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Already made plans for turkey hunting! Anyone else getting ready?

whacko

whacko

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Just signed up for the controlled turkey hunt at camp Edwards. Planning to take the wife for a day to see if I can get her a bird! She's excited.

Have to get to the range with her this weekend to get her gun patterned and have her practice the head shot with her 20 gauge. It's been awhile since she's practiced for turkey......she has never been turkey hunting either. Tried for a few years to get her out for them but it has never worked out. Using a couple vacation days this season with her......sometimes you just have to MAKE the time.
 
EMTDAD said:
I'm new.. my club is teaching a youth turkey hunt seminar... I'm gonna help out so I hope to pick up some good info then..
Young Adult Turkey Hunt program
Click to expand...

I usually only do the mentoring for Youth Pheasant, but I may take on Turkey this year and try and help some kid out with getting one. My club has a large contingent of youth hunters for Turkey. Now that my kid is 18 and into girls more than birds and deer, trying to get some other kid a bird would be fun.
 
IMG_20170429_081659.jpg I have my son, Hunter, signed up for a youth turkey class.
Plan is to get him one.....simple enough......LOL
May make a weekend of it and take Monday off work.

Kids are where it's at............My nieces daughter enjoyed her first time out last year.
I Suppose she may want to go again also................says she's good with the calls I got her.
 
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weatherby said:
I have my son, Hunter, signed up for a youth turkey class.
Plan is to get him one.....simple enough......LOL
May make a weekend of it and take Monday off work.

Kids are where it's at............My nieces daughter enjoyed her first time out last year.
I Suppose she may want to go again also................says she's good with the calls I got her.
Click to expand...
My son is 16 .Had him out hunting since he was 12. It's the best time spent together......and he's turned out to be a better hunter than me. Kids got eyes and ears like a hawk.
 
ccm75 said:
I signed up for this one hour class.
Maybe they can improve my technique and teach me some new tricks..........Cause generally my calling skills suck!

Turkey Calling - Westboro F&G Bldg. 4/12/18, 5:30-6:30
Learn to Hunt Programs
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Some of those programs are pretty good. Turkey hunting is by far the toughest to do in my opinion. Took me 4 seasons to finally bag one (last spring). I'm hoping to keep that momentum going and get one in front of my wife this year.
 
ccm75 said:
I have 2 kills in 20 years.
My biggest problem (in addition to my calling) is finding a good place to hunt....
Click to expand...

A good place to hunt sure helps.
The amount of them you actually get doesn't matter much to me I just like playing the game.
I'd rather spend a morning fighting with a bunch of hens than shooting poor old tom.
 
RDG said:
Search Results for Mucks at Tractor Supply Co.

Muck boots on sale at TSC. I love mine for turkey hunting... actually for anything. I wear them all the time.
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I'm on my second pair of much edgewaters. First pair lasted 3 years which is awesome. I wear them for ALL my hunting, ice fishing, driveway shoveling etc.. the Edgewater is a good "split" on amount of insulation. I buy em a little big and they are a three season boot. Small game sep through pheasant/rabbit, deer, ice fishing....snowshoe hare right into turkey season. If the forecast is for real cold weather (single digits) I use thick wool socks and I'm fine. They are easy to slip on and off.....I leave em by the front door to slide into to get the mail! They are great all around boots.
 
whacko said:
Just signed up for the controlled turkey hunt at camp Edwards. Planning to take the wife for a day to see if I can get her a bird! She's excited.

Have to get to the range with her this weekend to get her gun patterned and have her practice the head shot with her 20 gauge. It's been awhile since she's practiced for turkey......she has never been turkey hunting either. Tried for a few years to get her out for them but it has never worked out. Using a couple vacation days this season with her......sometimes you just have to MAKE the time.
Click to expand...

I am planning to turkey hunt for the first time this year. Have all my gear, permits, shotguns sticker, patterned gun, calls etc.... I cannot seem to find definitive information on restrictions of shotgun capacity. If semi-auto or pump, is there a capacity limit for the magazine before it needs a plug?

This site seems to indicate nothing:

Massachusetts gun laws: What are you allowed to carry and where
 
ccm75 said:
I have 2 kills in 20 years.
My biggest problem (in addition to my calling) is finding a good place to hunt....
Click to expand...
Same results for me. 2 kills in 40 years, but I only went turkey hunting about 2 dozen times in all those years. No turkey anywhere in the area the other 56 seasons. It is getting better (Now I get the chance more often to be completely humiliated by these birds Hahahahaha)
 
I have a large flock that likes to parade around my house.

I think I will renew my NH hunting license this spring; it's the only reliable way I know to keep the turkeys from coming around (at least until the end of May).
 
Ae1m said:
I am planning to turkey hunt for the first time this year. Have all my gear, permits, shotguns sticker, patterned gun, calls etc.... I cannot seem to find definitive information on restrictions of shotgun capacity. If semi-auto or pump, is there a capacity limit for the magazine before it needs a plug?

This site seems to indicate nothing:

Massachusetts gun laws: What are you allowed to carry and where
Click to expand...
Semi auto or pump is fine. No restriction on how many shells. No plug needed.
 
North Central Ma is pretty thick with birds and land to hunt them. If your serious out here you average a bird every year or more.

Ive killed a few not even really trying. A few years I didnt have the dog the things were all over the place feeding and strutting in the yard. Thats when it got kind of silly for me to hunt them anymore
 
I'm heading out to the Berkshires for an opening day hunt - Time to turn up the cardio and hill climbing in prep was about a month ago, so I'm kinda screwed there.

Going to try some local WMAs for local hunts - My usual spot has the turkeys in yards and neighboring properties.
 
While hunting is great, harvesting chicken is easy and tasty, gunna raise my own soon.
 
MGnoob said:
While hunting is great, harvesting chicken is easy and tasty, gunna raise my own soon.
Click to expand...
My wife and I want to start raising chickens. Town zoning won't let us. Not enough distance to get the coupe far enough away from the property line. We've been talking more and more about moving to NH and buying at least 4 acres.
 
First year...scouted a location, gun is patterned, practicing calls, gear set to go... wife is also going out with me and she’s just as excited! On our scouting trips, we saw three toms and it was still snowy...can’t wait to see how it shapes up when the weather gets better!
 
Jaymassvet said:
First year...scouted a location, gun is patterned, practicing calls, gear set to go... wife is also going out with me and she’s just as excited! On our scouting trips, we saw three toms and it was still snowy...can’t wait to see how it shapes up when the weather gets better!
Click to expand...
Good luck.

Took the wife to the club today to pattern the guns and she practiced the "headshot" with a few turkey targets I picked up.
 
admcd said:
I'm heading out to the Berkshires for an opening day hunt - Time to turn up the cardio and hill climbing in prep was about a month ago, so I'm kinda screwed there.

Going to try some local WMAs for local hunts - My usual spot has the turkeys in yards and neighboring properties.
Click to expand...

Plan on hunting the valleys out here. They are all disrupted - still have almost two feet of snow now, @ 200 ft elev below Moran WMA . . . Best would be around the Quabbin and points east of the Berkshires this year, if you were thinking of the "normal" areas. Good chance they will be on low elevation farms (posted) until late in the season
Could be a great year for photos though
 
I'd like to try it, but not sure where to go. I see tons of them around, but they are all near roads, which is out.

What size shot to use?

As far as gear, I might get some camo top or something, but otherwise, just boots and 12 ga. 2 3/4", license. Are there stamps required?
 
Coyote33 said:
I'd like to try it, but not sure where to go. I see tons of them around, but they are all near roads, which is out.

What size shot to use?

As far as gear, I might get some camo top or something, but otherwise, just boots and 12 ga. 2 3/4", license. Are there stamps required?
Click to expand...
Size 5 or 6. Full or extra full choke. Obviously there are turkey specific loads out there that tend to pattern tighter for the head shot try a few. I will be using 20 gauge 3 inch nitro mags in #6 this year. I had a box of them lying around my safe that I picked up years ago and never used. I went to the club Sunday to pattern my wife's gun and let her practice. I had two boxes of Winchester turkey loads to test out as well.....and the MUCH cheaper nitro mags patterned much tighter so I'm going with those. My opinion......the 3 1/2 inch 12 gauge loads are not necessary but you'll hear others say they are but whatever.

As far as gear.......I use a cheap ground blind and just wear coveralls, a dark green sweatshirt, and a face mask to keep my face from standing out in the window of the blind. I'd go to the range and test your shotgun for how far it'll pattern tight enough for a head shot so you at least know your max range. Box call.....hen and Jake decoy.....cheap ones work fine gobbling hens get so worked up they'll mollest just about anything that looks like a hen. Listen to hen calls on YouTube and practice copying that sound with your box call. I keep it simple and nailed a nice Tom last season. Oh....and you do need a turkey stamp...$5.
 
Just got a call from my gun club last night. Seems one of our young hunters didn't have a mentor to bring them out on the youth hunt and they were looking for someone to go. After making sure they understood that I am an awesome hunter, but a terrible finder, I said I'd be happy to.

On the bright side, I seem to do better for others than for myself, so I'm hoping I can get some success. I take other's success more serious I guess, since I'm already tearing my place apart looking for my turkey call to practice, instead of waiting till the night before like usual.

I live in East Longmeadow, but my club and the kid is in Worthington - anyone got an idea for a good area? I've got two weeks to start scouting - I was planning on Hadley, but don't know if that's too much of a hike for them.
 
tuna said:
Just got a call from my gun club last night. Seems one of our young hunters didn't have a mentor to bring them out on the youth hunt and they were looking for someone to go. After making sure they understood that I am an awesome hunter, but a terrible finder, I said I'd be happy to.

On the bright side, I seem to do better for others than for myself, so I'm hoping I can get some success. I take other's success more serious I guess, since I'm already tearing my place apart looking for my turkey call to practice, instead of waiting till the night before like usual.

I live in East Longmeadow, but my club and the kid is in Worthington - anyone got an idea for a good area? I've got two weeks to start scouting - I was planning on Hadley, but don't know if that's too much of a hike for them.
Click to expand...
That sounds like an awesome opportunity to take a kid out.

I just looked and Worthington is west of 202 and way outside my experience as I hunt the Merrimac valley and devens/ Shirley most of the time.

Too bad you didn't know about it earlier.....the camp Edwards controlled turkey hunt is open to non military but you have to have your application submitted before April 1 so the dod can run the background check to get you on base. It's a bit of a haul to the cape from your area but that post is LOADED with turkey and has plenty of drive able dirt roads and field edges to locate some flocks easily. That's where I'm going on may 10. Success rate should be pretty high.

As far as scouting.......damn that's always the bitch being a Massachusetts hunter.....finding land! Maybe check some farms out and ask them permission......tell em your a guide mentor for a kid might help.
 
I would also check East if you..belchertown area..there are some great turkey habitats south and west of the southern end of quabbin. (That mix of woods and fields)
 

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