Wild Turkey 2019

[monstermoose78]

Check for deer ticks my dad got bit and is on antibiotics now.

[brittman]

Wild turkey breast is always good in our house.   Marinate (brine) if you think it may be tough.   Cook in cream soup like pheasant or on skewers on the grill.   Either way  

[IceHawk]

Was out scouting last few days and have been seeing a decent  amount of birds on the propertys I hunt. Snow has been very helpful in finding turkey crossings  strutting and feeding areas. Noticed a lot of hillsides in pasture areas are getting hit the hardest as of late. They are definitely splitting up and starting to stay out in the fields a little more each week. Heard two different groups gobbling today out in the fields midday 10-11 am a real good sign. Hopefully this week the warmer temps melt this snow down and start greening some things up. 

[gimruis]

Well the spring weather seems to be on the calendar now but it looks like monsoon season may start soon too.  I've got season B so I still have 9 more days to scout and wait for better conditions.

[BIGFISH.JZ]

The turkeys have been out on the roads, the last 1.5 days I have seen around 3 dozen in roads or ditches. Lots of strutting toms. This morning a gobbler was even in my back yard responding to my squaky chickens. The harsh winter didn't seem to affect the ones on the north side of their range.

[ANYFISH2]

Good luck this morning to all you lucky opening day hunters!

 

Report what your seeing, please.

 

  I am seeing nothing from the office window.

[Wanderer]

2 hours ago, ANYFISH2 said:

 I am seeing nothing from the office window.

 

^^^^^^same^^^^^^

 

No planned outings for me yet either.  Hope to see others posting their stories here! 

[IceHawk]

B season here but talked to a few buds hunting today and it sounded like there was some activity this morning. Kind of a crappy opening day but by the weekend things will start to green up and birds will definitely fire up with the warmer temps. 

[monstermoose78]

I was looking out the window at the office wishing and hoping it was Friday!! 

[ANYFISH2]

First sits of the weekend occurred for me this past weekend.

Friday morning was kind of odd I thought as birds where gobbling very early.  I figure because of the full moon, the sky was bright long before shooting time.  After flydown the gobblers were very quiet with very sporatic gobbling all morning.  Sat until noon without seeing a single bird.

Friday afternoon was very active, good amount of gobbles between 4:30-6:30pm.  Had a group of 2 large gobblers walk by about 5pm and at 5:15pm had a group of 3 young toms walk by at 30 yrds not presenting a shot.

My blind in very near a roost site so I left the blind about 7:30 so not to get caught at dark if they decided to roost there.  On approach to the bean field I watched 2 very large toms work the field, until the neighbor shot and both birds scooted out.

Saturday, had Abigail with her 20ga.  Again plenty of early roost gobbling in all directions.  A little more gobbling after flydown as well.  I assume the same 3 young toms from Friday worked by us at 6:30am never really acknowledging us other than gobbling as they pastes us at 50yds.   About a half hour later, I called in a loud mouth hen that actually fanned out for our up right Avian x hen decoy.  That would be last bird sighted for the morning although we has gobblers walk by out of sight 2 more times.

I left the woods alone the rest of the weekend as the landowners kids and grandkids were home for Easter and like to enjoy the woods when home.

 

In the end a good and frustrating weekend.  The birds were definitely not buying what I was selling as far as calling was concerned.  Something I was doing was off, as they may have walked by, did not really investigate much and didnt hardly look at the decoy.

 

Good luck guys and gals.

[gimruis]

Anyfish2, you mentioned a neighbor who had shot in your post.  With another hunter around, its possible these birds have already been pressured with calls and decoys.  I've found that its often best to avoid using decoys or calls when targeting pressured birds.  I know it sounds counter-productive, but with the quantity of birds you have around the area, its not necessary.  Are you hunting from a blind?  If you are, move it to a daily travel route and just wait.  At some point, a legal tom or jake will walk within range.  I used to hunt a pressured group of birds for years and the whole calling/decoy thing worked on them for the first couple seasons, but after that they were almost "repelled" by it.  So I stopped using them and it more or less just turned into a waiting game (more like deer hunting if that helps).  The key is to pattern their daily travel routes and be there when they come past.  It works.  I harvested 2 jakes a tom with this strategy.  Another question, are you hunting with a bow or a shotgun?  That makes a huge difference too, obviously, because of the range you have.  If you're using a shotgun, what kind of ammo are you using?  The right combination of shotgun and ammo will reach out to 65 yards in range.

[ANYFISH2]

I hunt with a bow, the kids with a 20 ga. I would have had a bird with my 12 ga Friday if I was using it.

 

I feel I called too much this past weekend.  New season and probably too gung ho!

 

I have hunted this property the last 3 years, the birds are just acting a little different this year, so far.  I will adjust as the patterns develop through the season.  Chances will come for sure.  I should leave the decoys in the blind more often than I do, that is for sure.

[Sculpin]

Cube the breast meat, and marinate it in buttermilk overnight, then dredge it in whatever you use to fry fish, and pan fry it until golden brown.  I like to use peanut oil, because you can get it really hot. You only need a half inch or so of oil in the pan, they fry up quickly. Very good, and I have tried it many ways. You could trim out the dark meat, and do it the same way.

[ANYFISH2]

last 2 evenings have been fantastic.  Bird activity has been "predictable" and often.

The group 3 toms are running on borrowed time now.  They made a mistake last night, however, Isaac froze and didnt pull the trigger.  Until next time.

[huntnfish]

I am hoping to get out this weekend to try get one of my kids a shot. Found a group of 3 toms in the spot I expected them to be in last night. Have the ticks gotten bad yet?

[IceHawk]

There out use permathin 

[huntnfish]

6 hours ago, IceHawk said:

There out use permathin 

Thanks! Ticks are the only downside to spring turkey. 

[CollegeHunter]

Just wondering if you guys know of any good areas around Duluth?  Currently there for college and cant get away to go to my usual area. Not looking for specific directions but just looking for public access areas. If you guys know of any that would be awesome thanks!

[Borch]

There are pockets of birds from Cloquet south.  As far as public spots I'm not able to help you out.  But if you see birds it wouldn't hurt to ask for permission.  Not a lot of folks up there are hunting them.

[gimruis]

I hunted for 5 mornings and 1 evening during season B.  The last morning I was able to get 3 toms to come within 60 yards and I picked out the biggest one.  Down it went at 54 yards.  It has an 11 inch beard and 1 inch spurs.  I saw turkeys every single time I went hunting, but mostly hens.  All of the toms and jakes were too far until Monday morning.

[Borch]

Congratulations! Looks like an awesome bird!  Getting pumped myself as my season starts tomorrow morning.

[paceman]

Monday after the Rain and snow quit I decided to go sit in the woods for a few hours. I just had a feeling they would be active. I chose a spot that was fairly open, along an oak ridge. It was a spot where I saw 5 hens last Friday. I didn't get set up until 1:30 but was done just over an hour later About 2:00 I spied 5 jakes working a ridgetop about 150 yards to my North. I think they were scratching for acorns. They showed no interest in my calling. In fact they worked away and out of site. About 2:20 I heard a faint gobble I am guessing was 1/4 mile to the south of me. I yelped pretty loudly. No response. About 10 minutes later I was in the middle of answering a work email on my phone, I looked up and this nice Tom was about 40 yards walking right towards me. He had come from the North and never made a sound.  As I quickly tossed the phone aside and scrambled to get the bow up and ready I see 7 more jakes and hens coming down the ridge and also walking towards me. The Tom walked right to the Jake decoy and pushed it around a tish, I went to full draw, he went to full puff and slowly strutted to the hen decoy. He pauses facing me at 7 yards and the arrow sliced through he neck. He flopped around expiring very quickly! Man that was fun! I really didn't expect to see much especially hunting in the middle of the afternoon. Not a very good picture, the phone lence must be dirty. but he is solid turkey. 22lbs, 10" beard, 7/8" spurs. Will probably go back there Saturday morning with my son.

[Wanderer]

Getting ready to go to Moms for spring yard work and had a terd of hurkeys come through the yard.  1 Tom.  Gobbled on the driveway 20 feet from my truck.

 

Using the house for a blind just doesn’t feel like hunting though. 

 

Maybe I’ll have a tag for next weekend.

 

Or tomorrow! 

[paceman]

Took my son out both Saturday and Sunday Mornings. Pretty tough up here right now. Heard some pretty close gobbles early. 5:15 Sat, and 5:20 Sunday. But once on the ground they were silent and did not come our direction. The only bird we saw a was a hen Saturday morning. We were treated to beautiful sunrises and the springs woods were alive with other birds and critters but it sure would be nice to at least see some turkeys:)

[huntnfish]

I took the kids out Friday night, Saturday morning and Sunday evening and it was tough. Friday night we saw a couple hens but it was more of a scouting trip. Saturday morning we were running a little late and I made a bonehead decision to setup further away from the roost than planned. When the birds flew down there was one nice Tom strutting in the field. I got him to come towards us about 200 yards. I had setup in the wrong opening and there was a slough between the bird and us and he wasn’t flying across or taking the very long way around to get to us. Worst part was that he worked right in front of where I had planned to setup that morning. Sunday we had all kind of hens, turkeys, deer, geese, and cranes but no toms spotted. The best part was a deer that was coming up right behind the blind. I could hear it coming and peaked through a window and saw it. I was hoping it would walk right alongside the blind close to the kids but instead stopped and blew at us a couple times. I’m pretty sure both kids heads about went through the roof of the blind when they jumped. 

 

I did not hear a gobble all weekend. I had checked on these birds last Monday and they were gobbling like crazy. When we left Saturday, I even went by a couple spots that always have birds but The landowners don’t allow hunters and couldn’t get any gobbles out of them either. This was the first time I’ve been out and not had birds going crazy. My tag expires tomorrow and will most likely go unfilled. My daughter has a youth tag and I’m hoping to get out and give it another try sometime before the end of the season. 

 

 

[gimruis]

Turkey hunting is a tough nut to crack fellas.  The success rate in Minnesota is 20-25% so only 1 out of 4 or 5 fills their tag.  And bow hunting is even worse at 10%.  Those birds have a brain the size of a pea but that doesn't mean they are easy to hunt by any means.  Don't you just love it when city folks say "I see them all over" after you tell them you've been hunting them?  Obviously anyone that thinks that huntable wild turkeys act like city dwellers has never tried hunting one.

[Katman]

Was out this past weekend in SE Minnesota public land with my buddy and his dad for OTC season C. It was a tough and frustrating hunt!  Very few gobbles in the morning and dead silent once on the ground.  We got 2 gobblers and a jake, one each morning at different times.  They only responded on the roost.  Once down, they were dead silent.  We figured out their travel pattern and set up on their scratch pad.  The gobblers and jake did not make a sound till they were about 20 yards coming in hot to our hen decoy.  We only heard the drumming from the Toms and the walk of the jake.  All in all, we tried, learned, and got our 3 for MN!  Off to Wi tomorrow!  

[Borch]

Ended up with a 2 year old tonight with a 9" beard and short spurs.   Was skirting me but got just close enough to take a good shot.  Was down to my last hour for the year.  So it all worked out in the end.

 

[eyeguy 54]

Congrats Jeff!  

[monstermoose78]

Tough season