Thoughts on 2023 season

[quavers59]

   Very Tough and enjoyable.  Called in 2 Gobblers for a friend and took 1 Bird myself.  Got to enjoy 30 hunting days!

[GobbleNut]

As far as my 2023 season went, it was successful in that I tagged a couple of gobblers and should have added another one or two with a bit more diligence and attentiveness of my part.  More importantly, I had fun hunting with friends, hunted as much as i wanted to, and came through it all safely and in good health.  I am at the age where I just thank my lucky stars that I still have the physical and mental "acuity" to do this (I will anxiously await the sure-to-come comments about my "mental acuity" from the OG peanut gallery... )

I have mentioned this before on a couple of other threads, but I will state this observation again.  It also does not apply just to this spring, but is a phenomenon I have been witnessing happening over the last decade or more.  It just seems to have reached "the boiling point" in the places I have hunted,...which are almost entirely large areas of public lands with private holdings interspersed throughout. 

What I am increasingly seeing are more hunters and fewer gobblers on the public ground.  Conversely, more people are buying up subdivided properties on what were once sparsely-populated in-holdings that were homesteads, family farms, ranches, or similar.  Many of those new folks are doing things to attract wildlife to their properties for wildlife viewing or for hunting-related purposes, which exacerbates the public-land problem by pulling wildlife off of public land that they would otherwise stay on and holding them on or very near the private stuff. 

This is not an isolated problem as I have seen the same thing happening in pretty much every state (mostly western states with large tracts of public lands fitting the above description) that I have hunted.  Simply stated, it is becoming an extremely frustrating issue for us folks that are not used to having to deal with hunting under these new conditions where we are regularly having to entice human-conditioned birds off of the private holdings, and often having to hunt much closer to inhabited dwellings than some of us would like to do.

I can't tell you how many times we have been hunting somewhere (numerous places) where we have interacted with local folks that have asked us what we were doing in that part of the country.  When we tell them we are turkey hunting, the inevitable reply is,..."Oh, you're turkey hunting?  We have them in our yard every day!"   

[Beardedbird]

It was really a great season. Made great memories, seen beautiful country and as a bonus I filled my tags. I don't take any of it for granted and thank God for every day I get to go.

[Wvgobbler]

Very good year had a lot of fun especially with my 11 year old daughter. Called in several for me and her and we managed to tag out in 3 states together.

[Haggstromjohnd]

Got three mornings in woods, away from city, no diapers to change, no birds but learned a lot

[Sir-diealot]

Not having a vehicle the first two weeks of the season was a major drag, I really wonder on how much I lost out on.

That said when I did get out there I really did enjoy myself, I only had 3 days where I did not see anything and saw a stud of a turkey on two separate occasions. I hope that stud is there next year, if not I saw what could well have been 3 of his sons running together and if genetics is anything I have a lot to look forward to next year.

The one thing that was odd to me is I only had one deer come anywhere near me and it busted me in quick order, in the past they would be right up on me almost every other season.

As far as gobbling goes there was a lot on the tree but not much once they were on the ground for me but I did miss those first two weeks so who really knows.

I also got a few nice pictures and could have taken birds but chose not to.

Thanking God for another season I was able to be out there.

[Cowboy]

Any time turkey hunting is a good season to me. Made my first western trip. Saw alot of beautiful country. Spent a week with my brother on this trip. First morning there, we called in a Merriam's right off the roost. He tagged out. I battled a couple days with another gobbler we had located. He liked to talk alot but was a runner.  He would fly down and flat leave the country. Left him for seed. I did kill a gobbler at home and called in for my wife. Her 2nd gobbler ever. Had 6 different longbeards in front of the kids during youth season.  Little mistakes kept them from tagging out. Wonderful Spring for us.

Sent from my SM-G990U2 using Tapatalk

[deerhunt1988]

Pretty good.

Got to see the crap show that was opening weekend on Hawaii public land. Slept at a spot to beat several other hunters there to get a Hawaii bird.

Got to hunt with over a dozen other hunters on opening morning on some California public land that totaled less than 700 acres. We had the roosted gobblers completely surrounded and they literally hardly had any safe place to fly down to. 2 or 3 of the 5 gobblers got killed. One of the most dangerous situations i've been in turkey hunting. Hunters walking by me and my partner while we were set up <100 yards from the gobblers in the dark. Even got to make someone's YouTube video after my buddy got one of the gobblers!

Rolled into Nevada and did quick work. Several disappointed hunters before us on that place though. Definitely lucked up there.

Most mid-week pressure I've ever saw on Alabama public. I'm fortunate to be able to hunt before work some mornings but I don't think any other turkey hunters around that place work anymore.

Slept on a bird in Arkansas for the opener and watched him get by me at about 60 yards. Just to get shot by another hunter much closer to where I parked. In his defense, I don't think he knew I was there. I walked out to the hunter's truck and was waiting to congratulate him and hear the story when another bird fired off. Miraculously I was able to seal the deal on that bird.

Hit up a new state to the east. First spot I picked had birds but everyone around was hunting them. Moved areas and had a fantastic hunt.

Really good end to the season in another region. Public pressure was worse than expected, but the birds were there and gobbling throughout the day.


In summary: Great season with plenty of frustration. Public land hunting quality continues to degrade at an alarming rate. And I figure more loss of public land hunting opportunities will follow. That concerns me much more than the amount of turkey I kill.

[jordanz7935]

Best season ever!! My 12 y o daughter got her first gobbler with me on the youth hunt. Best hunt of my life and biggest turkey I've seen, 25+lbs 1&1/2 spurs. Beginners luck! She got the ball rolling for the season that's for sure. There really was a lot of jakes and there antics to deal with this yr! Not many easy ones this year, 90% were classic chess matches, make you pull your hair out but super rewarding!  That said guiding went great and I tagged out In 4 states.... hard to beleive its over already! Normally, I have the"post turkey season blues", but a couple of June longbeards solved that problem for me! Counting down the days to do it all over again!

[MS TurkeyHunter]

Not bad at all but i would have enjoyed to hunt a little more as I'm sure we all do. I would rate my season as okey but not bad by any means. One thing for sure there is no shortage of people turkey hunting! I travel a good bit and pressure was high in almost every place I hunted. Frustrating but overall I enjoyed myself. Looking forward to next year more then ever!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[WV Flopper]

 Good season. Had plenty of time to hunt but did miss one travel spot at the end. That was due to a work day and loss of motivation on my part.

Seen less hunters, heard less or the same amount of birds but seen far less Jake's than last year. Seen way more grouped up two year olds than last year, which seen none.

Overall it was a good season. I do have concern of one of the areas I hunt, heard way less but plenty of sign. Time will tell

[zelmo1]

Good year, got a young lady her first Tom/ turkey and taught her and her dad the basic game and watched them grow as hunters. Tagged out with the wife using our OG pushpins and that was cool. I finally got my OG pushpin and I am a happy man. I did notice a ton of jakes around this year and a lot being checked in as well. Hens seemed scarce and not many poults sighted so far but I am hopeful. All tolled, it was a good year, the good lord let me survive one more season. Now is my 9.5 month wait till I get to play again, but that's a good thing. I usually have to wait 11 months, lol. Good luck and god bless. Z

[Dtrkyman]

Roller coaster for me, made the perfect decision or completely blew it.

Covered a ton of miles on foot and in the vehicle, shared camp with great friends and tagged my share of birds, I missed two which is insane for me, I haven't ever missed two in a season and only a few in 25 plus years!

Second year in a row running into completely ignorant "hunters" seems to be getting common, I can deal with the extra pressure in recent years but too many guys with zero regard for others!

Can't wait to do it again!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Spurs]

Mine was tough, but I added 2 states to my roster...NY and VA.  I travel for work and am currently working in New England.  I work 6 days a week, so I was pretty much restricted to 1 hour in the morning, afternoons, and Sunday.  Anyone from this area understands that is a big restriction due to regulations up here. 

I took 3 toms this year and missed 1.  That miss was a tough pill to swallow as it was in New Jersey...which would have been a new state for me.  It was also the first miss for me in 8 years.  It really took some wind out of my sails for a couple days and I likely would have filled that tag had I gotten over it sooner. 

The highlight of the season was the getting my youngest boy up here at the tail end of the PA season.  I was able to take off work and got him his first out of state bird in PA. 

All in all, it was a great season and I am already making plans for next year.

[eggshell]

All seasons are good. this one was tougher than most and my season was compromised by some health issues. I just couldn't go like I would normally do. That is changing as I spent the last two weeks getting the issue identified and rectified. Just had a heart cath this week and ready to rehab and be back on track. Kentucky was a bust for me again, but mainly because I couldn't go after many birds. My buddies done fine as I sat and listened to them kill birds I couldn't get to. At home I killed one nice gobbler and saw a lot of jakes which is good news