Turkeys are gobbling already !

[anonymoose]

Don’t you have to wait till sunrise to shoot?

legal shooting light is a half hour before sunrise in Ontario

 

[rcfire77]

We normally do the mornings then come back for some breakfast and then target other areas after 10/11. I find once the Tom’s get with a hen they are usually MIA til the hens head for the nest then they are back out. Yes we usually all tag out.

 

[Old Cut LongPointer]

Excellent game plan there RCfire77 ! I guess Anonymoose has to get to work ? I'm retired now so I became a little more casual about my hunting days and as I read in one of those OOD articles is probably why I'm not bagging more birds, lax hunter=no bird. I liked it when you could only hunt until noon and only had 2 or 3 days off work to hunt in any kind of weather, always seemed to bring out the "A" game in me. Now it's more like a "B+". LoL !

 

[anonymoose]

Excellent game plan there RCfire77 ! I guess Anonymoose has to get to work ? I'm retired now so I became a little more casual about my hunting days and as I read in one of those OOD articles is probably why I'm not bagging more birds, lax hunter=no bird. I liked it when you could only hunt until noon and only had 2 or 3 days off work to hunt in any kind of weather, always seemed to bring out the "A" game in me. Now it's more like a "B+". LoL !

I just don't get that excited over turkeys anymore. I like it when they talk to me, and first thing in the morning is best for that. After that I rarely hear a gobble around here and don't like waiting around all day for silent birds that may or may not exist. I used to fill both tags religiously but these days I usually just buy one.

I do need to step up my game this year though as my oldest boy is licensed and keen to bag one.

 

[Porkpie]

My turkey is picked out, and his rope looks thick, hoping I can get some closer pics…. But it looks like the deer are on to me. I’m hoping they don’t tell the turkeys!

 

[Derkd9]

Full days?? I have a very specific turkey hunting regime. Bird or no bird, I'm usually off the field by sunrise!

That’s limiting yourself for sure..
you expect to shoot them off the roost or you head in for breakfast?
We usually see birds cruising between 8-10am
We have also taken down birds in the late afternoon/evening they come back out to the field for a bedtime snack.

 

[Old Cut LongPointer]

Ideally that big old Tom answers your call first thing in the morning and comes crashing down out of his tree and makes a beeline to you ... ideally .
Most times you have to coax him into your decoys, sometimes he brings his little buddies with him giving you multiple chances of at least bagging A bird as opposed to none but usually a Hen or few show up and poke around until they realize that somethings not kosher and bugger off or the big Tom has collected his harem and is getting some of that thang. (wink,wink,nudge,nudge) So that could be a morning scenario but once loverboy is done he will go looking for any Hen he may have missed and that's where a midday or afternoon hunt can happen. As smart as they are they are still driven by their biology to eat and procreate and our job is to be in the right place at the right time. Wind and weather can be an issue but the rule still applies they just become cagier , they may re-roost for awhile or head into the woods or work the leeward edge of a field. I've seen it pissing rain and the minute it stops they are out like gangbusters !

So you have from a half hour before Sunrise until 1900hrs (07:00 PM) so whatever style of hunt you do enjoy it !

 

[anonymoose]

Ideally that big old Tom answers your call first thing in the morning and comes crashing down out of his tree and makes a beeline to you ... ideally .

Bingo!

My goal when turkey hunting is to get what I call "the full show". You need to either "put him to bed" (see where he roosts the night before) or just have a really reliable roost to make it work.

The full show consists of sneaking in EARLY to within visual range of the roost. Then you see the bird on his roost gobbling. You get to see him fly down. You get to see him gobble and strut on the ground. You get to see him beat up your decoy (love a jake decoy). Then you give him the flop!

You don't get the full show after sunrise! Also I find that if he doesn't come straight to me, he finds some hens and stops responding to calls pretty quickly. And then I get bored and go have breakfast.