Hunting success when it's snowing?

[idgobble]

I sometimes hunt near the melting snow line at higher elevations because there's fresh vegetation coming up that the turkeys like.  Sometimes we have snowstorms early in the season in a few states I've hunted.  I've called in gobblers during light snow storms and once got a turkey in WY Black Hills when it was snowing real hard. I usually don't hunt while it's snowing but that was my last day in WY. On days I'm hunting and it starts snowing I usually stay out until I'm too wet and cold if I think there's a gobbler around.  In my experience they will still gobble and come in while it's snowing but they're usually not very vocal. Sometimes they'll come in quietly.  After all, they are often out roaming and feeding unless it's snowing real hard.  Kinda the same as rainy days. One of my worst hunts was when it  started snowing medium hard and I had a gobbler hung up about 75 yards away and he just wouldn't come any closer. I sat there freezing my cold wet a-- off for about an hour, shivering, and trying to keep the calls dry until he finally wandered away and I gave up. I was glad to get out of there before I froze solid!   I was wishing he'd leave a lot sooner if he wasn't going to come in but I wasn't going to give up before he did.   Anyone else have any stories/advice about hunting around snow or while it's snowing?

[GobbleNut]

Having spent most of my years hunting Merriam's gobblers in the high mountains of New Mexico at 8,000 to 10,000 feet, I have seen all kinds of snow conditions,....and so have the turkeys.  They are used to it.  Under all but the most severe of conditions, they will go about their business without much fuss.

However, there does seem to be a point where, if things get bad enough, they will just hunker down for a while and wait for things to improve.  It doesn't take much for them to get back into their normal routines, though,...even if there is a considerable amount of snow covering the ground. 

Calling in a spring gobbler in a Christmas-like setting is definitely a surreal, and unforgettable, experience.

[2eagles]

A few years ago we had a heavy snow during the night before our Iowa opener. Like the fool I am, I was up early and headed to my favorite spot when I was almost hit head on by an oncoming suv. Thankfully he over corrected and wound up, unhurt, in the ditch. I stopped to make sure he was ok and tried to help, then went hunting. I froze my butt off that day and didn't see or hear a turkey. I think the turkeys had migrated! Next morning the temp raised with the sun and the snow was gone quickly. So was I. Turkeys everywhere doing turkey stuff and I had no problems filling my tag.

[MK M GOBL]

Yup! Cool to watch them working in the snow, have seen it more than a few times. Hunt in the U.P. of MI for a number of years and in the snow and we see it here in WI as well. Just another page in the book of tactics.

MK M GOBL

[fallhnt]

I've seen 'em roost during snow storms and the ones that didn't, didn't move much. After the storm was over and the sun came out,I watched a gobbler breed a hen. A problem with snow is it freezes at night,making for noisy a.m. walks.

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[Tail Feathers]

I don't know much about turkeys and snow, as we rarely get snow at all, much less in turkey season.
My buddy killed one on Easter Sunday a few years back in the snow, in April in E. Texas. 
He's probably the only guy to ever do that in East Texas because that's probably the only snow we've ever had in April!

[Happy]

I have hunted them in the snow beforr. It is not normal but occasionally it spits furrows and I once called a gobbler in when there was a fresh blanket of snow on the ground. He acted like it was a normal spring day.

[Yoder409]

Nebraska............... 2014............."five day hunt"

Day one: Snowing like he** with 40 mph sustained winds with gusts
Dat two: Snowing like he** with 50 mph sustained winds with gusts
Day three: We basically took off in a Tahoe in a run for our lives ahead of an ice storm and 15" more snow forecasted

Conclusion:  Schedule your Merriam's trips with the weather in mind.

[Yoder409]

Couple more pics I dug up..............

[appalachianassassin]

ive hunted in snowstorms some. only killed 3 in any amount of snow and even walking out with a bird on my back I was unhappy. the trophy in turkey hunting imo is the memory of the hunt itself and hunting in the snow just sucks. so I no longer hunt in the snow.

[Gamblinman]

I harvested a nice bird in Oklahoma on opening day one year in a full on snowstorm. It had been in the 70's just a day before, so the majority of it melted as fast as it hit the ground. I set up a ground blind and fired up a heater. Not the way I like to hunt, but it was better than sitting in the motel room all day.

Now severe T-storms and tornadoes...more than my fair share over the years hunting Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.

[bbcoach]

I had a 4 day hunt in the South Dakota Black Hills for Merriams, several years ago.  We went the last week of there season, second week of May, hoping to get good weather.  The day we arrived we were greeted with 6 inches of snow the night before and morning of our first full day of hunting.  We decided to cruise the Black Hills and visit Mount Rushmore on our first day but the next 3 days we killed several birds, including a double the next morning, even with 4 inches of snow on the ground.  Turkey Hunting the snow covered Black Hills in May, PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!! 

[Happy hooker]

I live in Minnesota so snow is life April here can snow anytime,,summer here is 90 days of bad skiing.
Depends if it is a humid wet snow not a cold powder,,the humid is just fine,,I know this there's no better time to scout then after a fresh just last nite, this mourning dusting,,because if you see tracks you know their recent.
I love a turkey chair in snow keeps you off the ground.

[deerhunt1988]

One of my most memorable hunts was in 2016 after a snow at a New Mexico National Forest. I took the following picture before I made my first setup of the morning. I was listening to 4-5 gobblers tell the news. It was incredible.





A few hours later I connected, but the snow had already begun to melt.





In 2010 we got several inches of snow the second week of May in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Things were really slow at first, but as soon as the snow started melting the following afternoon, the birds came alive!









In my experience, the birds do tone things down right after the snow. But as soon as it starts melting, you better be in the woods with them!

[sevetts]

It was either 4 or 5 years ago here in southern Missouri so in the spring of 2013 or 2014. I had been out with another friend of mine and stopped by my uncles house late that morning on my way home. When I pulled in he simply said let's go kill a turkey. It was probably 11 when I pulled in his drive and usually I wouldn't have that high of hopes but it was one of those times when I absolutely knew we were going to kill a bird. We headed to the farm and parked like we always did. We made our way across the 120acre field to the logging road between the sinkholes of prolly 200acres of timber. We had done it many many times before but the music we played together that day was the best turkey killing music I have ever heard two people play before and maybe ever will again. We struck 4 birds and that perfect day ended when I watched him shoot a beautiful loud bird left handed at less than five steps. That hunt had nothing to do with snow but a few days later the weather man forecasted a pretty good snow, it was either May 4th or 5th. On that morning I wasn't sure where or what I wanted to do so I decided to go set between the sinkholes and wait out the weather. I pulled into the field and got out of the truck surprised to hear a gobble then two. I got my stuff together as fast as I could and made my way out across the field but 1/4 of the across the field birds were erupting everywhere. In this field there was one BIG pine tree that we had a ladder deer stand in which was appropriately named the pine tree stand. To think that I would ever set there and try and kill a bird in the spring was crazy but that is exactly what I had to do. It is important to note that during all this it was snowing the biggest prettiest snow flakes I have seen in any winter more less may 4th or 5th. I stuck out a decoy and wedged in between the big pine and the ladder of that deer stand and listened to one of the most intense gobbling mornings I have been privileged to be a part of. I hate to say how many birds I think were around me but it was enough that I didn't know which one would come first or which direction to be set up in. Every bird on the farm seemed to be in an unusual spot and every bird wanted to come. The field was not flat, as nothing is flat in southern Missouri but was wide open for a long way and the birds were roosted all around it. As birds got closer I was amazed that somehow I couldn't see the closest one coming, it didn't matter cause every bird that morning was gobbling every 30seconds. I finally saw the neck and red head of a gobbler cutting across toward the creek below me. I had been ready to shoot in self defense for 15min so when I saw that gobblers head I might have been a little trigger happy so without judging or really thinking I shot. I jumped up and got out from under the ladder of that stand and at some point between there and that bird I jammed my gun so bad it could only be used as a hammer. That normally wouldn't be a huge problem except that this bird was running around in about a 6ft circle, he would trip every once in a while and then go back to spinning. As I would get close he would move on and start spinning again. I finally threw down my useless hammer and did my best linebacker tackle on the bird. When I got the bird pinned down I luckily had a decent sized rock within arms reach and you can guess how the bird was finished off. After all this I got a chance to admire my bird just happened to be the best paintbrushed beard I had ever killed on a turkey. I'm not a spur guy but he had a great set that left several marks on me and he weighed 23lbs. When I pulled my decoy I'll never forget brushing off what had to be an 1" of snow off its back. If I think about it I can remember almost all the birds I've killed or been part of killing but that may snow day has got to be one of the top days I've experienced in the turkey woods.


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