After a visit to the farm for our traditional pre-dawn and sunrise service, Elaine and I went home and did some chores in the yard. About 1:30 pm a Tom sounded off just across the road, about 50 yards from where we were working. He gobbled for about 20 minutes, and finally called up another gobbler that joined him in gobbling their little heads off. I went into the barn and got a mouth call and gave them my best "come hither." They went berserk, and I thought they were going to fly into the yard when a farm truck went by and spoiled our fun.

Our season starts a week from tomorrow. I may sit on the deck with decoys in the yard.

I should stay home and hunt as well Garry. Had 2 Toms right behind the house this evening just gobbling away.

i ve been out hunting the last 2 evening but no luck as of yet...been carrying my 8 ga davenport single barrel and a borrowed stoger 12 ga....aint used my long barrelled over and under yet....hope every body else is having good hunts....charlie

Charlie, I sure wish we could hunt in the afternoon, but in Missouri we must quit at 1:00pm, the idea being that hunters will not be as likely to disrupt nesting hens. I've never seen any data that shows that nests are disrupted in those states that allow all-day hunting, though.

I've walked right by hens on nests within 10 feet and in my experience they just flatten and sit tight.





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Harry went with my brother Comer and they had 5 out in the field with a big gobbler putting on a big show. Here is him next to the tree where he set up and the field in front of him. They were 70 yards away so he didn't shoot.

Dad and I went to a different location and heard several but never saw them

While surveying a thinning project on our tree farm with my local Conservation Dept. private lands specialist, we flushed a hen from a nest. I took photos of the nest and we marked its location (she was obviously laying and not setting as there were only 4 eggs). The PLS called the State turkey biologist (our farm is in one of the State's turkey focus areas, so the turkey biologist was familiar with our farm which they'd scouted to trap turkeys for putting location collars on them for their study). He said that turkey hens will not revisit their nest if pushed off it. The PLS and I were skeptical, so, after waiting the appropriate time (and getting the OK from the turkey biologist), I went back to check the nest. The eggs -- the same number we found upon flushing the hen -- had obviously been predated by something -- probably a coon or 'possum. Another time Elaine and I flushed a hen from a nest while surveying our access trails. We noted the number of eggs and went back much later to check. Eggs were there (same number), but no sign of the turkey. Our last check of the nest indicated that the nest had been abandoned. That's a tiny sample size, I know, but based on those experiences and what the turkey biologist said, I'm inclined to believe that scaring a hen from her nest is the end of that nest.

But, Dean, I agree with your observations, at least in the two or three instances where I saw the hen on the nest but she did not flush. We observed one hen on multiple occasions and she sat tight. As far as we could tell, she raised a brood from that nest.

BUT, I would still like to hunt turkeys in the afternoon. We are in the woods roosting them, and there is no prohibition against that. I have had many a chance at an otherwise unhuntable Tom while waiting near his roost in the late afternoon/evening. Plus, you don't have to get up early!:whistle:

Looks like a couple of jakes at the edge of the woods...





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i wish you could hunt turkey in the evening...i enjoy the evening hunt.. i dont get out early much more i stay up to late waching gun smoke...now i know why my dad didnt get up early in his old age and go hunting with me....old age....it use to be for me to want to get a shot at something but now its just about the hunt....charlie

So true, Charlie, so true...