Slow start?

[Hambone]

Some folks are obviously having success, but my group is not among them. Gobbling has been sporadic and I can't remember a season with so many silent mornings. What's your assessment so far?

[Ster]

Some folks are obviously having success, but my group is not among them. Gobbling has been sporadic and I can't remember a season with so many silent mornings. What's your assessment so far?

Same here. I'm in East Mississippi and most of the birds I have heard people killed, more or less ambushed them as opposed to calling them. First couple of weeks there were a lot of silent mornings. Just this past week we started hearing some noise on the roost, but as soon as they hit the ground they go silent. I think that by the end of this week and next week we will start to get some good hunts and some active birds.

[skywalker]

East MS, West AL seeing the same........ambush. I can crawl better than I can call.

[DUCK-HUNT]

Some folks are obviously having success, but my group is not among them. Gobbling has been sporadic and I can't remember a season with so many silent mornings. What's your assessment so far?

Take it for what it is worth but this is what I am seeing. Folks that usually don’t have much luck are killing 25lb 1.5” spurred turkeys on the regular it seems. The turkeys that are dyeing are doing it in the afternoon or by people deer hunting them (blinds, decoys, food plots). I will do neither unless they are gobbling. It is the craziest year I can remember in a long time. I left a lot of gobbling turkeys in the forest last year that still walk the same areas but have seemed to have lost their voice or somebody has a turkey foot on the end of a cane. Puzzled is an understatement.

Theories:

1. So many jakes that mature gobblers aren’t gobbling in fear of being flogged by a band of rogue jakes
2. So many hens spread around that each gobbler has a small harem and isn’t having to gobble
3. We killed the gobbling gene out of them
4. They have vanished due to disease since week before opener
5. My yelping has somehow gotten so horrific turkeys run away instead of running to.
6. It was over before season opened
7. It wont start till after season is closed
8. Great horned owl population has gotten so high gobblers are afraid to gobble on the limb because of the fact that an owl will soon be there to take his head off
9. Breeding isn’t triggered by photoperiod but weather so we are seeing a late turkey rut due to colder than normal spring temps
10. NWTF/MDWFP lied about how good this year was gonna be so it really is just a normal year but our expectations were so high that we are let down



All said jokingly.... They are too dumb to know any of this above. They are just being turkeys doing what they do

[deltadukman]

I have seen three different "harem groups"(a half dozen+) hens without a single male with them...no jake, no longbeards, no 2 year olds.

[campcreekfarm]

Been a lot better than last season was> More gobbling and turkeys working and nice and cool.

[camlock]

my assessment has been that we have far more turkeys than usual and we are having a later spring than normal....I am still (as of yesterday) seeing 5 or 6 long-beards together in one plot all gobbling same time mid morning, two mature birds in the same tree at daylight. They are flocked up like fall turkeys and they have no reason to be overly responsive or gobble too much. My prediction, last half/end of season is going to be insane. In the last week, the legion of national forest 2 year old slayers has come to life a bit around here, a sign "it" is imminent.

[H20 Fowl]

I wish someone would explain to me and every biologist I've ever talked to on how to age a turkey!

That being said we have two properties where the birds are gobbling there throats out. (have been since opening day)

We have three other properties 30 miles away where the birds are not saying a peep! Next year should be awesome tho, I've seen more gobbling jakes than I ever have!

[ScottyLee]

best year ever for me. turkey's definitely ain't "right" though, it's still early. i've watched 3 take a dirt nap before easter, not counting one that got shot and got away.

[arduckslayer]

I wish someone would explain to me and every biologist I've ever talked to on how to age a turkey!

I'll explain it for you, there's absolutely no way to tell for sure unless they are banded as a jake! It's like taking a greenhead from the dog and saying "I think this one's a 3 year old." I read an article about a bird killed in Kentucky that had been trapped, banded, and relocated as a jake. When it was killed FIVE YEARS LATER, it had dull 7/8" spurs. That is what most people call a "two year old" and they would have been wrong. You can't do anything but guess when it comes to birds.

[music_man]

I wish someone would explain to me and every biologist I've ever talked to on how to age a turkey!

Easy way to tell the difference in a 2 year old and 3 or above is the beard.

Take the beard in decent light and examine the end of the beard. A 2 year old will have reddish tips on the beard (as does a jake) where the beard came through the skin. A 3 year old and above has no red on the tips because it has "broken" off!
Of course there are always exceptions.

But, after 3 it's all just guess work.

My dad has raised turkeys for years. He has had all different types of breeds (including eastern wild) and ages. The longest spurs I've ever seen (on his turkeys) were 1.5" on a 4 year old turkey. But, I saw a 6 year old he had that died with 1" spurs!
So, no real way to tell after 3 years old.

[Ster]

my assessment has been that we have far more turkeys than usual and we are having a later spring than normal....I am still (as of yesterday) seeing 5 or 6 long-beards together in one plot all gobbling same time mid morning, two mature birds in the same tree at daylight. They are flocked up like fall turkeys and they have no reason to be overly responsive or gobble too much. My prediction, last half/end of season is going to be insane. In the last week, the legion of national forest 2 year old slayers has come to life a bit around here, a sign "it" is imminent.

I think that we were a little spoiled by last year. Heck, opening season last year felt about like the middle of April on most seasons. We didn't have a strong winter last year. Personally, I always predict what kind of Turkey season we will see based upon the Duck season. A lot of Ducks late in the season means bad Turkey hunting in March.

[ufgators68]

This is the story of my season...



250 yards away on posted land and not saying a damn thing.

[Hambone]

A lot of Ducks late in the season means bad Turkey hunting in March.

I spent part of opening morning near a duck hole holding about a thousand mallards and gadwalls. They at least provided entertainment to replace the silent gobblers that day.

[deerhunt1988]

two mature birds in the same tree at daylight.

That is one thing that stands out to me this season. Normally I will come across a few running together still the first week or so of the season. But this year I am coming across multiple mature birds roosting in dang near the same tree as you mentioned. And more often than not they were the only birds gobbling in the area although a larger flock is around.

I have also never saw a year where so many gobblers have just a couple hens. I'm talking a strutter with 2-3 hens, just enough to make him not gobble. I have seen this countless times already. On 'normal' years, I would be hearing the henned up birds gobble some from the roost this time of year. That hasn't been the case very often this season. They have been acting more like the first week of a normal season by not saying a word. About the only gobbling I heard the past 10 days has been 2 year olds. Even watched other birds strut with hens who never say a word.

Just got back from a 3 day hunt in TN and it is ridiculous how much they are flocked up still. Some longbeards still in bachelor groups, large flocks of hens, plenty of vocal hens and hen talk every morning, etc..

Another thing I have noticed is weights are up..I speculate this is because the gobblers haven't been 'roaming' as long at this point in the season compared to normal seasons and were focused on feeding a bit longer than usual.

Yet another observation....Wing tips...The first week of the season I was in on 3 kills and the wing tips were barely worn on any of them. I have been in on a couple more kills since, and only 1 gobbler had drastically worn wing tips. Usually wing tips would have been much more worn down by this time.

Based on my turkey hunting logs from past years, the birds seem to be ~7-10 days behind in comparison to a normal season . So closer to 3 weeks behind last season, which many new hunters don't realize was such an outlier. We have basically went from one extreme end of the spectrum to the other in consecutive seasons. I much prefer a season like this, the action isn't over near as quick.

These are just my observations and personal opinion.