still. He comes within 15 feet of the blind- I jump out from behind the blind and let him have it. Boys don't let your impatience get the best of you!

[paceman]

Great story!!! My season isn't until the end of April but I am really getting pumped!!!!! This will be my first year getting drawn.

[fishingbuddy]

First thing we called with an owl call and the bird answered right away. We moved to the edge of the field and set up the blind. Gobbled a couple of times and they ansered but then silence. Then i feel this tap on my leg and my partner says "can you see them?" I say no your head is in the way.... Then I see them and [Contact us regarding this word] near scream..[Contact us regarding this word] look at them.,,,,Two of them walk right up to the decoys and cannot figure out what the heck. I have never shot a turkey so i decided to take the shot. My partner says just as i am about to shoot "ya better let them seperate or we will have 4 of them down"...so I waited and BOOM...My first turkey with 5 inch beard but who cares.....

fishing buddy

[Hotspotter]

Breaking up birds plain works. I've called in several birds for other hunters using this method, esp. early season like this. Sometimes it doesn't work; you can't spread them different ways, they still hook up around you in the morning, or they're still spooky in the morning. At least it gets you in the game, and when it works, it's a beautiful thing!!!

They're very vulnerable to being called in if the hens are silent or nowhere to be seen the next morning after breaking them up. Even if these birds strike out away from you.....high tail it to where they gobbled last and yelp like a poor lost hen. Many times they'll come right back to where they last gobbled.

Good luck!

Joel

[MNpurple]

When you guys do this breaking up thing, do you only do it after they have roosted for the evening, or if you see a couple gobblers with 10 hens in the middle of the day, will you still break them up, see where he flew, and then go after him and start calling? Doesnt this screw up your spot for the rest of that day?

I have broken up birds with great success in the fall, but these were groups of hens and poults. I have never heard of doing it in the spring. But what the heck...

[Curly]

Explain to me just exactly how you break up the birds.

[MNpurple]

Curly,

The way I have done it in the fall..........when you see a group of turkeys, many times hens and poults which are legal in the fall, but they are in the middle of an alfalfa field and too far to shoot at, I will put down the gun (safety first) and basically just charge them. Run right towards the middle of them and try to split them up so they all fly different directions (sometimes easier said than done). Then after they have scattered, very quickly find a good spot, sit down and start calling. The group of hens and poults will desperately want to get back together so everyone starts calling trying to assemble. You are also calling and usually bring in some of the birds to you. If its after leagl shooting and close to dark and the birds have started to roost, do the same thing, bump them on the roost and scatter them. There won't be anough time to reassemble that night, so in the morning everyone will be calling to assemble.

I just have never thought of doing this in the spring......until now I am just worried that spooking the toms like this may shut them up and be very hard to call them back. Experts??

[Hotspotter]

Curly:

I use this as almost a last-resort move. It's usually easier and less risky to just move on and find different birds. However, in this early season breeding phase, most of the birds you'll find, roosting especially, will be together in bigger groups.

I usually do it if:

-I don't have any other properties/setups to hunt

-OR, it's when I'm expecting most birds in the area to be flocked up

-in conjunction with putting the birds to bed

I'll roost them, and get as close as I can without spooking them before dark. You have to get them to gobble via locator calls, or hopefully they'll just do it on their own. You have to consider all birds within sight that don't gobble, as hens. Bird ID here is crucial. You have to get between the hens as toms, which will usually, but not always, roost in the same general area, but different "clumps."

Wait till cover of darkness, 1/2 hour to hour depending on sky. It doesn't need to be pitch black or anything, it just has to be dark enough that you can silently sneak between the groups. Then make a heckuva racket, bang sticks on trees and run around like a banshee.

MNPurple is right, I've done it before and had toms the next morning go silent. I knew where they flew to, and there were no other roost trees around, but they were pretty shook up. Your hope is that especially right now with the breeding in full swing, that they'll be more focused on getting their hens back than worried about the upright coyote that spooked them the night before.

Don't wait until too long after dark to get this done. You need sleep, and they need all the time they can get to find another tree and calm down for morning.

Next morning, longer (number of notes) assembly yelps are the ticket. I'll just try and guage where the birds flew off, and setup in a funnel or field edge area between the two.

Good luck, and use this only if you have to.

Joel

[riverrat56]

So would this be a good last morning technique?

The last 2 years I have had problems with whole groups of birds being roosted together and all flying one direction one morning and the opposite the next, while I sit where they were the day before. If the toms and hens are roosted together in the same tree is it a lost cause to try this the night beofre the final day of my hunt?

[Fish'n guy]

We found 1 gobbler and a bunch of hens in the morning, but they were in the adjacent owners land and were roosting in and oak tree on the field edge. We figured they would be heading that way later. So I went home took a nap and we were back out there in a couple hours we located three different gobblers and watched two of them cross a large cornfield to meet up with the other one in the place they were in the morning.

We set up on a terrace and put the decoy right off to our left about five feet into the field. Then we laid down on the top of the terrace eye level with the rest of the field.

The turkeys were very vocal and responded to almost every sound I maid with the call. about five minutes after getting there, on the terrace in front of us three full strut gobblers and two hens werecomin to pay us a little vistit. The hens came right in probably within two feet of me and they mauled the decoy as well. The gobblers strutted around out at 40 yards for what seemedto be forever. We eventually got them to about 15 yards and then had to wait for them to separate so we did't end up with more than one. Luckely they did and Jay made an excellent shot and killed the bigger one.

It was 27lbs and after carrying it back well over a mile over several steep hills we were wiped out !!! Heres a pics later that evening.

Jay with an individual shot of his Gobbler.

Team turkeyaholic with the big guy !!!

I forgot to mention that this was only the third hunt of our first turkey season ever. I would like to say that all of your input helped put this turkey in the bag, so thanks a MILLION!!! My season is coming on May 2nd so I am PUMED UP!!

GOOD HUNTIN!!!!!!!!

[Ray Esboldt]

Man, that bird is a monster! Way to go guys.

How hard were your hearts a pumping when that all went down?

[Hotspotter]

27lbs is truly a monster. You may hunt turkeys all your life and never kill a heavier bird. These earlier seasons see alot of heavier birds taken, as the gobblers haven't run off what fat reserves they do have with breeding activities. Congratulations. To have it be your first bird taken together makes it even sweeter!

Just a note, please post turkey hunting stories in the stickied post at the top of the page. I'm locking this one now, so that we can keep the hunt stories together.

Thanks!!!

Joel