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Only a couple more weeks left in the season. Any wisdom or tips on late season birds that anyone has learned over the years?

I'm afraid our birds will be acting like late season in mid May

I am not sure at this point how the dismal March weather may have affected the typical breeding process. We know things greened-up later than year's past, but does this also affect the "Peak of the Rut" so to speak? Turkeys don't have calendars, so are their instincts to breed based on Solunar events, or more based on temperature? Or, both?

I do know that typical this time of year, more of the Hens have been bred and are now on the nest. If so, provided the Gobbler is dominant and not afraid of challengers, the advantage belongs to me. This year...don't know. Are we behind, ahead, for a typical Spring?

just my opinion. but i doubt we will have a "late season" .. heck the birds i've been on this week all still have hens. and the hens aren't leaving in the middle of the day. he is staying with them all freaking day. usually the gobblers are roaming hard. i'm still finding them to be pretty patternable for the most part, just dealing with "hen'd up" ...

to answer your question though, i try and cover lots of ground in late season, i don't much calling and walking so to speaking. but just looking for fresh sign and using locator calls. usually when he starts gobbling on up in the moring he wants to die. i've never been much of a fan of "walk and squalk" though. if possible stay as late in the morning as you can, because if they do have the one hen with them and it is "late season" then she will leave at some point and when she does he wants to find another one. jmo...

I fooled with a turkey 4/6 and 4/7 that I figured to be an old turkey. Plenty of tracks and sign on the place all season and nary a gobble, until he spoke up, twice about 9am that Saturday. Plus I've gotten photos of a turkey for a couple of years that is pretty discernible from others. In my head, at least, he's the old trophy that has the gobbling suppressed in the area. Who knows for sure? Well, I finally laid eyes on the old boy yesterday morning. His harem was 6 or 7 strong. This is in Jefferson County.

Yep, no "late season" in 2013.

I'll say this. There are plenty of birds on my property in East MS, but they just haven't acted right. Hens are roosted right next to Toms etc.... I suspect that the weather patterns have really delayed the breeding process. As of today, there I have seen little evidence to suggest that the hens are nesting. I believe that in my area the right time to hunt Turkeys won't come until about mid May.

This time last year, one in our group saw a recently hatched poult - that was in Central MS, and if I recall correctly, others on here had seen them as well. Temps last year were very warm for March so they were a bit "Ahead" of the process. We've gone from one extreme to another. 36 degrees last night here in Corinth and we're a mere 5 days from May.

Late Season tactics can vary greatly. When you consider that, everything you know and that everyone else knows, has most likely been thrown at them. ---- I remember a bird the last weekend of the season along the Ms. River. My hunting partner and I devised a plan for the last old bird gobbling in his woods a good many years back. We had tried everything, so we decided that he would set up on the West side of the bird and I would set up on the East side. Early the next AM, on que he starts his booming gobble. (About a 10 on the gobble scale) As planned, I set up on the East side of the bird, my friend set up on the West side. The only problem was that the poacher set up on the South side. That old bird flew down between all of us continuing to gobble but did not move much for an hour or so. My friend sees the poacher moving towards him and calling. Having been shot once, he starts yelling at the poacher. I could not hear all of this, but I see this fine gobbler starting to gain air and coming directly over me. Easy shot, 11 1/2 beard and 1 3/8 inch spurs. A trophy bird and my limit bird for the season. You may say a cheap kill. I did call to the bird, and refer to Nash Buckingham's Story "Opportunity flies but Once". ---- On a side note, my friend met the poacher at the beaver dam where he entered the property. He had a court date and paid a handsome fine, as well as publicity all around the county. One late season bird I will always remember.

Mr. E

good stuff Mr. E!

well, i left one this morning with about 15 hens, watched him breed them for quite a while. Only problem was, they wasn't leaving him. got on another, he had hens as well... in about 2 weeks its going to be crazy good! to bad we can only watch and listen then!