IS EVERYONE READY FOR TURKEY HUNTING?

[turtlebunting]

#5391

I GOT 2ND SEASON HERE IN ILLINOIS.CANT WAIT. TO LET THE ARROWS FLY!!!!

[purehunter]

#40380

Very cool. I’ve never been turkey hunting so show us some pics if you get one!

Purehunter

[Chris Shelton]

#40850

I have sadly been TOO busy to train! I normally would have started by now. :?:shock: But I have the day off, sort of, and I will fix that come hell or high water!!!:twisted::roll:

[Clay Hayes]

#40902

I drew a tag for east Idaho. I got to hunt 2 days last year up north in a general hunt area, but I haven’t been able to seriously hunt turkey since I left Mississippi in 2007.

When I was down there, I’d hunt nearly every day of the season. I had turkeys within walking distance of my house and could hear them gobbling down in the river bottoms from my porch. Man I miss that!

My hunt doesn’t start untill May 1 though, so I’ve got plenty of time to dream.

ch

[Patrick]

#40923

My hunt is from May 3 – May 31, and I’ve been shooting a lot lately. I’m sure I’ll have shot opportunities, and I don’t intend to miss. Intend is the operative word. 😉

[Bert]

#40970

You guys are lucky- the only turkeys here in western Washington are politicians and there’s no open season on them-yet!
Love the cover painting on TBM where the Indian-sorry,First Nation- individual is laying his hand on the old bowhunter’s shoulder, implying ‘No shoot there! (Insert country and/or people) brain shot! Wait til bird turn sideways- then shoot!’
Any of you guys using the radical and very weird ‘guillotine’ broadheads for headshots- just gotta love American innovation!- And where do you shoot a turkey anyway?
If Ben Franklin had his way on our national bird icon, would we be eating eagles for Thanksgiving?
Just some random thoughts from a random mind!
Gobble, gobble, gobble-Bert

[Chris Shelton]

#40991

Bert you made me laugh:lol:

They have a grapefruit sized target(lungs) just about center mass! Some guys like the leg join, others like the head, I just assume that if ya hit the bird from the grapefruit up towards the head somewhere it wont go far?

[johnny2]

#41199

Where the wing joins the body, in the head or in the butt. Take this advice from someone who has hit em both everywhere you should and shouldn’t. Hip shots are iffy and I don’t think you can hit one to high as long as you hit bird and not feathers. Head shots are the very best. Stay away from breast shots unless he’s facing you. These birds leave very little blood and can hide under a toadstool. I found one by seeing the very tips of it’s tail feathers sticking out from under a brush pile no bigger than a bushel basket that I had walked by three times before. I use a Benelli now because I’m just not confident enough in my shot placement.

Turkeys are the greatest and I am absolutely worthless when the season is in. Just ask my wife, closest I ever came to divorce was over turkey huntin’, but that’s a story for another time…

[David Petersen]

#41393

In my experience, J2 speaks truth here. Can’t count the spring turkeys I made “perfect” shots on, with full pass-throughs, only to have the birds fly or run off and just … disappear. Even my alleged bird dogs, brought in to assist the search, couldn’t find them. But coyotes or other scavengers did (I’m glad at least for that) and sometimes in elk season I’d find feathers for proof of my “kill.” Having killed so many turks with a 12-bore that it became terminally boring and ridiculously easy, I went bow-only for this species many years ago; point is, after sticking my fist up a couple dozen turkeys at least, and pulling out the organs (all of which, put together, sorry, wouldn’t make a decent grapefruit), why didn’t it dawned on me sooner that my “perfect” bow shots were for mammals, low and forward. On a turkey there’s nothing down there but breast meat. As with grouse etc., their vitals are all balled up fairly high. Wing-butt works real well for me. Or up the exhaust pipe from the rear. From the front … ho, ho and good luck getting to full draw unless you’re in a blind. Which I never am.

All of which is likely moot this year, since snow here in SW CO this winter has likely (DOW bios back my opinion) wiped out, while what are left were forced so far down south by deep snow, they’re on private land. Rots of ruck to me to even find a bird to talk to this year, sigh. Maybe I should plan a trip to Mississippi! 🙄 Depressed Dave in Durango

[William Warren]

#41557

Turkey season starts here in a couple of weeks. It has been warm here and the dogwoods are about to bloom. Redbuds just bloomed this week. I bet a turkey gobbled somewhere this morning!
I got to go scout my spot this weekend. I’ve been shooting some in the sitting position. I think if a bird gets under 20 yards it will be in a dangerous position. Of course shooting is not so much the problem. It’s drawing without being detected that will be the trick.
Time to dust off the old slate!

[oldtwohairs]

#42121

Looks like I might be missing out on turkey hunting this spring. I drew a tag for the second season here in WI 4/14 – 4/18, But I am scheduled to have hip replacement surgery on 4/6.
The weather has been warming up nicely and I’ll certainly miss getting out in the turkey woods……..that is, if this operation keeps me from going. I only need to go about 100yds from my house to get to a spot that the birds frequently occupy.

So if I get my blind setup before I have surgery and I can get to the blind with a walker, crutches or a cane, I may be able to spend a little time in the woods.
The doctor said I wouldn’t be allowed to drive for 3 weeks.
Oh well, I need to get it taken care of, so I can get my next elk hunting trip planned? Or Moose, Bear …..or whatever else is on my list. They shot me up with drugs last fall so I could make it through hunting season and I did, but it was a challenge.
I need to buy one of the extra turkey tags for one of the last two weeks of season, I should be able to make it out a little by then. Good luck everyone!

[M]

#42176

Season starts in Ohio on April 19th runs about a month and we are allowed two birds. I own a little over 200 acres to hunt on so I will be out as much as work and kids baseball and rugby permit. I dont use a blind and was wondering how many of you all do?

[David Petersen]

#42434

Twohairs — in total, I can count more than half a dozen knee replacements, one shoulder and four hip replacements. All were successful, amazing successful, with the shoulder taking the longest and giving most problems (in a man in his 70s). If you can hunt within a hundred yards of your house, I’d get someone to push you out there in a wheelchair! Whatever it takes. A few years ago I broke my right ankle 10 days before the season opened. There was still snow in patches around, and the ground was soft so that my crutches often took an unexpected dive. But I had a friend help me build a couple of brush blinds just a little ways in from a road on private land, and I hobbled out the them and sat there all day, day after day. Had more birds come in that year than ever before, proving once again the merits of patience. Go get some. 🙂 dave

[jaytbuzzard]

#42531

April 10th here in North Carolina. This will be my first time Turkey hunting. I can’t wait. I’ve been practicing alot in my basement. My brother in law has some property in the mountains and were going to give that a try. I’ve also been practicing with my calls. I had a dream last night about turkey hunting. It might not be a good sign because I got busted by the turkeys in my dream. Boy can they run fast.

[David Petersen]

#42584

Jay — I can feel your enthusiasm. To each his own — and so often, what we have to work with determines our possibilities — but my idea of turkey hunting isn’t putting out a spread of dekes in front of a comfy 26bull blind (though geeze, while squatting against some tree, trying not to shake, as the sun comes up, how dearly I’ve craved such comfort, with thermos of hot coffee and maybe even a nice little propane heater). It is, as sounds like it will be for you, actually gettig out there and walking and hunting those suckers. They beat you up once, you walk a while and find a fresh candidate, and he beats you up again. You walk and talk some more. One of these days, you win! And meat or none, hunting hard like this, getting exercise and seeing country as spring erupts, how can we truly lose? Impossible. Here in the Rockies, a massive snow winter casts long cold shadows over spring turkey. Even today, it snowed all day. I envy you! Dave

[turtlebunting]

#43799

i have to say i have never harvest a turkey with a gun or bow.its not the same since dad not here. but i wont give up. i get one with my bow dont get one at all!

[Jason Wesbrock]

#44936

I have a 4th season tag for WI and just picked up my new ground blind (Happy Birthday to me). Hopefully the turkeys are still active in early May.

[oldtwohairs]

#45582

Dave, Thanks for the encouragement! The twohairs thing is a long story 😆
I’m going to do everything in my power to get out this season. I need to be in decent walking condition in time for Compton’s.

[MontanaFord]

#47394

I’ve taken two turkeys in the past, both with shotguns. One was a hen that fell to a load of #6 shot one fall when I was in high school, and a tom about 4 or 5 years ago that fell to a buckshot load (was all I had for shotgun ammo, left over from deer season the year before…didn’t pull the trigger on a single deer with the shotgun) he had like a 7″ beard, and was all by his lonesome which I found odd, because it was spring. This year, I want to try for one with my bow. I have a friend that said I could use his decoy if I wanted, and I have access to a few different private properties that I may be able to work. One piece of property is within earshot (and almost eyesight) of my living room window. Our spring season starts on April 16, and I’m not sure when it ends, offhand.

Michael.

[T. J. Conrads]

#48426

Heading out tomorrow to hunt Kansas with my buddy/lawyer Nathan. He has a farm out there and asked me to spend a few days hunting while he does some business on Saturday. Looking forward to my first foray since last fall.

[little g]

#49626

Heading for Montana on the 8th for the opener on the 10th OTC tags and two birds.

[turtlebunting]

#49668

Been shooting my longbow to get ready to shoot a long beard! i start work nights tomorrow and when 8 nights are over i be chasing some turkeys. i just got to get my butt up and pactice during the day before i go in!!! HAPPY HUNTIN !!!!:lol::lol:

[turtlebunting]

#51058

went scouting yesterday. i got there late. but i still heard one at 7:30. he was talkin it up. lookin like its going to be a good season.:roll:

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