What time of day do you kill most of your birds?

[Marc]

I love being out there before the sun comes up and hearing those birds get fired up on the roost...  But generally, looking back, I kill far more birds later in the morning.

When I do kill birds before the sun comes up, it is generally early in the season...  And it usually seems it is cause I pulled an angry hen over to check me out...  I have had fly-down cackles work, and I have had roosted toms land right in front of me, but those have been the exceptions as opposed to the rule.

From mid-season on, I find I do better later in the morning.  The birds are far more quiet, but if I can get a gobble at 10am, I have some degree of confidence of killing that bird.

As much as I enjoy hearing those birds thunder off on the roost, I get far more excited when I hear that single gobble a ways off late in the morning.

When hunting roosted birds, I find that decoys can be helpful, but if I am going to run & gun to stir up a gobbling bird, I leave the decoys behind.

How about you all, more birds killed early in the morning, or later on?

[silvestris]

Probably half in the first hour of daylight.  That would probably be cut to a third if I was able to hunt all day more often.

[reynolds243]

70% between 9am - 2pm. Get one to gobble at that time he can die


Proverbs 3:5
"Trust in the lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding"

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[Hooksfan]

 I teach High School and make quick hunts in the morning before school. Therefore, I would say 60% of the birds I kill are in the first hour. Also, in Missouri, we have to stop hunting at 1 pm. If my circumstances were different, I'm sure those numbers would be different.
I do like hunting in the evening when I travel out of state. Can't beat those hunts when you run across a bird gobbling on his own at 4 pm.

[cornfedkiller]

My results are skewed a little because I don't hunt as much in the first few hours as I do the rest of the day.  Since I bowhunt, Im generally set up in open fields rather than close to a roost, so the majority of my kills/encounters are later in the mornings after the hens leave the toms, and the toms head out on their own. I'd say I see the most activity between 9-11, and again in the later afternoons.

When I get one to answer me at 10am, I get real excited. 

A few years ago in Nebraska, I was heading out to one of the properties at about 9am.  I hit a crow call and had 3 toms gobble from 3 different directions, and it sounded like I was directly in the middle of them, so I quickly set up and hit a few yelps on the call.  All 3 birds again gobbled at me, and within 20 mins, I had all 3 toms all making their way toward my decoys.

[tomstopper]

I would say 6:30-9 is when I have taken most of my birds mainly bc where I usually hunt, season closes at noon....

[g8rvet]

Majority between 8:30 and 11:00

[zelmo1]

Last year was the first we could hunt all day. I killed one at 1030 and one at 1440 and in NH we doubled early in the morning around 0710. on different days, day 3 of season and day 6. The double in NH was our first day of hunting in NH. Previously they were mostly from first light ahead 2 hours and 1000-1200. We hunted the afternoons but did not bother them going to roost. We did not want to pressure our local birds too much. On a trip, I would hunt them all day if legal.

[yankeedeerslayer]

For me it's all over the clock(daylight hours of course!!) I've only killed about 25-30 so my opinion might not be best. The one thing I have found is that when I kill one I'm done for the day. In thinking about it if the turkey are going to allow themselves to be called in early they will most likely do it later too. Go when you can and hunt hunt hard.

[mgm1955]

0700-1000

[Ringbill]

Only killed a dozen, but they were all before 11 am.

[dirt road ninja]

I can hunt all day, save an hour or two in the early afternoon for a lunch break. When it's really hot outside I tend to hunt less in the mid day when I'm on my home ground. Here is last years kill times from memory.

1. 13:30
2. 17:45
3. 07:10
4. 07:30
5. 11:20
6. 17:30
7. 11:15
8. 16:30

I am highly confident in afternoon hunting.

[owlhoot]

9-11

[Gooserbat]

Before noon but I've killed them from sunrise yo sunset.

[guesswho]

Most of mine have been killed right before the alarm clock goes off.