How did everyone do?

[Shakky]

I had an interesting morning. I thought I was going to freeze to death. Worst conditions I have ever hunted turkey in. It was freezing rain and that N/W wind was cold and had to be coming in at 35-40 kmh. I managed to hear one gobbler but I figured he was around 200 yards away and he didn't respond to any of my calls or I couldn't hear him. Saw one hen and a tom on my way out but they were far away and I was cold so I packed it in. I'll be back at it on Thursday. Anyone have better luck then I did? I couldn't put my decoys out as they would have blown away. Any tips on how to hunt in this kind of weather?

[TYE]

Any tips on how to hunt in this kind of weather?

Don't

There will be plenty of good days to come. You have till the end of May.

[the elf]

Tye........A diehard hunter just ----has to be out there on the opening day.....no matter what!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TYE]

Tye........A diehard hunter just ----has to be out there on the opening day.....no matter what!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh heck yeah, but I'm saying after the opening day, there's lot's of normal days.

[mtbyak]

I did not even hear a gobble

Darn cold & windy with hail, rain & what not.

Put my dekes out but had to pull them back in as they were just spinning in circles from the wind

Almost got one with my van though on the way home

Will go back at again tomorrow for a couple of hours again


Shoot Straight
Kirk

[Fox]

Rain, snow, wind, deer but no turkeys. I was not able to stay out long, even my 12" boots were not high enough for the water hole on the walk in. Not a very nice day to hunt them but hey I had to be out there. Back to the old place tomorrow with hopes for something better.

[huntfishfam]

Hi everyone, here's my opening day story.
Got to my spot, set up my dekes, got myself comfy and waited for daylight.I dosed off from time to time, the last time I woke up to see 5, yes 5, jakes walking right to me, about 50 yrds to the right there were 3 more coming. The 5 walked over to join the 3 and looked as if they were all going to leave.Then they all came right back to my dekes, I had 8 jakes 25 yrds in front of me. I had to move soooo slowly to get my gun up to my shoulder.A good thing they were too preoccupied with each other and my dekes to notice me. Finally got my gun up, picked a bird and... MISSED!!! I can't believe I MISSED!! 8 birds 25 yrds away and I miss I just can't help but laugh. Must be Wild Turkey Fever.
Back to the woods Saturday.

[LoneWolf]

We got , rain, rain, and cold, then decided to head back home. The birds weren't vocal at all this morning. I did see two hens and even got one on film, and also got a coyote on film too. Was he ever eyeing my decoys, but knew something wasn't right so he moved on. Tomorrow's another day, and it's suppose to be a nicer day.

[ecoaster]

I head three different gobblers this morning. I was in really early and got set up in the dark. At 6:05 I heard the first gobble, then I heard a twig break, then another, and another. Thought it was a deer coming until I saw this guy motoring right along. He passed right between me and my decoys before I whistled. He told me he was going down to the field corner and that he dropped a buddy at the first corner. So here it is opening morning and I got a guy on each side of me within 300 yards. Kinda reminded me of why I don't fish trout openers any more. Don't like the crowds.

Had one gobbler pass behind me at 100 yards and he would not come in. He got spooked when he got down near the one guy (probably saw him move). At 8:00 am here comes buddy again right between me and the decyoys. He waved, and I tried not to get too pissed off.

Okay the first time was an accident, but comeon, you don't have to walk through my setup two hours later.

Anyway, I did hear some birds and hopefully everyone got it out of their system this morning and tomorow will be a bit less crowded. Gotta find me some private land to hunt.

At least 5 guys hunting this property and I didn't hear a shot.

[peter p]

I've always had success on days like this.
I took a jake at 6:45 am this morning.
I located 3 male turkeys, (2 jakes and 1 tom) in the roost at around 5:30 am and sat against a tree about 150 yards away from them.
I figured they would have hens with them like they always do at this time of the year and it would be tricky trying to get the tom to come in.
It started raining heavily so I waited a bit before calling.
At around 6:15am I called lightly and had a response from the tom. A little while later I called softly again and had all three gobble back. This time I did some cutting and they all gobbled back again and now I knew they knew where I was so I waited.
At 6:30am the 2 jakes flew down from the roost and landed behind me. I wanted to get the tom so I waited for him to come off the roost but he flew down not far from his roosting tree with about 4 hens and went the other way. I waited for him to come but he never did.
After about 15 minutes with the 2 jakes behind me looking for the hen (me) they decided to leave and passed by me at around 60 yards.
I thought, well if the gobbler's not coming I'll try to call the jakes back in, so I yelped with my mouth call and had them coming back in from my right.
I took one of them with my shotgun.

He's really soaked due to the rain.

[BigUgly]

Went out to my normal spot and did'nt see a thing. Man was it cold and I was in a blind. Only stayed till about 8:00 then decided to try some local crown land. Found a place that looked like no vehicles where so headed in. Once I got off the trails I let out a call and got a response and thought this is good. Found a good tree and sat down and did some more calls another response a little closer. Waited awhile called again this time I heard a gobble as before followed by hen call. Never had that before, then saw my turkey about 5'8" 200# sneaking towards me. Man I have to wonder if everyone takes the same course I did. This guy was coming to my hen calls which we all know we can't shoot, wearing a pair of leather work gloves with blue and red cuffs. I called out to get his attention then unloaded stood up and walked out. I was so mad I didn't even want to listen as to how excited he was and that it was his first time out, which I did hear. I was just so upset I had to leave. Wish now I had explained some of the mistakes he was making. Would not have wanted to be in his place if another hunter like him was waiting for the turkey sneaking out to calls. Oh well try again another day.

[A.W]

peter p. Congrats on your bird.

BigUgly....I doubt that explaining things to your 200 lb turkey would have done any good. His first time out which means he just did the course, lends to the thought that he wasn't listening then either.

Too bad you didn't have a boombox with a Jimmy Hendrix CD in it.......Crank the volume and turn it on, watch the "brown feathers" fly.

[Shakky]

Congrats Peter.

[Woody Williams]

I'll tell you tomorrow (Wednesday)... Indiana opener

my son and myself have decided that we will do the Indiana turkey hunting a little tougher way by hunting them with a crossbow.

He will be on his first time ever crossbow turkey hunt using my TenPoint QX4 and I'll be using my Excalibur Exomag.

We already had one blind up on a field, but we needed another. I went up yesterday evening and put up a Doghouse pop up blind. The Doghouse is a decent blind for gun or crossbow. To draw a vertical bow in it is a tough proposition.

I parked at an old barn and I looked over to the field I was going to and a gobbler was out there picking and every once in awhile he would break into a half strut. I got my stuff ready and walked around the end of the barn and there stood two jakes 20 yards away. They skeedaddled towards the gobbler spooking him too.

That was good as I didn't have to spook him myself. Where he was picking and strutting was real close to where I was going to put the blind.I put it up basically in a finger of a woods that is at the start of an old fence row. I've got it facing a way that I can cover two fields so I'll probably have out two sets of decoys. One for each field.

Now to just sit back and wait until tomorrow morning..

[Woody Williams]

Congratulations Pete.

Are you sure that is a Jake?

His tail feathers aren't shaped like a jake's

http://www.wildturkeyzone.com/articles/aging2.htm