turkey hunting
 

yesterday i loaded up my gun and shells and chair into the side by side and took off to my bottom land a hunting turkeys...i set my decoys up i tom and 2 hens...put my chair and gun and calls under the shooting house a natural made blind of briars and hedge bushes...i set back and enjoyed my view of the sorrounding things...i called aboyut every 15 to 20 minutes....i sat there till 630 pm never heard a pip from anything...but i never cared because what a great evening i had not a care in this world for a few moments...could have been a better hunt but i cant remember when..gona be the old 8 gauge parker s turn to hunt next time i go....charlie

The hunt is everything, as you say, Charlie. If you get a bird, that's a premium.

Dad got one this morning. They are out and about

Yesterday I hunted from before daylight until 11am never heard anything. Got up this morning and fixed a cup of coffee and went out on the back porch. Guess what was standing in the yard. Yep a turkey.We saw each other at the same time.

i took the 8 ga davenport single barrel out of the safe...i then opened the game bore box of black powder shells that were given to me by someone on the forem here to kill a turkey with...this was a none opened box...these shell are almost to pretty to shoot...best looking shell i have...i loaded up the old 8 ga into the 4 wheeler then got my calls and shells and headed off on about a 2 mile trip...i would go about 1/4 of a mile and call and listen for about 15 minutes...boy was it hot must been about 85 degrees...i forgot to say it was about 2 oclock in the evening when i started this hunt..i hunted till 6 oclock but i had no luck hearing a bird..so oft to the house i went so tommorrow me and the old 8 is gona try it again... hey mills your dad got a nice one...now its harry and your turn to get a good one....be expecting to see ya lls picture soon....charlie

It is a frustrating sport for sure. But fun and addictive too

i m fixing to go and get the 4 wheeler and cut out...the 8 ga is already in the over head ravk and the shells in the pocket tray...now if i dont forget my hat and calls i m leaveing it to you guys to put me on a big tom....charlie

i made it back home just as the sun was going down..me and the old davenport had a nice queit evening nothing heard but things are looking up i seen a fresh set of big gobbler tracks and fresg hen track...now i guess i ll have to start going to bed eary where i can get up early to see them big toms...guess i ll take the parker 8 gauge the next trip hunting....charlie

Harry and I went back out Sunday and they eluded us. We will have a rematch this Saturday.

Yep, you’ve got to be sitting out there 45 minutes before sunrise.

...and there’s still no guarantees.




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He missed Saturday . . . . They have been more cooperative this year than the last few years

A cousin called up two birds at one location but his sons could not get shots. He took them somewhere else and these are the results on youth day!

good for them...my turkey aint showed up yet......charlie

Sat all day yesterday. Nothin'. I thought I heard one gobble. But he never came. Those birds sure are dumb.
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture...ictureid=12684

thats a good picture..looks like the turkey has done sneaked up on this fellow gona peck him on the head....charlie

Our season here in N. West Illinois starts tomorrow Monday. Rain and high winds forecast.
Tues. weather looks better. good luck to everyone. Ed PS> Happy Easter.

Easter Blessing
 

Alas....I'm done for this year. Time to plant the sweet corn and tomatoes.
Good hunting, everyone!
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture...ictureid=12685

Way to get it done. Great picture.

I have a nice flock across from my house and have watched them all week. Thought it would be a great opening day. But I forgot that no kid is in school and over half of the adults are drawing unemployment being paid now to hunt.

I have never heard so many crow calls and then constant turkey calls at the edge of our property trying to lure the turkeys across the line. They had to be sitting right on it, and then after they tired of calling every five minutes the two of them went to the truck and rode back and forth stopping to scan the field from the highway. A little later, back again.

I think the Dept. of Game should require the Chinese Virus six foot separation, from the property line. It is not going to be a good season competing all week with my normal Saturday and Sunday turkey road hunters.

Parker Brothers sure had the right idea!

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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...

Gary,

Last year I let my clover and grass field grow until the end of June. I was sure all birds had hatched. As I made the last round with the bush hog a hen that I had observed the whole spring flew and I stopped the tractor. I left the tall hay intact. Checking often the next week, she never came back. I felt so bad that I had caused six or more birds to not hatch and she was so close. It is the second week of July usually for us in your old home state. I won't do that again.

Jerry, that was probably a late or second nesting because the first nesting had failed. It’s unfortunate but a fact of life.

We have a swan on the Shawsheen flats here that due to very high water, has had to make a new nest and lay more eggs a few times in the last several years.



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Mich season opened yesterday. First time I've hunted turkey at 32 degrees. Grouse drumming, geese honking, cranes cackling, and pileated woodpeckers pecking. The spring woods are much more interesting than during deer season. Oh, BTW no turkeys heard

but aint it nice just to be out and alive......charlie




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I went scouting this morning on a farm about an hour SW of us. The road to our Tree Farm is not passable, so I'll save it for the second week. I heard 2 or 3 gobblers this morning, all just on the edge of the property. I'll be ensconced in the brush overlooking a couple of decoys tomorrow morning. I just hope I get to "see a show" as Pop used to call a Tom's strutting. Elaine got me a Garmin watch to go with our dog tracking collars. It also gives me my heart rate. I can't wait to see just how high it goes if a big one strolls in to my calls.:corn:

A body of mine shot one this AM with a 36" 10 gauge H&R 10 gauge. Charlie, you should have been there

yes i should have been there maybe next time...them 36 inch barrel 10 ga s will reach out and touch them for sure....charlie

We have kicked many turkeys and even ducks off their nests while cutting hay. A couple hens went through the mower conditioner, that was messy. I was raising poultry at the time and have several large incubators so I would grab the eggs and put them in the incubator. Most usually hatched so I would raise them for a few months having minimal contact with them and feeding non medicated feed. They always managed to get out and join their family flock of 40-60 birds that lives around here. They roost across the road in the pines then feed through the cow pasture in the mornings and afternoons.

Turkey Scouting
 

Have filled my tags for the year, but it's fun to look around and see what's going on out there. Scouting FPV from the drone I found this fellow still out and about two days ago. (small dot in strip at left). Happy hunting, ya'll.
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture...ictureid=12713

Don't know whether I'm good or just lucky . Probably just lucky! Set up Mon. morning, birds gobbled down below me, made 1 series of yelps, and laid the box call down. 6:40 and done for the day, birds were still carrying on, so took the gobbler back to the truck and exchanged gun for thermos of coffee and some oatmeal raisin cookies. Sat there in the sunshine listening to them carry on, no doubt I could have called in another , but only 1/day. Then caught a stringer of bluegills and crappies--my version of a Blast and Cast! Been back in the area for the next 3 days lugging around the Beast--a grade 2 12ga hammer gun with 30" F/F chokes--damn, I need a sling on that thing. Not the gun I want when I have to run and gun the logging roads, but really want to shoot a turkey with it. Maybe tomorrow.