Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Turkey Season 2010

OK guys. Let's see them.

I'll start ... oh, I mean ... my daughter will start

Opening day of Youth Turkey Season (April 17th) here in Indiana. 2 minutes after legal shooting light ...



OK, my turn. This morning, opening day of Regular Turkey Season. 15 minutes after legal shooting light ...



Scott, are you on the board yet?

Are hens legal????

We'll see what tomorrow morning brings!

I've just been pulling my hair out so far...

Same here had hunted 6 days since the 12th and they have been prefect weather wise. I called in a nice 23 pound tom for a friend on Sunday morning but that is the only one so far. They are really henned up by me. Going to try Saturday - Monday and then thats it for me. I heading to Lake Erie May 1 to fish walleyes for a week

Yeah, they are henned up bit time here in VA. I was thinking about hunting Saturday, but I am gonna fish instead. PA's season doesn't start til May 1, so I still have plenty of time to kill birds. I have always had better luck towards the end of the season.

Nothing this a.m. Heard gobbling from the roost on the other side of the field that we couldn't hunt. Had one hen start to come in from the left, but 2 coyotes thought they could make a meal from her. They didn't, and they weren't even interested in the decoys. They worked their way over to where all the gobbling was coming from, and that was that. The birds shut up and nothing came out except for one jake, and he was about 500 Yds away and not interested in coming closer.

I've seen a couple of hens but haven't even heard a gobble.

Well, the boy (8 years old) had a chance this morning before school. Long story, but I'll keep it short.

Basically, set up, called to the bird and he flew down and worked our way. Perfect set up and he read the script so well that he will be recieving an Oscar this year. Gobbled in our face at 15 yards. Walks in front of the gun barrel at 10 yards! My boy was nervous to pull the trigger. Worried about the kick. The bird busted us and ran off.

I cheered him up best I could, told him I was proud of how he is really becoming a great hunter (like sitting still and not moving), and how we can practice and keep after them.

Totally my fault! He did shoot the gun before the season 6 days ago and did just fine. I should have had him shooting more frequently. Oh well. Lesson learned. We'll shoot more often and get out and keep chasing them.

What a hunt! This is really adicting!

I am finding that I get excited when I see a bunch of turkeys, but I get more excited one I see one lone gobbler. I killed a nice one last year and this year and they were alone. I think they work to a call better that way.

Mike:

If the bird is that close, I'll bet he could do just as well with a 20 ga.

Or, the 12 ga. and lighter loads.

If you want to try something different, give me a hollar and I'll see what I have. I could whip up something too, I have both 12ga and 20ga reloading stuff. If you don't have a 20 ga and want to try it, let me know, I've got a Franchi 48AL you could borrow that has a kick-eez pad on it.

He had the 20. My daughter has a Mossberg Bantam. Nice little gun. It came with a stock shim to lengthen the stock and then you can buy a full length stock when they grow. My daughter killed her 2 birds with it. Really, a lifelong gun. I think the problem is, he was nervous about the turkey loads. I should have put light loads in the gun. At that distance, target loads would have gotten it done.

It was still cool!

We have time.

How did you do?

It was wet out this a.m. so I stayed in. There might be a break in the weather tomorrow morning (I hope).

It poured at 2AM this morning but at 5 AM the skys where clear and we went out to one of the double bull blind (in the narrows). It wasn't until 5:45 that we heard the first gobble that was the bad thing. The good thing is that it was less than 100 yards from us. He didn't gobble much on the roost and we didn't hear him fly down. On the ground he would gobble everytime we would cut at him. At wasn't long and he reached the edge of the field and was 35 yards away. My partner for the weekend is a little impatience and took at shot at he there and missed. The turkey ran alone the field edge and 4 more shots later (from both of us) he laid dead in the clover field. Turns out it was a jake and I would of perfered that we didn't shot him but my buddy gets one weekend a year to hunt and he shots any legal bird.



We sat for a while in the blind and hear a couple of gobbles way to the SSW and decide to go after that bird. We took the Jake
back to the pole barn and headed out to the west of the trailer after the bird we heard. We walked out about 300 yards and started calling. We now heard the bird to our WNW and he didn't sound real close. I train was coming and we used the noise of the train to cover our movement towards the tom. Well the train passed and we were not quite where we wanted to be. But that didn't stop the tom from gobbling less than 100 yards away. We quickly found a tree to sit against and for 90 minutes had a calling contest with the tom. He never really moved from the area he was in and finally got tired or his hens moved on so he did to. We never saw him. We moved back to the double bull blind and finished the day out there (shooting closes at 1 PM in Illinois). Its been rain hard since 3:45 this afternoon so we are going to have a real wet one in the morning.

My daughter's first bird was a jake and my first bird was a jake as well. We are both proud of those birds. Congrats on a fun day. I'm happy to say that my daughter killed a turkey before I ever did 2 years ago. It has turned into an addiction now! We got lucky this year.

Just glad its over. Horrible on my place after three years of bad hatch. Plus the grass carp have eaten all the cover in my pond, I cannot even find a bass, bluegills and CCat doing well and I cannot hit a carp with a 22 to save my life.

Sigh

Tomorrow is the last day FCM67693. You going out?

I have a lot turkey on a creek below my pond. I hear the all the time. I was using a hand held turkey call trying to call them up or at least getting them to respond. I had used the call a few minutes and looked down and there was a raccoon standing right next to me staring at the call. when I noticed him, I jumped about 10 feet in the air and he took off like a rocket. I guess I at least know I can call up raccoons

Over until next year. I took the boy out a number of times and we were on turkeys every sit. He had a crossbow in hand which did up the challenge level.

In the end, no bird. Breeding started early this year with the unusually warm April. By the end of the season, the birds just were not responding to the calls. We had a blast though.

Ok, now let's fish!