Silence is Deafening

[Hole Hunter]

Man, this has been a rough season so far. There was some promise starting out with gobbling birds and a few close calls. Now, the last few mornings have been dead silent in my part of the state. Others are reporting the same.

Some of the old timers say that that they think the turkeys bred early this year given the warm temps in late Feb / early March. Which means now they are basically done breeding the majority of the hen population except for the hens that might have a damaged nest that are coming back into season. Or the jenny hens that are just now coming of breeding age.
A few scattered others say that the season is yet to really get started and be patient.

All I know is that I have only missed 5 mornings hunts all year and I am pretty discouraged with the less than stellar results thus far. I have had a few woulda shoulda hunts where two to three birds should be in the freezer, that is nothing new.

These silent mornings in early April with sunny skies and the trees in bloom just have me stumped.

[maverick21]

I'd say the switch flipped around our place in SW MS, most of the birds that were henned up for the most part and silent on the ground have gotten fired up.

I think it's due to more hens headed to the nests and the search for stragglers has begun. The had gobbled a little on the limb and shut up once on the ground but gobbled until nearly 10 this past weekend. Saturday morning was one of those rare days that all of us had a change to kill one on our place.

[SNEAKER]

I've just now started hearing birds gobbling on the ground in Yazoo. Watched a gobbler breed 2 hens last Friday right after flydown. Heard one gobbling pretty good in tree this morning. Got in close to him and he was gobbling on ground right after fly down. Heard a hen come to him. Nothing seems to be happening early to me.

[davidees]

I'm hunting in north Mississippi. I'm not hearing much on the limb, but around 8 the last two mornings I've stoked up birds and had them gobbling like crazy. Had a 3-4 year old out there at 40 yds yesterday morning, couldn't get a clean shot, he gobbled 50-75 times, got one in to about 50 yards this morning, but couldn't finish him and he gobbled 150 times. I've killed two and missed one this year, and I really, really, really want that third one before I head to Missouri.