The Big Break

April 11, 2011 Lock, Stock and Bedlam No Comments

It's Time!

…just in time for the opener of the shotgun opener there is some great news for turkey hunters…the big winter flocks have been busting up nicely & love is in air!…my adventures in the field have gotten more and more interesting, and I think one of the best time for spring turkey hunting is just around the corner…many of the hens are getting the urge to separate from the flock, but aren’t necessarily in the jealous breeding stage, yet…what this means to us turkey-chasers is that gobbling birds are popping up in areas they haven’ t been in awhile and that some birds are doing a bit of traveling during the day…to me this means that patience is a key to success this week and likely into the weekend…two archery hunts from this last week are great examples of what is happening:

1) In the pre-dawn dark I snuck into the woodlot and set the blind in a spot that has been good to me the last couple of years…the first gobble of the morning sounded off at 6:06 a.m…half-hour later I was listening to several gobblers sound-off from the same general spot, but none were within 400 yards of me…as far as I know they never closed the distance either…very likely had all the hens in that one spot and had no reason to leave them…

2) A day later in a nearby river-bottom timber the same scenario was playing out - however the gobbling birds were a bit more spread out – but still nothing closer than 300 yards…however, about 90 minutes after the first morning’s gobble I had a strutter closing the distance on me – rattling the woods I was in…he was following a lone hen who was moving away from the rest of the flock…she didn’t seem very interested in the tom, but he wasn’t about to lose her…

…so if you find yourself without a bird running to your call immediately after fly-down – don’t give-up!…you may still get to carry a gobbler out of the field just a bit later…

hershy