2017 season in review

[ANYFISH2]

Well the turkey season has now passed.  Once again, the birds did things they havent done before, and really made us hunt for them.  Here are few observations from my area in Morrison cty.

 

•  very little gobbling past the first hour on the ground.  

 

•  birds remained very woods related, not a lot of open country contact.

 

•  first 2 points, made it difficult to locate and contact birds mid day.

 

•  birds seemed to be "henned" up most of the season,  had a very difficult time separating the birds.

 

•  LOTS of jakes.

 

•  All said,  a very successful season for my family.  I harvested a jake, both son and daughter had unsuccessful opportunities, and i finally got the wife out for a few days for the first time.  1 bird and alot of fun.

 

●  I do have one growing concern.  I am finding that the season long archery license is starting to be a negative for me.  I bow hunt deer, but have yet to want to take the challenge of hunting birds with it.

There are a lot of bow hunters in this area, now because of the season long license.

Land that once we could organize for orderly access, by way of the former seasons, has now essentially been locked up by bow hunters.

They have no rush now, a month and a half VS. 5 days.

It is possible to get firearm permission, but the bow hunters come and go as they please, as they should be able too.  

This is a problem for ME.  I do not like stepping on others toes when i hunt.  I like to move, locate and stay on birds over the course of a day.  Share the same woods at the same time is not my idea of a good idea.

So now i have long standing permission, thar i do not use until the bow hunters have tagged or moved on.  It has become a bit frustrating.

[bigbucks]

I would agree with most of what you said about the birds, other than I did find them in the open fields during the day quite a bit.  Most of the toms I saw were with or very close to hens.  I had no gobble responses other than early in the am.  I have not had the trouble with archery hunters, but most of the places I've hunted don't have any.  Generally it's been an early gun group & then I get a gun tag for C or D & it's always available for the late season.

Edited June 6, 2017 by bigbucks

[paceman]

My season was pretty short and sweet. I tagged out my first morning and my son tagged out his second time out so we were done the first Saturday of the season. That was great as it gave me lots of time for other projects, but also bitter sweet as I really enjoy turkey hunting! Pretty glad we got done early as there were just not that many birds around. I had cameras up from a month before and about a month afterwards. A few birds came through but the numbers appear to be way down around up here. Co-workers and friends really struggled to find turkeys. I switched to bow hunting a few years ago for the benefit of the longer season... I really like it. Yes it is quite challenging and admit tingly very frustrating as it is very tough to stalk a turkey with a bow, and tough to draw on a bird unless you are in a blind. For me I have been very successful with being patient and just sitting in the blind in an area I know the birds want to be or where the cameras show them moving through. I am fortunate as the land I hunt is all private and my son and I have sole permission.