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Seasons D-F

I have a tag of each of the remaining seasons. I'm on vacation all next week, I'm back to work the 18th-19th, then off until the 27th. I'm curious how many people hunt the late seasons, especially F. I usually do pretty well because there's fewer hunters around and sometimes gobblers can be actively gobbling most of the morning.

I'll be hunting seasons E and F in zone 2 this year. I killed a big tom with my bow last year during season F in zone 2. Had three toms bull rush my half strut Dakota Extreme jake decoy. I also had two avian x hen decoys out and a real hen going psycho on one of the hen decoys when the three toms came charging in. All I know is I love being in the turkey woods regardless of which season it is and you won't kill 'em from the couch. Good luck K2S!

Love the late periods, minus the mosquitoes and very early start times! Sometimes prefer to wait for a windy midday when few others are around, and can spot and sneak into position, then call. But it's hard to beat that feeling of hearing and seeing all the wild things on a calm, clear morning between 4-5 a.m.! Then again, if the salmon/trout are biting and the lake flat, I'm typically fishing Algoma at that time and do the spot-n-sneak stuff after!

I'm 0-2 on turkey seasons so far and I'll be headed back up next weekend in hopes of more cooperative birds. This past weekend had 1 bird gobble twice before flying down and that was it for turkey talk for 2 days.

Hoping the hens will be on the nest by next weekend and the toms will be responsive. Ticks have been thick so fair and I'm guessing this warm weather will have the mosiqitoes coming out as well.

Good luck to all still chasing their 1st tom of the season!

JackPine, good luck, what county/zone?

I will be after striking out in period C. My recommendation, spot and stalk with a buddy. Try to set up an ambush situation. Good luck to all.

Juneau County. Called a nice tom in for my 11 year-old son during the youth season but turkey fever got the best of him and he missed. On the drive home he said, "thanks for taking me dad, it's ok that I didn't get that bird, I had a lot of fun".

That makes it all worth while. Get kids out in the woods and introduce them to the things that we love in the outdoors.

Has anyone witnessed something like this before. Brother was hunting last week, seen 4 adult hens together multiple times , one he said was the queen hen, they would always chase off other hens when they came near. The very next day with hen decoys set, he could hear the hens coming from behind his blind, he mimicked the hens call and one of them literally flew in and attacked the hen decoys. Never have I personally witnessed this strong of a aggression from a hen before, how about you?

Boss hens can be quite vocal and dominant but can't remember one ever attacking the decoy. I say can't remember because it's been a lot of years and a lot of crazy things have happened on hunts that sometimes others who were there have to remind me about! ;)

Jackpine, that's awesome that your son said that. Sounds like a great kid.

The girls and I went for a walk today and swapped-out the SD cards on the trail cameras.

Plenty of turkeys posing for pictures.

Including this longbeard.

And here's a pic of one of the ladies from his harem that he had in tow.

Pictures were taken at 7:16 AM yesterday

I was able to get my 11 year old daughter on this Tom the evening of May 7th, no blind, just standing behind a 2" white pine for cover(she wanted to shoot standing up using tree branches for a rest). I was able to break 2 Toms away from 2 hens and they came in to about 20 yards and she connected. 9" beard & 3/4" spurs, didn't weigh it but guess about 20lbs. Her first kill....very proud dad right now.

I was able to get a Tom on the morning of May 9th, the thickest beard that I've ever seen and my first double bearded Tom. Beards measured 10" & 6" with 7/8" spurs weighed 19lbs. You can see the second, smaller beard just above the main thick beard.

(Just happened to find a 3" 12 ga. shell for size reference)

Nice FiveRs.

Awesome FiveRs! Big time congrats to your daughter.

Jackpine, you have a special boy. Congrats! Congrats also to FiveR and his daughter.

Nice job Five and daughter!

Great posts! Sounds like some awesome kids in our hunting community. BC

I was expecting a hot morning since the previous few days were damp and low pressure. The toms were not very vocal. I heard a few distant gobbles, but each tom only gobbled once or twice on roost and was pretty quiet the rest of the morning. Usually there's one that will gobble periodically throughout the morning, every 10-15 min or so, but I haven't found one that wants to play cat and mouse. I did find two toms with a couple Jakes and a hen cross a county road at 11:15am. I actually spotted them from a distance in the ditch and I grabbed my Turkey Fan and began putting a sneak on thinking a passing vehicle may bump them back in the woods, but when I got about 75 yards away, the last of them stepped out and crossed the road. They stopped in the middle of the road and looked at me, but didn't come my way and continued to cross the road. I saw a bearded hen there yesterday with a really nice 6"-8" beard. I was very tempted to setup down the ridge where they came from and try to wait them out for their return trip, but that could be a long wait. I'm also tempted to setup near there since it's a pretty active corridor, but I'm not seeing or hearing any repeatable patterns right now.

I had three bearded hens walk by me today! I've seen bearded hens before but not a group of three!

Got it done with the stick and string last night in Zone 2. Got setup around 5:00 PM and immediately had a tom in the field about a 100 yards out. He started working his way towards me but got spooky at about 50 yards. Turns out the was a dear hovering over one of my decoys at 10 yards and was acting all weird. In the mean time another tom with 3 hens entered the field. This second tom followed these hens for 1.5 hours in this field and would run off the other tom whenever he got close. Eventually I was able to get one of the hens to break away from the group and come my direction. The tom followed her and when she got to about 40 yards from my decoys the tom bull rushed my jake decoy and I let the Rage Extreme eat!

I was solo filming it all but need to get the full HD video edited still. However I included a short video clip of the video I took by recording it with my phone from my TV screen. The quality is poor but I think you'll get the jist.

Forgot to mention the specs: 23.5 lbs 9" beard 1" spurs

We hunted zone 1 just west of Viroqua Monday and Tuesday. Very windy Monday and maybe 3 turkeys spotted. Tuesday was cold and 3 turkeys spotted but no shots. We did not see a turkey in any fields all the way from Fond du lac to Viroqua. Never saw a turkey on the way back either. Where did they all disappear to? In previous years a person would need a calculator to keep track of all the turkey sightings. Did some disease kill off allot of birds? With all of those hills and valleys we could see a long way off but not even one bird in a field. I am puzzled. ps. within one mile of home in zone 2 I counted 7 turkeys.

raspy old hen, I've been asking those same questions. I am sure something has killed off a large percentage of turkeys. The DNR wants nothing to do with this theory though. If they admitted numbers were down, they would have to explain why they didn't reduce tags.

Finally got it done tonight. He has ben mocking me for weeks, but tonight some jakes showed up and he stuck tight to the hens as they passed by my blind. 41 lb Blacktail Snakebit, cedar arrows, Magnus broadhead

Craig- that is awesome! Way to stay at em. Someday I will stick one with the recurve, but still enjoy pushing carbon sticks. What kind of blind do you use for your setup?

Duke, I have a homemade wheelchair accessible box I made in a funnel on a field behind my house with shoot through screens. Works pretty good but not real portable if the birds are not cooperating.

I'm heading out tomorrow, Thursday May 21 after work in zone 5 near a common roosting area on a buddy's farm. I've never hunted zone 5 before, any update on how the birds are responding or tactics you might suggest given the area and time of year?

Didn't get one during D or E, but I missed one. Zone F has been good traditionally for me and got a 2 year old tom at 5:45 this morning. I hunted my good friends deer woods. It's only 40 acres but they were mowing trails and tending to their new apple trees and heard gobbling, so I had a good feeling any turkeys there will be resident. It sure makes a big difference hunting unpressured birds. I picked up another tag as well. There are 3000 left over tags for zone 4. I think they sold out last year, but the first two seasons were pretty wet. Good Luck to the die hards still in hot pursuit - goo goo goo.

My hunting partner was at it this morning in zone 2. A tom started gobbling at 5:15am and kept it up for a total of 192 gobbles before vacating the corn field at 7:37am. He would not come to any calling. He only left when a neighbor fired up his truck to head for work.

Awesome job Craig. Congrats K2S. And good luck Adam CP

Nice work K2S! I also realized this year the difference between hunting pressured and unpressured birds during the later seasons. Last week, period F a buddy and I hunted behind my house within city limits so it's bow only. I killed a bird my first hunt on Wednesday night and my buddy hit one Saturday morning but shot while it was in full strut and hit nothing but feathers. Both birds came charging right into beat on my jake decoy at 16 yards. During the same time another buddy of mine was hunting just outside of city limits on some private land that we know has tons of birds on (saw 16 strutters and 25 hens in one field before season), however we also know it's hunted pretty heavily. He sat all day this past Saturday and didn't see one time and barely heard any gobbles.

Yeah, last week was real quiet as far as gobbling goes. This one started gobbling at 5:15 and was going up and down a field road that parrellels the field I was sitting. Another tom came out into the field with a couple hens about 200 yards to my right and ended up straight in front of me at 80-90 yds, but just over a rise. I started purring and clucking and the one behind me sounded of at the perpendicular trail leading out the field. About 5 min later he stepped out and I shot him. A minute later the tom out the field gobbled so he didn't take off. Then one of the big boss hens he was with came looking for me. She was purring and clucking less than 5 yards from me. Her girlfriend came over and they tried spurring each other. I had to wait and hour for the field birds to vacate where they came from.

Got a nice Jake tonight. Just sitting in blind in middle of funnel on field. No decoys or calling. 3 jakes followed 2 hens through at 15 yards.

Nice Craig!!! What kind of funnel?

The picture a few lines above shows my box blind in the narrow part between 2 fields.

Played a little cat and mouse with this two year old hombre... Had him strutting at about about 22-24 yards when I finally got a window to shoot through the woods. Seems like the birds have been really vocal now past few days. Typical two year old---19.4 lbs, 8" beard, and 1" spurs.

Nice one Duke. Congrats!

Hunted Bradley Creek State Fishery area this afternoon. Had five ticks on me when I got back to the car. Got on one bird, but could not close the gap. He kept turning on me. Spot and stalk all the way. With all the oak leaves it was like walking on potato chips. Actually took off my boots and walked in my socks a good 50 yards to no avail. Fun though! Saw three does with fawns. One had triplets. The other two had twins. Good to see that on our valuable public lands.

One last hoora. Got a second season F tom. I had a tom skirt me in the early morning and I located another spot to setup tomorrow and had spent about 15-20 minutes clearing brush and making a natural blind. I was about to leave and looked down the field and a tom had just stepped out. He was East of me going North, but taking his sweet time gobbling and feeding. I grabbed my box call and did some excited cutting. I got him to turn and come my way, but it took him about 20-30 min to finally get in range.

Awesome, K2S you're having yourself one heck of a late season! Just curious, was this the same unpressured spot you got your bird before? Seems like finding spots where the birds haven't been hunted hard is the trick.

Also, great photos of the birds. Just curious, what did you use to hang your bird from that big tree? Looks really cool.

Yeah, it was the same spot and he was the second tom that came by. This one was gobbling in the woods behind my right shoulder, but was 200-300 yards away, and I switched to southpaw. A while later a tom came out in the field to my left. I should've tried switching back sooner because he came within range.

That tree has two trunks and he's sitting on the front stump.

Season A opening day.

Season F, second to last day of the season.

I agree K2S, that is a nice picture. Congrats!

I was able to finish my season with a Tom this morning. After hunting my tail off most of the long weekend, rain and all, I went to a farm that I didn't hunt all season....a few others did though. I didn't hear a gobble on the roost within a half mile all week by the house, so I figured it didn't pay to sit there before work. My plan was to park and listen for the first gobble and go, since I have permission for about 560 contiguous acres, I was out of the truck and ready to hit the woods with about 5 minutes before season opened. With no gobbles, I made the almost 1/4 mile walk to a large block of woods with a river running through and along it. I got there about 10 minutes after legal shooting time, still no gobbles so I sent out a gobble of my own.....no response, then another about a minute later.....no response, a few minutes later another.....no response. Now I'm starting to think that I made a mistake by going there, it's now about 20 minutes after hunting hours began and I figure that I might as well head towards a frequented roosting area on the river. I walk about 100 yards and hear a gobble where I wanted to go, game on at this point!! I pick up my pace to just under a jog but being as quiet as I can making sure not to splash in any of the puddles on the woods road until a get to a small opening where he could be about a 1/4 mile from where I first heard him sound off. Just as I stopped to wait for another gobble to pin point him better, he gobbled again, still about 150 yards away, so I slowed my pace a little to keep the noise of the wet grass from squeaking under my feet and watching closer for the puddles. I make it to the tree that I had originally planned to sit by and I heard a series of soft tree yelps, now I know for sure that I can't throw any hen calls at him or she'll take him the other way for sure, as it was at that point I still had a 50/50 chance at him dropping down on my side of the river. He gobbles again, I figured he was about 60 - 80 yards from where I was, I could hear him drumming on the roost and though "I can get right up to him from here". I take about 3 steps and I hear wings hitting branches, I drop down behind a small balsam tree to wait and see if they dropped out on my side, then I hear another set of wings followed shortly by a gobble....crap, wrong side of the river!! There is a tractor crossing at this point of the river and where he is gobbling on the other side I figured that I could easily cross the river undetected and take him out. I get past my last cover tree before the river and I see a turkey head by some low spruce limbs about 15 yards up the trail on the other bank, I slowly sit on my bank and give a few yelps to try to draw him to the waters edge on the other side, about 30 yards away.....they are out of the roost, so I figure it wouldn't hurt at this point. He cut me off every time I called and the hen just sat there. From where she was and where he was, I figured I could go up stream about 20 yards and cross there without being seen by either bird, as I stood back up I flushed a pair of ducks near the other bank and the hen was on alert now and I don't have much cover so I slowly moved my leg behind some cover so I could try to conceal my upper body with some balsam branches. The hen starts to walk away from the Tom, as soon as she got behind the trees I slipped down to the water, once I was in the water the bank would keep me concealed from the other side. I could hear him drumming the entire time I crossed the river so I was able to keep tabs on his location and know that he was content in the field and that I didn't spook the hen. Once across the river I walked up the lane making sure I was ducked down until I was close enough to the crest to make sure that I could shoot over the top. I started to stand up and was able to see the top of his fan but it looked like he was facing me, so I dropped back down and took a few more steps for good measure. As I started to stand back up I could see his back, then he went into strut again, this time facing the other way, I stood all the way up and was pulled up on him before he broke strut and grabbed a few bugs as he started to walk towards the hen. I'm not sure if he ever spotted me or if he just stood up to get a look around....but that was the end for him. Done at 5:24, 40 minutes after hunting hours started. It was a pretty intense 20 minute hunt, no good pictures, I was by myself and wet turkeys are very photogenic. The one picture I got is a little blurry from my hands shaking. I've shot a bunch of turkeys over the years, but I don't remember my hands shaking so much afterwards...I wonder if my breathing wasn't controlled the best with trying to sneak in on him. He was the only bird that I heard gobble this morning and it was a dead still day that carried the sound really good.

Sorry for the long post, but it seems like a good story to tell....it was a true desperation hunt after hunting every day of the season and having a limited amount of time before work this morning. They were henned up from Thursday on in my area, very little gobbling, and if they were gobbling, they had hens that took them away when you called back to them.

Almost forgot, he was a light 18.4lbs, 9" beard and 5/8" spurs. I'll remember this hunt for a long time for sure!

Nice post. Nice story. Nice bird. Congratulations on the nice hunt!

Good story 5R's! Sometimes you have to go on offense.

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