It's that time of year again and I want to start a thread keeping up to date posts on what's going on in my neck of the woods and how my season is going. I have a big season planned as I will be hunting not only my own state of KY, but will also be traveling to Oklahoma to hunt some rios, in which I have never done before.
Today, I "officially" started my turkey scouting and went out to put out my camera and look for turkey sign, and yes, turkeys. I was definitely happy with what I saw. As soon as I got out of the truck there were 32 (give or take) turkeys out in the corn field meddling around. Three of which I could see very good beards swaying from their chest. There was also a white hen i the mix and a few jakes (the best I could tell). I also saw many, many turkey tracks and droppings from the pond and down one of the fence rows separating the two picked corn fields. I put my camera on the fence post that had a lot of turkey tracks and droppings in front in hopes of getting some nice pics of the turkeys as they travel by.
Since I know the turkeys are there, I probably won't check the camera too much, as to not mess with their routine. I can do some far off scouting with the binos, so I'll probably do that later on next week and possibly try to video some.
I am extremely pumped for this upcoming season. April can not get here soon enough. Feel free to post things from your area and we can compare turkey behavior and hopefully help each other out tagging out this Spring!
I hunt property in Brown County which is in SW Ohio. They are still flocked up here with the biggest group around 35-40. The only problem with this is that out of all 35-40 turkeys they are almost all hens with a couple jakes mixed in. I'm hoping the gobblers are wintering on close by property and will start breaking up from groups and some will travel here. I look forward to seeing your updates!
well I took my 4 year old daughter this evening and pulled the camera card. unfortunately no turkey pics, just some deer. Still a ton of tracks in the area so I know they are there. Plus as we were heading back to the truck i happened to notice a turkey silhouetting the horizon. Pulled up the binos and saw it was a big tom. Of course it saw us too and moved off, but it was still pretty cool seeing it standing at the crest of the hill in the skyline. My lil girl could see him with plain eyesight, but she wasn't able to figure out the binos just yet. Anyways, we shifted camera positions to see if we could get some pics the next time.
Im in Ky also, live in Boyle Co. Do most of my hunting in Lincoln and Boyle. Seeing several birds, all are still flocked up that I am seeing. Heard of some people seeing birds strutting though, I have yet to see any strutting. Like you I cant wait for April.
What part of the state you hunting?
checked cam. only pics of turkey were later in evening between 5-6pm.
On the way home, I pass by the field that I will be hunting, so I am always looking for turkeys, and today did not disappoint. The flock of about 40 turkeys wasn't 50 yards from the side of the road, including 4 BIG strutters. Now it's private land, but I don't like a bunch of people being able to drive by on this busy road and see all of these turkeys, as I worry people will start talking and you know what will happen...so I pulled into the gravel lane to kind of shoo the turkeys back over the hill. Gobblers would gobble when I honked the horn....man I am ready. Kentucky opener can not get here soon enough.
Mine reads...have not scouted...ready to hunt.
another camera check...a few turkeys here and there, nothing outstanding. Packing up this weekend. Buddy and I are taking the 13 hour drive early Tuesday morning for Oklahoma. Going to be chasing some Rios. Never hunted rios before so needless to say we are super excited.
went out this morning to listen...temps were in low 30s here in KY. Hens were sounding off pretty good..gobblers gobbled a bit but no too fired up. I figure why do they need to with 30 plus hens roosted with them..The turkeys seemed to either pitch down into the woods they were in or out in the back field, which they did last year a lot. Hopefully they will continue the pattern and in two weeks I will be waiting on them .
Just got back from my first Rio turkey hunt. My cousin-in-law and I went out to Oklahoma with Legend Waterfowl, Whitetails, and Rios for a three day hunt. There is just too much to write about our experience there. Very tough hunting first two days (wind, silent toms, henned up, etc.) but we were finally able to fill both of our two tags and each tagged out the last day. Huge shout out to Troy for helping us tag out.
My two birds:
#1: 8" beard with 3/4" spurs
#2: 9" beard with 1" Spurs
Cousin's Birds
#1: Jake
#2: Big tom with 10" beard and 1 1/4" spurs
Kentucky Season opens this Saturday. After getting those two out in Oklahoma, the fire is burning like crazy to get out in the KY woods!!
Hey, congratulations on the nice birds. Thinking about going out there in two weekends, any tips, scouting reports, etc? Will be close by were you hunted, but just on public.
We hunted hard the first two days, I mean HARD. Day one had 40mph wind gusts so it was hard to tell if a bird was answering any calls and kept the birds down in the "bottoms". Day two was a little less wind (20s mph) but again we had a hard time getting a bird to gobble/work off the roost. Day three (last day) wind was calm and we finally got a bird to work in to our calling. The other three were more of a stalking type situation (fanning). IMO birds were still flocked up/henned up. Get them right off the roost or try to get out in front of the flock. This was our experience anyways. Good luck
Went to check the cam one last time before season opens up this weekend. Like what I saw...first when I drove up to the camera there were about 10 turkey in the field directly behind it, two of which nice long beards. Since they weren't too afraid of the truck, I let them walk out of sight before I got out to pull the cam. A lot of turkeys working passed the cam the last week. Most of them were around noon.
Love it when a plan comes together. Setup blind last night in the dark. Hoped the turkeys would pitch down into field and come into decoys...two big gobblers followed the script. Big boy flew down into field at 712; came into decoy spread with his buddy; he was dead on the ground at 721. Great start to the KY season. Unfortunately, he was facing me when I shot and I shot half of his beard off. ugh.
21.5lbs
10" beard
1 1/8" spurs
Awesome! Congrats man! ;D
Well tried to repeat yesterday and go extremely close. birds were hammering this morning. Old gobbler pitched down in field like they did yesterday and gobbled his head off for 30 minutes along. All in all about 15 turkeys came into field, which included at least three long beards, three or so jakes, and hens..
long story short, ol tom waited for his hen to come to him and they went on their way across the field and out of sight. Had another bird hammering down from me about 500 yards but just wouldn't work in.
I know what to do come next weekend. These birds so far this year are doing the same thing as they did last year, and pitching down into the middle of this field. You think I would have learned by now to move over there, and it in fact crossed my mind this morning. Anyways, Lord willing, I will be setup at their fly down spot next Saturday morning and the ol boy will read the playbook once again. Ugh, 6 more days until I can hunt again.
Been a hard week. Quick update in a nutshell
Last Wednesday: Evening hunt; got in field around 6pm. Thought I might catch them going back to roost. Had one gobbling out across the field where the two property lines meet. While working this bird, I ended up calling in three jakes to the decoy. Finally, temptation gave in and i decided to make my way to the gobbling turkey, but to no avail. Either he saw me or moved on before I got there, but there was no bird in sight and no more gobbling
Last Thursday morning: I setup to catch the turkeys as they flew down from roost at their typical spot. I must have boogered them up from the night before as there were no turkeys roosted in their usual place. Had one gobbling way off on the other property so I moved closer. He gobbled at almost everything I threw his way, but never did come in.. Called in the same group of three jakes. They were gobbling at everything as well.
Saturday Morning: Got setup at flydown spot and it would have worked but no longbeards. Had 6 turkeys fly straight down into my decoy spread; 5 jakes and a hen. Not a single gobble, even off of roost from a bird anywhere...very strange. After the birds moved on i tried for the next two hours to get something gobbling but nothing.
Saturday Afternoon: got to a new property around 2pm. Hunted 2 hours trying to run and gun, but absolutely nothing. Well, did see a hen about 10,000 yards away on another property. Got tired and hot real quick and decided to leave
Sunday Morning: Same flydown spot, this time the birds were gobbling in the trees. Really got my heart racing, but at flydown they flew down into field and were again the jakes. Had two other birds on the other property gobbling a good while but again, when i moved closer and got to where i needed to be, gobbling stopped.
It has been a very strange, hard season so far this year in KY. Really anxious to see harvest results this year. I would bet they are going to be low. A lot of other hunters i know are having same results.
Well got close this morning. Called one in just hammering from off the roost. Came from about 100-200yds away. Got hung up right inside wood line from the field I was setup in. I'm sure the oven wire fence had something to do with it. Never did see the bird but he sure sis have a good gobble he eventually lost interest and moved away. Then the rains came and ended my morning by 8am. Going after him in the am..if he's roosted in same place I'll be setup closer to woods.
Opening day in Ohio at camp had one bird working but could not seal the deal.4 days in Morgan county on reclaimed strip land was a great camping trip to try out a new camper nothing more except did find some morels.Friday was back at camp in Ashtabula Ohio followed by Saturday in our Crawford Pa property. Two nice mornings and nothing.Strange year so far but driving around our block of 650 acres saw 6 Jakes and at least 6 mature birds.taking at break today and at it again tomorrow. can't get enough of this stuff