Rain strategies? What do the birds do?

[MarinePride]

I had the day off today and I knew it was going to rain at some point in the day, but not from first light to Noon. Needless to say I wanted to see what would happen just to get the experience. I set up my ground blind and put a jake and hen decoy out. I was in a hardwood bottom set up next to a very small stream. The rain wasn't that heavy and kind of on the light side, but I didn't hear one single gobble[:-]. This is the first time I went out that I didn't hear a thing.

I'm wondering just what the gobblers do when it's raining? Life goes on and they have to eat and live, regardless of the weather. Unfortunately, the legal shooting time ends at Noon here in VA. It was drizzly most of the day. I'm just wondering if what a good strategy is without getting soaked. I sat in the pop up blind for about 4 1/2 hours before I called it quits.

[Dr Andy]

We were out on sat in NE Illinois. It drizzled in the am then at 11am it really started coming down with thunder and lightning. On the way back to the truck we saw a lone hen on the field edge in the downpour. She spotted us and ran back into the woods. We had no gobbling after 6am

[Arrowmaster]

Yes Im sure the rain had something to do with it. Did you have any open fields you could have set up on? Turkeys will move to a field to to dry their feathers off once the rain ended or slacked off somewhat.

[Dr Andy]

This rain did't slack off it was literally pouring!

[Goose 11]

Last year on the last day of the season, I was hunting a favorite spto on a friends farm. The Turkeys had been kinda quiet the last few times I had gone, and the weather had been very wet. I didn't know it, but a tornado was about 20 miles west of where I was hunting and closing in fast. I set up in a spot that I like and waited for the sunto come up, of course it was very cloudy, and spitting rain. Then the lightening and thundar started! And as soon as it did, the gobbles started also! I listened to the gobbles and went about 100 yards to my east. I waited for a quiet moment and gave a fewclucks. After about 10 minutes, and some heavier rain, and of course lots of thunder, and gobbling after every thunder, he flew down to about 20 yardsaway from me. He immeadiatly turned and walked toward me in the edge of the brush. I shot him at 10 feet. He never gobbled after he hit the ground, but he was looking for me none the less. I high-tailed it out of there and when I saw the news about the tornado I was really shocked! It endedup taking down some trees in the areabut didn't really cause too much damage! It was an adventure, and I'll never forgetthat hunt! Just stay with them, they will talk eventually, of course if they have been pressured alot, that's the problem, not the rain. I say hunt it like it's dry! Like you said, they gotta eat!

Trae

[ktbearpaws]

It has been my experiance, that one thing you can count on with turkeys, is that you can't count on anything with turkeys.
On somemornings you think they should gobble thier heads off, they shut up!
On some mornings you think they will shut up, they gobble like crazy!
Therehas been several stormy mornings whenthey would ring out with every clap of thunder.
Then there has been several stormy mornings when they kept thier mouths shut.
When it rains, it is common for turkeys to be in fields, but sometimes they stay on roostall day.
It sometimes determined by how windy it is.
There is one thing I have found to be true..... That is, whatever one turkey is doing,then you can pretty much bet,that is what they all are doing.
If they are staying on roost, then keep your eyes in the trees.
If you see one in the fields,then I would set up there.
I went out yesterday evening trying to put some to bed, it was what I thought a perfect evening, but i never heard one gobble.
Little did I know that a storm front moved in the next morning.
You just never know....

[Washington Hunter]

I like to hunt known roosting areas during the rain. I don't find any reason to stay out during the day while it's raining. The birds in my area hole up in the brush during the rain until they decide to head to the roost. I'll hunt the evenings underneith the roosts and I can generally get a bird.

I took mine this year on his way to the roostafter it had been raining all day. It was drizzling when I took the shot, and started to pour when I was tagging him.

[Paul L Mohr]

Where I live they completely shut down when it rains. If you are going to hunt them in the rain it has to be in thick cover, they will not go in an open field. And they know before it rains. I was hunting last year and a bunch of them were in an open field working their way towards me. Then all of a sudden they just shut up and headed for cover. 5 minutes later it rained like an SOB.

Paul

[TurkeyStalker]

In my experience they will move to the fields if they are already on the ground.Last fall on the last day of the season the birds were still roosted at 9:30 am and I was about to give up because it was pouring and cold. So I tried one last thing in my bag of tricks. I bumped them off the roost then moved to a field edge where 4 gobblers came from the roost. Needless to say I had a bird by 10:30 and was giving Mr. longbeard a ride with me.

[Adrian J Hare]

When the rain starts on a highest level Turkeys will head to openings such as fields. They do not like the woods as their one defence that they have (Hearing) is now not a option for them because of the noise in the woods.

Turkeys are a lot like us, If we stand in the rain for a time period , we get to a point that we don't want to be there. If we get in a very noisy room and can not hear what people are saying , we simply stop talking or move to another room that we can hear better.
The same applies with turkeys , they can not hear hear well and the drops of rain sound like the tail gate of dump trucks slamming after dumping a load.

They need to head to clearings such as fields to us the other defence they have and that is Eye sight. They can also hear a little better in fields.

They are not going to head to a feild they are not use to , so they will travel to places that they have been before. This is why your scouting comes into effect. The places you have seen sign before the rain are places to spend the rainy days...BT