My property has two strutting toms who have tons of hens with them, along with a smaller flock of one tom and two hens. They have not responded to calls, so I’m thinking decoys might be in order to pull them in.
Conventional advice recommends lone hen, but given this scenario, should I go with a submissive Jake?
Like many, and from my previous posts, first year turkey hunter here, and today was the most exciting/frustrating hunt I’ve had so far.
I’ve been grinding PA public land mountains for weeks, since the 2nd, with almost no gobbles, no sign, nothing. Finally found a pocket where birds are using the public/private edge. Got set up this morning, had a hen below me start working a tom, I thought nice I'll let them hammer it out to each other, and eventually I was able to call him onto the public side.
He came in quiet at one point and I almost blew it by moving too soon, but I reset, stayed patient, and later had him working along the sidehill. Eventually he came through a small opening around 30–35 yards. I had the red dot on his head/neck area and took the shot.
He did a weird flip/flop, ran, flapped, and flew/glided back down the mountain. I marked the shot spot immediately and searched for about 2.5 hours in every likely direction. No blood, no feathers, no body, no wing drag, nothing. I’m sick over it.
I’m guessing either a clean miss or maybe a light graze, but it’s eating me up. I’m going back to check again and my buddy who's working on this private land the tom loves hanging out is keeping an eye on the private side to see if the bird shows back up the rest of the week.
Any advice from experienced turkey hunters? How often do birds react dramatically to a miss? And would you hunt that area again soon or give it a few days?
Fought with this bird several days this year and had a VERY similar fight last year with an identical scenario. He roosts on my property, flys to the neighboring property (high ground) and gobbles his head off but will not come down. Finally found him roosted in an area where he could fly into an open bottom on my place and closed the deal. What a fun bird this was.
22lb Tom for NH opener. Interesting light feathers in the center of fan. Had a black bear come in about an hour before this turkey.
Im having the hardest time hunting turkeys this spring, and with not a lot of time left I need any advice I can get (i have till may 31st) I have a private land tag, and im very limited. I hunt about 5 acres surrounded by neighbors private land i have no permission to go on. So I have to hunt them in an odd way, a ground blind that I can only move to limited areas with calls and decoys. I cant go to them. The past 3 years ive managed to call in Tom's and shoot them no issue, heck last year I called one to me day one within the hour. This year im having no luck, the Tom's and Jake's come around about every other day and gobble like mad, but it's like they circle the property im on and dont come into it, they respond to my calls but never come on the property. I swear they know the property lines. I hunt most mornings before work (legal hour to about 8am then leave for work) and on weekends im out legal hour till about 1 or 2 pm. I dont bother coming in evenings because I know they dont pass through the property to their roost, and early season when i did i never heard them gobble near me either. Ive never had to hunt this late into the season, what sort of calls and decoy setup can I deploy to entice them to me. I have a box call, slate call, and mouth call. Im using my slate call the most as I got my wisdom tooth removed and cant use my mouth call. Again, I get responses, I even get hens coming in heated up. But the toms....it's like they cant trespass onto my area lmao
My girlfriend and I found these license plates at a local antique store here in North Carolina. We have researched for hours trying to find any info on the “coastal callers” NWTF chapter. We have not been able to find anything about this chapter. I figured it was worth a shot asking to see if we can get any info on this
From May 3rd/Last day of the season for MS
Youth opening day in Pa my 11 year old son got his first bird, a nice Tom strutting, gobbling and spitting at us at 8:45 in the morning. Heard turkeys gobbling until about 6:30 then nothing. About 8:45 this guy shows up! It was a awesome presentation for my youngest son and I have a feeling they will be turkey hunters for life judging by the way he was shaking!
After a few sits and a missed shot a week or two ago at a tom that was a little to far away, Yesterday at 8:30 my 13 year old son got this NICE limb hanger Pa longbeard. Two hens came running up to our decoys quietly. I told him you better get your gun ready hoping a Tom was behind them! Then I saw the white head coming....he would stop and we could see him fan out behind the grass and brush. Never gobbled at all. He was staying with those hens. He hung back a few minutes, seemed like a eternity. I was praying he would commit and step out in the field to our decoys where the hens were at. He finally got within 35 yards and my son dropped him!
I was out scouting public land in southern Wisconsin yesterday and parked in a location with no other vehicles. I passed on multiple pullouts with other vehicles (and what I assume are hunters) but wanted to respect others out there and not bust anyone’s birds. With that in mind when I left the parking lot I headed in the opposite direction of where I assumed the hunters were at. After hiking for about a half mile I did a couple yelps on my slate call (sorry I haven’t been getting ANY shock gobble action on the crow call). Shortly after someone just lets an owl hooter rip with the classic who cooks for you. They repeat it in pretty short succession a few times and then someone else starts replying to the original caller. They proceeded to call a few times back and forth. Granted it’s like 1 PM so I’m pretty sure it’s not actually owls.
Do you think this was just these hunters letting me know where they are and telling me to stay away? Does owl hooting have any meaning between hunters? Or do you think they were just trying to rip shock gobbles?
Ive been in the search of my favorite mouth call in terms of diverse sounds. Right now, I like the Bone Cillector Magician. I recently picked up the Power Calls Beau Brooks signature series 3 pack. Right away, I noticed PC's reeds are a much softer/thinner latex, and have a looser tolerance than the BC calls I am used to and comfortable with. I almost feel like im completely starting over in terms of using them. I wish more companies offered 4-reed calls, but they are hard to find.
This is my first year turkey hunting. I was lucky enough in my scouting preseason to be in an area of public land full of birds, in fact today was the first day out of 14 or so I didn't hear gobbles and the season ends the 24th here. I bought some decoys to give me a bit of a handicap since I'm crunching for time now. I set them up in an area I know they roost near and waited for a few hours. About 9 I took off up the ridge and walked a few miles running and gunning. After a day full of nothing I'm marching back to my decoys to load up and roll home just to bump one on the trail. Ok, I'll slow down a bit. I approached the top of the ridge overlooking my decoys and there are two down there on them. One kinda pecking around feeding, like the size of a Jake with a longer beard, and a giant tom kicking at my Jake decoy. I move in and had my sights on the smaller bird but hesitated because I wanted the strutting tom. I moved in a bit closer, about 45 yards away but a dirty line of sight. I took one more step and they both bolted. My knees were about to knock together, I've never experienced that one before haha.
I've been sitting here for about an hour and a half now, 30 minutes left in the day, frustrated with myself for not taking the shot/s I had. I didn't have the best shot on the tom and I'm glad I didn't pull the trigger, but I could've killed the other bird 3 times over. Another lesson learned I guess, hopefully I'll get another chance before the season ends. I've put in about 40 miles this month, getting physically and mentally exhausted and could've ended it all today with the pull of a the trigger haha. I've bumped birds but this is my first real blunder in turkey hunting.
Thanks for letting me bitch and moan. I'll get over it. Got a huge wing feather out of it anyways. Good luck out there fellas, be safe.
Edit: thank you guys for all the advice!
The internet makes it seem like it’s a big kick for the 20g but then again that’s the internet for you. Anyone’s experience with this particular gun would be great.
So I’m picking up a couple decoys to try out these last couple weeks of the month. I’ve been doing a lot of reading and understanding turkey biology and how the season transforms from opening to close. From what I’ve gathered late spring would do well with relaxed and feeding hens.
I’ve seen Avian-X decoys in person and they look amazing, so realistic. For those seasoned hunters, would you find these models would work well for the late spring?
I missed him 😣😭
He was alittle further than I would like and my first time hunting nerves got the best of me.
Hes still gobbling at first light. We are tryin again!
This was my first season and my first bird! I’ve been learning mostly on my own but I got a lot of tips and advice from people on this sub so I wanted to give my thanks!
I spent almost two weeks in the woods talking to this tom but never getting a shot at him. Today I finally made it happen. I thought I would jump and cheer but instead I cried for the first time in many years. I am incredibly grateful to this bird and to everyone that helped me along the way.