2013 Spring Turkey!!!

idunno1987 said:
went to scout out the property I'm hunting, set up the blind ETC....Hen runs across spooked....I peak around the edge of the woodlot, two nice sized toms Strutting....put my pop up blind down (not setup)...walked away.....pumped for the morning ....maybe my first bird :)
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An Update!

well, I nailed my first turkey yesterday all by my lonesome :D. Nice tom, 8-9 inch beard 1 inch spurs....HUGE FAN!

I think it's a great story for a first timer.
Got there around 5 am to start setting up.....Gobbling everywhere....they were shock gobbling to all the geese that were honking lol. I setup up my pop up blind and just listened. Hunting hour comes along and the gobbling has subsided substantially. Got me worried. I start my yelping here and there for the next hour. No response maybe a shock gobble here and there again from all the geese!

Around 6:20 I see something...but stupid me I havn't gotten my new prescription for my glasses, and I left my binos in the car in all the excitement. but then I see something else.....there's two turkey strutting around 200 yards away one with a decent sized fan..that's the boy I want...they came in silently. It's game time!. I start doing some yelping...still no repsonse....Im disappointed..am I screwing up my calls (being that ive never called a turkey before!) So I had watched this video on youtube a few months ago about how to cut. It had said mix in yelps and excited clucks. I tried it.....both gobblers....gobbled to my cut/yelp mix. Woot the excitement begins! Until two hens come along around 100 yards from me. The Gobblers start following them, which is away from where my decoy is. I keep doing some cutting and they still love it ;). the hens continue to walk away.

But then the gobblers catch eye of my decoy so I continue to cut, they continue to gobble. now I m glad im in my blind with shoot through mesh, as I am fidgeting like crazy. I thought I screwed up one of my calls because it got damp, but the turkeys still loved it! I then began to think I setup my decoy to close (20 yards). But the gobblers continue in. i see the beard, on the one with the massive fan (the 2nd one had a decent beard...but I wanted the trophy fan!). they both stop left and right of my decoy, the big boy gets out of strut and stretches his neck.

BOOM! Drops like a sac of potatoes. The other one looks over, would have been a perfect double if I had a partner. But Im to excited...I just shot my first turkey with my own noobish calling!. He flops for a bit and then hes out. In all my excitement I scared the rest of the turkeys away...but I dont care...this is my day :). My ears are still ringing...but I'm surprised I didnt feel the recoil from that remington 4x6 duplex turkey load.

Now comes the best (or worst). I didn't pattern this year, I had patterned the loads last year in the turkey barrel with fibre optic sights on my mossberg 500. But the sight broke from the recoil. So I brought my normal 28 inch barrel, with bead sight and turkey choke. seems like there was one or two shots right through the head of the turkey a few in the neck and a few in the chest, I have a feeling either my pattern was bad or I shot over him. Needless to say I will be patterning shortly. So I nailed my first turkey being new to turkey hunting and not much in prior scouting, at 645 am, I think I got lucky. Without further ado here are the pics

At the land owners house (my boss)


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Spurs


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Beard


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Weight


30 Inch Fan!! (ok maybe clsoe to 28-29)


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and ready to be wrapped and put in the freezer for a turkey fry in june :) (Ill never pluck a bird again lol!)


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Nothing yesterday or today although a father / son team shot a nice jake on the property next to us yesterday. Wind and rain this morning, no sunday hunting where we are for tomorrow.

Funny thing happened yesterday, was talking to a hunter that just came off the county forest next to us when another hunter scouting birds drove up. We started talking and i said we had an inch of snow on opening day, after driving 9 hours south out of the snow. He looked at me kinda funny and asked if i had posted it on the ontario out of doors web site, and i said no. Then he said, oh it must have been cgn....

Small world i guess, so Gunner410 and I met "Cintax" - hope you got a bird this morning Jeff.....
 
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Nothing today for me either. We tried a different farm that my buddy has been seeing birds at, but no luck. Had one wary tom come out about 0810, but he spooked and took off across the field. Oh well. Working nights for the weekend and hopefully will get back out Monday afternoon. Congrats on all the birds, especially the first timers. It's a great feeling to knock down your first one.
 
Chas said:
Nothing yesterday or today although a father / son team shot a nice jake on the property next to us yesterday. Wind and rain this morning, no sunday hunting where we are for tomorrow.

Funny thing happened yesterday, was talking to a hunter that just came off the county forest next to us when another hunter scouting birds drove up. We started talking and i said we had an inch of snow on opening day, after driving 9 hours south out of the snow. He looked at me kinda funny and asked if i had posted it on the ontario out of doors web site, and i said no. Then he said, oh it must have been cgn....

Small world i guess, so Gunner410 and I met "Syntax" - hope you got a bird this morning Jeff.....
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Small world indeed! I did go out this morning but no luck I'm afraid. I did hear two gobbles around eight or so but apart from that, not a thing!

Yesterday, I did go around the other side of that forest as you suggested and I saw a few birds so they are there.
 
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Filled my second tag last evening with about 5 minutes of shooting time left, nice mature tom. Done before I had to feed the bugs,amazing.

A.
 
I got my first turkey yesterday morning at 6:20am. My friend and I got a double. My Tom was 16lbs w/ 9" beard and his was 19lbs and 9 3/4" beard. What a hunt! I'll post pics asap.
 
My brother-in-law and I went out Saturday morning. I brought my 9 year old son along for his first hunt. We set up on the edge of a bush around 5:40am. The gobbling had just started and we were hopeful. A bush maybe 400 yards south of us had gobblers. Another bush about 600 yards west of us had gobblers. The east end of the bush we were in had gobblers. Around 6:10 a lone jake came wandering about 50 yards out. He didn't show much interest and we could still hear the others gobbling up in the trees.

Ten minutes later I heard the gobblers drop out of the trees in our bush and came out 100 yards from us. Three big toms, strutting and gobbling all the way down the field right toward our decoys like they were parading down Main Street! They walked right across in front of us at 20 - 25 yards. I took the bigger tom that was trailing behind by about 5 yards. He dropped and never moved. The other two separated enough so that Andy was able to take the second tom as he was heading back the direction he came from. The third bird hung around at 50 yards trying to figure out whether to have a go for the decoys or get outta Dodge. I stood up after 20 - 30 seconds and he started to move out as I stepped over the ground blind and into the field.

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I couldn't imagine a more exciting hunt for a first time for my boy. He was so pumped when he called Mom to tell her the news! The first bird was 16lbs, 7/8" spurs and a 10" beard. The bigger tom was a whisker under 20lbs, 1-3/16" spurs and a 9 1/2" beard. We're very happy with both! Here is junior and I posing together with the birds.

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And then the rookie got to learn how to pluck and field dress a turkey... :D An amazing hunt for him to be part of. Hopefully many more to come with him and his brothers!

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editted: Sorry for the unclear text.
 
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Congrats on the fine toms but did you state you shot two of the birds and your brother in law tagged one of them for you? Geez I hope I'm reading that wrong?

jf
 
Not the police here I think you meant you were out with you uncle and he shot the second bird.I think you were just trying to make a better story than it was.
 
Went out in the rain and high wind - heard gobble at 6:12 and 7:23 at the far end of the property we were hunting... f:P:

Eyes getting heavy, close, open, close, decide to give a call and a gobble right behind me. Adrenaline dump...
Couple of more clucks, no response. Then he shows up just inside the bushline at the edge of the field, I get the shotgun up and hit the blind. He keeps moving and I get the fastfire bead on him and pull the trigger. I walk over and there he is lying in the leaves.

Gunner 410 saw him moving along the ridge but was too far away to get a shot.

8" beard, 20mm spurs, guess he weighed 18 - 20 lbs (have to remember to bring a scale next year). Daughter slept in but came out with camera, last day tomorrow, hopefully can get one to come in for Gunner410 or her.


 
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Sorry - late night post and I didn't proof-read well. We both took birds, one after the other. I've editted the post to make that clear. No laws were broken, everyone had fun except when the young guy saw the guts come out.
 
Last day today and we are seeing more birds as week goes on. Gunner410 had three roosting and gobbling over him at first light, but they wouldnt come in to him. My daughter and I had a hen come through the decoys but nothing else. We tried one more spot and then went up the ridge behind Gunner410's blind. I called once and had a tom gobble back immediately. Another call and its coming. Then some kids start screaming and a dog barking out on a nearby closed off county road and that was it.

I saw him 100 yds away through the open hardwoods doing a road runner imitation. That was all she wrote till next year....
 
Chas said:
Last day today and we are seeing more birds as week goes on. Gunner410 had three roosting and gobbling over him at first light, but they wouldnt come in to him. My daughter and I had a hen come through the decoys but nothing else. We tried one more spot and then went up the ridge behind Gunner410's blind. I called once and had a tom gobble back immediately. Another call and its coming. Then some kids start screaming and a dog barking out on a nearby closed off county road and that was it.

I saw him 100 yds away through the open hardwoods doing a road runner imitation. That was all she wrote till next year....
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Bummer... it was a weird spring in our experience... I have never run in to this many "call shy," "sticky" gobblers... they were just not as hot as normal on opener... we worked hard for our birds... hunted a dozen properties and walked miles... other than one tom (and his nine hens) which we were able to get ahead of and let him come to us, the rest we had to go after and pressure hard... they responded only to very loud and aggressive calling... our normal minimalist approach was not getting results... some times you have to experiment and change your game plan... you'll get em' next year.
 
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