Turkey Season 2024 - Page 3

raidernarizona

9:04p, 4/8/24

I would look at Dave Smith Decoys or Deception Decoys.
I have two DSD hens, but use an Avian-X Jake. I like the look of the Deception Jake, but it's sold out right now.

AgDad121619

8:03p, 4/10/24

Headed to Junction for our annual hunt. Should be ideal gobbling weather -cool ,clear, and low wind.

AggieJames09

4:39p, 4/14/24

Wilson County has been a real weird season for me. I've only called in jakes every sit. Today I watched a flock of 17 birds in a field acting like it was winter. No strutting, no gobbling, just eating bugs together. I saw a tom a few days ago go to roost 1.5 hours before dark. Turkeys gunna Turkey

OnlyForNow

6:18p, 4/14/24

In reply to AggieJames09

Can my 9 year old come shoot a Jake ??

This is all I'm getting…

AgDad121619

6:42p, 4/14/24

We got one bird in 3 days of hard hunting, lots of gobbling on the roost (prob 8-10 different birds scattered up and down the canyon) but very little gobbling when they hit the ground. Yesterday was the only day that I was able to work them - had three different birds within 30 yards or less but always up in thick cedars that I could never pull into an open shooting lane

Had one set of birds that were camped in a deep draw strutting right in the center that were 15 feet deep and couldn't budge them - I had to crawl to edge and they must have busted me on the last move.

My son got an old gobbler that followed a hen into the flat he was hunting - one spur that was 11/4" long and sharp ; the other one broken off

AggieJames09

11:29a, 4/21/24

Started the morning on a permission property and at one point had 9 different jakes in front of me, year of the jakes. I messed with them a while then went to my family farm down the road around 9:15. This bird and two jakes were in my front field about 200 yards from the gate. I crawled with my strutter decoy only and set it up just enough in the open for them to see it.
Hit the box call once and they came in. Been a grind this season, finally found a good one.

AgDad121619

7:54a, 4/22/24

That is a rope!

jel_2002

8:16a, 4/22/24

It was a tough weekend for us hunting Eastern Kansas. Weather was chilly, mid 40s. We walked around some different private properties (farm land) shock calling, and didn't hear a single gobble.

We finally checked a different area where we immediately spotted a ton of turkeys in the afternoon. We came back the next morning before light, set up the decoys, and started calling a bit. They didn't respond at all. A nearby rooster somewhere crowed a few times and the turkeys gobbled back at him from wherever they were roosting. I could hear lots of gobbles from trees in different directions. But they did not respond to any of our various calls, or even the crows that were making noise also. Weird. In years past they have come running to these calls.

Weather? Mistimed the rut? Pressure from other hunters? No idea.

OnlyForNow

8:46a, 4/22/24

In reply to jel_2002

Very odd season in Bosque county. Turkeys are around but none seemed interested in what we're offering.

highvelocity

8:37p, 4/26/24

Got my first solo bird Thursday morning. Was walking to hunting location and saw three birds in the field with one strutter. I guess they saw me through the trees bc they hauled ass the opposite direction. I sat and watched, called and waited, no movement or vocals. Decided to change position and head to the tree line where the birds moved off to. I walked in about 100 yards, called, no answer. Walked another 50 yards, called. Immediate and big gobble. I sit in the brush in a hurry, call again, 2 gobble response. This goes on for about 20 minutes. Birds aren't moving and I cannot see them.

I crouch down and move through the trees to the next clearing, birds. Two toms are locked on a hen. I call, they respond, but no movement. I proceed to crawl 150 yards through the tall grass and behind a small roll in the hill where they can't see me. I finally get to about 30 yards, stand up quickly and hammer all three shots at the Tom that was closest. All three birds scatter and I'm not quite sure what happened. Give it about 30 seconds and I hear some fluttering and a heavy thump. I find feathers and find my bird still alive. I put my knife through the back of his neck and that's all she wrote.

Fun first bird experience

GeorgiAg

9:23a, 4/27/24

I've never had so many turkeys in my life. They just hang out in my yard now.

TxAgPreacher

9:30a, 4/27/24

I saw 6 this morning.

OnlyForNow

4:33p, 4/27/24

In reply to GeorgiAg

Can I come shoot one?

AGdent07

1:50p, 4/29/24

Got back up to Arkansas last weekend with another Ag. Weather was rough with lots of rain. Birds spent most of their time in open fields and didn't present many opportunities. Saw lots of birds but they didn't respond to much calling. Hunted all day Saturday and watched a group of four toms for about four hours as they worked across a field towards us. Lost them at the end and thought they were heading up to roost. Got lucky though and they were in the draw right below us and we got them to work back into range for a double.

AgDad121619

2:18p, 4/29/24

Good mature birds with the spurs in those pics

Apache

2:53p, 4/29/24

Bummer of a season, was only able to hunt opening weekend & last weekend.
Winds Saturday were howling 25 MPH with gusts to 40. Bad conditions.
Sunday morning was a rainout. Worse conditions.

Well at least opening weekend was fun. Kids spring sports sure make a mess of hunting.

AgDad121619

9:38a, 4/30/24

Headed to SD week of May 10 with my son to try to get our first Merriams. Hunting Standing Rock reservation which straddles SD/ ND border on recommendation of friend that hunted there - will update as hint unfolds for anyone interested in getting their Merriams for a slam

AGdent07

10:02a, 4/30/24

In reply to AgDad121619

That's the next bird on my list. We've talked about New Mexico and Colorado for next year. Really curious about South Dakota. We have been successful in the past with public land and would like to do try public land as well.

BradMtn346

12:46a, 5/1/24

I started my season with a donated hunt to Pheasants Forever. They were the only upland bird organization that invited me to the banquet. I was a member of the turkey Federation, but they never sent me an invite.

Ally hunted 2 days before she connected with this tom.

She packed him out of the valley all by herself.

Justice was next at bat. Another hunt giveaway. She passed several jakes, hoping for a tom, but ended up killing a cedar tree right above the turkeys head.

It was a pleasure taking her and her dad out. Her grandpa has turkeys on his place, so I was assured she'd have another opportunity.

We had the Huntndivas out last weekend. They are a nonprofit that gets ladies into the outdoors. They put the smackdown on some turkeys.

ttha_aggie_09

7:43a, 5/1/24

In reply to BradMtn346

I've got a nonprofit called huntndudes - can I come turkey hunt with you?

JK. You bringing out the scouts again? I think that was the group of kids you had a few years back when I was there.

BradMtn346

8:28p, 5/1/24

In reply to ttha_aggie_09

ttha_aggie_09 said:
I've got a nonprofit called huntndudes - can I come turkey hunt with you?

JK. You bringing out the scouts again? I think that was the group of kids you had a few years back when I was there.

They were kid and nephews of a producer of an outdoor show. Outback Outdoors. Used to be on the Sporsman's Channel, now Amazon or YouTube. They got their regular hunt canceled because of Covid. The lady that runs Hunt-n-Divas knew I was a sucker for kids, and she connected us.

FirefightAg

7:12p, 5/6/24

Got on one today. It's been rough seems like they were early this year caught this one moving in an open field.

htownag2007

12:29p, 5/8/24

Does anyone have recs for the greater Houston area? I shot a pretty nice one that I want to mount. The ones I've asked around BCS don't do turkeys.

cahoots

12:59p, 5/8/24

I guided my buddy to his first birds ever. We hunted for 2 days at our place in Schleicher County last weekend. Despite storms messing up our Friday evening hunt, we persevered and stayed optimistic, putting in an average of 8 miles hiking a day.

The best part of the weekend was being flexible in our strategy, which paid off in a big way. Saturday afternoon we decided to set up in a known strut zone with a Jake decoy and periodic calling. That ultimately produced a shot at a jake for my buddy 180 degrees behind his position nestled up to a large live oak. He swung around the tree and made a good shot and follow-up kill shot on the bird.

Sunday AM we had only until 8 AM to hunt because of travel. We went to a ridge and listened in draws on both sides ready to approach birds gobbling on the roost. We eventually heard one about 700 yards down a draw and we're very aggressive, resulting in a quick, very rewarding hunt. As we approached the bottom of the draw, we bumped 15 hens and jakes that was initially a very sinking feeling. Fortunately, the gobbler roosted 200 yards away and responded immediately to yelping despite the fly down and hens' putts. We had a split second to stay on one side of a dry creek or crawl under an internal fence and set up on the other side. I decided quickly to get us under the fence and I set up my buddy in a juniper at the edge of a strut zone, which proved to be the right choice. After a few series of soft yelps and clucks, the tom gave my buddy the whole show strutting and drumming up to 30 yards, where my buddy rolled him. By 6:59, the old 3+ yr old was on the ground and gave us time to reflect on such a successful hunt after being so aggressive pressing the gobbler's engagement zone. I'm still on cloud 9 and so happy for my buddy and I know he's hooked for life now.

AgDad121619

10:18a, 5/18/24

Just finished a (nearly ) week long hunt for Merriam's on Standing Rock reservation with 0-fer the week. It is an amazingly game rich area along the Missouri River and the res straddles the SD/ND line.

There were lots of birds but almost no gobbling - I think we were at least a week late as the birds were back in hen and gobbler groups. They were roosted in any area that had drainages with cottonwood and burr oaks and we found several roost trees We had a lot of opportunities but just couldn't get the birds to commit to the final few years to get an ethical shot or had to attempt a blind stalk as they would gather on open ridge tops once they hit the ground.

Our first morning we located a couple of gobblers driving a smaller creek drainage with a coyote call but couldn't get any answers to yelping and felt like the birds were on the other side of creek so we drive back to bridge and hiked up the backside of creek back toward birds a mile up creek. We intercepted them about 3/4 of a mile in and finally got two birds gobbling. Were able to call them to within 75 yards and had an another gobbler and hen answering from another direction. Both sets of birds hung up and then got lockjaw. Our last moves in them yielded nothing.

Had another couple of hunts where we had birds close that didn't like our fans on first hunt - bird was within 50 yards and had my bead on it waiting for it to get another 5 yards closer to clear some junk for a clean shot that just turned and walked a steep hill for no apparent reason until I noticed my fan was visible propped up by a small bush that I didn't notice when I laid it down

Had another bird that was yelping as it was coming in (thought is was a hen at first ) but went nuts putting when it saw my hen decoy and turned and walked through some junk that I could see glimpses of his red head that never presented a good shot.

My last good hunt was duel with boss hen that had a gobbler in tow - she was pissed and just making a racket every time I talked over her - then had a rain storm kick up that immediately shut everything down.

We had several other spot and stalk hunts on birds across the big draws that we got close to but stalking turkeys in open fields when they aren't responding to calls is always dicey. Lots of glassing and open hilltops that you could see for miles. Most of our hunts were along the big river.

We will go back again but earlier in the season - in addition to the high turkey population, we glassed up multiple muleys and white tails, saw hundreds of ducks in every little field puddle out there, and saw pheasants all along the road side - the roosters literally glow when the evening sun hits them. In a fifteen minute stretch that first morning , we flushed two pheasants , put up some mallards out of the creek, jumped a whitetail and heard turkeys gobbling. Got a ten minute video of mule deer buck feeding within 17 yards one evening at the bottom of a draw I was setup in. Got a ton of OnX waypoints for birds for anyone that wants to get a merriam on (semi) public land in SD. We also managed to catch a walleye, wiper, shad, and a big smallie in 30 min of fishing at a boat launch pier off of Lake Oahe. Would be an awesome pheasant / duck hunt in October when seasons overlap

AgDad121619

10:29a, 5/18/24

AgDad121619

10:30a, 5/18/24