Ontario Turkey hunting. Anyone getting exicited yet?

From what I have heard and seen there are lots of birds around this year but fewer birds being harvested.

It's only the second day of the season but there seem to be fewer birds being taken, I would attribute it to the hens not wanting anything to do with the toms due to the cooler damper weather and the toms not being as receptive as a result. Hopefully the weekend will shed some light on the subject.


Beefman, Approximately where in Eastern Ontario are you? I am back and forth to Cornwall alot and it would be cool to find a hunting buddy in the area.
 
One...and done. :D My 1st Turkey.

19.5 lbs, 9" beard, 1" spurs. Shot him this morning at about 6:30.

He came into the decoys with 2 hens...1st turkey ever shot at the farm.

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One down, one more to go.

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But..but I got a camo stock and camo tape for my barrel! Your turkeys probably needed glasses! :p Congrats!
 
one less bird in one of my property's, never had a run and gun work out so text book. pictures later... maybe.
 
It's a proven fact that you will get a tighter pattern with Federal Flitecontrol wad if you use a impcyl or mod choke. Full & tighter chokes will still work, but they impede the desired function of the flitecontrol wad but slowing it down & also deforming it. This adversely affects the pattern. I got this information directly from Federal.

Interesting. I patterned mine from a .660" and it was a disappointing pattern. It'd be nice if Federal wrote that info about choke selection on the box, their website or their paper catalog.
 
I did some patterning today with 2 different shells. The first was Winchester Supreme 3" #6 1 3/4 oz. The second was Federal Flightcontrol 3" #5 1 3/4 oz. (the last 3 targets were all the same shells, with different chokes). All targets were shot at 30 yards.

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A few things to note that I found interesting. As glang1 said, the Federal Flightcontrol work best with a less constricted choke. As you can see from my pictures, the Federal Flightcontrol with a turkey choke was not very good, but was much better with the M or IC choke.

One last thing. My last shot of the day (out of targets) was of the Federal Flightcontrol with a Cylinder choke at 30 yards. At this range, the shot did not even separate from the wad and acted as a large slug, punching about a 1.5" hole through my piece of plywood.

This is my first attempt at patterning a shotgun. I was shooting off-hand with no aids. I'm sure I would be able to pattern better from a bench or with some way to hold myself a little more steady. Hoping to get out for my first turkey hunt tomorrow. If anyone has any tips for me, feel free to let me know!
Brandyn
 
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I hunted a hilly hardwood forest this morning. After an hour of gobbling a tom starts to move to my set up on a small ridge. I see the top of the tom's head walking away? 1-2 minutes later a coyote comes right in to the decoy. Just as he crouched to take the decoy I let him have it. Second day out this year with two coyotes seen and one shot.
 
I hunted a hilly hardwood forest this morning. After an hour of gobbling a tom starts to move to my set up on a small ridge. I see the top of the tom's head walking away? 1-2 minutes later a coyote comes right in to the decoy. Just as he crouched to take the decoy I let him have it. Second day out this year with two coyotes seen and one shot.

That is pretty common. I've taken them with turkey loads and left happy that I atleast did something constructive.
 
A second day up there by Algonquian Park, calling Turkeys and again no gobbles and no shots heard. I know turkeys have been spotted up there, but next year, I will not waste my time north of Peterborough, Lindsy, Barry line. No point.

I would like to hear from people who have actually got turkeys up there.

I will call my friend who has land touching algonquin. He told me he saw turkeys on his property (not far from his cottage there). He has forest and open fields, so its good territory/topography...

I will see when he will let me go with him up there (hopefully this/next weekend), and I will let you know what happens.

If I snag something, I will post it up. If not, I will also let you know :p

There are definitely some birds there, just not as plentiful as by Ottawa, which is about on the same "line".
 
My buddy got one about north of ottawa which should be about the same as the southern end of algonquian.

Just because turkey has been spotted, doesn't mean it's gonna get shot. We scouted the same doz fields for over 2 months and opener come and they move the to the field next door.
 
I will call my friend who has land touching algonquin. He told me he saw turkeys on his property (not far from his cottage there). He has forest and open fields, so its good territory/topography...

I will see when he will let me go with him up there (hopefully this/next weekend), and I will let you know what happens.

If I snag something, I will post it up. If not, I will also let you know :p

There are definitely some birds there, just not as plentiful as by Ottawa, which is about on the same "line".

Fair enough. Please keep me posted.

In all fairness, the problem could be laying with my calling skills, because every time I called for gobbles, I received about dozen Grouse drummings in return.:p Either I am the worst turkey caller ever, or the grouse duds up there are really confused. :D

I will be up there again next week. I will let you know if things are different.
 
Fair enough. Please keep me posted.

In all fairness, the problem could be laying with my calling skills, because every time I called for gobbles, I received about dozen Grouse drummings in return.:p Either I am the worst turkey caller ever, or the grouse duds up there are really confused. :D

LOL. Hey, on the bright side, when grouse season rolls around in the fall, you'll have no trouble locating them! :p

I will see what chance I get to be up there and let you know :)
 
I use the flight control with a older Remington ported turkey choke (restriction I don't remember),I have tried IC,Mod,skeet and a under taker choke and the Turkey Remington is the tightest.
Can you shoot the IC again at thirty yards and post a pick I have never seen that one hole before.
If you are shooting a choke that strips the wade you maybe defeating the purpose of flight control.M2C
 
I use the flight control with a older Remington ported turkey choke (restriction I don't remember),I have tried IC,Mod,skeet and a under taker choke and the Turkey Remington is the tightest.
Can you shoot the IC again at thirty yards and post a pick I have never seen that one hole before.
If you are shooting a choke that strips the wade you maybe defeating the purpose of flight control.M2C

Yes I will take a pic of the one hole. I didn't have my camera the day I went out. I will try it a couple more times just in case it was a fluke.

And I totally agree with you that if the choke is stripping the wad, I am defeating the purpose of the flightcontol. I stuck with the Winchester Supreme for my hunt this morning because it gave me the most pellets on target. Next week I will have less work and more time to play so I'll try my best to keep you updated!
 
Went out today and the turkeys in my area have hit that time of the year where you would swear there wasn't a turkey left in the county.

Not a gobble or a tom sighting from sun up till 3pm. Drove around in the afternoon looking for toms and stopping in the usual spots (prob 3000+ acres we have permission on) to call and nothing... We did see a few hens though.

Oh well, tomorrow is a new day and I'll try again. I know they are there, but they are just not talking and staying in the bush, not coming out in the fields.
 
Went out today and the turkeys in my area have hit that time of the year where you would swear there wasn't a turkey left in the county.

Not a gobble or a tom sighting from sun up till 3pm. Drove around in the afternoon looking for toms and stopping in the usual spots (prob 3000+ acres we have permission on) to call and nothing... We did see a few hens though.

Oh well, tomorrow is a new day and I'll try again. I know they are there, but they are just not talking and staying in the bush, not coming out in the fields.

Same thing happened to us today except they were gobbling all over the place just wouldn't come into the fields. I think I got a little buck fever! LMAO....

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I had maybe 4 toms gobbling this morning, although not overly vocal. They were much more vocal on monday. I did however get lucky enough to call 2 in to my decoys and was able to harvest one. I had another taunt me afterwards about 80 yards out but knew I couldn't touch him today. Did a bit more scouting to figure out where to set up next time. Still lots of birds on the farm I'm hunting, not to mention all the geese, ducks and deer.
 
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