2022 Wild Turkey Thread

Another very quiet hunt in the books. Was next to my tree from 5:25 AM, saw no birds.
Quebec's turkey hunting course is pretty adamant about not stalking turkeys, and staying put.
I know many here prefer to stalk, but today I got a reminder of how that can be dangerous.
I was calling, and suddenly had a reply. I thought it sounded a bit too eager, but I tried again and it seemed to be circling me.
By the 2nd or 3rd call I could tell it was definitely not a real turkey, so I just kept quiet, cause, well, you never know for sure.
Then I heard foot steps right behind me. Another hunter, came right up to my spot, never saw me, but saw my decoys. Potentially a very dangerous situation. I yelled out that he was on private property, didn't wave until I saw where his shotgun was and he understood the situation, then waved and he saw me. Pretty dangerous place to be shooting a shotgun, probably within 50 yards of my house, clearly not on public land. I am setup with a crossbow, shooting into my woods (no line of fire with any neighbors or trails). Had I not heard him and was moving at all, you never know what could have happened. I wonder if he is also a member here? Could be...

It was extremely windy, so I assume my calls were not heard very far. It is also still quite cold, maybe 3-4 degrees, still some snow on the ground. About 40 minutes after the first incident, I felt a presence behind me again... I turned slowly, just in case, and it was a deer... then a second, then a 3rd... but they quickly caught a whiff of me and bolted.

Better luck tomorrow, hopefully. Good luck all.
 
I was out yesterday and it was a bust again. It was awfully quiet until I heard a distant gobble at 6:40. The gobbler did close the distance but went silent at about 7:00. Never set eyes on a it. In fact, never set eyes on anything.

Packed up at 11:00 as I had work to do at a near by property. And there goes another week....
 
My tale of woe this season is yes there are turkeys about but fighting the coyotes off to get near one is going to be interesting. We shot 50 coyotes the pervious year and 42 this year within a five mile radius of the house. figured we had the dogs under control.

Opening day, within sight of the house, half hour after daylight, 3 dogs come by the decoys, I figure let them go, then as soon as they got behind the decoys in they come. Dumped a big mangy male figuring the others would get the message.

Friday same spot, gobbling starts, hit the call, think is that a coon coming, Nope big red female on a mission to the decoys, stops at 12 feet, I let her go, after scaring the #### out of her, as the tom I want is flying down. He hits the ground and can't get out of the bush fast enough and spends the next 3 hours in the middle of 200 acres of ploughed ground.

Saturday, setting up by where the Tom spent his Friday, a coyote starts yapping at me in the dark. Result was Tom would not stick his beak out of the bush until 10 oclock. He starts working his way and doesn't the wife decide to walk our dogs over on the side road 1/2 a mile away and he sees them and the gig is up.

24 years of this and the song remains the same....best laid plans of mice and men!! I will be changing some things come next winter cause I have had more dogs come to turkey calls in the last two years than any squealing rabbit. They are eating turkeys boys so they will get no mercy from me any longer...shoot on sight!!
 
Made it out sunday, beautiful morning hanging in the blind with my dad. Chilly morning with an overnight low of 2 celcius. Had some good calling back and for with a bird or two on the property next door but they never came onto our side. Didnt get a look at them either, to much brush and cedars on the property. Will try to get back out another weekend.

Shot from the blind my dad on his slate and his old mossberg 500 at the ready. Cant say enough about these primos surroundview blinds, i have the 360 and although it is heavy as hell, it is plenty of room for 2 people and gear. With the best part being a full view around you without opening up peaking through windows.

 
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I was down near Elmvale Ont for opening 5 days. The farm and local county forest around it that I hunt for the first time in over 20 years did not have a gobble. Hunted hard, covered a bunch of ground and saw 1 turkey track.

Two properties over, was a large tom, a small tom and a bunch of hens in a field. The big guy was tending the girls and the little guy was all puffed up as well, but never came closer than 30 yards. of the harem. I set up on county forest behind the property one afternoon and called sporadically for about 30 minutes when I got a gobble at my 1:00. Waited a bit, couple soft calls, a gobble at 3:00. Same thing over again and gobble at 5:00. Could see some movement through the hardwoods and two hens were looking all around about 60 yards away. A couple of clucks from one of them, and they silently disappeared into some pines and that was all I saw in 5 days.

One thing really impressed me this year, and that was dealing with 3 different 20 something hunters. One afternoon I was talking with the farmer and two vehicles pulled up on the concession road by my truck. They saw me and when I was done with the farmer the two hunters met me at the truck and inquired where I was going to set up so that we were not interfering with each other. I was heading in a different direction, but the farmers nephew was set up on the county forest near where they wanted to go. They were extremely polite, we shared information on county forest properties, and they didnt want to interfere with the other hunter, shook my hand and got in their vehicles and headed for another location.

The afternoon I had the bird gobbling at me, I kept in my position and called intermittently. About an hour after I last saw the birds, a hunter came walking through the bush and was heading for my decoys (turns out he hadnt seen them he was looking towards the private property). I called out, and took my mask off and got up and walked over to him, leaving my shotgun against the tree I was sitting against. Turns out he lived adjacent to the property and had permission for the private land with the birds - he was trying to work his way up to the edge of the field through the county forest. Very polite, apologized for interfering with my set up, we exchanged information and cell numbers, end every day he texted when he was finishing work to see if I was back in that spot so he wouldnt mess up my hunt.

It was refreshing to see nice folks out hunting - all willing to share information on birds, properties and no competition with each other or attitudes like I have run into over years of moose hunting on Crown land. Nice to see younger hunters with that sort of attitude getting into the sport.
 
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I had an exciting morning. Started off with this. That tom was spitting and strutting on the roost - I could see his profile perfectly and he had a nice beard on him. I swear to god he landed with his fan half deployed.


I'm sitting on the ground, back to a tree, in a pine tree fencerow with my decoys in the field on my left...50/50 chance they land in my field, round 1, advantage birds, they land in the field to my right. Then they make their way behind me and I can no longer see them...now I'm in a bad spot because they if they approach me I won't know until they are right beside me. They could be right behind me now so I'm not going to turn around, I will just be patient and stay stock still, they will come.

10 minutes aka eternity passes. I hear an alarm cluck directly behind me and figure one of them has seen me and the jig is up. A flash of movement on my left by my decoys and initally I think it's a hen but it's a coyote and he hammers my decoy, recovers just as I swing the shotgun and fire. Hit him but he's moving and runs out of view.

So now that I'm confident this mangy dog and my shotgun blast has busted my hunt, I get up and creep back along the treeline to look for a dead or dying dog and see where the birds ran off to. I don't see the dog but I spot 2 hens out in the field a fair piece away. Then a bird flies out of the pine tree above my head and lands between my decoys! It's the damn tom! He takes a quick look at my decoys and then runs like the devil himself is chasing him! Could have easily shot him on the wing but it wasn't until he landed that his beard was visible. Exciting hunt with a healthy dose of second guesses ;) Already looking forward to round 2.
 
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I again saw no turkey all weekend, not even a peep.
I did however almost step on a different kind of game bird. I was waking in some grassland, and just about to step I thought I saw a large turtle. Then the bird flew off suddenly, I stumbled a bit trying to avoid stepping on her nest. It was a woodcock, the beak was unmistakable. She had several eggs in her nest. I unfortunately did not have my camera, and since it was quite cold (around 0 degrees) I decided to get out of there so she could go back to warming her eggs.

I consider that a win.
Becasse.jpg
 
So I had plans to get out this morning but my spouse tells me during dinner last night that she booked a dentist appointment for today at 10:00. Well, there go my plans....not too impressed.

So I decide to load up the truck this morning with plans to leave for the farm when the spouse gets back from her appointment. I end up booking it to the farm when she gets home and I get set up by 1:15. I start flipping through my game cam photos and there is nothing promising to see. At least I know I didn't miss out on some action in the morning. I get on my slate call and start hammering some aggressive cuts and loud yelps. I don't get any response, so I start hammering away again for about 5 mins. About 10 mins later, I hear a sound in behind the blind. I slowly turn to look and I see two birds slowly coming my way. The birds took their time but finally get in good view and I can see they are both jakes. One is clearly larger than the other. I look at my watch and only half hour has passed since I arrived. I make the decision that if the larger bird comes into my dekes before 2:00 I would take him. We’ll, he came right into the dekes.....

Not that impressive, but a bird nonetheless. Tale of the tape....

18.1lbs
3/4” spurs
5” beard

k79GVRz.jpg
 
AdamRoby said:
Nice... 18 lbs ain't so shabby. All I seem to call in are other hunters...
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I was actually pleasantly surprised that it weighed that much. I was anticipating it to be a 14 pounder. I’ve shot toms that were about the same weight as this jake. At least I cut a tag. Now I can focus on getting the big Tom that eluded me on opening day.
 
Broke the curse at 6:18am. Brought my son for the first time. He got quite the first time experience. 21.86lbs, didnt take any other measurements yet. Went back and forth with a very loud and yappy hen in the valley. 2 birds came in without skipping a step, then the hen made her way into the decoys as well.

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Went for my first ever hunt and Turkey hunt this past Thursday with an experienced friend of mine. We were there before sunrise, setup around a horseshoe shaped field with hardwood forest behind us across from one another and about 100 yards apart. I was talking with a gobbler for a good 1.5hrs using my slate call, and he was across from me in the hardwoods that my friend had his back towards. Was getting closer but after that time, stopped gobbling back. 20 mins later, we decided to try and move ourselves to the other side of the hardwoods, where it would have seemed the bird was, but nothing was there.

Ended up moving to another spot, and while moving in to setup caught a lone Tom in a corn field. It caught us off guard, and my position was at the edge of the field. We called it in to about 30 yards, but it started to make its way towards the edge of hardwoods we were hiding in- at this point, my friend was just ahead and beside me, so my gun barrel was right by his ears lol. He insisted I take the shot, and as the Tom was about to leave the field, I fired- I hit him, he stopped, and then kept for the trees, but I didn't take another shot since where my barrel was, but my friend was also ready and fired a shot at him. We chased quickly through the hardwoods and he went from hobbling in pain to flying....TOUGH S.O.B's man!

What a rush, and now that he got away, I think the itch to get one is even stronger! My friend told me not to get too ruffled about it, just the week before he needed 2 good shots to put one down, and he told me its quite common that 1 shot depending on placement sometimes isn't enough. The Mossberg 500 with turkey choke that I picked up on the EE here in camo patterned well at 30yards when I tested it, so it could have also just been me as well as the face the Tom was moving. Either way, AWESOME first experience! I want to try and get back out sometime this week to fill my tag.
 
squidxm said:
Broke the curse at 6:18am. Brought my son for the first time. He got quite the first time experience. 21.86lbs, didnt take any other measurements yet. Went back and forth with a very loud and yappy hen in the valley. 2 birds came in without skipping a step, then the hen made her way into the decoys as well.

20220508_062234.md.jpg


20c09abf8158f15a4.jpg


4f60ceb6859523e55.jpg


3539478b803a36a7c.jpg
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Great pix. How do you have your camera set up?
 
Wis3guy said:
Went for my first ever hunt and Turkey hunt this past Thursday with an experienced friend of mine. We were there before sunrise, setup around a horseshoe shaped field with hardwood forest behind us across from one another and about 100 yards apart. I was talking with a gobbler for a good 1.5hrs using my slate call, and he was across from me in the hardwoods that my friend had his back towards. Was getting closer but after that time, stopped gobbling back. 20 mins later, we decided to try and move ourselves to the other side of the hardwoods, where it would have seemed the bird was, but nothing was there.

Ended up moving to another spot, and while moving in to setup caught a lone Tom in a corn field. It caught us off guard, and my position was at the edge of the field. We called it in to about 30 yards, but it started to make its way towards the edge of hardwoods we were hiding in- at this point, my friend was just ahead and beside me, so my gun barrel was right by his ears lol. He insisted I take the shot, and as the Tom was about to leave the field, I fired- I hit him, he stopped, and then kept for the trees, but I didn't take another shot since where my barrel was, but my friend was also ready and fired a shot at him. We chased quickly through the hardwoods and he went from hobbling in pain to flying....TOUGH S.O.B's man!

What a rush, and now that he got away, I think the itch to get one is even stronger! My friend told me not to get too ruffled about it, just the week before he needed 2 good shots to put one down, and he told me its quite common that 1 shot depending on placement sometimes isn't enough. The Mossberg 500 with turkey choke that I picked up on the EE here in camo patterned well at 30yards when I tested it, so it could have also just been me as well as the face the Tom was moving. Either way, AWESOME first experience! I want to try and get back out sometime this week to fill my tag.
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I've killed or guided others to close to 100 birds. I can only think of 3 times a 2nd shot was needed and that was because the first shot was a miss.

I would suggest some patterning of guns and also maybe check your ranges. Shooting a turkey in the head/neck with the right set up, should never require a 2nd shot. Head/neck shot is the only place you should be shooting a turkey. It is NOT quite common that second shots are needed. Your bird got away, and will likely die. I understand you are new to this and sometimes bad things happen. But these birds deserve a lot more respect, in my opinion.

All the best and good luck!!
 
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Waterfowler said:
Great pix. How do you have your camera set up?
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Gopros on a combination of mini tripods and metal pins close to the decoys. Plugged in to a usb battery bank, keeps them recording until card is full. Camera facing the laydown hen is 1080p-30fps-Wide, camera facing the jake is 1080p-30fps-Medium.

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Waterfowler said:
I've killed or guided others to close to 100 birds. I can only think of 3 times a 2nd shot was needed and that was because the first shot was a miss.

I would suggest some patterning of guns and also maybe check your ranges. Shooting a turkey in the head/neck with the right set up, should never require a 2nd shot. Head/neck shot is the only place you should be shooting a turkey. It is NOT quite common that second shots are needed. Your bird got away, and will likely die. I understand you are new to this and sometimes bad things happen. But these birds deserve a lot more respect, in my opinion.

All the best and good luck!!
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More respect? Yes, such was that it was intentional not to kill it...this place really is a tough crowd..

Its quite possible the shot missed, I patterned this gun with the same load to 40yrds and it has a turkey choke. Keep in mind this gobblers head was not up, as it was headed out of the field, so there may have been more shot to the body than head or neck, but I had my bead on its head.

Just came back from another try this morning. Lots of gobbling, but couldnt manage to get anything to come my way. The only birds I did see were hens, 3 to be exact....guess its what I deserve being disrespectful and all
 
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