Season's End - A Weird One

[Hotspotter]

Yesterday was one of the better hunts I've ever been on, and a great way to close a crazy 2006 season. Just one of those mornings where there wasn't a hen in the county, plenty of gobblers sounding off, and no call you could make was a bad one! In the end, two arrows were fired by friends, and two gobblers came within inches of going to the big strut zone in the sky. But it was successful. Several birds strutting at 30 yards for almost 1 1/2 hours. 9 toms/jakes within gun range.

As for the entire season, I say it was a weird one based on several observations from the many hunters I've hunted with and talked to, as well as notes from the hunts I was on. Here are a few, and please add your own!!!

-henned up gobblers - probably the toughest MN season I've hunted in terms of henned-up birds. Every bird I seemed to be onto was with hens

-Henned-up later - it was well into the F and G seasons that hens seemed to have their icy-grip on the tom's hearts. Tough hunting till later seasons, around 9-9:30AM. Then things opened up a bit.

-big gobbler groups - I encountered many groups of bachelor jakes and toms, and I mean large groups. Consistent groupings of 4-5 gobblers, and 3-4 jakes.

-Early warm spell, cool middle-late seasons, really warm H season

We'd love to hear your season's oddities!

Joel

[TomBow]

MN was weird for me because of moving to unknown areas with non-typical habitat. I hunted close to the St.Croix south of Hwy 70 as far south as Rock Creek and birds were few and far between from what I saw. The second weekend of the season, I saw one group of strutters and hens in a field and never saw a single male bird, and very few hens, during several days driving around the area. For me, it was tough. Last Monday morning sounded promising with plenty of gobbling and yesterday was the second day of my hunt in MN where there was not a single gobble to be heard. I've been able to get on birds in familiar habitat in years past but these new properties had me second guessing every move I made. In MN, I only saw one gobbler while hunting and he was gone with the hens in 10 seconds.

In NE, I had better luck but two botched bow-shots left me with blank tags. In MN, I never even pulled back the string. Next year, I'm thinking that WI may hold better luck as the birds seem to have moved farther north there than in MN. I have co-workers in Superior that have seen birds within 25 miles and report decent numbers. Turkey hunting was tough for me this year, maybe if I'd have been in more bird-rich areas, things may have been different, but then again, sometimes it's just a matter of being in the right place at the right time. This is a place I don't get to often enough. Suffice to say, I need to get more turkey learnin' in me! Hope everyone else's season was awesome. Only 4 months until bow-deer.