After reading crow's post about calling Spring gobblers in the 1800s, it made me contemplate the most birds I've ever heard gobbling at one time from their morning roost when I was hunting. My answer is 6 or maybe 7 birds in April 2006 at my old lease in Granville County, N.C.. Now, I don't have access to huge tracts of land, nor an over-abundant population of turkeys any place I hunt. To hear 6-7 different birds gobbling around here from one piece of property is pretty spectacular, especially when you consider that my lease was just under 400 acres. My best friend and I lowered the population there by two that day. Some of the land surrounding that property was difficult to access didn't get turkey hunted, so that made the lease hunt bigger than it actually was, more like ~800 acres.
So how about you? What's the most gobblers you've heard from one place and where were you hunting?
Jim
38 on Good Friday 1999. That was the glory days of turkey hunting here. It was like a wave that started to our east and just came up the river.
Southern Missouri Ozarks in 1993. Haven't heard anything like it since then, not even in areas of Texas or Oklahoma that are loaded with loud mouth Rios. I miss hunting Missouri in the 90's.
For me it was opening morning this year in middle Tennessee, eight of them.
10-12, Laurens county Georgia. Guessing mid to late 90's. And in Martin county KY, also 10-12 two years ago. But good luck getting to them though.
I would say 10 to 12 most mornings in western N.C. we killed 7 nice birds off of 40 acres and left at least 4 this year
7 with earshot on morning in Wv bout 5 years ago. Typically I am thankful to hear two in one morning from the roost.
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Used to hear 10 to 12 on average in the 90's. And that was multiple places, standing in one spot. Now it's about half that, in the Laurel highlands. Pa
More than I could count. But my estimate is between 35 and 45............ Braxton County, WV in the early or mid 1990's. It was NUTS !!!!!!!
20-30 on two different occasions ,this year in KY. and My first trip to Kansas 10 Years ago .
The trip to KS ruined me when the birds started flydown it looked like it was raining Turkeys and
this went on for bout 5 min. and I have went back bout every year since .
I got in on these birds early and set a Jake and a hen Deke out ,they started with a few spread out gobbles and just before
it got light enough for silhouettes to show it came a thunder storm and I never heard anything like it before or since.
They would start with the birds right over me and I could hear the Gobbles travel down the creek from bird to bird as far as I could hear. From fly down to tag out was about 5 mins. I still get cold chills from it, even as I write this.
To top it all off I'm walking back to my truck with a Gobbler over either shoulder and look up to see a double rainbow..
30+ along a river near Abilene, TX
On numerous occasions I have heard 20+ birds in western MD.
I would say at least 25 or more in a 1/2 mile radius in a certain Orange County,NY area.
Had permission on a farm I called mile creek. It was nothing to hear at least 10-15 birds there in the mornings. Just little fingers of timber coming up out of a creek bottom with a couple little inner fields. It was perfect to get in to. After a few years of hunting it, farmer went in and had the little fingers all bulldozed and it all became two big fields on either side of the creek. Lucky to hear 2 or 3 there after that and getting within a 1/4 mile on them is nearly impossible. The place went from being at the top of my list to not hunting it again.
I have no way of keeping track for sure how many but I would say around 30 birds I could hear from 1 listening position in the late 80's in southern Iowa.I don't go there much anymore but the last few years I hunted there I didn't hear hardly any gobbling.I think numbers were down and it gets a lot of hunting pressure.I have also heard a lot of people accusing bobcats for the decline of turkey talk.Any of you southern guys with big bobcat populations notice this?
20+ on some mornings along the upper reaches of the potomac river. This is from high ground where you can hear for miles.
The most I've ever seen and heard was in Northeast kansas on a bow hunt In mid november.... I was hunting a nice ridge along the only creek for miles. It separated two 50 acre picked corn fields. The creek had huge sycamore trees and at gray light I could see the trees were full of turkeys. They gobbled like it was late April on the roost and flew down and strutted and fought and chased each other all day. One field had 107 birds in it the other 112. AT least half were longbeards and they gobbled all day then flew back up and gobbled till after dark. THIS was November 19.... I could not imagine that place in the spring. THE guy I was hunting with did not like deer hunting there because the turkeys always made such a racket. What a great day in the woods.
It's common for Ohio around mid march (well before season) to hear 10-15 from one listening spot
Out west. To many to count
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Wyoming and Nebraska 2007-2009 for Merriams and Rios. It was nothing to hear 25+ on the roost.
I've had the privilege of hunting some phenomenal dirt for easterns where the best mornings of the season could yield 25-30 birds gobbling within ear shot on the roost.
Hard to say for sure because of their tendency to gobble over the top of each other, but I would guesstimate 15 to 20. Years ago, I went to a group of roosted gobblers thinking there were eight or ten of them together and when they showed up, there were sixteen. Another time, I thought there were six or eight, and when they showed up, there were eleven.
Just really hard to say for sure when there are large numbers roosted in the same area, but I do know that those situations will get you pumped up about the prospects while you are sitting there waiting!
12-15 near Mt. Ida, Arkansas in 2005
20+ along the North Platte river in Nebraska in 2013. That river bottom has turkeys along it for as long as you can see it from I-80.....not to mention giant deer and elk.
I would guess over a dozen in Eastern Kentucky. If you get up high you can hear birds for miles.
16 on a lease in south Carolina in 1996,the next year it was clearcut.Hasn't been the same since.
Awesome same here. Live in South West Missouri. Probably 15+
Quote from: J-Shaped on June 25, 2017, 11:06:59 AM
Southern Missouri Ozarks in 1993. Haven't heard anything like it since then, not even in areas of Texas or Oklahoma that are loaded with loud mouth Rios. I miss hunting Missouri in the 90's.
I've heard what sounded like at least a couple of dozen in western OK before.
I've stood in one spot on my leased hunting property and heard 13 different birds before. Sure wasn't like that this season tho!
20+ in western Oklahoma.
about 8-10, in Pa.
Double digits on IN state forest land back in the late 90's. It was loaded and you had to decide which bird to hunt. Now hear 2-4 on most good mornings.
First time I ever heard a ridiculous amount of birds gobbling was in 1998 in Bates County, Missouri. I was fresh out of Louisiana and my brother had come up to hunt with me. I had been doing a lot of preseason scouting and was prepared for what daylight would bring. My brother was not. We heard about 20 birds that morning within 300 yards. I thought he was going to hyperventilate before fly down time. We both walked out with birds hung over our shoulder.
Other time was about four years ago youth hunting with my kids in Kansas.....couldn't count them all, but it was upwards of 30 birds.
Hard to count once you get over 10 birds going but I know this year in NE I know the first morning we had 16 round fans and uncountable numbers of jakes and they gobbled a ton on the roost, 2 years ago opening day in Greene Ny I had 12 longbeards and 21 jakes in a single flock.. In the fall I've actually heard even more when they get into flocks of 150-200 birds there can be a ton of gobbling even into November on a nice morning its almost hard to hunt deer when the mountain is that noisy.
16 birds in avery co nc in the late 90s. funny thing was that same season, I never heard more than 2 there before or after that particular morning.
Quote from: deerhunt1988 on June 25, 2017, 12:20:50 PM
30+ along a river near Abilene, TX
Clear Fork of the Brazos???
8 for sure different birds on a private lease in N FL in the early 2000s. Probably at least a couple of them were pairs, but were for sure 8 different distances and/or directions. Some were in the river swamp and some were in the pine woods.
Its not uncommon to go out to a spot and listen in the morning and hear 10 within ear shot. One morning I heard 3 in the same tree, I know cause I was there when they all 3 flew down.
Quote from: J.D. Shellnut on June 26, 2017, 01:23:23 PM
Quote from: deerhunt1988 on June 25, 2017, 12:20:50 PM
30+ along a river near Abilene, TX
Clear Fork of the Brazos???
Couldn't remember and just looked it up. That'd be it! This was back in 2006. Heard they had a sharp decline shortly thereafter.
I have no idea how many there were, but a couple of times an entire river bottom in Missouri would rattle for as far as I could hear back in the late '80s / early '90s.
I have hunted South Mississippi all my life but in 1996 in the MO Ozarks the morning before the season opened I heard more turkeys gobble than I thought were in the world!! Since then I've made many out of state hunting trips and heard a bunch but I'll never forget that morning. I've killed a bunch of turkeys but that morning just listening was special and is forever etched in my memory.
Quote from: deerhunt1988 on June 26, 2017, 03:58:53 PM
Quote from: J.D. Shellnut on June 26, 2017, 01:23:23 PM
Quote from: deerhunt1988 on June 25, 2017, 12:20:50 PM
30+ along a river near Abilene, TX
Clear Fork of the Brazos???
Couldn't remember and just looked it up. That'd be it! This was back in 2006. Heard they had a sharp decline shortly thereafter.
I never saw it personally. But when buddy first got on a lease out there he said it was crazy how many birds were there. I went in 2012 and didn't see a track. But I did killed a few from there this year. So maybe they are making a come back.
Bunch more than you could have counted. They were as far to the left and as far to the right as you could hear. Heard them like this for years but this past year somthing has happened. Only heard or seem 38 toms and 62 hens in 4 days of survey. Its a shame.
Probably the first year I started turkey hunting in Missouri. 2002, freshman in highschool. Our 400 acre farm, all timber, was absolutely infested with gobblers. Wouldn't be anything to hear 20 different birds on a good morning. It stayed that way for a few years and then took a sharp decline. Got really tough for about 5 years and then has gotten pretty good the last 5 years. on a good morning currenty, i hear 5-6 birds on the roost.
Too many to count. Probably around 40-50. Several years ago in junction tx.
2015 Missouri opener I heard either 21 or 22.
Back around 2000 I am sure I heard that many or more in SE Oklahoma but those days are past.
This guy made the Missouri woods one gobbler short that morning.
Using the same roost I'd say at least 8 and maybe more. It's still my favorite spot to hunt but I don't hit it much any more. I ain't gonna say where it's at! :goofball:
By the way, it's Public ground but kinda hard to get to.