well, another WV deer season has come and gone for me as of Tuesday the 31st. I was very blessed with another good year and another taxidermist bill. I have traps set and some inside "honey do" things but I just can't get gobbler season off my mind. Ours starts April 21st so I have that LONG wait ahead so, in honor of the upcoming season I just bought another 20ga turkey gun to tinker with. The traps, honey-dos, a new gun, grandkids and whatever else pops up will help with the wait so my question is....what do y'all do to pass the time waiting on gobbler season.
Work.......for now.
I'm set to retire this summer with a good amount of time off to hunt turkeys this spring in multiple states.
Enjoyed my deer season also. I spend time scouting new stand spots for deer, setting them up this winter in the off season. Snow tracks, this years rubs give me clues here. I'm always tinkering with my deer and turkey guns, getting ready for this spring. Taking a few vacations with my honey, then I'll start turkey scouting. Plenty to do for sure....
I waterfowl hunt ..
Then crappie fish ....
And I'm always looking for turkeys..
I do snowshoe hare hunting during winter... But I'll mostly work, do side jobs if possible, do a few things on the list here and there... And keep an eye open for turkeys until opening day!
Just finished a great deer season myself and now it's back to getting ready for spring turkey season. I play calls year round, so I will continue to enjoy those and probably buy a few more new calls.
Also I plan on doing some more frost seeding of clover in the next couple of months ...
Also spend time with my friends on Old Gobbler chatting ...
Quote from: YoungGobbler on January 02, 2025, 06:57:45 PMI do snowshoe hare hunting during winter... But I'll mostly work, do side jobs if possible, do a few things on the list here and there... And keep an eye open for turkeys until opening day!
Young gobbler idk why but I assumed you were from more southerly states. Do you travel or live with the hares?
Idk as I age none of it seems long anymore. To me it's all a lifestyle and all I know. That and the fact libs are strange to be polite.
I like the "off" season. Our deer season ended Jan 1. I was mentally done in Nov after I'd shot enough deer for the freezer.
Got a new turkey gun again, ordering parts now, making mouth calls, got another bird dog pup I'm working, running rabbit dogs, about to start ice fishing, etc it never ends.
I like the scouting, patterning, videoing before season. Getting ready for youth day and early season. All an enjoyable part of the processes to me.
Trapping right now. Probably start filling my 3 doe tags tomorrow with my flintlock.
Our season doesn't come in til May 3rd. :angry9: But, I think there's an Osceola trip in the works around the 3rd week of March.
Retirement is nice. I fill my time with WHATEVER I WANT. ;D
Quote from: Yoder409 on January 03, 2025, 08:37:56 AMRetirement is nice. I fill my time with WHATEVER I WANT. ;D
:D Yep, but there are unforeseen drawbacks. For me, at least, I was expecting to spend a lot more time doing outdoorsy stuff...hunting, fishing, camping, etc....but as I have begun to "age out", I find that my mentality on all of it is changing, not to mention the obvious physical changes that occur over time.
Mentally, I just don't have the same drive to succeed that I did up until my mid-sixties. I find myself just being more content to be "out there" rather than pushing myself to kill a gobbler, buck, or whatever. Up until those mid-sixties, there was no debate about whether I was going to climb that mountain or walk those few extra miles to get to where I needed to be. That debate occurs on a regular basis now.
...Not to mention the physical "deterioration" that has taken place over the last several years. The old body really started going downhill about the same time. Now, don't get me wrong. I am not decrepit in any sense of the word...just ain't the same as just a few years ago.
In summary, getting old (which generally comes right alongside of retirement for most of us, I think) is a real "bee-ach". The end result of that is that I actually do about the same amount of the outdoorsy stuff I did during my working years. ...But At least I do it on my own terms nowadays. ;D
I'm going to be frying bacon unless I cut the end off another finger.
Quote from: Gooserbat on January 03, 2025, 09:29:19 AMI'm going to be frying bacon unless I cut the end off another finger.
Been there, done that...more than once. It hurts. Hope it was only the tip...
You do that making turkey calls? ;D
Quote from: Bowguy on January 03, 2025, 02:52:35 AMQuote from: YoungGobbler on January 02, 2025, 06:57:45 PMI do snowshoe hare hunting during winter... But I'll mostly work, do side jobs if possible, do a few things on the list here and there... And keep an eye open for turkeys until opening day!
Young gobbler idk why but I assumed you were from more southerly states. Do you travel or live with the hares?
That's funny 'cause it's quite the opposite actually! I live in Canada. Here it's not rabbit, it's hare. I hunt them on snow...
Quote from: YoungGobbler on January 03, 2025, 10:52:29 AMQuote from: Bowguy on January 03, 2025, 02:52:35 AMQuote from: YoungGobbler on January 02, 2025, 06:57:45 PMI do snowshoe hare hunting during winter... But I'll mostly work, do side jobs if possible, do a few things on the list here and there... And keep an eye open for turkeys until opening day!
Young gobbler idk why but I assumed you were from more southerly states. Do you travel or live with the hares?
That's funny 'cause it's quite the opposite actually! I live in Canada. Here it's not rabbit, it's hare. I hunt them on snow...
I know the differences. We are about the start of hare range.
You run em w dogs?
I am constantly busy trying to be unbusy during turkey season.
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Little different this fall for me. I went bow hunting "Xbow" for the first time in 15 years. Not the way I used to do it but I did enjoy it. Was hunting a bait legal county and put out a ton of corn. The turkeys grew fatter by the week! Fun to watch. Managed to shoot a deer and was happy with that. After that, I really wasn't worried about shooting another but still do kind of want one for jerky.
Actually went today to get a new 20g. Store didn't have the gun I wanted, so I dropped some money and will go back next week to pick it up.
Then I will get a new choke, FF3 and run some shells through it. See if it will shoot with the M2. Doesn't have to do better but would like it to be close to the M2 pattern.
Would like to try some straight #9 loads in the 20 to see how they compare to the 8X9 blend I shoot now. The blend has always shot well, just seems like a time to try the #9's straight.
Squirrel and rabbit hunt when i can. Work a lot more overtime this time of year and plan my spring. I spend a lot more time on onX this time of year to have plenty of options for each state when spring finally does get here. This is the worst time of year for me besides June... the itch has completely set in.
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I filled my 3 tags in the spring with 1 double beard, one smoke gray and one normal. Filled my deer tag in October on a 3 mile hike in and after a perfect double lung shot, it ran over to cliff and leaped off just to make me work harder. Fall turkey season started September 1st and is still going on until the end of this month. I took 2 gobblers both smoke gray during this fall season. Upland bird season ends at the end of the month as well and I have gotten something every time I went out. I welcome the rest I receive between January 31st and April 15th.
I am in the growing older and adjusting my outdoor efforts group as well. It all came to a realization spring before last when I was hunting with a buddy in the steep hills of Ky and a bird was hammering across a deep valley. I dreaded the idea of slipping down that slope and then climbing up the other side and then having to come back. So I looked at my younger muscled up buddy and said, "Go get em him and bring him back to show me, I will wait right here". He did and I sat on a log and listened to the hunt, and was just fine with that.
I make Maple syrup, so that season is just starting and will keep me busy until March, then Saugeye (hybrid walleye) will start the prespawn bite and I will be on the stream banks almost every day and through mid summer. Fishing slows up in August but then picks up in September and I fish until Christmas. Fishing is way less strenuous. Also, the boss and I will be prepping our extension gardens and planting early crops. There's no idle waiting in my life.
Quote from: Dougas on January 04, 2025, 08:12:26 PMI filled my 3 tags in the spring with 1 double beard, one smoke gray and one normal. Filled my deer tag in October on a 3 mile hike in and after a perfect double lung shot, it ran over to cliff and leaped off just to make me work harder. Fall turkey season started September 1st and is still going on until the end of this month. I took 2 gobblers both smoke gray during this fall season. Upland bird season ends at the end of the month as well and I have gotten something every time I went out. I welcome the rest I receive between January 31st and April 15th.
Looks like a good season
Hunt-fish-fish-hunt, make duck decoys, travel and projects around the house in the first year of retirement so far.
Still finishing up duck and deer season. Then, I spend a little between season time with mama so I am not in the dog house when turkey season starts.
Squirrel mainly. Fish for steelhead (love that). Sidelined with a back issue right now but do like to get outside. Squirrel hunting is just an exercise.
Used to hunt quail, crane, geese, and ducks this time of year. Quail numbers are down so we're not shooting what is left. Crane hunting is by draw and we can't seem to draw a permit for those anymore. No water left in this country for duck hunting, and geese are either short-stopping way north of here or flying south into Mexico. There is a little water left in the Rio Grande River in places that hold waterfowl, but in this area almost all of it has been closed to hunting in the last ten years.
So...We are now waiting until February for javelina season to open up...will pass the time with that until (hopefully) the last of March when the REAL hunting starts (spring gobbler)! :D ;D
Bass & Crappie fish and tinker on my classic car in the shop
Absolutely wore out the speckled trout here in north Florida today. Was a balmy 29 when we got out of the truck this morning, but warmed up during the day. Took us a while to find them, but once we did it was steady action for 2 solid hours. Had to leave them biting to head home. Hope to get on them again before turkey season heats up.
I start planning for the next turkey season the day after I quit turkey hunting, so I've been waiting since the end of May. Deer hunting doesn't cut it for me. So, I study maps, book trips, put in for tags, study maps, book cabins, rooms, etc, study maps, read state rules and regs, study maps, but out of state licenses when they become available, buy new calls and merchandise, check to make sure my guns are sighted in and last but not least, study maps.
Quote from: g8rvet on January 08, 2025, 09:52:04 PMAbsolutely wore out the speckled trout here in north Florida today. Was a balmy 29 when we got out of the truck this morning, but warmed up during the day. Took us a while to find them, but once we did it was steady action for 2 solid hours. Had to leave them biting to head home. Hope to get on them again before turkey season heats up.
Oh man!!! Ain't a lot that compares to speckled trout for eating. Love catching them. Other fish I like to catch and eat, white perch, Sac-a-lait, well that's what my Daddy called them! Other folks call them Crappie, White Crappie, Black Crappie.
This is the 1st year of my life that I have not loaded my deer rifle(s). I just Ain't had time. I have been taking care of my father in law, he's 82, Decorated Vietnam Veteran. He was also a Dairy Farmer for 65 plus years. He fell in July and we almost lost him a couple times. He was in the hospital for 3 months and nursing home for a month. I had to get him away from there and brought him home. He can hardly walk and has fell A LOT. So I have to get him up and back in his chair or bed. Oh and he weighs 330 pounds. My mother in law same age weighs 90 pounds soaking wet, and she still Dairies every day (2×). Thankfully she has never been sick and don't take no medicine. He also has horses and wagon mules that I take care of for him every day. I know each day I walk into his house he says "I been thinking " I know that I better get my work gloves out!!!! But he always says I hate for you to do it , I just tell him I got it. He told me I don't know why you're doing all this, and I just tell him Hey Hoss I married your Daughter!!!
BUT our deer don't end until end of January so there's still a chance i will be able to go.
I read everything I can find regarding turkey and turkey hunting.
Have a good one and May God bless y'all, Bo
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