My 2016 Season Log--Update 4/24

[Drthorn]

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!

[AC HAMMER]

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!

[Drthorn]

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. 

[MAKEemQUIVER]

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?

[Drthorn]

checked cam. only pics of turkey were later in evening between 5-6pm.

[Drthorn]

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.

[fallhnt]

Mine reads...have not scouted...ready to hunt.

[Drthorn]

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.

[Drthorn]

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 .

[Drthorn]

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

[Drthorn]

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!!

[aaron.haverfield@gmail.co]

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.

[Drthorn]

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

[Drthorn]

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.

[Drthorn]

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