2014 Turkey season

[scruffee]

2014 turkeys, show them off!

Season's over here in Quebec, managed to bag both of my turkeys this year on the 4th and 5th day of the season. Had a great start to the season, a lot of action but no shots. Then 3 days of nothing, 2-3 hens at most, I was getting pretty desperate but I knew it would turn around with the weather getting nicer.

Shot this big jake after spotting him the evening before, he came in running towards my strutting tom decoy. 18lbs with a 5 inch beard.

30-45 min after shooting the jake I spotted a big tom in a different field, tried to run and gun him, he gave me 2 great shooting opportunities but on my bad side and couldn't move around without getting busted, he ended up giving one last shot, head in the crosshairs, lined up with the land owners sugar shack less than a 100 yards away, decided not to shoot and piss off the land owner.

Spotted the same gobbler before he roosted that evening and decided to set up there the next morning. He was with an old bearded hen and wouldn't leave her side, he strutted 150-200 yards away for a good 2 hours. He ended up giving me a great shot at 15 yards when he made his way along the tree line I was in, following that hen. 20lbs, 9 inch beard and 1 inch spurs.

 

[leadslinger]

Shot this big jake after spotting him the evening before, he came in running towards my strutting tom decoy. 18lbs with a 5 inch beard.

30-45 min after shooting the jake, I spotted a big tom in a different field, tried to run and gun him, he gave me 2 great shooting opportunities but on my bad side and couldn't move around without getting busted

Nice birds.
Does Quebec allow hunters to shoot 2 turkeys in the same day?

 

[hoytcanon]

Nice birds.
Does Quebec allow hunters to shoot 2 turkeys in the same day?

You beat me to it...

 

[scruffee]

Yes you can shoot 2 the same day however hunting is only from half hour before sunrise to noon... This is was the first season they allowed us to shoot 2 turkeys, bearded birds only, no hens.

 

[doublelung]

Yes you can shoot 2 the same day however hunting is only from half hour before sunrise to noon... This is was the first season they allowed us to shoot 2 turkeys, bearded birds only, no hens.

I never did understand the "till noon" rule. As in my experience it's always been easier to shoot a turkey in the morning coming off of roost than trying to find one call it in or sneak on it in the afternoon..... Maybe someone can explain the logic to me...

 

[leadslinger]

We used to be that way in Ont, but they have since changed it to 7pm instead of noon.
You can buy your two tags at the same time, but you can only take one bird per day.

 

[hunter148]

I to can remember the til noon days in Ontario and I think the reasoning was to give the small number of birds time to expand which around here they have done and then some. I can remember many a day that at 12:05 here came the bird you were chasing all morning. I have shot just as many, if not more, birds in the afternoon as in the morning. I find 2pm is the golden time. They seem to come out to the fields in that time frame and are more than willing to respond to calls. I remember a few years back Easter weekend fell in the first weekend of the season. On the holiday Monday went about about 1:00pm, bumped birds twice on the way in, set up and 45 minutes later had no less than 7 toms in the decoys. It was an early spring so the wheat was up about 12 inches so seeing beards and spurs was impossible so with no other choice I shot the one with the biggest snod(that floppy thing on their nose). Turned out he was a decent 22lber but it took 15 minutes for his buddies to get done kicking his dead carcass before I could pick him up. I will never get up to pickup a bird and move with birds in the decoys, or even in sight, as I believe this will eventually educate them.

 

[scruffee]

I know that pain, having birds starting to move back in around noon and not being able to do anything sucks! My father inlaw shot 2 big toms back to back on the second day of the season this year. The 2 toms were fighting 75 yds from him, the less dominant one ran away after getting his a$$ kicked and came within range, he shot and got him good. The dominant tom came running and gave him a shot which he took. That's the advantage of being able to shoot 2 on the same day. I'd love to be able to hunt all day, managed to do so last year in Ontario and it was awesome. Being able to get out hunting after work makes your day a little nicer!

 

[Adrian J Hare]

The noon cut off was to allow hens to settle back on nests, but it never made scents. Quebec is following Ontario's rules except for the two bird a day which I kicked up about at a meeting. If you remember the 1st year Ontario was the same, the second year it changed ...

 

[hunter148]

I may be mistaken but I never remember getting two tags until we could hunt past noon, but then again its been a long time since it changed to two birds in spring.