2021 Spring Turkey Hunt

[gim]

Who's ready to turkey hunt?  Season A starts in less than a month.

 

I think I'm going to go during season B this year to avoid the initial wave of hunting pressure.  I went during season A last year and there was noticeably more hunting pressure in the area.  I think it was because of the pandemic and people were kinda cooped up, plus it was the first year they lifted the lottery.

[DonBo]

Have all season to get it done with my Minnesota archey tag. 

 

We did not draw for 3rd season in Wisconsin for the first time ever.  Heard there were 160,000 more applicants this year than last.  Wow, that's a lot of extra people out there.  Hoping to snag a leftover for D season later this week.

 

We did not draw in South Dakota for the first time.  Leftovers there also go on sale later this week.  Fingers crossed.

[Barbelboy]

I applied to Mille Lacs WMA for B season and got drawn. I was hoping by drawing a limited tag area to cut down on some of the public land pressure that will likely exist similar to last year. Things were crazy last year, I think it was a combo of Covid and open tag options. I usually bow hunt, but wanted to gun hunt this year. I plan on taking the kids fishing and start building a garage this spring, so limiting my turkey season to 7 days should focus me more than having a 6 week open season. I find with so many days available I often don't motivate to go if I think conditions are sub par. 

 

[Sorgy]

I may do the Archery hunt this year. I have a Brother in Law with land just outside of the Milac's WMA. But that is another good option if birds are uncooperative on his land. I have been in and out of the turkey hunting game but thinking this will be another year to give it a go.

 

Good Luck

 

Steve

[going4it]

Heading to wi C season for the first time. Hunting my uncles farm. Should be good and can’t hurt that he knows where all the wildlife are all the time. Easy scouting when he will give us the info.  Then be chasing the mn birds with a bow. Got my first bird last year and am hooked. Watching the Tom beat up my decoy for 5 min before being able to shoot was an experience I will never forget. Been pumped for turkey since January. 

[gim]

11 hours ago, going4it said:

Got my first bird last year and am hooked.

Did you get your very first turkey with a bow?  I don't archery hunt but I have been told that its significantly harder than with a shotgun (which isn't easy to begin with either!).

[going4it]

Yes I did. I’ve never hunted them with a gun so looking forward to that. 

[ANYFISH2]

Birds in the Morrison County area are starting to show themselves more in the open areas with gobbling and strutting starting to be seen regularly in the last week or so.

[going4it]

 

Question on turkey hunting. I’ll be hunting a piece that is surrounded by ridges bottom is open pasture and crops. I’m guessing best to hunt the open fields mornings. Then where do you go? Top of the ridges? Bottom of ridges? Middle? Just trying to put a plan together. Any information would be great. 

[gim]

Hard to offer advice without being there.  Generally you want to set up within reasonable distance of their roost.  Find that spot and set up nearby.  Not super close, but nearby.  If you see turkeys off in the distance, take note of where they were and at what time because there's a reasonable chance they'll be there again the next day.

Edited March 29, 2021 by gimruis

[Barbelboy]

i agree with gimruis. Very hard to give guidance on the very wide parameters given. Scout. Find where birds are in certain times of day, then meet them there while hunting. 

What season are you hunting?

[Wanderer]

We always hunted hard out of the gate in bluff country, chasing gobbles and moving constantly when we had multiple farms to hunt.  Once our opportunities whittled down to 2 farms we learned to have patience let the birds work to us.  
 

I changed to just being content to be out there the first day to see what the birds were doing if I hadn’t done any scouting within the week.  Try to not bump your birds by being too anxious.  They’ll let you know what they want to do.  Typically they did come off the roost and go to the bottom right away and then drift back to the top.

[going4it]

On 4/6/2021 at 1:51 PM, Barbelboy said:

i agree with gimruis. Very hard to give guidance on the very wide parameters given. Scout. Find where birds are in certain times of day, then meet them there while hunting. 

What season are you hunting?

We are hunting C in Wisconsin. Can’t wait to get out this week in mn with the bow

[Wanderer]

I think my strategy this year might be to just keep having a late breakfast.

 

[going4it]

I got the girls, waiting for the boys to show up. 

[monstermoose78]

Good luck tomorrow!! 

[gim]

I'm glad I decided to wait until season B with the snow and cold.

[monstermoose78]

Anyone been out hunting yet? I have doing housework 

[Wanderer]

I probably won’t turkey hunt this spring - working way too much!  This morning before heading out I had multiple birds gobbling from the area I got mine last year. Probably would’ve been an easy score.

[CLPDB]

I was out 4 different mornings.  Very difficult hunt.  I never saw a Tom.  Usually when we go out we can get the Toms to gobble to at least let us know where they are roosting but this year they wouldn't gobble to a call at all.  Most wouldn't gobble until almost shooting hour and if they did gobble it was on there own.  I didn't really want to hunt season A but I had to because of work.  I think the cold weather must of had something to do with it.  

[Abndoc]

My son and I have had an awesome season son far. He tagged out friday, I tagged out yesterday. He also helped a friend this morning with calling, and his Buddy got his first Tom. 

[monstermoose78]

Awesome anyone else been out? I got two big house hold projects going on, so I have not been able to get out yet! 

[going4it]

Went out this morning with my bow, gobbling on the roost then shut off after fly down. 4 hens came into the field and nothing else. Drove about a block and found our gobblers strutting on a driveway with a lady. 

[monstermoose78]

That is how it goes for me most of the time. It will happen @going4it 

[gim]

I hunted north of Princeton, MN for 5 days during season B.  It was mostly miserable hunting conditions.  Rain, wind, snow, cold temps...but in a tent blind it was tolerable because I saw 57 turkeys!  Its the most turkeys I've ever seen in a single season, although I'm quite sure that many of them were the same birds on a daily basis.  Unfortunately, I was unable to get a single legal bearded male turkey within range.  I only had 2 hens walk within about 50 yards one morning during the entire 5 days.  They would fly down from the roost into a field, feed, and eventually walk off in the distance.  Quite frustrating to experience, to say the least.  I tried calls and decoys the first 2 days but that wasn't effective so I abandoned it.  Then I tried moving my blind a couple times without success.  There's probably 6 mature toms in the area that I got to see strutting every day from a distance too.  I actually thought about digging a hole in the field and hiding in it.

 

I also saw pheasants, deer, sand hill cranes, and a coyote.  No shortage of wildlife in the area.

[CLPDB]

I hunted just west of Princeton for 4 mornings in the A season and than sat with my son for 4 days in the B season and it was the least amount of birds that we've ever seen.  I never saw a Tom in the A season and we only saw 2 Toms in the B season.  We had a couple hens in range but that was it.  Last year we saw a legal Tom every morning and we got 2 last year.  During deer season I counted 52 turkey's in my field one evening.  I also had an evening where I had 17 Toms come out to the field all together during deer season.  Not sure where they all went.  At least my son can keep hunting and hopefully they will move back into our area.  

[Barbelboy]

I hunted 6 days of B season. The weather was tough. Thursday was decent, but other than that it was cold, humid, snowy, heavy rain, windy, drizzle and cloudy. Things went, well they were interesting. The first day was good as my dad was hunting with me and got a nice bird about 7 AM. He ended up shooting a bearded hen with a 7" beard. Pretty cool bird. 

After that it was a slog. Day 2 I had the local birds work, but as the tom was coming in 7 jakes ran him off. The next day I was able to get around where he was going and had him come into 50 yrds. but i prefer a shorter shot and he was mostly blocked by some trees. Then for some reason he saw something, stood up and walked away. I can't imagine what it was, but it happens. Day 4 was snow and wind, no gobbling. Walked 6 miles and hunted till dark, only saw 3 hens. My next day was POURING rain for 5 hrs in the morning. Thank god for ground blinds. Again, multiple sets, walked miles, never a gobble. Last day and this is the best part. Found birds on the roost. Had the group working, they were at 80 yards coming into my decoys. Oh boy, it's gonna happen.......and a coyote attacked my decoys. As it grabbed the decoy it spun around hitting the yote, spooking the coyote who ran across the field and spooked the turkeys off the field. C'mon man. I spent the rest of the day moving and trying to get close to the gobbler, but every move i made, he countered. Oh well. I have the end of May.

Edited April 29, 2021 by Barbelboy

[gim]

I experienced a lot of the same you did Barbelboy.  I was able to watch a lot of turkeys interact with each other almost every day.  The dynamics they have when toms, jakes, and hens are all present is entertaining.  The jakes kind of all move as one like a group of trouble-causing teenagers and the toms chase them when they get too close to a hen.  The hens, well, they just kind of ignore all of it and do their own thing.  I also had a coyote on my last day that ran across the field but the turkeys on the adjacent field didn't run off.  They definitely watched that yote though.  I didn't have a decoy out that morning otherwise the yote might have gone after mine too.  And I can confirm the weather conditions you had because I had the exact same crap.  I can say with 100% positivity that without a portable tent blind I would have been extremely miserable.  In fact, there's a good chance I would not have even tried hunting on at least a couple of those days.

Edited April 29, 2021 by gimruis

[monstermoose78]

I am finally going out Saturday morning!! The crossbow is sighted in and I am excited to finally get out in the blind.

[gim]

13 hours ago, monstermoose78 said:

The crossbow is sighted in and I am excited to finally get out in the blind.

Just wondering, what is the range with a crossbow hunting turkeys?  Same as a compound?  Same as hunting deer?  I have heard about 15 yards.  That seems virtually impossible to me considering I just spent 5 days trying to get one into 50 yard range for a shotgun.