turkey season

davidlt89 · April 14, 2009, 07:35:19 AM

our turkey season opens on the 4th of May. I am scheduled to take the 4th and the 5th off and head downstate to a friends house. I am taking two friends from my church with me who have never turkey hunted so I don't expect to get much shooting myself in. I would love to see these guys fill their tags. They are pretty excited and are asking a lot of questions, they would leave tonight if we could.
Now, I know some of you are in turkey season right now but I have only seen one post indicating this. Who has been out so far? let us know what is going on:biggthumpup: ! God Bless.

buckshot roberts · April 14, 2009, 11:46:53 AM

david... :huh: i'm still scouting at this time.. I have two farms I can hunt on one had turkeys last fall, all I've seen are deer and fat squirrels.....I'll come back for them LOL..............Ron

davidlt89 · April 14, 2009, 02:47:12 PM

Keep at it Ron! Hope to see some turkey pics soon from ya!!! God Bless.

Antler3 · April 16, 2009, 10:22:03 AM

Well I have been out and out and out. But no Birds ! Opening morning I jumped over a county and heard two across the creek but couldn't get them to come over. From then on I have been here around the house where I usually fill my tags each year. But this year NO BIRDS ! I have scouted and looked and listened and not a sign of any. I have searched several of my hunting spots and not a peep. This is a fairly large area too. I am stumped for sure ....what would make all those birds just up and leave an area ??

:undecided:

Alboy · April 16, 2009, 12:15:20 PM

Maybe they heard dead eye annie oakley Antler 3 was on the hunt.

Antler3 · April 17, 2009, 12:55:00 PM

LOL !! I have been pretty sneaky though. I am hearing lots of folks in the Northern part of the state are having the same difficulties. :undecided:

RatherBHuntin · April 17, 2009, 05:22:35 PM

You been keeping the bobcats and foxes beat down?

Antler3 · April 17, 2009, 05:38:24 PM

Haven't taken any this year. I'll have to tell on myself and say I missed a bobcat and a coyote with my bow this year. I haven't been hearing the yotes like I used too either come to think of it. There don't seem to be as many of them around now. I say as many ...I do find the scat from time to time so I'm sure there are a few. I have one more field to check. Gonna be difficult getting over to it through the woods. We have timber down across all the loggin' roads from the ice-storm. Normally I could ride the four wheeler right to it. I'll have about a mile and a half or better walking in there and then come back. Of course that means crawling over and under all the brush and tree tops along the way. BUT ..... It'll all be worth it if I find the birds

.

davidlt89 · April 18, 2009, 03:55:38 AM

QuoteI'll have to tell on myself and say I missed a bobcat and a coyote with my bow this year.

It will be our secret!:D
Seriously, it is just incredible you were close enough to get a shot. Getting a bobcat with a bow would be quite a feat!
As far as the turkeys, seems to me it would have something to do with the icestorm. Seems odd though you are having trouble locating birds, but I know you will find them Antler! God Bless.

JordansFever07 · April 20, 2009, 05:42:31 AM

I hunted hard my entire spring break and since opening morning when I got a 9 1/2 inch tom I haven't seen any more shooters.

I've seen loads of jakes, plenty of hens but nothing worth putting on the ground. I guess I'll just hold off until the last day and bust a jake if a monster doesn't show... I think I need to sharpen up my calling.

davidlt89 · April 20, 2009, 12:22:45 PM

QuoteI've seen loads of jakes, plenty of hens but nothing worth putting on the ground.

I would of put them down on the ground regardless!! Trophy is in the eye of the beholder. I will level a jake just as fast as a Tom!!!!!!
You are fortunate, we are only allowed one turkey. I just find it fun pulling the trigger! God Bless.

JordansFever07 · April 20, 2009, 05:07:44 PM

I believe I'm going to now. My hunting partner just tagged out today on a double bearded jake on the property. He killed another jake this past tuesday so I feel more justified to killing one now. I'm hoping to fill my tags tomorrow after school if I'm lucky.

davidlt89 · April 21, 2009, 03:41:36 AM

Hope to see some pictures!!! God Bless.

JordansFever07 · April 21, 2009, 05:49:50 PM

I took my little cousin turkey hunting for the first time today and he got an awesome bird for his first this afternoon. I brought him to a 2 man tent blind looking over a soybean field where he harvested a great bird.

9 1/2 in. beard
18-20 lbs.

I put in some attachments of his first and my first. This has been an awesome season so far.

Alboy · April 21, 2009, 06:57:43 PM

Yep got the fever and spreading the bug.

You boys are having a good season, glad to see it.

RatherBHuntin · April 21, 2009, 07:07:41 PM

Nice to see ya'll getting out there, spending time with family and helping the young uns out.

davidlt89 · April 22, 2009, 03:19:24 AM

Good looking birds, I hope we see a quarter of the birds you did. what are you guys using for shotguns? One of them looks like a mossberg but I am not sure. God Bless.

buckshot roberts · April 22, 2009, 08:18:27 AM

Congrats to you both nice looking birds............

A3 I have not seen any birds as of the first of april.....al I found monday was two other hunters...........Ya know "Hawks" and "Owls" also hunt turkeys.....I saw a group of hawks last week in my hunting area ?....Ron

JordansFever07 · April 22, 2009, 05:54:37 PM

Thanks y'all. I plan to try to fill my remaining tag this weekend. I'll keep everyon updated.

davidlt89 · May 19, 2009, 05:11:17 PM

forgot all about this post!!! might as well fill you in on the trip. we loaded up Sunday afternoon and my buddies who have never turkey hunted had very high ambitions. I had a friend downstate who used to live up here. He used to be my deer hunting buddy. whenever we went deer hunting we never seen anything together, but the minute we would split up, I would always see deer and he would never see a thing. I miss him greatly:D Anyway, he graciously let us stay at his house for this adventure. we had a four hour ride and it went by fast. we reached my friends at about 8:PM and started catching up. I had not seen his wife or his kids in about 10 years. I had to scold his wife first as they she came up here last year with a moose permit and I never got a call, even after they shot it. Anyway, one of his kids is as tall as me now and he is 14!!! they are a huge hunting family and had plenty of videos and stories to show us. thought I would never get to bed. Now, one of my buddies requires a lot of sleep and he did not get to sleep till around 10:00. he was not happy with my 3:30 wake up call. the other guy had a hard time but managed to get up. I on the other hand had to listen to both of them snore and did not get to sleep until 1:00AM:angry: . we got up and got dressed and commenced to spray down with bug dope to keep the tics off of us. my buddies are new to the tics as they are very rare up here. My friend that lives there swore up and down he never sees ticks, but he does not hunt turkeys and by deer season it is cold enough they are not out. Anyway, we got in the cars and my friend walked me to the spot he had picked out. we heard a guy throwing out and owl call really early (a bad one at that) and nothing was answering. I had a bad feeling then, but did not relay that to my buddies. we got set up and got situated and two deer came about 10ft from us and stopped. they left pretty fast though. we were sitting in an apple orchard and at about 5:00 am a tractor came out and started spraying trees. we just got up and left. I tried to locate some turkeys in the woods but no dice. my buddy came back and took us to another place and the turkeys just were not there. we did sit there for about an hour though and I have never seen more "movement" from two hunters in my life. one of my friends was brushing tics off himself and I believe the other guy felt he needed to shift position every 30 seconds. we got up and left and called it a day. we went riding in the afternoon and seen 8 nice toms on a farmers lawn eating grain. I later went back to the spot to see if any were there that night knowing they would roost there for the night. we ended seeing a lone hen. That was our excitement for that day. My buddy who we were staying with had said the night before if the chips were down he would call his "turkey hunting" buddies and get us some turkeys. what that boiled down to was us going back to the spot we ended up in the day before. One of my friends who was hunting ended up getting sick and opted to forgo the 3:30 wake up and stayed behind. I will be honest and say I got a little excited because that was one less guy moving and taking two Jakes in the same set is definitely doable up here (does that make me a bad friend:o ) Anyway, it did not matter. we heard one tom that morning and he was quite far away. the last time we heard him it was followed with some gunfire and we ceased to hear to him. we waited around a little but when the turkeys are not there, they are not there. I did not know the layout enough to go walking through the woods and the housed are so tight together we would of inevitably ended up on someone's lawn.
we left and headed for some breakfast, checked some other fields (saw only 3 turkeys) and went and got my other buddy and headed home. I definitely thought we would see more turkeys than that. one thing i liked is that my friend only lives about 8 miles from where I shot my first turkey. seeing that field brought back a lot of memories.
For me, I was glad to see Barry again and his family, it was worth it for that. One of my buddies could of cared less that he did not get a turkey, and by looking at the other one, you would of thought his whole family had just died. All in all, I learned a thing or two. one being that 3 guys together is too many!!!!! sorry no pictures this time. God Bless.

buckshot roberts · May 19, 2009, 08:48:20 PM

David good post.....I found myself and two others hunters in a small area while hunting in one of the wild life management arears...the one farm I had high hopes of getting a bird was being over hunted .........I now have my own little spot of land......hope to have a good fall turkey hunt, with two hens with young, and three Jakes hanging around..........Ron

turkey season

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