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My niece sent this today. Awful early in cold country. Early bird gets the worm.
They're guys, they're always ready.....
Yep; the seasons in the southern states are getting close while up here in the midwest we have a couple months before we get started.
Damn! Oak Hill School is serious about cutting class!
I actually have a question about this. There are two flocks of turkeys I see nearly every day to and from work. I've only the last couple of years gotten into turkey hunting. For the past year I've watched these birds pretty closely. They are essentially tame which may skew their behavior but I've seen toms strutting at any time -- all winter, early spring, summer, all year long it seems. I would be interested in what somebody has to say that knows more than I do about turkeys. Do the males strut and gobble all year round?
Shedhorn, the short answer is yes, they do. Toms are constantly in a state of displaying dominance and setting the pecking order with other males within the flock.
^^^^^ They are advertising for the future !
Turkeys strut, humans bring up all the awards they've won..... On display year round
The tough part about early season gobbler hunting in some of the areas I hunt is the toms are flocked up with large groups of hens (similar to bulls with cow elk). Toms are nearly impossible to call or coax away from hens.....especially in areas with lots of hens and few toms. Once the flocks split up it generally gets easier hunting. There are obviously areas in the US where there are higher ratios of toms:hens and where flocks aren't near as big through the winter/early spring. Using Nebraska as an example I often run into flocks of 30 to 200 turkeys. Although toms strut it is pretty futile trying to call toms away from hens and the large flocks generally want nothing to do with decoys.
To answer your question....yes toms strut and gobble year round. As mentioned earlier there is dominance and pecking order stuff going on year-round. Some of this really depends upon the make-up of the particular group of toms/hens in the area. Things sometimes change on a weekly basis from now through June when hens are on their nests. It's really good to stay flexible with hunting technique depending upon the reaction of turkeys to calls, decoys, etc. at all times of year.
I've seen hens strut in the fall too. Pretty cool thing to see.
The best thing to do when you think a tom is locked up with hens - find an observation point. It's worth chancing spooking them, as your odds may be really low already.
Observe without calling. Once a tom breeds or at least gets a solid mount on a hen, move into the optimal position (whatever that may be in your area), and call. If you can do this, you've caught him with his "willy" wet (crude, I know...sorry). He will come to you then, tore up twice from Sunday.
As long as your talking him up while he's dancing with the ladies, your just background noise. Catch him on the backside of a hen, and you've got a body over mind driven animal.
The first year I Bowhunted I called in a hen. He got within 8 feet of me sitting in a log and starts displaying and making weird noises. She was confused and so was I.
