-
If you enjoy the forum please consider supporting it by signing up for a NES Membership The benefits pay for the membership many times over.
2019 MA Turkey Season
- Thread starter Al-Jim19
- Start date
HorizontalHunter
NES Member
Looks like it.
You ruined his perfect morning. A full belly and a romp. Is a terrific way to start the day.
Bob
You ruined his perfect morning. A full belly and a romp. Is a terrific way to start the day.
Bob
MP-In-The-Wind
NES Member
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2010
- Messages
- 1,657
- Likes
- 687
Wahoo! Congratulations!
I used this technique yesterday to call the birds in for my son. He was using his 20 gauge and his range maxes out at 30 yards. Inset him up in the blind with the hen and Jake decoy 20 yards in front of him and I went back into the woods 30 yards behind him and laid prone behind a tree. The birds hung up about 50 to 60 yards in front of him for about 10 minutes. They gobbled when I called but stayed put. I changed to softer clucks and purrs and they started to move in slowly. One finally made the mistake of coming in for a closer look and bang...flop
Thanks for the tip
I've never been that great at Turkey hunting but this season we've seemed to figure it out more. We scouted the long fields driving in the truck on the dirt roads and located a group of 5 Tom's on the edge of a woodline. I know the area very well and knew there was a single track dirt trail about 150 yards back in the woods that runs parallel to the field. I backed up and turned down the single track road to about where we saw them.....and we got out and snuck in the woods to about 75 yards behind them in the woods and started calling. Immediate responses.....took about 20 minutes total to call them in. Helps to have a 4x4 truck and some knowledge of the ground.
My sons hooked on Turkey now. Says it was the most exciting hunt he's done and he's been successful at ducks deer cottontail snowshoe hare squirrel you name it. Something about calling them in and the excitement of getting them in that close.
Last edited:
HorizontalHunter
NES Member
Awesome. Glad that it worked.
You never forget your first turkey.
Bob
You never forget your first turkey.
Bob
Tomorrow I'm taking a vacation day to go for Turkey solo.
Anyone else still out there? Seems like a slow season based on nes posts on the 2019 Turkey thread.
Birds seem to be still in the mood when I was walking the dogs this morning I heard lots of gobbling and yelping in the distance.
Anyone else still out there? Seems like a slow season based on nes posts on the 2019 Turkey thread.
Birds seem to be still in the mood when I was walking the dogs this morning I heard lots of gobbling and yelping in the distance.
HorizontalHunter
NES Member
I don’t hunt turkey much anymore. I almost got shot a few years back and I have only been out once or twice since.
Good luck to all getting out.
Bob
Good luck to all getting out.
Bob
I roosted a bird in a spot, Saturday. Came back with my friend on Sunday night to show him. 2 gobblers this time.
I hunted it Monday morning. It was a great hunt- best yet. No tom yet, but I had 2 toms gobbling like crazy. There was a hot-to-trot, huge hen about 15 feet to my left on the edge of a field going into the woods. She was putting and bobbing her head back and forth and lingered a little while as I gave a tom call.
The 2 toms must have lured her like the pied-piper. I heard her put inside the woods later. Impossible to out-compete mother nature. I had 3 decoys in the field- a beautiful avain-x hd jake farthest out, an avian x hen in the middle and friend's older hen decoy closest to me.
Meant to go right back and hunt it Tuesday and/or today. Let the coldness convince me to be lazy and stay in. I'm planning on roosting them again tonight and going in tomorrow.
The hard thing about these toms is deciding how long to hunt them in a morning, if they're otherwise pre-occupied or "hung-up"- will they be horny enough for a round 2?
They're tough. That's 2 hunts this season where they wouldn't come in. Gotta keep at it.
I hunted it Monday morning. It was a great hunt- best yet. No tom yet, but I had 2 toms gobbling like crazy. There was a hot-to-trot, huge hen about 15 feet to my left on the edge of a field going into the woods. She was putting and bobbing her head back and forth and lingered a little while as I gave a tom call.
The 2 toms must have lured her like the pied-piper. I heard her put inside the woods later. Impossible to out-compete mother nature. I had 3 decoys in the field- a beautiful avain-x hd jake farthest out, an avian x hen in the middle and friend's older hen decoy closest to me.
Meant to go right back and hunt it Tuesday and/or today. Let the coldness convince me to be lazy and stay in. I'm planning on roosting them again tonight and going in tomorrow.
The hard thing about these toms is deciding how long to hunt them in a morning, if they're otherwise pre-occupied or "hung-up"- will they be horny enough for a round 2?
They're tough. That's 2 hunts this season where they wouldn't come in. Gotta keep at it.
HorizontalHunter
NES Member
Yes they can mate several times in the morning.
Keep in mind that as the season goes on they get wise to all the calling and will come in silent. Having multiple calls with different pitch’s help and only call as much as needed to get them moving or keep them moving. Most hunters call too much. Always sit quietly for 10-15 minutes after you stop calling.
Bob
Both birds I've taken and my sons bird were all mid morning. 9am to 10am. And they were all hot to come into my calls and decoy set at that time.
I believe they spend the morning with a hen or two then separate and go look for different Hen's. The flock I called in for my boy last week was 4 young males with no Hens in sight.
The decoy set up that worked for my hunts has been a single Jake and hen. I put the hen down low on the ground without using the stake.....then put the Jake like 8 inches behind her. My first Turkey that I took using that setup I had two mature Tom's basically run in and start molesting the jake decoy. They didn't even fan out or strut.....just rushed in and attacked. Seemed to piss em off that a young male was on their turf breading up a hen. Well.....they were pissed off till I shot one of em then the other one ran off as fast as his legs would allow.
Struck out today but not for lack of effort. Located 3 flocks by sight and did my part to get within 150 yards of em and call but they just wouldn't budge today. Not a single gobble and I tried 3 different calls. Just one of those days.
JDL
NES Member
I have lots of turkeys in my yard and the woods in back in the morning I can hear them gobbling and clicking for hours then it quiets down, however they are all around and they will walk through my yard all day long. I am too close to other houses to shoot them. I was thinking I could just try to whack one with a golf club.
Congrats to all of the Mass guys who scored a bird this spring, my season was uneventful...my 18 yr old son hunted by himself for the first time and called in and harvested his first bird totally on his own...at 18 he's already taken 4 birds, 3 of them toms...think i was 30 before i had 4 birds under my belt...
AAU travel baseball and work kept me hunting local this season (plymouth/carver/middleboro area)...the birds i found were always henned up, they'd gobble 100 times but not move 5 feet closer...there's always next year...
AAU travel baseball and work kept me hunting local this season (plymouth/carver/middleboro area)...the birds i found were always henned up, they'd gobble 100 times but not move 5 feet closer...there's always next year...
