Turkey season in Ontario

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DMcG

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Went for a walk about this morning but only had a coyote show an interest in my calling and decoys. What are the opening morning results from other CGN members?

Happy hunting,
DMcG
 
Our first spot had a solo gobbler that was none too interested and headed away from my son and I... we were thinking that they might not really be hot yet... there were still banks of winter snow on the north slopes and bird sightings were way down... we gave the shy tom an hour then packed up and headed to our second location... we were set up by 7:30 and started to yelp and cut... there was a hard wind blowing, but it was blowing back in to where the birds should have been... After ten minutes we could here a coarse old hen sounding off and then a gobble and overlapping the first gobble was a second... 15 minutes working the toms brought them out into the cut corn... when they spotted the dekes, they raced each other in, strutting and gobbling as they came... the lead bird was a whopper and my son had his bow up and ready... at 30 yards and only one yard from the decoys both gobblers stopped and went into display... as soon as I heard my son's bow go off, I let fly at the second gobbler with my Browning Maxus... my son nailed his and I missed mine (I was paying more attention to his arrow than my bead), a quick follow up shot put the second tom down. My son took of in a sprint after his gobbler as it trotted away with the arrow... the big tom made it across the corn and expired at the fence row... we didn't need it, but there was a good blood trail from the decoys right to the downed bird. My bird had a 9" beard and 1" spurs and weighed 20 pounds... my son's bird had a 10" beard, 1 1/4" spurs and weighed just shy of 21 pounds...#

We were done for the day at 8 am...

I was pretty jacked for my son as this was his first archery tom, although he has taken 15 or so with a shotgun. It was a great morning... we dressed the birds and did some scouting for tomorrow morning... there were two groups of birds at one of our more productive spots, including a huge tom, with a beard that was almost dragging the ground (has to be 12 or 13" long)...

Time to get some turkey blood on my Hoyt.
 
One lonely hen where I was, no gobblers heard. Tonnes of yote tracks, scat and bones everywhere. This is my first time hitting this property and was only able to get out to scout it on Wednesday. Will be hitting my tried and true spots on Sunday and Monday.
 
Didn't get out today (life sometimes gets in the way... :( ) but I'll be out there by 5:30 a.m. tomorrow..... :) . I'll let ya know how it goes........
 
This is my first year. I heard one gobbling shortly after sunrise. Did not see anything...... Will be back at it tomorrow morning.
 
I saw 1 hen, but that was about it. The hens sounded off about 7am, but not one gobble heard. There was a hard wind and the farm I'm hunting is mainly tree lined fields. Think everything was taking cover in the bush on the edge of the property. Back at it in another couple days.
 
Got out this morning, but just as the sun came up. I was in an area where there are certainly no other hunters, so I was able to stalk. Saw one and chased it for about half an hour, but never got a clear view or closer then 50 feet to it. It certainly was not a tom, but I was not able to see if it had a beard or not... pretty sure it was a hen, coulda been a jake. As an aside, could not believe the INSANE amount of deer tracks and scat :) :)

Saw and heard *nothing* in the Wildman tract but had a nice walk anyways scouting it out.

Seen a few flocks this year, one of 30 inside Orillia city limits (dammit) and another one of 10 closer to Barrie. They are definitely out there and doing fine.
 
Also... I was incredibly saddened to see the amount of couches and garbage dumped in Simcoe County forests. Bunch of f---king slobs. If anyone one from the MNR is reading this, I would be happy to walk every inch of those tracts and GPS tag the locations of garbage for removal.
 
Curses on this frickin' weather!! Had 2 gobblers answering this morning, I started to move... one of 'em gettin' WAAY closer....... GREAT field of fire - open stubble field - and the flippin' heavens opened - I needed Noah's flippin' Ark...... :( ....... try again in the morning....... :)

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First time ever hunting. Went to check out the land this morning and found what looks like turkey poop. The owner told me exactly where he saw them and told me where they roost at night. Will be out and waiting before sun rise tomorrow to actually hunt. Pretty excited.
 
Tough two days for my group. Lots of chatter this morning early, gobbler would not show his face though. All chatter completely stopped after 8am. Yesterday we called one for a bit, got it a little closer but couldn't get him in view out of the bush. The fella I was hunting with said it was the worst two days of turkey he's been a part of since he started hunting them. This is my first year.
 
Was walking my dog Thursday pm and out came this beautiful Tom. Just scampered away, no hurry. Saw another one today. Unfortunately the area where I walk my dogs is a no firearms (bows included) area, so can't hunt them, but nice to see them. Lots of tracks. Seemed to have fared well around here. Hoping to get out sometime in the near future.
 
We stay up at the deer camp for the opener. Got 3 opening morning. We had another miss and we actually lost one that flopped around after getting blasted at 10 yards with a 20 Gauge, then got up and took another shot of 20 gauge (10 yards) and then a shot of 12 gauge 3.5" and then proceeded to run away . The guys said it had blood gushing from it's head. We looked for it for an hour with no luck.

Also we called one in for another guy in the evening. Hunt took 12 minutes from gobble to blast. Once he saw the hen decoys he came a runnin'!...



Biggest was a 9" beard, others were 8.5", 5" and 4.5". The miss and the loss were large toms. 4 hunters, 4 dead birds opening day.

After the hunt a few beers were indiscriminately killed as well. Good times!
 
Congrats to all who nailed one! Sofar ive only seen hens in shooting range. (6 to be exact) first time hunting them but from what ive read its surprising that no gobblers have been following them. The guys on the turkey forums said the past winter was rough on them and a good population bit the dust during the cold months. Saw two in full strut at 400 yards today, sorta restored my faith a bit. Hopefully next weekend the rut will be in full effect and hopefully they start chasing the hens that seem to like my field!

cheers
 
Woke up at 4:30am this morning... Gobble Gobble Gobble at 5:45am... Bagged this one at 6:00am on the dot... no pun intended. One down... one more tag to go.

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I got a 19lb tom April 26th. 7am. 9" beard and 1 1/8th hooks.


I kept calling back to a couple hens and they would answer everytime. I would cut them off and make quick yelps to them and they came right over. This guy was following not far behind. 30 yards he dropped like a stone.

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