Your opinion of this years season

[bigbird]

  One of the better years we've had! Went five times, killed four toms the other was a miss! Always heard plenty of gobbling and never had to much bad weather. Of the birds mine was the biggest @ 26lb with 1 3/4 spurs the others had inch spurs (2) 23 lb other 24lb! Won't hear us complaining in the Hoosier state!

[chcltlabz]

Best year yet for me here in the Mid Atlantic.  Had responsive gobblers from 18 April opener till I ran out of tags.  Killed 6 myself, called in another 6 for friends, and way too many misses.  Bud of mine had a gun problem and missed 3 birds in one day.

I wish they were all this good.

[GobbleNut]

Toughest year I have seen in these parts (NM) for many years,...mostly caused by a lack of two-year-old gobblers, I believe.  The smart, older birds didn't need to gobble as much because they were not competing with the two-year-olds for attention.  Plus, there were plenty of hens for fewer gobblers.  All told, it resulted in tough hunting through the entire season. 
...Good thing there were lots of jakes running around this spring.  Next year should be better!

[njdevilsb]

Tough year for us in NY.  We heard gobbling every time we went out but they were henned up and usually shut up not long after they hit the ground.  I ended up filling both of my tags with 2 longbeards, one on opening day and one 25 days later, but we worked hard for them.  My dad missed one and got a jake early in the season.  Between 3 pieces of property, there were probably 6 or 8 birds that we saw that either wouldn't come any closer or wouldn't even give us a courtesy gobble since they had all the hens they needed.

All in all I had a lot of fun chasing them.  The way they were this year gave us more time in the woods and made the one I got near the end of the season even more rewarding.

[longspur]

It was one of my better years. Only got one two yo but had somej other opportunities that I blew. I enjoy those just as much,(after a couple days of mourning). Had a blast. Can't wait till next time.

[ILHUNTER]

It was a tough year here in Illinois.  I blame it on the cool wet spring had.  Most of the times they would gobble on roost and then shut up when they hit the ground, I think they were henned up most of the time.  If you weren't where they wanted to go they werent going to come to your calling.

[RutnNStrutn]

Hmm, interesting. I intentionally waited before I replied.
I already knew, based on what I've seen on forums, as well as talking to other turkey hunters, that where I hunted this spring, it was an off year. I know some straight up turkey killers that got blanked this year, and others that only got one, myself included. This was my worst season in more than a decade.
I spent an entire month in the woods, in FLA & SC. My season was filled with hot, muggy, rainy weather - which to my experience limits gobbling substantially. I had very few cool, crisp mornings, which I believe the turkeys gobble best in. About half of the days I hunted, there was no gobbling at all.
In Carolina, I hate to use the term, but the birds were henned up. I was fortunate to work a trio of gobblers that often roosted within a 200 yard long strip of hardwoods. Early season they had up to 15 hens roosted with them. On the last day of the season, they still had 2 hens with them. Every morning that I got close enough to them to see or hear what was going on, it was the same thing. They gobbled good on the roost, hit the ground and gobbled a few times, then the hens pitched down to them. After that, they would never gobble again, and the hens would lead them away from your calls. I even tried getting ahead of them and not calling. That didn't work either.
There were a few days that I called in solo gobblers. They would hear my calls, come out, see my hen decoy - which is very realistic, and turn around and walk away. I tried hunting with no decoys to make them come looking, but they didn't come to the calls.
Up in SC, we had a ton of rain this spring, and areas that were normally dry were under water. Also, we have a coyote problem up there, and the yotes were stalking the turkey calls. My hunting partner killed one that came to the calls and was staring down his deke, ready to attack. He also saw another one doing the same thing that he couldn't get the shot on. Last year I saw 3 yotes during turkey season. We've started an eradication program under the guidance of our local game warden. Hopefully it will work!
Even down in FLA, the gobbling was quite limited, and the weather was hot & muggy. Fortunately, I was able to kill my 3rd best gobbler ever to salvage my otherwise poor season!
So what's the answer? Who knows? Could it be that different parts of the country experience highs and lows from year to year, and this is all part of a natural cycle? That's what I'm thinking. Unfortunately for me, I got the short straw this year.
But I'm already making grander plans for next season. Hopefully it will be better. Can't get much worse!!

[turkey_slayer]

Lots of death in Va and Tenn. Just about every turkey we killed had hens. Seems to be the pattern the last 5 or so years. Gobbling was decent. Heard very few birds just tearing down and rarely any after 8.

[Punisher]

Although I killed two nice gobblers in KY, this season was definitely a tough one.  Seemed like there was a shortage of 2 yr. old turkeys and substantially lower amount of gobbling activity.  I don't know about the rest of the state but where I hunt at there seemed to be gobblers still in bachelor groups.

[VaTuRkStOmPeR]

Virginia had a 26% increase in kills which resulted in a record harvest of 19,267 turkeys.

Most guys were into gobbling turkeys galore up here but I was not.  Had a stretch where 6/8 days I heard NO gobbling. We killed our Va birds but it was very, very tough. Called in more silent birds this year than ever.

TN and AL were tough, too.  No gobbling and few sightings.

Had some great hunting in MD, VT, and NY this year. We were regularly on gobbling birds and the guns were barking often.

[TauntoHawk]

Best year we've ever had, not the highest number of birds around but man did they all want to die in NY this year. I was able to call in 8 birds to the gun on 15 hunts and my buddy called in 14 on 29 hunts. Gobbles every day, and even hens want to talk a lot and come in. Only regret was not getting my wife's first bird mounted

Very thankful for a wonderful season with my wife, friends, and family. Looking forward to next season already

[HARDCORE]

Opening day and throughout the rest of March was routine, a lot of gobblers died. April started off pretty much like March ended but after the first week something changed.

After 2 or 3 days of scratching our heads we dug up an old play book of ours from several years ago. The rest of April was as good as it's ever been.

HC

[chatterbox]

Best season for me in years.
We got Harrison on a nice 2 year old on the opener of youth weekend, and he sealed the deal.
My season opened on May 3rd, and was finished by May 7th. The birds were very responsive to calling, and due to a cold March and April, made for the best May in years. Heard good to great gobbling everyday I was out.
From what alot of hunters told me, it really tailed off about midway through May. We hit a cold rainy stretch that really seemed to shut things down.

[bghunter777]

Hunted 3  days in Kentucky seemed to be quite a few birds saw lots of jakes and ended up taking a nice 3-4 year old. Called another 2 year old in for a fellow hunter that we didnt kill heard plenty of gobbling for less than ideal weather.

Pa season I hunted about a week and a half and I would like to complain because I heard almost no gobbling a good day would be 1-2 birds and almost none on the roost that being said in 8 hunts I was part of 5 kills 2 mine The pattern would go hear nothing or maybe 1 on the roost not much gobbling then 8-10 am hear one gobble way off walk over set up call him in and kill him I'd say 4 of those successful hunts went that way. Turkey population was down in Pa but seemed to be uncommonly successful based on the amount of birds.

[WildSpur]

Awesome again.  Every year gets better for me in PA.

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