2020 Wild Turkey Season Thread

hoytcanon said:
Should have been an easy year for turkeys... so many birds... but I found new and creative ways to screw things up... including missing a GIANT gobbler at 35 yards with a 12 gauge (long story)... but even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile... finally connected on two. My turkey hunting instincts were firing on all cylinders, but my common sense was on vacation!

I have never seen so many huge gobblers, Including a band of 15, with no hens or jakes, I would have had that whole crew under 20 yards if they would have crossed a 2 foot ditch, but they turned and crossed at the culvert... lazy A-Holes!

Neither of my birds were huge, the one I missed, I believe to be the one I almost got last year, it was 400 yards from that spot... and this tom is HUGE! Maybe next year. Also, the pure white gobbler survived the winter, I saw him in the same field as last year and he is a nice big bird now.

Here is your ejection port shot, Alvaro.
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Well done Greg. You seem to have the most entertaining hunts and I always look forward to hearing about them. I remember you mentioning a giant Tom in your post last year. Crappy that you couldn't connect with him this year. Something to look forward to for future hunts. Either way, you still managed a dandy bird!

Have you already headed back home?
 
Cameron SS said:
I went out opening day. Nada. Well not quite. I saw three birds in adjacent fields that didnt come anywhere near me. There was also a coyote that was around all day that must have been running them off. Maybe something about the 1000+ Canada guess that landed in the field next door...

Will be going out again soon, fingers crossed.
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Good luck on your next hunt!
 
1963beretta said:
Good luck on your next hunt!
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Thanks. I happen to be looking at a dead bird! And his two gobbling friends.

I dont know where you guys are finding these birds with 1"+ spurs. Its like all the birds near me were born yesterday.

I am sat on elevated corner of a 150m square field with a jake and two hen decoys in a triangle 12 yards in front me. I see two hens break cover to my right about 75 out, and they slowly then suddenly run through the middle of the field away from me. Wonderong why they are running all of a sudden, my first thought was coyote. Less than a minute later these three swinging #### jakes come out from the same spot. I let out a little yelp yelp on the box call to turn their heads my way and they start a gobbling. 'Target acquired' we said to each other. No more need for the call I slowly move to raise the gun. No blind and not much cover other than my pack between my knees, I was worried they would get here before I was ready.

They gave me just enough time to get on the gun and to pick out the biggest of the three. They get to within 20 yards moving like kids at the pool slowly creeping closer waiting for moms say so that it was ok to go. The biggest guy is just hanging back but is following closely behind the two smaller more brave (read: danger horny) birds.

When they get to about 14 yards and 1 yard from my furthest hen, about 1 minute after sunrise, the big guy picks his head up like he thought something ain't right, which was the last thing to go through his head before 1-1/4 oz of winchester supreme #4 shot, delivered express air mail by a rem 870 in diy camo.

After last years gun fight I made sure to wait a good 10 minutes to make sure he was good and dead, which gave me plenty of time to eyeball his two comrades who just wouldn't leave without him. If this was in Quebec my season would have been over.

Thinking for sure that this would be one of my bigger birds, definitely being the biggest of the three, I get to recover him to immediate disappointment. Now when I say biggest I mean about 17 lbs and 1/2" spur, which seems to be fairly average for east ontario.

In any event, it was a beautiful day, good hunt, meat in the freezer. Now I can be even more choosy on #2.
 
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archer2u said:
Did the legs and thighs in the instant pot, 45 minutes fall off the bone. Made turkey stew with a biscuit top. Awesome. My 8 year old is going to eat the rest of the left over dark meat if I don’t hide it lol. I appreciate hunting more when the kids enjoy the spoils.View attachment 378073View attachment 378074
PS also makes a good breakfast lol
Adam
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Agreed, myself and my daughter devour the venison in the house while the wife usually passes lol

Stew looks good!
 
1963beretta said:
Well done Greg. You seem to have the most entertaining hunts and I always look forward to hearing about them. I remember you mentioning a giant Tom in your post last year. Crappy that you couldn't connect with him this year. Something to look forward to for future hunts. Either way, you still managed a dandy bird!

Have you already headed back home?
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Yeah, filled the two tags and hit the road... due to Coronavirus, I lived out of the truck this year and actually found it quite comfortable.... I brought all of my gas and food with me. Because hunting ends at 7 pm, there is enough time to get back to the truck drive to an overnight spot near the next mornings hunt, make supper and watch half a movie on Amazon Prime... watch the other half the following night... John Wick 3 and Angel Has Fallen this year. I got permission on a new property that is absolutely polluted with turkeys, and was invited back for next year as well... is it too soon to get excited for 2021 turkeys?

One cool thing I saw that was almost unbelievable (would not believe it if I hadn't seen it), was eight jakes sneaking down a 12" deep drainage furrow in the middle of a 100 yard wide strip of field that bottlenecked between a large beaver pond and a marshy creek... the birds had me pegged (I assume)... I saw a little movement at the furrow and put my binoculars on it, at first I thought it was the back of a raccoon, and then I saw seven more backs, but I caught a flash of red... and realized it was eight turkeys belly crawling down the trough. About 20 yards from the rail fence there was a log across the trench and the birds had to hop over the log... I watched them one at a time hop the log and then belly down in the trench again until they made it under the rail fence and into the long grass on the other side... amazing ingenuity.
 
Cameron SS said:
Thanks. I happen to be looking at a dead bird! And his two gobbling friends.

I dont know where you guys are finding these birds with 1"+ spurs. Its like all the birds near me were born yesterday.

I am sat on elevated corner of a 150m square field with a jake and two hen decoys in a triangle 12 yards in front me. I see two hens break cover to my right about 75 out, and they slowly then suddenly run through the middle of the field away from me. Wonderong why they are running all of a sudden, my first thought was coyote. Less than a minute later these three swinging #### jakes come out from the same spot. I let out a little yelp yelp on the box call to turn their heads my way and they start a gobbling. 'Target acquired' we said to each other. No more need for the call I slowly move to raise the gun. No blind and not much cover other than my pack between my knees, I was worried they would get here before I was ready.

They gave me just enough time to get on the gun and to pick out the biggest of the three. They get to within 20 yards moving like kids at the pool slowly creeping closer waiting for moms say so that it was ok to go. The biggest guy is just hanging back but is following closely behind the two smaller more brave (read: danger horny) birds.

When they get to about 14 yards and 1 yard from my furthest hen, about 1 minute after sunrise, the big guy picks his head up like he thought something ain't right, which was the last thing to go through his head before 1-1/4 oz of winchester supreme #4 shot, delivered express air mail by a rem 870 in diy camo.

After last years gun fight I made sure to wait a good 10 minutes to make sure he was good and dead, which gave me plenty of time to eyeball his two comrades who just wouldn't leave without him. If this was in Quebec my season would have been over.

Thinking for sure that this would be one of my bigger birds, definitely being the biggest of the three, I get to recover him to immediate disappointment. Now when I say biggest I mean about 17 lbs and 1/2" spur, which seems to be fairly average for east ontario.

In any event, it was a beautiful day, good hunt, meat in the freezer. Now I can be even more choosy on #2.
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Congrats on the bird! 17 lbs isn't that small a Jake considering a mature Tom is usually between 20-21 pounds. Every time I’ve shot a Jake, its been about 14-15lbs.

This reminds me of a bird I shot a few years back. Damn thing had a 7” beard which looked pretty decent. After I shot it, I realized how small it was. Tipped the scale just shy of 13lbs. WTF. Longest beard I’ve seen on such a small bird. Friggin thing looked liked like a skinny chicken when it was cleaned up. Talk about a disappointment!
 
Started turkey hunting this year with 0 experience and knowledge only gathered from the internet. The first day I didn't see squat (heard em), however yesterday the needle moved in the right direction!

I was set up in my blind with 1 strutting Jake and 2 hen decoys in a triangle about 17-20 yds out. In the high corner of a big field that's kind of like a bowl with good open views for probably 160° views. It was probably around 930 when I heard this hen call over to my left behind the trees. I knew it was a live bird by the frequency of the calls, she was hammering on it for a good few minutes. Shed rip a couple clucks & yelps, wait a bit and go again. She was casually crossing in front of me feeding about 75-80yds out. Since she was doing all the work for me I stopped and watched to see what would happen. Within a few minutes I hear a gobble from the same place she came and just waited. Around 10-15mins later I see a nice Tom peek out from the tree line, fixated on the hen out in front of me. He slowly started walking to her in a very indirect path, almost mimicking her line when she changed course. I tried a few clucks to get the Toms attention, but I couldn't get him to move off the hen he was focused on. They casually continued to feed up over a hill and down the other side and that was my only Tom all day.

Is it possible to pull a gobbler away from a live hen to decoys? I'd say slim chances!
 
Had a couple of unique experiences only one week into the hunt. A buddy and I share hunting privileges on a farm next door to me where I had a blind set up . I wanted to hunt another property so I told him to use the blind if he wanted. After an unproductive morning he was packing up getting ready to go when he heard a tapping noise on the side of the blind. He peeks out and there is a big jake pecking away at the wall . Too close to shoot, he had to wait until it decided to investigate the decoys before ending the story

This morning it was drizzling out so I decided my only option was to use the same blind. Usually I park some distance away but because of the weather I drove to within a hundred yards and parked so it was kinda sorta hidden along the fence line. 3 hours of fruitless waiting and I was heading back to the truck when I noticed a turkey pop out of the fence some distance ahead and start strolling in my direction. Hoping for a tom or jake I snuck up behind the truck and observed it through the back window. Further examination proved it
to be a hen, so I decided to see just how close it might come . She might have walked right past the truck if I hadn't spooked it when I tried snapping a picture as it came even with the front bumper.
 
hoytcanon said:
Yeah, filled the two tags and hit the road... due to Coronavirus, I lived out of the truck this year and actually found it quite comfortable.... I brought all of my gas and food with me. Because hunting ends at 7 pm, there is enough time to get back to the truck drive to an overnight spot near the next mornings hunt, make supper and watch half a movie on Amazon Prime... watch the other half the following night... John Wick 3 and Angel Has Fallen this year. I got permission on a new property that is absolutely polluted with turkeys, and was invited back for next year as well... is it too soon to get excited for 2021 turkeys?

One cool thing I saw that was almost unbelievable (would not believe it if I hadn't seen it), was eight jakes sneaking down a 12" deep drainage furrow in the middle of a 100 yard wide strip of field that bottlenecked between a large beaver pond and a marshy creek... the birds had me pegged (I assume)... I saw a little movement at the furrow and put my binoculars on it, at first I thought it was the back of a raccoon, and then I saw seven more backs, but I caught a flash of red... and realized it was eight turkeys belly crawling down the trough. About 20 yards from the rail fence there was a log across the trench and the birds had to hop over the log... I watched them one at a time hop the log and then belly down in the trench again until they made it under the rail fence and into the long grass on the other side... amazing ingenuity.
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The things you get to witness when your out in the middle of nature doing its thing. So sad to think the majority of people never get to experience the things us hunters do.

Well, Im glad you tagged out and made the round trip to your turkey stomping grounds safely!
 
1963beretta said:
Congrats on the bird! 17 lbs isn't that small a Jake considering a mature Tom is usually between 20-21 pounds. Every time I’ve shot a Jake, its been about 14-15lbs.

This reminds me of a bird I shot a few years back. Damn thing had a 7” beard which looked pretty decent. After I shot it, I realized how small it was. Tipped the scale just shy of 13lbs. WTF. Longest beard I’ve seen on such a small bird. Friggin thing looked liked like a skinny chicken when it was cleaned up. Talk about a disappointment!
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After getting it weighed properly, its closer to 15...
 
canadian hunter312 said:
I met Adrian way back. While that is a nice bird, even a turkey poult would look massive with him holding it. :d:d:d


With so few guys hunting this spring I think we're going to see plenty of birds tagged this fall.
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Ive always wondered if the low fall numbers were on account of a simple lack of trying. Woth all the big game species and wife loving to beautiful fall weather I ve only ever made it out for a fall hunt once.
 
Cameron SS said:
Ive always wondered if the low fall numbers were on account of a simple lack of trying. Woth all the big game species and wife loving to beautiful fall weather I ve only ever made it out for a fall hunt once.
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I agree with this. A lot of people don't participate in the fall hunt because there are other hunting options when the season is open. I for one would much rather be in the duck blind then chasing a turkey. But who knows if that will change this year if access to the lake is still restricted
 
Got my new setup..... I picked up a 1.75 x 4 Trophy Bushnell Circle X scope the other day... Sighted it in and went out this morning.... Got to the farm around 5:10 and was setup by 5:25.... I setup around where I thought the roosting area might be.... After about 15 minutes or so, I could hear and start seeing the birds on the roost. I had a couple birds about 30 yds to my right and a couple of birds about 20 yds to my left..at least 2 gobblers in the group.....
I ended up sitting on the ground in a very uncomfortable position. At one point I wanted to just stand up and say forget about it as the soreness in my legs and back were awful, but I stayed the course. After what seemed like forever, this Tom touched down in the field about 20 yds from my decoy. He walked over to my decoy and I was in such a weird sitting position I ended up shooting him at 20yds one handed....Not going out without a seat cushion again.....
Not the biggest beard or spurs but he was a heavy bird...

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Congrats to the other fellows on their birds. My new vest is built so small you cant even put a darn bird in it so I need a sling to carry it.

My 2nd tag and I'm done (to soon) But took a 15year old out for his first and he Got it and we doubled on top of it. 3 longbeardsflew right across the creek and the young guy shot the 3rd. His fell in the creek LOL


The setup and we were 6 feet.

 
1963beretta said:
The things you get to witness when your out in the middle of nature doing its thing. So sad to think the majority of people never get to experience the things us hunters do.
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Think about how many TV specials there are on the African migration paths. The same people who love those God damn David Atteborough shows are the same ones that never notice the world's largest migration as it takes place over their heads.
 
Cameron SS said:
Ive always wondered if the low fall numbers were on account of a simple lack of trying. Woth all the big game species and wife loving to beautiful fall weather I ve only ever made it out for a fall hunt once.
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That's always been my assumption. It's a hard season and lasts a grand total of 10 days if you hunt shotgun only.
 
Adrian J Hare said:
Congrats to the other fellows on their birds. My new vest is built so small you cant even put a darn bird in it so I need a sling to carry it.

My 2nd tag and I'm done (to soon) But took a 15year old out for his first and he Got it and we doubled on top of it. 3 longbeardsflew right across the creek and the young guy shot the 3rd. His fell in the creek LOL


The setup and we were 6 feet.

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Man! You guys were sitting in clump of trees where the gun is lean up?
 
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