3seasons Posted April 15, 2011 Report Share Posted April 15, 2011 Here in MS the turkeys have been acting very strange. This will rate as one of the hardest seasons to date for me and most of the people I’ve been talking to. Guessing that is because of a couple years of low hatch numbers that the majority of the birds we have are all 3+yrs old. But funny thing is last year we saw a good number of jakes and have yet to find them this year. I was able to sit down on my first bird of the year, our season started on 3/12/11, on 4/7/11. This was the first time into this spot this year. Some other people had been hunting it this year so I backed out. They couldn’t do anything with any of the birds there and quit hunting so I decided to take a try. At least if I heard a bird it would be more that I was doing in most of my other places. This bird worked perfect and I was able to get a shot at 20yds at 6:45 that morning. 10.5"beard 1" sharp spurs 19lbs Didn’t hear another gobble the whole next week, until after 7:00am on 4/13/11 and it was as far as you could possible hear one. I figured it was off our property but if he is gobbling then I may have a slight chance to call him across the line. Worth a shot. I ran 1/2mile only to hear nothing. Except for where I had been standing 30min before. So I run back to the top of the hill (1/2mile) only to see 2 red heads going into a thicket. I didn’t want to spook them so I just sat quietly for a few minutes to let things settle down. Then I hear my long bird gobbling again. So I’m off again, only to hear silence once I’m 1/2mile deep in the woods again. So I wait for a while and walk back out to the top of the hill only for him to start blowing it out (I laughed and said they must have radios or something, this is nuts) so I’m off again. I get back down in the area of the gobbling and nothing, to heck with this I thought. On the way out when I reached the top of the hill I called and nothing other than the bird in the distance had cranked back up, a crow hollered and nothing then a woodpecker cackled and two birds gobbled 100yds away. I sat up but could tell they were on the move so I made a huge circle to get in front of them, figured they were headed to a dusting spot I knew of. I was right but they beat me there. The woods were so thick that I could see their heads but couldn’t tell what anything was other than hens and gobblers. I wouldn’t take a shot even though it was only 20yds, I figured there was a jake in the bunch and I didn’t want to get him. I let them walk off after 20min and made another big loop and sat up at the edge of a hardwood draw. 10min later I was able to call up the longbeard and jake to 30yds and that ended an exhausting morning with a beautiful limbhanger. 11 3/8"beard 1 1/8" Sharp spurs 18lbs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethan Givan Posted April 15, 2011 Report Share Posted April 15, 2011 Congrats on two really nice birds. Your determination really paid off! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhino Posted April 15, 2011 Report Share Posted April 15, 2011 Congrats Scott! That 2nd bird...well birds had you yo yoing back & forth burning lots of boot leather. Glad it finally came together. Congrats on both birds...niceuns too! Yep it's been a very strange turkey season this spring for me too...hardest one I can recall. Saw a flock of 13 gobblers (there were more but that's all I could count) on Dec. 1st and the 6 gobblers that were traveling together during October that included the 3 spurred bird. Spring turkey season opens and it's like they disappeared. The amount of turkey sign is even down from past years even though I saw more birds than usual during deer season. So far this year seen 9 jakes (3 running together in 3 totally different areas) and 2 gobblers besides the hens I've seen. Killed both of those gobblers. Heard a few others but gobbling has been poor to nonexistant untill this past weekend. Sure hope they turn on in a big way this weekend. BTW...I've been running 3 trail cams and I have only gotten 1 pic of a gobbler & that was the 2nd week of February. Got some jakes & hens but no gobblers since then. Good luck going for #3 Scott! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pruts Posted April 16, 2011 Report Share Posted April 16, 2011 Congratulations. I think I likley would have gave up long before I ran a few miles. Good work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruttinbuc Posted April 17, 2011 Report Share Posted April 17, 2011 Great pair of Gobblers there! WTG! Great account of your hunt and some nice photos indeed! :cool2: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WHISKEYSWAMP Posted April 19, 2011 Report Share Posted April 19, 2011 both great birds... congrats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun_300 Posted April 19, 2011 Report Share Posted April 19, 2011 Nice looking birds! Sounds like hard hunting but it all paid off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redbeard Posted April 22, 2011 Report Share Posted April 22, 2011 Way to go bud Scott. Many congrats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archerjg Posted April 23, 2011 Report Share Posted April 23, 2011 Congratulations on two very nice birds. Archerjg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.