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Anybody been turkey hunting yet this year I’ve heard the turkeys are gobbling like crazy despite the cold and people are having lots of success
Anybody been turkey hunting yet this year I’ve heard the turkeys are gobbling like crazy despite the cold and people are having lots of success
On Tuesday, April 10, I killed a 26 lb tom in southern Illinois. I heard no gobbling until around 8:15. It was relatively close and when I gave my call, he cut me off quickly and repeatedly. I finally shot him around 8:35. That was the only bird gobbling I heard. He might have just weighed 25 because he probably had a pound of mud on him from flopping around in the flood soaked ground.
I also hunted southern Illinois and it took me 4 hours to score. Last year it was just one. This was public land. At sunrise I hade no less than 8 toms gobbling on three sides within 200 yards. By 8 AM I had 5 toms fighting in front of me, with 7 hens. Was just a matter of time. When the hens broke up to nest at 10 AM two toms visited my setup. All birds were very vocal the entire morning. Never saw another truck nor hunter.
Got skunked first season in IL....seemed like they were all in big bunches still. The merriams in the mountains don’t let a little cold and snow bother them though. Closed the deal on one Saturday.
Hey Zim I don't hear you complaining about public land now.
I was out last week in Marion County and saw a few but no shots. I'm going back out Thursday so we'll see if they are still gobbling good. I'm taking the kids with me so I'm hoping we see something.
awh302, Turkey do not equal deer. Nobody's going to pay our NR rates for a bird. In fact, 99% of all turkey hunters, R or NR, aren't going to drive more than a couple hours for a bird. And they aren't going to hike more than 30 minutes from a public parking lot. So it's been very easy for me to find remote areas with no hunters, as I can hunt the entire state due to my job. But the biggest factor is no legislators butting in to manage turkey because there is zero NR demand, zero NR's dollars, zero special interest groups loading legislators pockets with coin to buy their weapon/season shortcuts. The ILDNR is allowed to manage the resource responsibly. Absolutely none of this is the case with deer. That's why Illinois public land deer hunting sucks so much these days.
Not hard to get into lots of public toms if you are willing to scout hard, drive 5 hours, hike in one hour+. Most are not. Not the case for deer, including unlimited NR's piling in from TN, LA, AL, MS, GA, FL, MI, etc. Saw zero of these this hunt
Not hard to get into lots of public toms if you are willing to scout hard, drive 5 hours, hike in one hour+. Most are not. Not the case for deer, including unlimited NR's piling in from TN, LA, AL, MS, GA, FL, MI, etc. Saw zero of these this hunt
Few photos from my short hunt.
I have killed a few birds over the years but hadn't hunted them for about a decade due to just not having a good place to hunt them (and my calling skills are probably questionable also).
But got a new place to hunt last year, that seemed to have quite a few turkeys (So. IL - Randolph Co.) so I splurged & actually got 2 tags - 2nd & 4th seasons.
I didn't get one 2nd season but did learn a lot about where to most likely find them. This did lead to a short (about an hour & a half) 4th season. That morning (27th) was very quite & I didn't hear any gobbling until a couple toms and a few hens came out into the field I was set up by. These turkeys did not seem impressed with my calling so I just quit calling and waited hoping they'd come closer. I also crawled down into a deep creek bed so I could get closer, unseen. It took them about 1/2 hour to go from 250 yards out to about 50, of course not coming straight to me. But I was able to walk down that creek bed towards the part of the field they were in. Peeked out of the creek bed and the closest bird was a tom. Second look at him was over the front sight. Two year old with 9 " beard. Very nice spring morning.
And to top it off, one of my buddies had plenty of morels and likes dark turkey meat. I had dark turkey meat & no morels, so made a very nice trade!
Great pics and stories. I hunted first season Bond County. 2 inches snow on opening morning. Saw 9 with shots on 2 jakes and a bearded hen but passed since day 1. Hunted 4 days of season no luck. Hunted Jersey county north season 1...lots of gobbling and saw some big toms but they are not coming to the calls and don't like the decoys. Oh well that's turkey hunting.
Great pics and stories. I hunted first season Bond County. 2 inches snow on opening morning. Saw 9 with shots on 2 jakes and a bearded hen but passed since day 1. Hunted 4 days of season no luck. Hunted Jersey county north season 1...lots of gobbling and saw some big toms but they are not coming to the calls and don't like the decoys. Oh well that's turkey hunting.
Randolph is a good county for birds. I scouted some of the public there in the past, and have applied for it several times unsuccessfully. But it appeared lower down on my 10 choices list. It's pretty high demand. I prefer to search for low demand parcels under the radar.
