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2025 Turkey Season

Jefferson10940 said:
I think weather conditions play a role in how vocal they are. Also if they are with hens already has an impact. Some days here they are gobbling like crazy other days I have no idea they are there until they show themselves. But this is personal experience nothing about science or studies that have been done by professionals
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Jefferson10940 said:
I think weather conditions play a role in how vocal they are. Also if they are with hens already has an impact. Some days here they are gobbling like crazy other days I have no idea they are there until they show themselves. But this is personal experience nothing about science or studies that have been done by professionals
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I tend to agree with weather wind etc. Where I have hunted over the last several decades hunting pressure seems to play a role as well. More pressure less gobbling?
Turkeys are not all that bright but maybe the survival of the birds is getting imbred into the younger birds. Deer certainly teach the young deer.
 
Jefferson10940 said:
Was able to get out this week. Been raining most of May here. Quite miserable but was able to fill a tag. 10” beard, 1” spurs
ecd6af01c43ee56a370691fa7b791b0e.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Good work. Nice spurs on that one!
 
Fgirtyman said:
I tend to agree with weather wind etc. Where I have hunted over the last several decades hunting pressure seems to play a role as well. More pressure less gobbling?
Turkeys are not all that bright but maybe the survival of the birds is getting imbred into the younger birds. Deer certainly teach the young deer.
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I think weather, pressure, male population and age structure within that population all have a bearing. And then there are the days they are just turkeys and have no idea what they are doing until they do it.
 
BTaylor said:
I think weather, pressure, male population and age structure within that population all have a bearing. And then there are the days they are just turkeys and have no idea what they are doing until they do it.
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BTaylor said:
I think weather, pressure, male population and age structure within that population all have a bearing. And then there are the days they are just turkeys and have no idea what they are doing until they do it.
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They prolly are gobbling more than I think. Maybe I need to put my Walkers on. Always coming in quiet... lol
 
I went on my first turkey hunt in 1975, but I believe I’ve moved on from turkeys. I like hunting them and I believe I’m pretty good at it, I’ve killed a bunch of ‘em at least, but I was never in the “if I could only hunt one thing it would be turkeys” crowd. That saying was all the rage for a while and I thought a lot about it, I never did come close to convincing myself that I agreed with that kinda nonsense. First off, it was always in relation to deer hunting which I absolutely love, but if I had to be strictly a single species hunter then put me behind a bird dog chasing quail in a place that has them like we had them when I was growing up.

Now today I found out that I’m friends with a few idiots because if given a choice between shooting a true B&C whitetail with a bow and ten days of pounding mallards in the timber they would choose the mallards. Pure insanity.
 
Fgirtyman said:
They prolly are gobbling more than I think. Maybe I need to put my Walkers on. Always coming in quiet... lol
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I have a buddy that is an incredibly good turkey hunter and his thoughts are that on average for any given property maybe only 20% of the gobblers will gobble. Mixed in will be a few days when none gobble and maybe a day or two each season where most of the birds on a place will hammer. My experience while less than his supports that theory.

Two things I have seen are properties that dont have a lot of jakes but do have a really mature dominant bird can limit the amount of gobbling heard from the other birds until that old boss gets dead. And then there are properties that dont have many mature birds but have a lot of jakes, the jakes will gang up on the mature birds so the mature birds tend to be more quiet than normal.
 
dalton916 said:
I went on my first turkey hunt in 1975, but I believe I’ve moved on from turkeys. I like hunting them and I believe I’m pretty good at it, I’ve killed a bunch of ‘em at least, but I was never in the “if I could only hunt one thing it would be turkeys” crowd. That saying was all the rage for a while and I thought a lot about it, I never did come close to convincing myself that I agreed with that kinda nonsense. First off, it was always in relation to deer hunting which I absolutely love, but if I had to be strictly a single species hunter then put me behind a bird dog chasing quail in a place that has them like we had them when I was growing up.

Now today I found out that I’m friends with a few idiots because if given a choice between shooting a true B&C whitetail with a bow and ten days of pounding mallards in the timber they would choose the mallards. Pure insanity.
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Have you given any consideration to how you go about picking your friends? :p
 
Last day tomorrow for my NJ season. Work and rain has been keeping me down. Lots of birds around but they’re not interested in calls or decoys haha
 
BTaylor said:
I have a buddy that is an incredibly good turkey hunter and his thoughts are that on average for any given property maybe only 20% of the gobblers will gobble. Mixed in will be a few days when none gobble and maybe a day or two each season where most of the birds on a place will hammer. My experience while less than his supports that theory.

Two things I have seen are properties that dont have a lot of jakes but do have a really mature dominant bird can limit the amount of gobbling heard from the other birds until that old boss gets dead. And then there are properties that dont have many mature birds but have a lot of jakes, the jakes will gang up on the mature birds so the mature birds tend to be more quiet than normal.
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This is correct and I agree with most of this. I’m not sure it’s as low as 20% but it could very well be. One out of five seems kinda low but indeed there are some days where it appears none are gobbling. I’ve had my share of subordinates come in that I’ve spooked and shot both. They never made a peep. Maybe 25% to a third. But generally that 20% may actually eeek out to be a pretty good number.
 
boyne bowhunter said:
I love the color of those Merriams. I know they're not native here in Michigan but two years ago my daughter and I kept seeing a jake with very similar coloration. Pretty birds!
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On my bucket list to shoot a Merriams. I want one of those white tipped fans for my wall. I have a board I got from my dad to mount my first turkey fan on that I cut in half and I have been saving the other half for a Merriams tail fan or possibly one of my kids first bird. Whichever happens first
 
Tried a little late season turkey hunt with the kids tonight. So much folloage. Couldn't see more than 20yrds. Field needs to be
Cut. Didn't hear any. But had some little racoons come by.
 
Just finished my daughter’s fan mount to for her first turkey, 9 years old and she did excellent this youth season, couldn’t be more proud. Now my sons got the itch bad so he’ll be in the seat next spring.
 

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