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Turkey Talk

Ours started on the 20th. A fantastic Friend and I met for opening day and didn't hear anything close, so we met up again at 8am and laughed our butts off talking about everything and anything while passing a Thermos lid of coffee back and forth until the jug went dry.

Absolutely NO birds around us but we laughed our butts off anyway.

An opening day to remember for sure, but if you weren't there you may not have understood.

Myself, he and his kids, along with a couple others are meeting up tomorrow to make the best of it until Monday afternoon.
Who cares if no one gets a bird.

:)
 
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PA season started today. I'm headed up to NW PA to my little property in Warren County on Monday with a good bud for a couple days. My trail cams show birds around, but it's BIG woods up there, & they can go anywhere, so we'll see.

Gonna be raining up there also....go figure...spring & fall, it ALWAYS rains up there! But, that's what rain gear is for!

Even if we don't get into birds, it'll be good to be up there where I grew up and see my little woods waking up again!

I even made some special arrows for the trip!

Spring...it's God's way of saying, "One more time!"

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Couldn’t get out on the opener Friday…..First one I’ve missed in decades. Got all set up yesterday morning and it was so cold damp and dreary on the one property I only archery hunt on that nothing came to the fields until the sun came out with about 30 minutes left until noon. (NY you can only hunt 1/2 hour before sunrise to noon.) A hen worked its way across the field and then three or four Jake’s came out to my south along the field edge. I could just make out two bigger birds still in the woods. Only gobbling was at first light and then they were hush mouthed the whole morning.

So this other pic is of Gus the Grouse. Gus has been on this property that my buddy and I aware of since February. We’ve been doing some TSI along some thick draws on this land and I’m not kidding this grouse just comes and “hangs out” I’ve got picture after picture and video of Gus from this whole spring. He loves the ATV and the chain saw! No joke. I’ll be bucking up firewood and he stands right there the whole time. I’ve gotten really close to grabbing him but he doesn’t want the relationship to progress that far……

Yesterday, I felt super lazy and used the wheeler to help me haul all my junk up to my setup location. Before even pink light yesterday, ole’ Gus joins me for the day. He kept cooing and purring and pecking at my blind!!! At one point he got so mad he flew up on top of the blind, set there for about five seconds and flew off back into the cover. We’ve heard him drumming quite a bit this spring but he didnt drum at all yesterday.!He was too busy trying to hang with me.
 

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More pics of Gus…… At one point earlier this spring I just laid down on my side and snapped picture after picture and video of this little dude. Typically, you can’t get within 30 yards of a grouse before it busts out of the cover in a blur of noise and commotion!!
 

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GCTerpfan said:
So he hangs out around you drumming all of the time? Sounds like Gus thinks your purty…… ;)
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Ha! Well I’m not sure…. he doesn’t drum around me but he coos and yelps the whole time. But I can hear him drumming when he isn’t on me like white on rice. Honestly, it gets kind of annoying now because I always get concerned I’m going to run him over or step on him. At one point I was a bucking up a 6” branch and he’s standing on it while I’m sawing log doing a barrel race on it. Can’t make this stuff up. We’re hoping he attracts others to the property but so far it just seems like him. Craziest thing I’ve ever seen.

A couple of weeks ago I was resting after cutting up some locust.
I was setting on a chunk and he just stood there cooing and making his cluck type sounds and I took a slightly bent stick and gently corralled him against another chunk and the second I went to grab him he flapped his wings hard and he got away. But he just moves a little and goes back to his cooing and clucking…. He’s got to be wild but he has no fear at all. I thought he’d be dead by now with all the predators and hawks but he seems to be thriving!!!
 
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woodsdog2 said:
Ha! Well I’m not sure…. he doesn’t drum around me but he coos and yelps the whole time. But I can hear him drumming when he isn’t on me like white on rice. Honestly, it gets kind of annoying now because I always get concerned I’m going to run him over or step on him. At one point I was a bucking up a 6” branch and he’s standing on it while I’m sawing log doing a barrel race on it. Can’t make this stuff up. We’re hoping he attracts others to the property but so far it just seems like him. Craziest thing I’ve ever seen.

A couple of weeks ago I was resting after cutting up some locust.
I was setting on a chunk and he just stood there cooing and making his cluck type sounds and I took a slightly bent stick and gently corralled him against another chunk and the second I went to grab him he flapped his wings hard and he got away. But he just moves a little and goes back to his cooing and clucking…. He’s got to be wild but he has no fear at all. I thought he’d be dead by now with all the predators and hawks but he seems to be thriving!!!
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That’s pretty wild.
 
I have one more weekend in KY I'm finding out how hard long bow turkey hunting is!! I had a turkey goblin Saturday late morning i called with a box call about 10min later i called again and he was close in thick cover. Then nothing about an hour later he was goblin behind me. Called again nothing to day was cold in KY I set up same spot nothing was happening so I moved in the woods ware I normally deer hunt. I was calling and had my two decoys out sitting in my pac seat had four bucks walk in at 8 yards never noticed me. No turkeys just a nice day in the woods!!
 
To my unbelievable delight, I got it done. I got out of work at 6. Hit the public by 710. Took me almost 2.5 hours and 4 miles of hard walking to strike a gobbler. 3 toms were all together and they came quick. But I forgot my mask and gloves at home, and shot the first one in range to avoid detection.

Now for the loooooooong walk out..

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bigmike23 said:
To my unbelievable delight, I got it done. I got out of work at 6. Hit the public by 710. Took me almost 2.5 hours and 4 miles of hard walking to strike a gobbler. 3 toms were all together and they came quick. But I forgot my mask and gloves at home, and shot the first one in range to avoid detection.

Now for the loooooooong walk out..

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With your tss loads it sounds like you can shoot’em at about 100 yards out, so gloves and mask aren’t as necessary :tearsofjoy:

Congrats!
 
bigmike23 said:
To my unbelievable delight, I got it done. I got out of work at 6. Hit the public by 710. Took me almost 2.5 hours and 4 miles of hard walking to strike a gobbler. 3 toms were all together and they came quick. But I forgot my mask and gloves at home, and shot the first one in range to avoid detection.

Now for the loooooooong walk out..

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Heck yeah! Congrats!
 
Turkey season opened here last Monday. I got out Thursday in the rain - my favorite time to kill turkeys. I don’t have many opportunities to hunt this time of year, so when I called in a bachelor group of Jake’s I felt like I had to take the opportunity. I pulled the trigger with the bird at 5 yards and the bird went down. The 12 gauge kicked like a mule; even worse than normal. The other birds just stood there, and so I racked another shell and contemplated filling my second tag. I glanced down at my gun and realized the scope was sideways…

The next morning I woke with what felt like bruised ribs under my breast muscles. Clearly something went wrong with my gun. Perhaps the shell wasn’t fully seated in the chamber, or something is cracked. Looks like it’s time to disassemble the old Winchester 1200. In the meantime I’ll take the old Auto 5 out for a spin next time I can manage to get a morning off of work.
 
Jammintree said:
Turkey season opened here last Monday. I got out Thursday in the rain - my favorite time to kill turkeys. I don’t have many opportunities to hunt this time of year, so when I called in a bachelor group of Jake’s I felt like I had to take the opportunity. I pulled the trigger with the bird at 5 yards and the bird went down. The 12 gauge kicked like a mule; even worse than normal. The other birds just stood there, and so I racked another shell and contemplated filling my second tag. I glanced down at my gun and realized the scope was sideways…

The next morning I woke with what felt like bruised ribs under my breast muscles. Clearly something went wrong with my gun. Perhaps the shell wasn’t fully seated in the chamber, or something is cracked. Looks like it’s time to disassemble the old Winchester 1200. In the meantime I’ll take the old Auto 5 out for a spin next time I can manage to get a morning off of work.
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Congrats on the bird! Was the action of the shotgun open when you looked at it after the shot? Could you see anything wrong with the shell after you ejected it? Any bulge in the barrel?

The first thing that comes to mind is a barrel obstruction. Glad you are OK.
 
OMG what a hunt. 2 birds down in two hunts.

Had a gobbler about 200 yards down the hill from me Make his way up to my calling. His head popped up over a log about 30 yards away but I can only see the top 4 inches of his head, and I always aim for the waddles. I let him walk a little more and the turd moves away from me and goes up into a knoll about 100 yards away strutting. He would not move one iota closer to me for over 20 minutes. As he strutting up there a second gobbler comes in from my right silently.

Soon as he saw the first gobbler strutting, he ran right to him and they strutted together. Both of them would now not move closer to me. Then the one bird got spooked by something and move downed the hill away for me taking the second tom with him. I thought oh well hunt over.

5 minutes later they snuck completely behind me, and when they gobbled again it scared the lights outta me that I couldn't believe they circled me. I turned and didn't see them, position the gun behind me, and the one bird came running in.

Shot him at 14 yards. Why the heck am I using TSS haha?!?! 1000056390.jpg

This was my best season in over 10 years. This little public honey hole is unbelievable. And I heard a few gobbles way out earlier so there's still tons of birds here.
 
bigmike23 said:
OMG what a hunt. 2 birds down in two hunts.

Had a gobbler about 200 yards down the hill from me Make his way up to my calling. His head popped up over a log about 30 yards away but I can only see the top 4 inches of his head, and I always aim for the waddles. I let him walk a little more and the turd moves away from me and goes up into a knoll about 100 yards away strutting. He would not move one iota closer to me for over 20 minutes. As he strutting up there a second gobbler comes in from my right silently.

Soon as he saw the first gobbler strutting, he ran right to him and they strutted together. Both of them would now not move closer to me. Then the one bird got spooked by something and move downed the hill away for me taking the second tom with him. I thought oh well hunt over.

5 minutes later they snuck completely behind me, and when they gobbled again it scared the lights outta me that I couldn't believe they circled me. I turned and didn't see them, position the gun behind me, and the one bird came running in.

Shot him at 14 yards. Why the heck am I using TSS haha?!?! View attachment 126716

This was my best season in over 10 years. This little public honey hole is unbelievable. And I heard a few gobbles way out earlier so there's still tons of birds here.
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Awesome! Congratulations! At this rate you may have to buy some more TSS.
 
Decided to hunt the fly down this morning before work. Figuring I could stay until 6:40 before I had to leave. This guy came in at 5:55 which here is daylight already. Got to work w 1 minute to spare.
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