Any gobblers yet?

[Hoyt]

I been every day but two since March 19th. and only heard one gobble...yesterday morning. He gobbled one time way off and don't even know exactly which direction.
Called in two gobblers that came in quiet last wk..soon as I saw them..bout 40yds. to my left.. the lead bird saw my hen decoy and it weren't his type..did a 180 and booked it.. took his buddy with him. His buddy did give her one last over the shoulder look..when I clucked at him..but only a glance and was gone too. The hen decoy is now a pattern tester...and rightly so..just don't seem right to use decoys with a traditional flintlock anyway.
I did call in two otters..may be a clue to my callin ability..what's so bad is I tought my zoom was on and it wasn't..would have been a great picture if it had been. Could have counted their wiskers..only about 12yds. from me.

 

[Rebel]

You sure thems Turkeys and not River Otters? :crackup: My eyes must really be geting bad, cuz they look like otters to me. ::

 

[Slamfire]

We had thunder, lightning, wind, cold, rain, sleet, and snow but no hail, and no turkeys neither. They must'a been lurkin' around some cave or somethin'. I'm hangin' out by the soup pot now, ain't goin' back until its dry. :shake:

 

[roundball]

We had thunder, lightning, wind, cold, rain, sleet, and snow but no hail, and no turkeys neither. They must'a been lurkin' around some cave or somethin'. I'm hangin' out by the soup pot now, ain't goin' back until its dry. :shake:

Mine opens next Saturday the 9th...I've located and scouted a flock in the same place the last two Saturdays in a row now...they're appearing in a small field right along side of a very dense thicket by 9:00am-9:30am.

The Tom occasionally fluffs out to his full plumage and struts back and forth just a few yards outside the edge of that thicket, and next Saturday I'll be 10-15yds back inside the thicket before first light, waiting to see if they find their way to that little field again.

Here's hoping the .62cal Flint smoothbore gets a chance to speak...
:winking:

 

[RussB]

You sure thems Turkeys and not River Otters? :crackup: My eyes must really be geting bad, cuz they look like otters to me. ::

Yeah, me too. :shocking:

Looks like Bartles & James. (My own "pet" otters.)

Russ

 

[KyFlintlock]

Hoyt,

Sounds like you are giving them Hell. :thumbsup: Sooner or later the hammer will fall!

That is a cool otter pic.

Good luck

 

[Slowpoke]

I've killed 2, Friday and Saturday... 16 and 18 pounds. The weather was terrible (rain) After hunting the same area for 15 years, I knew where they go most of the time when it rains. Both days I setup between their roost and the feeding area. The second day I didn't even use my call, just sat there and waited. Shot both of them with my 20g smoothrifle.
I took my nephew out the previous weekend for a youth only hunt. I set him up 20 yards ahead of me in the same spot. Instead of coming in the way I thought they would, they came in behind me. When a pair of jakes were about 20-30 behind me I saw him slowly peer around the tree and bring his gun around. My eyes got really big and my heart skipped a beat. I made a anger pointing motion :nono: the other way and he turned himself back around. The movement cause the turkey to scatter. It was a mistake on both our parts, I never should have set him up away from me and he never should have turned around. Lessons learned. My brother is taking him out again this week, hopefully he'll get one before the end of the month.

SP

 

[Bob J]

Went up to the Florida panhandle huntin' camp weds. night with my daughter, huntin' buddy and his son. My 11 year old daughter was with me Thurs come daylight along a long abandoned forest road where we set up two hen and one jake decoys. Made a "blind" out of downed branches at the base of an oak tree about 20 yards from our "birds". Yelping about every 10 minutes with an aluminum slate call (and some cutts and purrs) we didn't see anything for about 45 min., then here he came...one BIG gobbler with the biggest beard I've seen, slipped right on behind the decoys and stayed behind some thick stuff, about 35 yards out. Cocked the right hammer on the 10 ga and whispered, ever so quietly "Don't move, he's right there.." Thought he would step out on the old loggin' road to get a closer look at the decoys, but he started slippin' off. Quite a bit of brush between us and him. I reached down and made some soft yelps. Immediately he gobbled at the top of his lungs, feathers and chest puffed out like a balloon. But he continued moving off, answering loudly to every yelp. These new plastic decoys have some white spots on them that just don't look right :hmm: Might have to get some dull brown paint and see if that makes a difference...Anyways we had some great hunts, but no bird this time. My friend called a big tom in for his ten year old boy, but he got excited and missed it. The SE Annual Rendevous was only about 20 miles from our camp and we had a great time there Saturday. There's nothing like sharing a hunting/camping/and-or Rendevous adventure with a kid!