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Post by ozark on Jan 19, 2009 20:50:34 GMT -5
Soon the buds of trees will be swelling and the patterning of shotguns will begin. Groups of gobblers will start talking and many of us will get our calls out and start the process of running our family members out of their minds. It is when the dogwoods begin to blossum out and big gobblers will begin to peck smaller ones on the nogings.
Few gobbler chasers would choose any hunting experience more exciting than calling a longbeard in. Before I got into it I just couldn't visualize any thrill in blasting a birds head with a scatter gun. Then came the calling and the answering and the patience it took to finally get one to within range. Man oh Man, It doesn't get better. It is the interacting between the bird and the hunter that makes the difference. Am I wrong turkey hunters? Ozark
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Post by petev on Jan 20, 2009 0:08:17 GMT -5
"Soon the buds of trees will be swelling" - five degrees below zero here buddy, but cant wait!
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Post by youp50 on Jan 20, 2009 9:43:34 GMT -5
Snow snakes are out up here. When do the turkey seasons start where you guys live?
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Post by petev on Jan 20, 2009 9:53:26 GMT -5
N.Y. - May 1-30. Sunrise to noon only. snow snakes?
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Post by youp50 on Jan 20, 2009 13:48:38 GMT -5
 I seem to be making some progress in the cut and paste. I seem to need some time to figure out the sizing thing. This is a picture of a snow snake. This particular one is a large female. She is gravid and sunning herself in preparation for the birthing process. Shortly after this picture was taken she turned her head, spotted the my wife with camera, and promptly fled. |
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Post by minst7877 on Jan 20, 2009 14:50:44 GMT -5
Here you go on the pic.  |
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Post by youp50 on Jan 20, 2009 15:14:19 GMT -5
A yup, your basic adult snowsnake
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Post by ewc on Jan 20, 2009 16:04:37 GMT -5
In Tennessee, our season runs March 28 - May 10, 2009 with a 1 gobbler per day limit / 4 gobblers total.
Typically our best hunting is when the dogwoods and red buds start blooming - Early to mid-April.
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Post by whyohe on Jan 20, 2009 17:09:41 GMT -5
we are april 25 to may 25. it is very exciting and nerve racking at times. i have hunted in ravines and got answers that i couldnt tell where it came from cause of the echo!!  i still have to learn the differnt way of calling from fall to spring. im also amazed that they will answer some times even when i messed up and got a screech. |
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Post by youp50 on Jan 20, 2009 17:16:40 GMT -5
I think it is May up here. I cannot remember and the DNR web site has only the drawing timetable.
First turkey I shot I ended between two flocks. I put my call away and watched and waited. There was a hen behind me that sounded so bad I knew nothing I could ever do would sound worse.
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Post by ozark on Jan 20, 2009 17:48:14 GMT -5
When they are in a talkive mood they will answer to anything. We all make calling errors but few of us make as many mistakes as the turkeys make. Getting an answer is exciting and the excitement builds when you are having some success at bringing one in. Then you sight him strutting and circling. And then sometimes there are two, three or more in a group all sporting beards. Then they see your decoys and attempt to entice the decoys to come to them and tension builds. Then from the opposite direction one slips in behind you, busts you and....well, hope for better luck tomorrow. I may have told this story before but everytime I think about it I get excited.
I had just been out of the hospital a couple days when the telephone ring. "Uncle Ben, this is Tim. I am up here with Craig near your cabin. We just seen four big gobblers cross the road going toward your place. Grab your gun and come up so we can call them in for you." I thought that over and told him my shotgun was in my hunting shack and was told to come on up and I could use his. I hung up and told my wife about the call. I explained that he must be drinking to think I could actually just drive up there and take a gobbler. To please Tim (who is a great person and my favorite nephew} my wife and I drove up to meet him and Craig. After hearing they were headed for a deep hollow I decided that my wife and I would get into what we call our MO-Cab blind and let them try calling the birds back.
I drove to the MO Cab and we got inside with Tims shotgun. He moved my vehicle and told us they would call from behind us. Shortly we heard them both calling. After a couple of calling series my wife said: "I heard one gobble." Since I can't hear at all well she kept telling me that they were getting closer. We were looking down an old road and soon she seen them left of the road. I couldn't spot them until they got in the road and now there were five. All adult toms. She wanted to know why I wasn't shooting them and I explained that they were nearly a 100 yards away and they had to be within fifty or less. They circled, strutted and finally angled off the road in a direction that might bring them within range. They finally started crossing an opening I thought was too far to shoot but clearly a last chance. I let the first four pass and decided to try the big boy in the rear. I put the shotgun bead on his head and pulled the trigger. He went down and had only made a couple of flops before Tim had a foot on its head. It was 55 yards away but luck was with us that day. Both Tim and Graig are sometimes used as guides and I will attest to the fact that they can call the birds in. Just one of many exciting dates I have had with gobblers. Ozark
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Post by ewc on Jan 20, 2009 18:24:08 GMT -5
That's a great story-
Thanks for sharing.
I was hunting on Dale Hollow Lake one spring. I got into where I thought the birds were. They gobbled, but going away. Nothing I did would turn them.
The very next morning, I was there before daylight, but above where he had first gobbled the day before.
He started gobbling at daybreak and I was in good shape above him. The only problem was another hunter in a boat below me heard him too. As he parked / tied up his boat, I killed that bird.
That was my first solo turkey kill. The guy that was below me had to be sick.
I did not care. It was a great walk back down to the boat.
I had made a plan and it had actually worked. First and last time for everything.
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Post by ozark on Jan 20, 2009 18:49:28 GMT -5
Calling gobblers in is actually working against nature. It is natural for gobblers to make their location known by gobbling and strutting so the hens ready for breeding can come to him. He has an ego and doesn't like to act forward and go to the hens. I take several calls with me and try to sound like a flock because gobblers will go to flocks quicker than to a single hen.
Even a love sick sounding hen. Interesting ewc. Someone has to lose. Lol.
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Post by chuck41 on Jan 27, 2009 11:03:12 GMT -5
ewc,
"As the old saying goes, the early bird gets the worm", or perhaps in this context, gets the turkey.
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i still have to learn the differnt way of calling from fall to spring. im also amazed that they will answer some times even when i messed up and got a screech.