Spring Turkey 2020

Tagged out with another Jake this am.

Two big Toms strutting, 2 Jakes and two hens snuck up at my 6:00.

I had to flip over on my belly and low crawl along a stone wall and then peek at them through a hole in the wall. They were coming right to me but hung up when the hens sat down....

I made a couple putts. One hen bum rushed me and the other flanked me and gave up my position to the boys. The big guys scooted away the Jakes stayed for a look around. I popped up over stone wall and shot him....Really wanted the big one, but a bird in the hand..... !
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Tagged out with another Jake this am.

Two big Toms strutting, 2 Jakes and two hens snuck up at my 6:00.

I had to flip over on my belly and low crawl along a stone wall and then peek at them through a hole in the wall. They were coming right to me but hung up when the hens sat down....

I made a couple putts. One hen bum rushed me and the other flanked me and gave up my position to the boys. The big guys scooted away the Jakes stayed for a look around. I popped up over stone wall and shot him....Really wanted the big one, but a bird in the hand..... !

Congratulations! I love the story!
 
Congratulations to all who bagged one this spring!
Did anyone else think it was a weird season? Where were the birds?
I had one gobbler at 5:00am in Petersham on the 3rd day of the season and that was it. Another hunter stepped in between and box-called a lame hen yelp from the dirt road in between us, and the bird shut up. We were both losers. No gobbles in night-before roosts in many places. No gobblers spotted in any backyards, side of the road in places famous for turkey. Saw one or two hens period in a bunch of scouting and driving around. No gobblers in WMA where they were a year ago. No birds seen in Petersham driving around. That's rare.
My last 5AM, I sat for 2 hours, took a break and moved my decoys and spot up to the top of a long sloping field surrounded by thick brush. About an hour later I hear someone who sounds like they're on their cell phone coming in. I say I'm here. He says, "oh, sure man it's yours, you have the first shot." I said can I approach. While I'm approaching, I see his buddy coming up from the bottom of another corner of the field, gun in hand. I talk to this closer guy and he's on radio to his friend downfield- it wasn't a cell. I told him that those birds were my decoys??!!? "Oh...ok we're outta here..." May I please be the backstop in the bush for your pellets?? WTF??
 
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I saw a bunch of birds in backyards but nothing in the handful of spots i can actually hunt. Got out like 3 times early but then just gave up.
 
Strange season for me...I didn't hear ANY gobbles this year! I did see a couple of hens.... I tried my usual spots as well as some new places too! (BTW: I did hunt most days from pre-dawn to 9-10 AM.)
 
Congratulations to all who bagged one this spring!
Did anyone else think it was a weird season? Where were the birds?
I had one gobbler at 5:00am in Petersham on the 3rd day of the season and that was it.

No gobbles in night-before roosts in many places.

It was indeed a somewhat unusual season. I would call, they would gobble back once, then complete radio silence. And as you, I was also having a hard time finding gobblers the night before. I think they unusual winter may have had something to do with it. They seem to be more comfortable hiding deep in the woods.
 
It was indeed a somewhat unusual season. I would call, they would gobble back once, then complete radio silence. And as you, I was also having a hard time finding gobblers the night before. I think they unusual winter may have had something to do with it. They seem to be more comfortable hiding deep in the woods.
It felt like that to me as well- they went deep in the woods. And, funny thing is, I've thought about that...Well, we're hunters, why not just go deeper in the woods? But the logistics stink. A) you'd have to go in super deep to god knows where the night before to roost and prove a spot and B) you'd have find your way in the dark in the morning back to that spot- so get there at 3:30 or 2:30 instead of 4:30#@!
 
It was indeed a somewhat unusual season. I would call, they would gobble back once, then complete radio silence. And as you, I was also having a hard time finding gobblers the night before. I think they unusual winter may have had something to do with it. They seem to be more comfortable hiding deep in the woods.
The best turkey hunter/caller I ever met and hunted with ( now deceased) once told me that sometimes you have to go sit in the woods and pull them out by their tail feathers. If I can’t get them into field I will sit in a flat spot on ridge above fields and work without decoys.
However it was a weird year where I hunted in northern part of New York. Either they had finished breeding or had not started. Very little gobbling although lots of Toms around. Opening day I had a group of three long beards enter field about 200 yards away. They were about 80 yards away when some hens entered field behind them and they reversed course to hens. No gobbles no strutting. An hour later a had a group of five toms, all long beards enter about fifty yards away. No gobbles no struts. They walked towards decoys and the 20 lb 9” beard Tom I took wasn’t the biggest but he was the closest at 50 yards. ( my biggest bird in 20 years of turkey hunting)
My hunting partner called in birds for three different hunters in first three days. All came in quietly, no strutting and only one came in alone. They took three birds in 18 -19 lb range.
In three days of hunting I had one Tom act typically. He started 400-500 yards away on next farm. Gobbled all the way in. Each gobble closer. He would answer me or I would answer him. Full throated thundering gobbles. When he creasted the wooded ridge to my left about 80 yards away and gobbled again two jakes that had ghosted in to my decoys earlier departed in other direction. He stepped into the field about 40 yards away and immediately went into full strut and walked towards decoys. About 30 yards out he did his little pirouette and when he faced me again it was all over. (24 lbs and 9” beard my best and biggest we have taken off the farm).

My buddy hunted two more days and had other Toms come in but my second bird was only one that came in calling.

So it was definitely a different year.
 
Complete dud of a season for me...i hunted SE Mass and made a couple of treks to the Berkshires...SE Mass was super duper crowded, my spots in the Berks were void of life, even in the private yards and fields where there's always birds walking around...gobbling was limited mainly to predawn, then crickets once the birds hit the ground...extra hunting pressure may be turned them off...
 
Tagged out on the last Tuesday of the season with a 20.8 lb Tom, Really weird he came in and never made a sound but was real aggressive . Daughter didn't get one this year but tried a really long shot when we were running out of time Saturday. She only hunted on Saturday's because she's back to work. She's a good deer hunter but has had bad luck with Turkeys.
 
I can say in North Central it was a weird year.

I didnt hunt but was doing a ton of work around the house outside painting etc. I always hear gobbling and see birds in the fields above my house and across the street, and behind the house. This year. Nothing.
It was cold a lot of mornings and usually birds are quieter.

My turkey hunting friends did OK. But they were in the woods. Probably on mast from last year. Green up started late this year.
 
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