Scouting reports

[bornagain64]

Very nice, never wasted time when you hunt with your kids. I did some of the same things you do to get my kids to go hunting with me.
We always had lots of snacks and sodas, they would sit on my lap and drive on the dirt roads and we always had to have a BB gun and some
Cans to shoot at. Hearing and seeing game always helps, keep at it.

[turkey harvester]

He'll never forget that trip. Awesome stuff!!!

[turkey harvester]

Nasty weather had them not talking much this weekend. Huck and I managed to spot hop yesterday and finally found one that wanted to gobble. Marked him and left. Went to a spot they always are and no gobbles. Took a walk later that day and found lots of scratching so Id say theyre there, just not talking. Hopefully after this school trip this week I can get my nephew on a bird this weekend for youth season.

[bornagain64]

https://youtu.be/hCxUCni9wjA


This is to funny. I do not poach, but I have been tempted by some of his reason towards the end of the list.

[dzsmith]

I know several of us so far have been blessed to have a decent season, some of our seasons have came and went already. I would like to poll the team on your feelings of your home state and traveled states for this season. You don't have to mention your state if you don't feel like it. I guess I'll start. Yeah... I killed some birds , but I don't feel like this season was up to par. From a gobbling perspective there was some days they gobbled good but I would rank the gobbling consistency from this season below average. I would rank the states I visited the same way. Some places had sign and no gobbling , whether that be pictures , tracks , etc.... Particularly in my home state. One place I hunt where I know there are gobblers .... They just didn't talk. Yet I can get pictures of them almost daily. Now I didn't particularly hunt this property a lot , but I was fascinated to see the hen sign , and gobbler sign..... I ran a camera in an area all year after removing a bird from here just to see what happened for the remainder of the year..... birds came through all the time , but after the first week of April no birds ever strutted in front of the camera ever again while passing by it with or without hens almost daily . I found this bizarre . Could they have simply been "done"'that quickly. The bird I killed there was a huge bird , and he was strutting. I figured if anything perhaps he kept birds shut up .... And there were other gobbling birds early on..... but once I killed him. They went quiet .... The bird I killed didn't gobble , but he did gobble in the mornings some .... So it's odd to me after killing him that birds went quiet and no more strutting. At least the couple of times I went and listened .

[turkey harvester]

It's been plum terrible in my neck of the woods. The birds never really got cranked up. I mean I have a wild hen coming into my yard and my tame turkeys are breeding her. We are at a 24 year low in numbers for Missouri and it shows. Even at my private farms I hunt the birds are either not there or not talking. Not seeing hardly any hens or jakes let alone a gobbling turkey. I hunted 3 times in places I've heard birds in the past and never heard a gobble. logged 19 miles in those 3 hunts to silence. Seems to be just as many residents and non resident hunters out even with the low numbers. I've heard they're spotty and some of my buddies have yet to even get on a workable bird so far this season. I've got the weekend to hunt then its over for me. Absolutely the worst Mo turkey season for my neck of the woods and its not just me that think that. 

[dzsmith]

It's been plum terrible in my neck of the woods. The birds never really got cranked up. I mean I have a wild hen coming into my yard and my tame turkeys are breeding her. We are at a 24 year low in numbers for Missouri and it shows. Even at my private farms I hunt the birds are either not there or not talking. Not seeing hardly any hens or jakes let alone a gobbling turkey. I hunted 3 times in places I've heard birds in the past and never heard a gobble. logged 19 miles in those 3 hunts to silence. Seems to be just as many residents and non resident hunters out even with the low numbers. I've heard they're spotty and some of my buddies have yet to even get on a workable bird so far this season. I've got the weekend to hunt then its over for me. Absolutely the worst Mo turkey season for my neck of the woods and its not just me that think that.

yeah south Missouri has gotten tough. The place I hunt there was tough last year, though I killed one after 4 days . This year I killed rather quickly ... however that was it.... 2 birds on 1200 acres . They gobbled good , but gee whiz man.... 2 birds on 1200 acres surrounded by other large farms in what seems like above average habitat other than somewhat a lack of timber . Yeah buddy there was a lot of hunters .... The place I hunt is absolutely surrounded by Arkansas hunters ... which I'm used to in my home state as well. Last year I killed the only bird I heard or saw that day .... And came back this year not knowing if I would hear or see a bird , and luckily 2 played the game with me .... But had they not been there .... I'd of been out of luck . I will say this . Opening week the woods are still dead , and the second week , the woods are still just as dead . I don't know if yals final week it greens up or not . But I wonder if In this particular area the season is simply too early ??!

[turkey harvester]

It's greened up quite a bit this last week, but we've had 3-5" of rain too. I don't know about being early, last few years they have been tearing it up before youth season. People are finding all kinds of nests, not in our area particularly. Our forestry burned right before season so nesting materials are slim pickins. I truly think the southern part of the state just dont have the turkey numbers our MDC thinks they have.

[dzsmith]

Yeah I would say that's probably right. Simply lacking the numbers. The few times I've been up there I've never seen a bird from the road . Not once. The place I hunt you gotta a long long walk just to get in hearing distance of them .