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Booshway
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Okay, it's late March, don't any of you boys down south have some turkey stories for us yet?!?! Counting down to April 18 here in my locale...
 
Posts: 429 | Location: Delmarva | Registered: 22 December 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Ohhh boy, they were a gobbling back in my woods today!!!!
 
Posts: 429 | Location: Delmarva | Registered: 22 December 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Opens here this Saturday. Supposed to be a nice weekend here, warm too. I plan to be out there.
About two weeks ago I spotted a flock of about 30 out in an old cornfield.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Lots of turkeys here in the Bitterroot Valley...30-50 mixed hens, jakes, & toms in flocks...only problem is that they tend to congregate on private property. And while the land owners complain about the turkeys, they will not give permission to hunt on their land.

I've tried to hunt them in the National Forrest areas, however, all sign shows the turkeys moving down onto private land about the time the hunt opens.

With my rt knee recovering I'll not be able to scour the woods this spring.

Regards, xfox


The forest is a wilderness only to those that fear it, silent only to those that hear nothing. The forest is a friend to those that dwell within its' nature and it is filled with the sounds of life to those that listen.
 
Posts: 532 | Location: Bitterroot Valley | Registered: 23 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Whoever said turkeys were dumb?!


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Hanshi
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Turkeys are smart; only humans are dumb.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3560 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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well, opening day was a total washout for me. Hunting TVA lands (TN Valley Authority) along the Tennessee River. Thick fog over the water before daylight, but I motored straight across, slowly, and then followed up the shoreline. Another boat already pulled up on the mud at my planned landing spot. Went on, but wandered out to midstream where the fog prevented me from seeing anything at all. Drifted for a bit as I tried to get my bearings and the boat must have swung around in the current without me realizing it. Started moving again, very slowly, and going, and going. Where's the land! I must have been going straight up the river. Can't see a thing. Okay, stop and wait for dawn. Drifting with a slow current. What's that? Ah, a buoy, a green one. I'm on the west side of the river, where I want to be. Took up the oars (my cheap version of a trolling motor) and pulled straight away from the buoy, going to what I thought was west. Aha!. I see the shoreline, but where am I? Oh, there's that boat again. Eastern sky is turning gray. Still can't see anything that way except a lighter shade of fog. I motor slowly upstream, keeping within sight of the shore. Reach my second choice for landing - another boat there, too. The world is getting lighter, all silver and a gold spot that is the rising sun. Fog still thick. I turn around and follow the western shoreline back downstream, past the beached boats and get to my 3rd and last chosen spot. Okay! I pull ashore and step out into the mud. I pull the boat up on the beach and throw out the anchor; just to be sure nothing decided to float away. The fog is lifting as I trudge across an old, harvested corn field, carrying my decoy bag, fusil, and turkey calls. I set up at the far edge of the field, my back to the woods, cluck, and wait. Nothing. This is where I saw a flock of about 30 turkeys a couple of weeks ago. I hear a shot further inland, on private property. I move into the woods and set up again. Nothing. Another shot back on the private lands. By 1 in the afternoon I have had enough. The fog is gone and I keep a sharp eye out for turkey sign as I hike back to my boat. Nothing! No turkey sign at all. Plenty of deer tracks, though.
Oh well, next time I go out, probably next week, I will head the other way and go up in the mountains.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Dick
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I'm waiting for fall; I hunt down around Absarokee/Fishtail. All private land, but I've got a friend and the landowners rust him.


"Est Deus in Nobis"
 
Posts: 2902 | Location: Helena, Montana | Registered: 10 December 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
Picture of Old Lobo
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I've got room for another on the wall

 
Posts: 28 | Registered: 26 March 2018Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Heh,that bird gobbled at me!


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Crossfox, Ive got a buddy in PA that has the same issue. Birds gobble on the state land above him all April, when the season opens in May they've drifted down into the valley on private ground he can't hunt. Maddening.

Not even season here yet and they're messing me with me. Today my Mom had pictures, two longbeards at her birdfeeder this morning...
 
Posts: 429 | Location: Delmarva | Registered: 22 December 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Dick
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quote:
Originally posted by Dick:
I'm waiting for fall; I hunt down around Absarokee/Fishtail. All private land, but I've got a friend and the landowners trust him.

That's what I meant: trust!


"Est Deus in Nobis"
 
Posts: 2902 | Location: Helena, Montana | Registered: 10 December 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Four more days til the opener here! Last few days have been 80 and sunny, really got the birds moving around. All set for the first morning with the 16 ga smoothbore, have a buddy coming with a TV camera to try and film a flintlock kill for the local outdoor show, too.
 
Posts: 429 | Location: Delmarva | Registered: 22 December 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Well fellas, they're giving me the runaround! After watching up to 4 strutters in my field for the five straight days before the season, when it was warm, I've been two days, it turned cold and I haven't seen a gobbler of any sort. Four hens opening day and no gobbles within a mile. Two hens today, one of which actually walked across 100 yards of field in full strutt - she had me puzzled for awhile.

I think it's just too cold again now, I can't ever remember turkey hunting in insulated boots and a wool coat before...
 
Posts: 429 | Location: Delmarva | Registered: 22 December 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Free Trapper
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I know it does not help you, but on my way home today from our team shoot I was 3 different fields with Toms on display. I was not hunting and up in the 50s today. I do not see them like when I hunt them. Mark
 
Posts: 164 | Location: Burlington, Wisconsin | Registered: 28 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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It's still a struggle here, with plenty of cold, rain and wind. Few pretty days, but even on those they aren't acting normal. It's like they avoid the field this year, at least the gobblers. Got one nice Tom deep in the woods with the 870 so far, but sticking to the flintlock now for bird #2. Actually had a bunch gobbling this morning, but they all got past me heading to real hens in a thick old clearcut regrowth. Oh well, back at 'em in the morning tomorrow before work for a bit...
 
Posts: 429 | Location: Delmarva | Registered: 22 December 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Free Trapper
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good luck, hope you get one/ Mark
 
Posts: 164 | Location: Burlington, Wisconsin | Registered: 28 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Arrrgh! tell 'em to heave to and prepare for boarding,then blast'em with a full broadside!!!


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Summary time! I have to say this has been the strangest and toughest spring turkey season I can remember. All my pals are talking about how tough it's been around here this year and how few birds they've seen and heard.

As I said earlier, no joy early with the flintlock, although I did manage one with the modern shotgun. That one was all woodsmanship, as nothing seemed to want to play with the calls or decoys this year. I hunted hard with the flintlock for the next two weeks, mainly playing with one particular gobbler who was driving me nuts. One morning he was three steps from getting hammered before his hen picked me off. Another he was in the field alone, but wouldn't budge to the decoys and calling, almost like he was scared, and he finally slunk off into the woods.

Last week we went to all day hunting instead of the early season noon cutoff. I had been fishing most of that first day of that, got home and saw him in the field with 5 hens late in the afternoon. Not a situation for the open choke flintlock, so I grabbed the 870, but I did something new and played with a tail fan on a stick, what the current fad is calling reaping. I spent two hours in the field on my belly crawling after him behind that fan until we all got in range, then rolled him at 20 yards after all. Doh! Still pretty fun, my first evening bird and first reaping bird, 11" beard and 7/8" spurs, pretty sure he was the brother to the first one I killed as there had always been a pair here together pre-season.

I do need to get on one of those full choke turkey barrels for a build for next season, or at least get my cylinder bore 16 off to be jug choked. Not the same without the smoke!
 
Posts: 429 | Location: Delmarva | Registered: 22 December 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Hanshi
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Well, you did score on one and worked pretty darn hard to do it, too. I haven't and won't be going out this spring; too much going on and I haven't been feeling well, anyhow. We'll see about fall season....maybe. Congratulations.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3560 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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