It can happen fast. You hear footsteps in the leaves. It might be that gobbling turkey you raised checking out your position silently, looking for the hen you pretended to be. Key on the sound of footsteps while also being safe — turkeys and hunters walking make similar noises at times.
Always identify your target. Listen for these other sounds to lock in on a gobbler that might have you in his sights rather than the other way around: Clucking: It might just be a single cluck: pock. Still if you hear it, you’ll be ready for that turkey to appear. Or you can cluck back. And you can reposition if the gobbler clucked and moved off.
Spring turkey seasons continue until the end of the month in many northern locations. Maine’s, the latest option in the country, runs until noon on Saturday, June 2. Try these tactics to kill a gobbler up north this season.
Mid-Season Toms Some nesting may have started; some gobblers may have been killed. Flock configurations are shifting. Some gobblers are still on the move, looking for company. Be there when they are. Scouting to see shifts in breeding ranges is important throughout the season.
Sure a gobbler’s weight will get your attention and beard length is something we all check, but spurs seal the deal.
My buddy Mike Jordan of Atsko, the Sno-Seal people, killed the Oklahoma longbeard wearing the spurs in this photo. One measured 1 and 9/16 inches and the other taped in at 1 and 3/8s. I was hunting the other side of the Croton Creek Ranch property last month when I heard the shot. Good bird, eh?
The National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) keeps records on this sort of thing for those of us who care, and we do. For hunters who register their birds, it's a way to share trophy statistics about the gobblers we love to hunt. What are the longest registered spurs for each of the four prominent stateside subspecies?
Are spring gobblers less vocal with cloud cover? Do they gobble less the day after a rain?
If you’re turkey hunting the Northeast and elsewhere these days where the spring gobbler seasons are still underway, cloud cover, showers and rain have been hunting factors lately. The Missouri Department of Conservation study says yes to both, and listed results on their website which include:
—Turkeys are more likely to gobble on days with clear skies, according to the statewide Missouri study conducted in 2010.
You’ve got the decoys in your truck. Mixing up the way you stake them can make all the difference. Check out these three set ups that have worked for me over the years.
Jake with a Harem: A longbeard and a jake fly down, walk to a nearby pasture, looking for turkeys. Mr. Tom is about to strut, but . . . There stands another jake about to breed a belly-down hen, with other hens looking and feeding around it. They’re all fake but the live gobblers don’t know that and come to crash Mr. Shortbeard’s party. That’s when things go suddenly dark for the longbeard.
While it’s not uncommon to call in coyotes around while making turkey calls – raise your hand if you have; mine’s up – it’s fairly rare to have one grab you in a case of mistaken identity.
Until now, that is. A Maine hunter had an encounter this week he’ll not soon forget: a coyote attacked and bit him on the right arm.
The turkey hunter, Bill Robinson, was fully camouflaged of course, hiding in cover. He was running a mouth call, while hunting Washington County near Cooper, according to reports.
Buckeye State hunters killed a preliminary total of 8,898 bearded wild turkeys during the first week of the spring turkey-hunting season, which is open statewide through May 20. According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ (ODNR) Division of Wildlife, hunters checked 7,744 wild turkeys during the first week of the season last year.
“What’s that?” a voice says. At first, you might think it’s a big black gobbler, but then... This is the story that won’t go away: Bigfoot sightings and spring turkey hunting are trending.
"Saw a squatch turkey hunting today,” the comment made under this recent video post, seems just a little low-key to me. Yawn. If I were this guy, I’d have written something close to a stream-of-consciousness rant. Wouldn’t you? Then again the frightened noises the dude makes before running seem, well, pretty realistic (or at least we’re witnessing some decent 11 second acting). Bigfoot evidence types are putting this video up to the test though.
I used this HEVI-Shot® Magnum Blend load at a turkey camp in Nebraska last week to kill longbeards at 5 and 40 yards. I had a pre-hunt honeymoon with an old-school loaner Remington 870 Wingmaster with a full choke. She and I got along just fine as I have one at home. The turkey target results were devastatingly sweet with the 3-inch, 2-ounce load. Go figure.
