Hopefully things will pick up in a hurry!! Good luck SS

Welcome back SouthernStrut !! It is great to hear from you!!

Yeah welcome back SS. And good luck to you! I'm jealous of you guys down south that are hunting already!

I am jealous of all you guys with warm temps and no snow on the ground.. I do want to say the temps have hit 35 here today and there was some turkeys starting to show up.. i saw three groups of them today with around 20 birds in 2 groups and around 10 in the other.. So it might not be that bad of a year.. Good luck guys on your seasons..

On my way in to work, I stopped on the hillside that I have in the past and heard the first turkey of the season. He gobbled a few times, and I thought I heard a second turkey way off in the distance

Hey be Safe out there and good luck. I'd like nothing more that see you boys be returning Champs!

JW

Thank you JW!! We are not only hoping we are planning on it...

Well guys we still have 2 of our members missing in action.. Hopefully they will be back before long..

mmorgan9812

dano111


No matter what we can still win this contest.. So lets keep on thinking straight ahead and make sure you calls and every thing is ready to do their stuff.. I am glad we have most of our team all back and ready for another season of some mighty fine turkey hunting!! We all did great last year and there is no reason we can't do a repeat guys.. So who do tah think is gonna win this?? I am saying we are!!

I just saw that team 3 has a bird already guys!! This season is coming up quick!!

I will be leaving to go to Alabama in a day or so. Can't wait to get out and chase those gobblers!!!

Good luck getting a gobbler!! The main thing is to enjoy your hunting !!

Yeah good luck man! Cant wait to hear your stories, whether you kill or not. I have confidence you will be posting pics of a big tom very soon!

Yes we all want to hear how things went whether you score a tom or not.. It gives all of us that has to wait an idea of what we maybe up against..

It is hard for me right now to get into the idea that some are hunting already.. We had a dusting of snow ( around an inch ) last night to go with all that we currently have.. Then the temps today down in the teens with wind gust from 30 to 50 mph.. But better days will soon be coming..

Phil - being from WI and hunting Upper Mich there was more than one time I swiped the bed sheets so I had my own snow drift to hide in. More than one my decoy turned Albino and she still worked!
They still gobble. Hang in there.

JW

JW

I will be working for half a day in the morning and then I will be headed down to Alabama. Can't wait to get out in Gods creation and chase turkeys!!!

I guess the pressure is on. I am definatley going to go and have fun and hunt hard. I will keep yall updated

Thanks JW...

We have never had as much snow as we have here this year in the past 100 years of record keeping.. But, I have seen a few small flocks of them out in a couple of areas so that is a decent sign. If not i can head around 50 miles farther west of me where the snow was not as deep..

Good Luck swampbuster!!

Good luck swampbuster, be safe.

This is torture, every day to and from work I'm seeing strutters everywhere. I am so pumped and can't drop the hammer till the 13th of next month. Oh but look out for the next month and a half after that, GAME ON.

Lucky for me I have a large state park nearby that I can go play at to knock the rust off with out harming any hunting areas.

I hope you are having an enjoyable hunt out there swampbuster !! We are all routing for you to have some success as well.. The main thing though is to stay safe and enjoy it all !!

Well guys up here in the tundra we are starting to get some warmer temps!! It is about time with yesterday in the mid 30s and today up in the low 40s. Tomorrow rain and in the mid to upper 40s.. I can hardly wait for the snow to start melting away.. Today's agenda for me is to start removing some of the snow off my deck and get my grill fired up.. I have almost 8 feet of snow on it, in part from cleaning a roof off earlier this winter.. It was 6 feet deep up there once.. So I have my work cut out for today .. I am going to be able to enjoy a long waited bar-b-que this evening though.. Good luck guys..

Saw a strutting tom yesterday morning on the way to work. My buddy in GA is already hunting. He comes up here for our opening weekend April 11th.

Your season is getting close as well.. Good luck to you when it rolls around.. I still have until May to wait.. The snow should be pretty well gone by then.. I hope anyways.. It is supposed to be 48 and rain tomorrow which will surely help..

Well guys sorry to report that I had to come home empty handed. Hunted hard all day Tuesday walked 10 miles(according to my GPS). Didn't hear,see anything. Wednesday got a turkey to shock gobble twice around 7:30am. Set up on him and called..... Nothing. Hunted this morning and more of the same. Lots of nothing. Sorry guys I was hoping to put us on the board. Didn't know for sure if I would kill one, but I thought for sure that I would at least hear turkeys gobbling.

Did you say you were hunting public land?

Thanks for reporting back to us as I know we all have been wondering.. Did you get to enjoy your hunting out there? I willing to guess you did.. Sometimes the birds will play hard to get. Last year I had hardly a gobble all season but the birds were there.. Patient was the key for me.. I once got up and started to get out of my blind after 2 hours of nothing and all of a sudden a tom showed up un announced.. Just started wandering down to where I was calling from..
Anyways Sorry you did not get anything and hopefully next time out will be better..

Yes, I hunted WMA's and national Forrest. Didn't see another hunter, only seen a few trucks parked off the road. There was some very pretty hardwood hollers. enjoyed hunting a new state and new places.

Saw two more strutting toms in a field in the rain while driving around for work. It's warming up (only figuratively, going down to 20 tonight).

Glad you had a good time. At least you got to get out there. I've always wanted to hunt Alabama and figured I'd go public if I ever go. Maybe someday.. Are you gonna get a chance to get down there again this spring?

Btw, spotted a flock of about 25 birds today. There was one dominate strutter chasing jakes off like crazy! It was awesome to see! Tells me its about time for season to kick off!!

No wont be heading back this spring, maybe in a year or so. I would really like to try and head back out west next year. Hunt the black hills and hunt Nebraska again.

I am glad to hear you are seeing some.. It is warming up here as well. This week during the day anyways the temps are expected to be in the 40s all next week.. It is about time. Also while I have not seen any toms yet they are seeing them in the Bangor area strutting and all. I am hearing some good reports from that place which is around a 2 hour drive for me. If things do not pick up here by May I may have to take the drive.. I will see what I can do that is for sure..

Stopped by the national Forrest on my way to work this morning, and as soon as I got out of the truck I heard one gobble. He gobbled a few times on his own, and shock gobbled at my owl hoots.

I hope that they continue to do so when you are hunting them there swampbuster..

When does your season start Jepcho?

Well, I'll be taking my little brother youth season which starts next weekend on the 4th. Then my dad is hunting Iowa's 1st season, opening April 13th and I'll be kinda guiding/filming for both of them on their hunts. But the first chance I think I'm going to get to carry a gun myself will be April 19th in Nebraska. Here in Iowa I'll probably just hunt 4th season which starts April 29th.

Our youth season starts April 11th. My 8yr old daughter wants to go. So I am looking forward to taking her.

I cant wait till my kids are old enough to take. My oldest is my 8yo step daughter who I am going to take on a deer hunt this fall. Maybe next year for turkey, just hasn't had enough shooting practice yet.

You're in Arkansas I see, it's weird how our season is a week or so earlier than yours. I'm up in Northern Iowa and its been lows in the 20's all week. Actually had snow earlier this week.

For a "southern" state we do have a late start. Our turkey numbers have been down for a long time. We used to start first of April or even late March and run for a month or so. That was before I started turkey hunting. Now our season is only two weeks. I talked to our state biologist and he said that is why our turkey population is the way it is, and he doesn't see our season dates changing any time soon.

I see. I would've never guessed the numbers being low there. It seem like most of your border states are loaded with turkeys.

Tomorrow morning my daughter and I are going to go out and listen for turkeys. It will be our first time out listening for turkeys. I am really looking forward to spending time with her in the woods. It is suppose to be a beautiful sunny morning. Hopefully the birds will be talking.

Enjoy your time with your daughter.. There is nothing like seeing the excitment on the young one's faces..

My daughter and I had a great time together in Gods creation this morning. We heard two different turkeys gobbling. Saw three hens and three deer. She would smile when we would hear those turkeys gobbling. Great morning in Gods creation with my daughter. I enjoyed teaching her woodsmanship. She said she had fun and is ready to go hunting. I can't wait until youth season starts.

Thats great! Glad you had a good time and good luck on your hunt!