Spring wild turkey

We usually hunt later season in MN and WI and do quite well. Fewer birds, pressured birds by that time of the year. If you are confident in your calling they still come in. I have found that a pair or trio of Toms will be more aggressive in coming in than a single gobbler during these later seasons.

25 years ago or so I hunted all public land - north of the metro and where once this was the northern range of the MN population ... a few things have happened since. A bit older and don't run and gun like I used to. Hunt much more private land now albeit the land I hunt now is not the same as 10 years ago due to land continuously being developed ... even far from towns and the big city.
 
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I hunted Kansas once about 20 years ago. We had very good success hunting WIHAs. Interestingly the farm we had permission to hunt on put most of his better "turkey" land into that WIHA program.

We were amazed at the large number of birds seen from the road driving/scouting around ... seemed like you would see a strutter or two and a group of hens every few miles. Minnesota and Wisconsin have plenty of turkeys, but I find they do not like to hang out much in the open once the winter flocks breakout and distribute out across the land.

Purchased our licenses over the counter the evening before. Now I read it is a nonresident lottery draw and a one bird limit. SD Black Hills has also moved to a NR lottery draw to reduce hunting pressure
 
UplandJim said:
My turkey spots dried up (literally) in the rolling plains TX but we’ve had some hatches last couple of years just waiting on some jakes to grow up…. You know it’s time to give em a break when you have em all named 😁
Tactics…. Find roost, locate strutting yards between roosts put out a hen decoy yelp and purr early… heat of the day get by a tank ( water) yelp a bit and a thirsty Tom might drop in…. I hunt with my Chesapeake he is my turkey dog and really loves it. He has a really good eye for em and has alerted me to more than one Tom coming in from my 6.
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Hope you had some tick dope on in that nice photo
 
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BritChaser said:
Hope you put some tick dope on
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1 oz of 10% permethrin from any farm store. 20 oz water. This is a pesticide. Spray on cloths only. Smell dissipates when its dry. I keep a spray bottle in the back of the truck and a bottle at home. I use it on everything except the garden and berries. That's about the same ingredients as the Sawyers and Permanon spray, only you can make several 20 oz bottles for the price as one 8oz bottle of the store-bought stuff.
 
birddude said:
1 oz of 10% permethrin from any farm store. 20 oz water. This is a pesticide. Spray on cloths only. Smell dissipates when its dry. I keep a spray bottle in the back of the truck and a bottle at home. I use it on everything except the garden and berries. That's about the same ingredients as the Sawyers and Permanon spray, only you can make several 20 oz bottles for the price as one 8oz bottle of the store-bought stuff.
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It works great
 
Shot one yesterday afternoon in Nebraska have a tough day of hunting and could have had another today but was calling for my buddy and elected to not take a gun because I didnt want to risk being done for the season. He had no shot and I had plenty of opportunities so glad I didnt carry one or my season would be over.
Yesterday was horrible with 40 mph wind. This morning was awesome, birds were far more responsive. The most promising thing I saw was a group of 8 jakes that came in and wouldn't leave. Next year is already looking good.
 
birddude said:
My plan is to shoot one right in the face at 20 yards. My strategies have changed through the years. Labor intense work kept me in in pretty good shape for years. But the toll catches up with a guy. If I hadn't landed a desk job for the last decade or so of my career, I don't think I'd still be hunting. So worn out body, quadruple the number of hunters and dwindling acers have forced me into a creep sit call and nap sort of deal. It works If you're in the right place, but I miss those days of run and gun through the national forest. I've been pretty successful. Not really through any sort of skill, just an ornery streak I got from my dad. Rain or shine I'm hunting them. As far as failures, I don't care how good you are there's going to be a lot more failures than successes. There's absolutely nothing like an old tom gobbling at you at close range! It's an obsession and all who's into it are in this strange cult. You know who you are.
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Thumbs down on that shooting in the in the face comment, that's lowbrow.
 
UplandJim said:
Hope that my post didn’t read” hunt the roost” really bad idea ….. FIND roost(s) so you don’t have to wait 4 hours for one to walk to you….that tank in the photo where Gus ( the dog and I are sitting is a solid mile and a half from a roost at my 12:00 for example…. There is another roost about 4 miles to my 6 and another small one ( kinda fluid ) about 3 and a half miles on my 9:00.
By the way, if you don’t know where they roost, how do you avoid it?😀
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You don't go up high, you stay down in the draw..
 
A lot of times, Tom won't come all the way to you, so you have to be willing to close the gap, and that needs to be done very carefully. Don't over call, but you need to take their temperature, and if they are fired up, keep calling and try to get in position for a shot, but stay in the woods, don't go out in the open.
 
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