Yesterday on day 5 of 5 of my turkey hunt, I dusted this nice tom just before 8am.  4 hens, 5 jakes, and 2 toms came walking out of the timber to my right at 40 yards.  I had been hearing and seeing this group of turkeys for several days, but just never close enough.  I ditched the decoys and calls, moved my blind a little, and just waited.  Its the nicest turkey I've bagged in 4 years.

Whenever one of the jakes would get too close to a hen, a tom would aggressively chase it off.  After I shot the tom, the other tom pecked, spurred, and kicked dirt on the dead one for 15 minutes before finally walking off.  The interaction between these birds is bizarre sometimes.

3 hours ago, gimruis said:

Yesterday on day 5 of 5 of my turkey hunt, I dusted this nice tom just before 8am.  4 hens, 5 jakes, and 2 toms came walking out of the timber to my right at 40 yards.  I had been hearing and seeing this group of turkeys for several days, but just never close enough.  I ditched the decoys and calls, moved my blind a little, and just waited.  Its the nicest turkey I've bagged in 4 years.

Whenever one of the jakes would get too close to a hen, a tom would aggressively chase it off.  After I shot the tom, the other tom pecked, spurred, and kicked dirt on the dead one for 15 minutes before finally walking off.  The interaction between these birds is bizarre sometimes.

He’s a beauty. Congratulations ???????? great photos.

On 5/1/2023 at 9:04 AM, gimruis said:

Yesterday on day 5 of 5 of my turkey hunt, I dusted this nice tom just before 8am.  4 hens, 5 jakes, and 2 toms came walking out of the timber to my right at 40 yards.  I had been hearing and seeing this group of turkeys for several days, but just never close enough.  I ditched the decoys and calls, moved my blind a little, and just waited.  Its the nicest turkey I've bagged in 4 years.

Whenever one of the jakes would get too close to a hen, a tom would aggressively chase it off.  After I shot the tom, the other tom pecked, spurred, and kicked dirt on the dead one for 15 minutes before finally walking off.  The interaction between these birds is bizarre sometimes.

Nice one! 

great bird!!!!  no decoys and total ambush!  wow.  

Last Saturday was our first good weather day and as luck would have it I couldn’t get 6poundbass bass out of bed and of course the land owner texted me saying he heard a bunch of birds gobbling. Sunday was crap and didn’t see or hear a thing. 
 

Tomorrow is going to be perfect so I’m hoping the trees will be littered with thunder chickens making all kinds of noise! 

Week 3 trip 5:

 

The weather has been much better so we were pretty hopeful we’d have some action this morning and we did. We didn’t hear anything in the area we were sitting which was disappointing. Around 6:45 we heard a couple gobbles in the field across the road so we took off in that direction. As we got closer to the road we saw 5 or 6 hens along the tree line about 50 yards from one of the other blinds we sit in. Go figure we didn’t sit in it and there are turkeys in front of it. The only way to get to them without being busted was to sneak through the woods and try and cut them off. Turns out in order to get to the tree line we’d have to find a way to get through a swamp which was quite the adventure lol. We managed to get through the swamp without any major mishaps. By the time we got to the field they were gone but we did hear a Jake gobble a few times but never ended up seeing him. 
 

We came home empty handed but we had quite the swamp adventure and had fun along the way so we had a good morning with some excitement. We’re going to set up in that field in the morning and see what happens. With the weather warming I’m thinking tomorrow might be our last chance to get one before they hen up and as you fellow turkey hunters know once they hen up it gets pretty difficult. 
 

We shall see. 

3 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

but we did hear a Jake gobble a few times

That’s a new one on me. Only toms gobble from what I’ve seen, not jakes.

 

Maybe you meant to type tom, not jake.

12 minutes ago, gimruis said:

That’s a new one on me. Only toms gobble from what I’ve seen, not jakes.

 

Maybe you meant to type tom, not jake.

Jakes gobble too. If you listen real close you can tell the difference between their gobble. A Jake can’t finish their gobble like a tom does, it’s shorter than a mature gobbler. On top of the shorter gobble it also sounds like a teenage boy with his voice cracking compared to an adult male with a deeper voice. 

Go to the 1:20 mark

 

8 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

Go to the 1:20 mark

I listened to it 10 times now and the gobbling all sounds the same to me.

2 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I listened to it 10 times now and the gobbling all sounds the same to me.

I get it and it took me a while way back when to hear the difference but once you can hear it it’s pretty noticeable. 

4 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

I get it and it took me a while way back when to hear the difference but once you can hear it it’s pretty noticeable. 

I’ll just take your word for it. Do the jakes gobble on the roost too early in the morning? All the jakes I saw this season were completely silent. I saw the same group of them three times in 5 days when I was hunting.

32 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I’ll just take your word for it. Do the jakes gobble on the roost too early in the morning? All the jakes I saw this season were completely silent. I saw the same group of them three times in 5 days when I was hunting.

We’ve yet to hear any gobbling in the roost this year. Everything has been when they’re on the ground. It’s been a weird year so far. It’s either been crappy weather or wrong place wrong time. I’ve talked to the land owner and he has said he hears gobbling fairly regularly but quite the opposite for us. 

Week 3 trip 6

 

Sunday morning was another perfect morning. We sat in the blind where we saw the hens the morning before. On the way in we heard a pack of coyotes far off to the east. We had the usual geese and sandhill cranes in the corn field. After a bit I saw a critter walking about that was a bird but not a goose or a crane. It got close enough that I realized it was a hen! Shortly after that I heard a hen behind us by the swamp and further behind us I heard a faint gobble. The hen in the field hung out for quite a while and I was certain there would be a tom pop out looking for a date. As I'm scanning the tree line waiting for a big tom something catches my eye. It was a coyote! I thought for sure it would either go after the hen or our decoy, so I told 6poundbass to grab his gun and get ready. As quickly as I saw him he was gone. Thankfully the hen didn't notice and she didn't miss a beat looking for food. After she passed on through we got up and checked out a couple of other fields with luck.

 

My hunch that this past weekend was going to be our last good chance seems to be accurate. I spoke to my stepdad late that morning and he said he hasn't seen or heard any while hunting but did see some on other property and they were henned up. I've seen a few different one in my travels this week and it's just a tom with a few hens so I'm guessing they're henned up everywhere now. I'm thinking I'm going to pull the plug on the 2023 spring turkey hunt and start fishing now which I'm good with and sounds like 6poundbass is too. Maybe, just maybe I'll get a wild hair and make another trip or two out to see if I can find one I can stalk and get close enough for a shot. That's if the bass aren't cooperating. 

i have seen with my own eyes Jakes gobbling.  they want love too.  they wont call much if i use a Tom Decoy, so i dont.  i have a jake decoy only..with a hot hen named Debbie.

 

i wont say i can tell the difference between their call, versus a Tom.