Below are some links to some very interesting turkey hunting articles. So far the season has been a tough one for most hunters here in Missouri. I’m one of the lucky ones this year and took part in my dad harvesting a bird and I was able bag one this last Saturday. Those have really been the only two birds that I’ve been around that have talked more than one or two gobbles. I’m talking with very good turkey hunters that just can’t buy a response. It’s tough hunting when the Tom’s won’t talk to you.
The only thing that’s for certain is that if you quit going you’re not going to succeed in harvesting that fat Tom. Stick with it, trust your guts and you just never know, that Tom might just surprise you in the morning!
Everyone here in Missouri knows how predictable our weather is. This spring’s been a good example – 75 degrees one day, 40 degrees the next. Well that’s exactly how turkey hunting can be and this Saturday really drove that point home. I had hunted every morning this past week. Monday & Tuesday I hunted back up in north MO with family and I heard some gobbling and took part in the successful hunt with dad. From Wednesday on, I hunted down here in southwest MO and had heard no more that 4 gobbles all 3 days combined and all of those were a long way off. Those woods seemed as vacant as an auditorium waiting on our current congress to speak on fiscal responsibility.
To be completely honest I almost didn’t go out Saturday. I woke up at the usual 5am and I felt like I had been run over and then drug for awhile. But like most of us that have the fever this time of year, I decided I’d go ahead and give it a try.
I was in the woods 15 minutes later just waiting for them to come alive. I started hooting and nothing… I did this a few times and quit for a bit. At about 5:45 I hooted once more and one gobbled about 200 yrds away. From that moment on that Tom gobbled his head off. I began clucking and giving a few tree yelps and cuts – all of which were answered with a booming gobble. I was able to sneak another fifty yards in his direction as I knew that on the back side of him was a pasture that could be hard to pull him out of. At about 6:10 the bird flew down back out into the pasture behind him. I hurredly snuck his direction as there was now a ridge between us with him on the ground. As soon as I set up I gave a few yelps and purrs. Ol Tom was glad I had come closer his direction and he was hot. A few more cuts and he had split the difference, heading back up into the woods where I waited. I dropped my call and readied my gun. I saw him at about 35 yrds and as he went behind a big oak, I got all braced up. At about 25yrds he let out another thundering gobble and the game was over just like that – it was 6:20 am.
It was a great hunt that couldn’t have worked more perfectly. It’s amazing how much this bird gobbled after 3 days of basic silence in the woods. So if you wake up in the morning and feel like something’s been chewing on your head all night, just shake it off, grow a pair and get out into them woods. You just never know what’s going to happen when that sun starts splitting the sky!
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Been a tough week in the turkey woods so far. I posted the success I had with my dad on Tuesday, but since then it’s been really tough. 80% of the birds aren’t talking and the ones that do are gobbling on the roost and then once after they hit the ground and that’s been about it. My game plan is to try and get in their face. They really seemed to be all henned up, so I think it’s going to be imperative to get in close and hope to entice him just close enough. These last few days the only ones I’ve been hearing have been on neighboring properties so the “get in their face” technique hasn’t been much of an option.
Oh well, that’s what makes turkey hunting so much fun – you just never know what to expect. Hopefully we’ll get lucky these next few days and get some to talk. I’ll keep you posted!
Had a great hunt this morning with dad. This bird started gobbling really early this morning. As soon as he flew down he pretty much shut up but we did manage to get a few more gobbles out of him – just enough to pinpoint him. He was pretty deep in some brush and so the sneak began. We were slipping up on where we believed him to be when we happened to look up and there was a hen still roosted at 7:15am! She was about 70yrds away and so we were pretty much pinned down. I began to purr and cluck on my slate and this tom about blew us off the side of the ridge. He was about 60yrds to our right on the next ridge over. We could hear him struttin & drummin and he became very vocal – it was awesome! After about 30 min of this the hen finally flew down behind us. She ended up circling us and started heading towards the tom who was still gobbling every time my striker hit the call and drummin like crazy. I heard the tom quit drummin so I figured it was showtime. I wasn’t dissappointed, he came down the ridge and met the hen about 35 yrds away. Dad let him have it, hit him hard but for some reason he had to finish him with a second shot as he tried to slip away. I was a absolutely great hunt. There’s nothing quite like being next to a tom spittin & drummin!
I only wished it was Monday!! It was a great morning to be out! I got lucky and ended standing within 70yrds of this bird waiting for something to Gobble. I hooted and couldn’t believe one was so close!
A good lesson from this morning was this. Many times we’ll put a gobbler to roost for the next morning’s hunt. This is not a bad tactic to give you an edge, but you must remember that it’s almost as important to know where the hens are. This Tom repeatedly looked over his shoulder back behind him. I didn’t pay much attention until he flew out across the road into the neighboring field. (he was roosted not 50yrds of a old blacktop) As you see in the video he gobbled quite a bit there until the hens came flying down to him. If I was a betting man I would’ve bet 10 to 1 that he would’ve flew down the opposite direction, but of course I didn’t know he had hens waiting for him on the other side of the road. Another interesting thing is that those hens never said a word, he just knew where they were roosted. You can bet that come Monday I’m going to try to be somewhere between him and his beloved hens!
I have a ruger lcp .380 and a Taurus Millenium Pro in 9mm. So far both have performed flawlessly and are well suited for their purpose of concealed carry. The ruger lcp is so easy to conceal it’s ridiculous – great for summertime! The Taurus is also very concealable and for the money spent (approx $350) it is a great value. There are much better guns out there but for the one’s on a tight budget $350 with a lifetime warranty is hard to pass on.
Went out yesterday evening (Tuesday) and saw several birds. Right now they’re sort of scattered as they are breeding and nesting. Some are in groups as well, but don’t be discouraged if you go scout your place a just see a few birds here and there. They can be fairly unpredictable right now which means we should be in for an exciting start the the Missouri season this coming Monday!
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When the grass starts turnin green and the temp starts rising into the 60’s & 70’s, my temp starts rising as well. There simply is nothing quite like watching the sun just begin to break over a dew drenched field, no wind (can I repeat NO WIND), and hearing one of those deep throaty gobbles just 70 yrds into the brush. It’s amazing how a simple bird has the power to make a grown man’s blood pressure escalate!
The last two years I’ve been taking advantage of Missouri’s youth hunt and have taken youths out to chase the wild turkey. It has been a blast. Last year the 14 yr old I took shot a 24 lb tom while it was sleeting! That was a first time hunting or guiding to see a bird shot while it was sleeting (hopefully the last).
This years hunt on April the 4th was also successfull. I took out a 13yr old and his dad who was doing the filming. Neither had ever been turkey hunting so I was excited about the opportunity. We were hunting a new piece of ground that had been graciously donated for the youth hunt. A buddy and I had went out a few evenings before and sort of scouted the place and even rearranged some brush making a blind. That Saturday morning was beautiful and clear. Three birds opened up to my hoot owl call just about 200 yrds away across a deep valley on the next ridge. Ok, I’ll be honest, if there’s a weakness I have while turkey hunting it is running and gunning at times when my butt needs to remain planted! We listened to these birds going crazy for about 10 minutes and then they flew down. The next time they gobbled I would’ve sworn that they’d moved70 yards to our left moving away from us down the ridge to another valley on the other side of them. In the meantime, the wind had picked up to where it was blowing like crazy – a factor that I didn’t take into account before we moved.
Well, I wasn’t having none of them getting to the open valley so I gathered up the crew and we slipped around to try and cut them off. We ended up slipping up the side of the ridge they had roosted on. We were about half way up when one cut loose just over the crest of the ridge. We were close enough to sort of feel it in our chests. So here we are now sitting in the most uncomfortable positions on the side of what may as well of been a cliff. We couldn’t move cuz it wasn’t 30 seconds before they started filing over the ridge one by one just 60 yrds to our right. By this time I felt like a thousand fire ants had crawled around my legs and were having at me. Long story short we had to wait till nearly 20 birds in total filed over the ridge and headed – yep you guessed it, directly where we had started! I’m pretty sure that they sat in the blind for awhile;-) Well we finally let all the turkeys pass and began a long and demanding hike to try and circle the birds. We cirlced and set up and I began to call periodically. We couldn’t see but about 40 yards in front of us and couldn’t hear much farther than that due to the hurricane style winds. We sat there for maybe 20 minutes when one gobbles about 70 yards away. I began to say things to that bird that would make most respectable birds blush and it wasn’t long before we were watching tail feathers go back and forth in a strutting zone. That was as far as he wanted to come. I purred, I cut, I rustled the leaves but he decided he had all the hens he need around him so if this hen wanted him then she could come the rest of the way.
I took the youth’s gun and we began a belly crawl. He did great we got within 35 yards of the bird but he still couldn’t see well enough for a shot. He had his gun up and was ready but the bird just wouldn’t take the few more steps out from behind a big tree. It was after about 1 min of this that I saw his eyes get real big as they moved to the right. I looked to our right and just 20 yards away were 2 big fat toms in full strut! At this point the youth was nervous and tired (a bad combination) and the shot was a clean miss. Turkeys of course flew everywhere, and he was pretty bummed. I told him that it happens to all of us from time to time and that he accomplished the hard part which was getting that close in the first place to 3 mature birds! It was indeed a successful hunt as he is excited about regular season coming up on the 20th. And really, how can having 3 toms strutting at 20 yards ever be described as being unsuccessful?
22 lbs – 1 inch spur – 9″ beard
When the grass starts turnin green and the temp starts rising into the 60’s & 70’s, my temp starts rising as well. There simply is nothing quite like watching the sun just begin to break over a dew drenched field, no wind (can I repeat NO WIND), and hearing one of those deep throaty gobbles just 70 yrds into the brush. It’s amazing how a simple bird has the power to make a grown man’s blood pressure escalate!