For those of you who can... how many of you hunt from Sun up to Sun down? I have done it occasionally but most of my hunts tend to be from sun up to around 2pm
Just trying to figure out if I should stay out there, and if it will be fruitful. I forgot where I read this but I read that Gobblers tend to go into feeding mode in the late afternoon to evening hours and aren't as hot to come into a call.
I imagine some of the traveling Turkey hunters will hunt all day. Because what else is there to do?
Part of why I ask is these late season days in the upper Midwest are getting long and hot!
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I wish it would be a noon cut off nation wide ...
Particularly when I'm on the road, I'm grinding from dark til dark where legal. After 2 is not my best time period but man when you do find one ready to go he is ready. Really hate the noon or 1p cut offs when I'm out of state. Just seems like a waste of time. Locally I don't hate it as much as it forces me to get out of the woods and do other things, but when I'm on a trip to turkey hunt, that's what I want to do.
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Thankfully no noon cut off in my state. I've killed birds right off the roost, and some around mid morning, but my niche is midday gobblers. I'd say about half of the birds I kill are from noon to 2pm. Most people are at the house by then, and if you find one gobbling, chances are he wants to get killed. After 2 I'll take a break... Eat some lunch and have some coffee. Then I'll head back out around 3:30 or 4pm. I typically don't kill in the afternoon, birds around here aren't very vocal in the evenings. It's mostly just sight locating and trying to roost birds. That being said, when I plan on hunting, I'm out there until I kill, or all day. Turkey season is only 30 days for me. I'm gonna soak up every second.
Quote from: Howie g on May 23, 2021, 11:12:13 PM
I wish it would be a noon cut off wide ...
WHY??? As a general rule, most will only hunt for the first 2 to 4 hours while the gobblers are vocal because we can interact with the birds and it peaks our interest. Many will throw in the towel after that and head home for the day. Later in the afternoon, 5 to 6 pm, gobblers will again look for that elusive hen so they will have a mate to roost with. And if we don't score then, we may have a Handle on a prospect for the AM hunt. We aren't disrupting Mother Nature by being in the woods then.
Not all day here... Morning and some around noon or so. It's so hard to be out not hearing anything and think about the long honey do list at home "NOT GETTING DONE" as the wifey would say. I could probably kill one around 10am but I'm usually up against a tree looking at the back of my eyelids!
IMO , you should hunt a couple hours in the am , and if you don't get him . Give him the rest of the day off of being chased . Let em breed , feed un molested.
I hit it hard, only so many days to chase these crazy birds!
I still only hunt till around 2 or so. Gets too hot usually by the time we can hunt all day, and to be honest, i feel it takes away some from the hunting experience for me.
In Tennessee we can hunt all day. Most days i will just take my lunch and hunt till around 3 clock in the afternoon. As you get older it's not so much anymore about the killing of a gobbler, it's just having the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors. Either way, never forget all of gods creations and having the opportunity to kill a gobbler is a blessing within itself..
The states I hunt are all day states. I tend to hunt every day of season. I don't have the energy to hunt sun up to sun down every day for a month and a half. I usually hunt the mornings till about noon, sometimes one, and then I'll go take a nap so I can hunt known roost locations in the evening. I'd rather give up that one to three time frame than I would that three to dark.
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I don't stay past lunch unless I am on a bird. But, if at all possible, I am back out for the last 2+ hours.
Evening hunting can be a lot of fun
I have done the all day thing but as I get older it's harder on the body so not so much these days.
Never had much success mid afternoons and it's often too hot to really enjoy yourself that time of day. Never heard much gobbling during that time frame either.
I like the excitement of the gobbling bird so it's mostly mornings and out around lunch time for me unless I have a player actively in the game.
Only do all days when travelling and even then the middle of the day is often scouting. Looking back at the last 4 seasons I'm 10 AM and 10 PM birds. Morning birds have either been first hour or after 10am, afternoons are after 2pm with most in the last 2hrs.
My home state of Missouri is currently looking at a proposal to allow all day hunting for weeks 2 and 3 next season. I have advocated for all day hunting for years, and now that it may be reality, I really dont have a strong opinion on the issue.
What i have noticed is that the most vehement arguments against all day hunting tends to come from hunters who live in cities or far enough away from their hunting properties that it wouldnt be feasible to hunt after work.
I hunt until i kill one,, especially when i am out of town.. Afternoons can be the early season ticket!
i hit it plenty hard for 4-6 weeks a spring, but have little desire to ever stay out past 1pm. spring is my favorite time in the woods, but i'm in them all year. i try to balance my chances of good hunting with spending time with my wife who has a conflicting work schedule to me. i don't think not seeing here for 2 months straight would go over too well and i would hate it as well
if i'm free for the whole day the ideal scenario would be shoot a bird by mid day then go out and catch trout until dark on dry flies
it's been in the 70s in the morning this week and thats too hot for some of us thick blooded northerners.
was running my lab at the river yesterday and i was absolutely miserable. so humid. got in the car. 71 degrees out lol
If I'm in town, then I'm normally out around noon to tend to family and responsibilities.
If I'm out of town on a hunt, then I'll hunt as much and as long as I can.
Depends on how bad I want to kill a turkey. All day hunting is legal here. I'm prone to quit around 4pm to get some rest for the next day but I've got the ability to hunt a lot of mornings. You can kill them all day so you could be missing out depending on your opportunities to hunt. Late season is usually the toughest for killing birds later in the day and as many mentioned here already, it can be hot. Most times getting one to answer is the hard part, fairly good odds beyond that here in sc in the pm.
It sure is nice for my son and me to head out, as soon as he gets out of school when the weather isn't too hot. We usually don't hunt for the entire day, though.
No birds in the woods after 12p.m. I highly encourage people to wrap up their hunts by 10a.m
It depends on situations and opportunities. I try to make opportunities based on my situation. Most of the birds I harvested this year were taken between 10 and noon. The other 2 were harvested between 4 and 6 in the afternoon. That's pretty sad because I hunted all but maybe 4 or 5 days between the NC and Virginia turkey seasons and I was in the woods by 5 or 5:30 AM at the latest every time I hunted. But you must know that I'm out of the turkey woods by 7:30 on weekdays to make it to work by 8:00 AM. The 3 I harvested by noon were on the weekends and 2 I got in the afternoons were days that I could get off work early. My situation is different than most because I have a lot of property I can hunt within 30 minutes of home or work. Personally I really try hard to make my turkey hunting not affect my family or work, but I have a situation that allows for more opportunities to hunt. So for me, no, I will not stay out all day hunting. I really don't need to.
I think the 4-6pm window is just as productive as the 8-10a window.
Hunt till noon-1. If I am out after that then I am roosting turkeys.
Growing in PA (was a 1 PM stop), on a beautiful spring day, we hunted in the morning Fly fishing in the afternoon. No better way to spend the day.
The few times I hunted out west, with all day hunting, I'm in the woods before 5 hunting till 11 - 12, I'm running and gunning around 8. After 6-7 hrs I'm kinda done. Unless there is some serious action going on. But I'm out roosting them by 4-5, so its a long day.
Well, looks like most guys are pretty much on my schedule of sun up to around 2pm.
I will agree that the 4-6pm window can be good. I've had some birds gobble there heads off around that time period.
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Most stupid law in turkey hunting ever. Let's end all deer hunting at noon too so they can do their thing undisturbed during the rut. Always wanted to hunt Missouri but that is the reason I never will. If I'm traveling that far to kill a turkey, I'm gonna be out daylight till dark period. Works in Florida, works all the way out in the black hills. Why can't it be the same across the board?
Quote from: Wvdanimal on May 27, 2021, 10:14:40 PM
Most stupid law in turkey hunting ever. Let's end all deer hunting at noon too so they can do their thing undisturbed during the rut. Always wanted to hunt Missouri but that is the reason I never will. If I'm traveling that far to kill a turkey, I'm gonna be out daylight till dark period. Works in Florida, works all the way out in the black hills. Why can't it be the same across the board?
Imagine living in a state where you can only hunt turkeys till noon on Saturday, and then you also can't hunt on Sunday!?!