Well, we opened this season with rain and wind. The rain wasn't too bad, but the wind pushing in the next cold front was horrendous, blew constantly 20 - 25 mph gusting sometimes to 30+. We saw a couple Jakes out and a hen eating along a trail, but that was it as far as visual goes, but we heard a ton of birds must have been a 1/4 mile or more upwind from us. We didn't succeed this morning but we have till may 5th to bag our birds, just disappointing, HOW WAS EVERYONE ELSE'S OPENING IN Missouri?
I'm in NW AR, and we had beautiful weather here this morning. All I could think about was "wish I was hunting the opener in MO!" Had a great hunt right across the state line during their youth hunt.
Instead I took last Friday off and hunted in western OK. All we did was dodge tornadoes! Best of luck to you. Still got plenty of time.
Saw a bunch of hens and a couple of jakes today. We got all the rain yesterday just 25 mph winds today.
Heard a bird gobble at 6:30 Sat morn.
Sat until 1:45 and not another PEEP!
Was up at 430 but decided with all the wind to wait til tues got back fri from north central kansas 4 of us tagged out
I'm in SW Missouri. Rain was over here Sunday evening. Wind was blowing a bit, but that really doesn't bother me. I didn't hear a gobble from the roost, so sat up over decoys near where I expected the birds to be until 8:30. I heard a bird to my west a few times, even got him to respond to some cutting, but I was relatively sure he was on another property. I finally decided to relocate close to the fenceline, in hopes of calling him across, and while in the process, heard another bird gobble to the east, across the road. He didn't sound that far away, so I decided to check him out instead.
He was just across the road maybe 50 yards, and really hammering on his own. I set up about 50 yards from the road on my side (don't have permission to hunt across the road), and gave some clucks and a yelp. He gobbles. About then, I hear a vehicle coming. First one down the road the entire morning! Guy drives by in a pickup, but he doesn't slow down, so I'm hoping the bird is still in the timber. About a minute goes by, and he gobbles again! Game on!
I do a few clucks on my Perfection glass and get ready. Within 30 seconds I see him cross the road heading right for me. He pops up out of the ditch, steps through the barbed wire fence, and keeps coming. At 23 yards, he stops and looks, and I drop the hammer. He had a 10 1/2 inch main beard, with a couple of strands about 12, 1 3/16 inch spurs, and weighed 23.2 pounds, one of the heavier birds I've killed. Now, I just have to wait until next Monday to do it again!
Congrats on the big bird! I'm planning on hunting McDonald Co this weekend. The property I hunt there can be hit or miss, but it was a big HIT for us during the youth hunt. The landowners son shot a bird that put on quite a show for us, his first longbeard.
Opening day in southern Mo sucked. hunted in Howell county but only heard 3 gobblers, gobbled bout 3 times and thats it. Never seen a hen, nor a gobbler. Listened 2 weeks ago and heard 12-14 different gobblers. Hunted till 1 pm. Nothing. Weather really sucked too, wind was terrible and cold.