Season "A"

[brittman]

I have been busy scouting and then guiding my son on his first turkey hunt and first hunt with a shotgun.

Turkeys have been relatively quite in the morning where we are hunting.

Wednesday evening we set up a blind - returning Thursday morning. I know from experience it is in area between roost site(s) and staging area. Thursday morning came and we were in the blind well before shooting time. We heard one gobble south and a couple north. Too cold at 34F?

About 8:00 I decided to take him on a little run and gun. We crossed through a small roost site and a jake flushed out of a tree. - late start to the day?

We moved down near another major roost site where I have had success multiple times working birds and taking a nice gobbler from the spot in 2004.

I got him perched up along a tree. I lay down behind him and hit a soft series of yelps. A gobbler immediately answered to our east. I quickly position him to the likely path the bird would take to us.

Bird is now close (out of view - downhill), but maybe on the other side of the creek. Some calling - he answers. Can not see him, but you can tell he is now "pacing" - along the creek. Then he starts to walk away. why??

Well behind and to our left a big gobbler comes charging over the crest of a hill - through thick woods. Did the first gobbler "know" this guy was there - thus had no intentions of coming closer to us?

The big guy comes down to a knoll and lets out a big gooble. About 35 - 40 yards away. I could have made the shot - but this is his season not mine. My son can not see the bird, but if the bird would take another 5 steps - shot is open! I would like his shot at 25 yards.

The big gobbler starts spit'n and drum'n in full strut, but will not inch closer. Then "put" and he becomes nervous. We walks away. I hit some aggresive purrs and clucks and he charges right back to the knoll. Again - just out of view of my son. Then "put", "put" he is looking right at us - do not think he spots us - but he knows something just is not right. He walks off ...

My son tells me that during the whole sequence of events he felt "funny" - his teeth were chattering and he was shaking slighly. I think I have hooked a hunter. I asked him if he ever gets that feeling before traveling hockey or baseball games and he say no not really. It was a great morning without killing a bird. Just the start.....

[skunk-ape]

Good report brittman.

The birds were very quiet on the roost for me as well especially on Wednesday. Yesterday there was more gobbling on the roost but still not much.

I had a nice tom close on Wednesday morning but he had two hens with him so I couldn't close the distance enough. I took a 17 lb. jake yesterday morning after I called in a gang of six jakes. The jakes were in a woods across a township road from the woods I was hunting and were a pretty good distance away when I started calling. I could hear they were closing the distance when they gobbled but I couldn't see them because of the road. Finally they started walking up on the road and I prayed that a vehicle wouldn't drive by and mess things up. After a little more coaxing with my mouth call they started walking into the woods where I was set up. I readjusted my shotgun and hear a commotion behind me that sounded like a turkey taking flight. I didn't want to look back to see for fear of spooking the jakes but I kinda think it was a tom that came in quiet behind me.

When the lead jake was about 30 yards out I let him have it. It was my first time using a 3.5 inch gun with a turkey choke and it put that bird down fast. I stayed still for a bit and watched the other jakes try to figure out what had happened.

It was a fun couple of days and nice to be in the woods for the sunrise again. Good luck to those still out there and those hunting later seasons!

[gorrilla]

I took my buddy (and his brother and my other buddy) out to try and get his first turkey ever. We hunt 442 and are lucky enough to have good land to hunt. Very similar to brittman, we heard several at sunrise, but none came to our blinds and dekes so we started runnin n gunnin (with four guys!). They were having so much fun we had to sshhh each other once in awhile.

We had a bird flush from a tree we walked under twice too at about 8:00. I'm also thinking its because it was cold. After that we had a couple of hot responses we closed the distance on and after setting up and calling we realized it was across the river and not getting closer. Oh well, we went back to the truck and headed two miles down the riverbottom to the next spot and as soon as we set foot in the woods we were answered by gobbles in a lower field. We set up just inside the woods on the connected upper field. Five jakes approached us with four within twenty yards. My buddy rolled one and high fives for all...

The funny thing is on the way back to the truck we spotted a huge tom 100 yards from the truck and after getting him to gobble several times we wondered why he wasn't running because we weren't all that well hidden. After looking him over in the binocs we noticed lots of white on his rump in front of his fan. We then figured it had some tame blood in it. It sure would've been a neat mount though. On the way back to camp (4 miles) we saw 10 toms in one group feeding, strutting, and fighting out in a picked cornfield.

[DrJ]

My son and I hunted in 349. Very little gobbling on Wed. morning. I had a group of 6 hens come by the decoys and they just walked away picking at the ground. At 8:15 am I saw a tom at the crest of the hill, but he was silent but in full strut. Then I saw 5 come over the hill all doing the same.After waiting and watching for 10 minutes I decide to do a soft yelp and purr. The two hens came running down the hill and all 5 toms came struting slowly down the hill until all 5 were with in 15 yards.I shot one and the other 4 just stood there. I got up and they finally ran off. I guess they were trying to impress the two hens and just followed them down. My son came over and we sat till 7:00 pm with no activity. Thursday we went to a different field and only two faint gobbles at sunrise. I'm thinking we should have stayed at the other field when a loud gobble woke up my son. We looked up and their was a huge tom at the crest of the hill. He was leading a group of 7. One after another they came into view and the big one looked at the decoys and walked out of sight The rest followed him except the last one decided to come in for a look. We were done by 6:45. I don't think their with the hens yet since the toms were all still together. Very quiet in the woods.I hope everyone has a great season, It should just get better. Only complaint from my son was that we came home early and he's back at school today.. Good Luck DrJ.

[Powerstroke]

Gorrilla....are you guys only hunting A season? I've got 442 B next week and wouldn't mind discussing some spots with you if you guys aren't hunting any more after A.