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Now that the season is over, what are your thoughts on this years season? I think mine would be. I'm 2 for 3 and got shut out in my own back yard. But you know what? I learned a lot, and enjoyed a lot.  I know Tom will be waiting for a re-match next spring. This sequel will be better!

Had a great season!  Got to hunt with family and friends - camped about an hour from the house and left the RV, so I could run over and spend the night before hunting. I killed 4.   Mice that is!  LOL  We ran a trap line and set it each week.

As far as birds, lots of fun and lots of frustration.  Finally called in a bird for my son in law (only his third bird ever).  he had killed one the prior week on his family place, but when this one came in I let him shoot. 

Got my only bird a week later.  I could have tagged out but helping him kill one was a goal and I am happy it went down that way. Followed a gobbler all day on the last Saturday, but just could not close the deal.  It was tiring, fun, frustrating, exciting.  All in all, great season. 

I enjoyed the hunting cabin and just relaxed and hunted ...Seen some pretty sunrises .... Loved using the trumpets for the first time this season....

While I wasn't overly successful in my travels...I had a blast. Saw some absolutely breathtaking areas. Heard tons of birds. Met some amazing people. It was a great 2023 season. Come on 2024.

Very tough, enduring, but successful season. One of my favorites. Where I thought I would be successful, I wasn't, where I didn't think I would be, I was. Weather was cool, but not super wet. A bit windier than usual, but all in all, I am thankful that I enjoyed doing battle with my feathered friends. Amen!

I wasn't very prepared, worked more than I wanted, and hunted less. I was working via cellphone a lot of the time I was hunting. Still managed to have a great year as far as memories and having fun goes. I personally didn't pull the trigger as much as usual, but I got my main goals accomplished. And somehow, every turkey kill that I was involved in was with one of my guns and my ammo. . I gotta rethink my guiding policy now.

My season was Fantastic!  I filled 1 of 2 tags and could have filled the second with opportunities of several jakes and a long shot on a gobbler but held off.  My season was complete when I had the privilege of calling in the first bird for an 81-year-old young man on April 21st.  Wonderful year!  With the number of jakes that we saw this spring, next year should be Great.

I would have had three more birds had I not made silly mistakes.  Mostly moving when I know I shouldn't.  Sigh.

It was a good season nonetheless, but could have resulted in more birds in the truck if I'd not made dumb mistakes.

One of my best years ever


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I was fortunate enough to tag out and got my first bow bird. Hate that it's over but knowing that deer season is creeping up slowly makes me happy.

Great season for me. Filled my tags and most of my buddy's got birds as well. There were lots of 2 year olds this year and the weather was good through most of the season so that made for a near record year in KY. I would say as far as numbers the areas I hunt that have been seeing a decrease in population were the same or maybe slightly better this year and the areas that have been good remained good with strong numbers of birds. I didn't see a lot of jakes this year but that doesn't mean they weren't around. The true test for me is what I see in the fall seasons . That's when I'll get a better idea of what we're going to be working with for the following spring. Overall I'm just blessed to have gotten to chase turkeys again.

Slow start to it. Lots of snow and cold weather kinda hindered it for me. Did kill a gobbler in the snow with my bow so that was a first for me. Got the in laws on birds too and killed a few studs.
Got my own farm now and am currently putting food plots for the deer with the hopes the turkeys start using them next year!

I had a very good time!!

I knew I was not going to hunt as much as normal, so was surprised to tag out quickly.

I had an unusually good season.  Less birds than average, but every bird I ran into came into range.  Could not hunt early due to family obligations, but had very good experiences in the field this season!

GREAT season.........albeit, too short.

Passed a thin 9"-ish beard bird the first day.
Killed a good 4 year bird on the 4th day
Doubled on 3 year birds the 6th day with my cousin
Called in a young man's first bird ever a couple days later.

Wanted to hit a couple other states this spring.  But the runaround my union was/is giving me as I try to retire prevented me from going anywhere.  With some luck..... I should be FINALLY retired in 7 or 8 days.  So, NEXT year.............

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

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... ;D )

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!"   ::)

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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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.

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!

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!


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 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

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

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!


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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.

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

Enjoying everyone's posts. Was blessed to be able to go again. Typical season in that I made some great memories and made some green horn mistakes, lol. Managed to tag out, called in 2 for my 15 year old son, who tagged out and called in another good tom for a friend of mine who took him home with him. Still reminding myself, stop trying to move 50 more yards, I always get burnt lol. Set still another extra hour or two if they gobble good right after they come off of roost, they will show up at your location as soon as hens break off, got burnt on that one too this year. It's definitely a challenge, that's what makes it absolutely great!! Thank the Lord above for giving us this great opportunity to enjoy His creation. Looking forward to trying fall season again with my new Mossberg 935 pistol grip!!!!! OOOOOHHHH YYYYEEEESSSSSS!

Short but awesome season for me, first time I didn't travel out of state to turkey hunt after 10 years in a row. Managed to fill both of my tags on mature toms in NY with a longbow, despite having only 12 days to hunt before heading to Alaska for work. Filled the first one opening morning, May 1st,v after a rain delay. Second one was on May 9th which is my birthday, finally got a tom for a present.

Nice recaps everyone.

I made some of mistakes in 2023, ones that I recognize, learned from and will endeavor not to repeat in 2024.

I figure if I live to 100 I might get to be a real good turkey hunter. :toothy9: