nh number 2
 

Shot this jake with my not parker Ithaca nid super 10. he came in fast at 25 yds shot him with 1 1/2 oz 4s this time. most of the birds the last 4 days have been hened up and hard to pull away from them.

A proper gun!!!

Tough to do when they are henned up. Nice job Scott.

Rained last night here but had stopped by morning, heard no gobbling or hen talk.
Was carrying the Ithaca 4E 16 choked mod and full. Started to come down pretty good again around 9:30, so packed it up.
Congrats Scott.

No hen talk, no daybreak gobbling, nothing answered my calls, no sightings of turkeys at all in my favorite turkey places. Two deer walked into the field where I was calling yesterday just after dawn… but no turkeys, where in past years we woulf have small flocks of up to 20 birds in several of the fields and woodlots around here.
One lone hen fed up across the field this morning before the heavy rain began and that’s it. I’m packing for home but I’ll be back later in the week.






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I think there are fewer birds this year, i put a lot of hours in compared to last year and with fewer birds to come in.

Last years torrential rains during the hatching time may have a lot to do with it. The broods last year were small and a lot of hens were alone in Aug- Sept.

Turkeys come into my neighborhood on a regular basis. Now that I think back to last year I didn't see many hens with the usual dozen poults following them. I remember seeing hens with two or three and many had none which I thought odd. This spring I have not seen a turkey in my neighborhood.

Population way down in ohio, limit dropped from 2 to 1.

Something's up across the Eastern range. The biologists are puzzled.

On our farm up until about 5 years ago I could stand on the main ridge and hear 10-12 gobblers. Now I'm lucky to hear 2 or three, and they are off the property. The State is doing all kinds of studies, and is only coming up with possible answers. I read of similar conditions in many other states.

And sooo…

After three days at “turkey camp” without a sighting or hearing dawn gobbling or even hens muttering among themselves, we left camp for home… when 300 yards down the dirt road from camp and just 40 yards off the side these two big ol’ longbeards sat huddled against the rain. I laughed my a$$ off at the irony but swore out the open window “I’LL BE BACK!!”


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Here in nh we have had a bobcat population getting a lot bigger , i think that has a lot to do with the turkey population drop. You know how cats and birds get along.

In western Maine, Franklin county where i hunt grouse and woodcock 5years ago the turkey's disappeared after a high population and the state said a fungal disease was the cause. Since then a few have been seen but not enough to hunt out away from the towns. I look forward to Garry finding out what his states biologists say.

It's not just the turkey population that is significantly off, it's many other bird species as well. The bird watchers in NH have been reporting the same for many species of Song birds since last fall as well (I lurk on their FB page). Nowhere near the usual amount of Robins in the neighborhood this year either.

We usually have about 1 dozen turkey around our house most years and often you can drive around town and see a few groups in most areas.
This year I have seen maybe less than a 1/2 dozen turkeys this spring.

I think grouse are killing off the turkeys!��

…and then, out of guilt, committing suicide. :)

turkeys
 

Scott, my friend in Littleton was told by the Game Dept. that Fishers are becoming a problem in that area. I'm sure they take their toll!

3 LONG BEARDS
 

Not as lucky as last year with three birds in three days, but I defeated the V.T. Gobblers again. They get one point for every day they win. I get seven points for each successful day. I won 21-9. Hunted hard twelve of thirteen days. I know y'all do not like big guns but I come from the Charlie Cleveland School of Hunting; carry enough gun. This year I used three different big guns. Shot them all well. Two forty-five step shots on moving birds. Winchester, Franchi, Beretta.

We love big guns …. Big Parker guns.

I used to think it was the other way around as a turkey will ansolutely destroy a grouse nest and anything in it. Thrkeys are opportunistic feeders and if something (like grouse chicks or eggs) doesn’t fit in their mouth they will tear it and rip it and shred it until they can swallow it… but maybe the grouse are meting out revengeful punishment.

Sitting in my blind calling for thrkeys I distinctly heard 6 individual grouse drumming within a few hundemred yards of me… and that’s a very good thing.





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I love them also. If I could find and afford a 3.5" 10 gauge Parker I would use it. I got tired of using 12 gauge 2 3/4" guns and afraid to shoot for fear of losing a bird, so I would not shoot. It takes a lot to get these birds in close. Not like on TV where they come running in. Coyotes, pre-season callers fooling with them, and hunting competition make it difficult enough.

I use a short ten with hand loads and black powder loaded into brass cartridges. Either are big medicine for very long kill shots.

I've killed turkeys with a 32" DH 12 2 3/4," a NH 10 shooting 1 1/2 ounce of 6s, a Grade 2 top lever 10 gauge, and a PH 12. Just like to get my tags done and sleep late at seventy years old. I can't chase a crippled bird anymore.:)

I hear that. I’m a believer in use enough gun

Ok guys, grouse or Moose do not eat turkeys. Nor do turkeys eat grouse, LOL !!Predators such as bobcats or coyotes do not material effect turkey populations. Birds this spring are down because of recruitment of poults last spring. Very wet and cold and a lot of poult die off. They will be back next year if we do not have a cold wet spring and early summer. Our NH turkey kill will be weighted to mature birds due to this.

A bad hatch last spring wouldn't have reduced the population of Toms and mature hens this Spring. It takes two years or more for a male poult to become a mature Tom.

Pete, you misunderstood the point. The reduced recement of poults in last springs young would reflect in this years total jake population. So this years kill figures will be weighted with older birds and not so many jakes. Pretty simple to understand.

I understand that, but what people have been reporting is an overall lack of birds, not just sightings but birds responding with a gobble from the roost in the early morning. I think the population is down and most likely multiple factors are to blame.

Armchair biologists. I have killed 5 birds in 5 hunts. Nothing wrong with the population of birds in my area. Folks that do not know how to hunt will blame anything but themselves for failure. I do predict a slight reduction in the total turkey kill, with more mature toms in the population of the kill. Take a good spring and all will be good next year.

Those professional biologists are doing a swell job for us with the ducks.

Ducks are not the point of this discussion:rotf:.