Sounds like a bunch of fun camokenny! Have fun!!

camokenny Hope you get out there hunting and a blast. Good luck!!!

My dad has been fishing at a lake about 30-40 milles from one of my hunting spots and he has been out there pretty early in the morning and through out the day tell a little before dark and he hasn't heard any gobbling at all!! He goes around this time of year every year and in the passed 5-6 years he would call and say the turkeys are really gobbling, but not this year.


With our season starting the 20th if the weather will straighten up I think we hit it just right for the season opener. The youth hunt this weekend looks like it is going to tough hunting if the gobbling doesn't pick up. My daughter was going to go this year during youth season for the 2nd time but she has prom that weekend and she plays softball but with all the rain out days and if the weather ever clears she will be playing on the weekends to make up those games. So I don't figure she will go, and I am not 100% sure if she gets a chance to go that she will want to but I leave it all up to her and not push her.

But everything around here is 2-3 weeks late as far as trees budding and undergrowth hasn't started yet. Our weather has been very rainy and with little sunshine for the past week and the first couple of weeks of March where Cold and snowy which is unusual for here. From mid March and now we have just had alot of cool days and cold nights with alot of rain. It is warming up right now but we have rain at least every other day and sometimes we have had rains for 3-4 days in a row, it's not con stent rain on most days but enough to mess up outdoor activities and with very little sunshine even on the days it doesn't rain.



Is there anybody on our team actually hunting right now?

Hey camokenny have a blast and I know we can hardly wait to see the birds and hear the stories!! Good luck to you!

bigc870, I hope they are with some hens right now.. Most likely that is the case I have seen a tom here strutting and it looks some different seeing it strut on top of the snow.. We are still buried in snow and even received 2 inches last night.. But it is supposed to warm up this week and spring is to start arriving them according to the weatherman.. I hope he is right. Anyways i wish you the best in getting nice tom.. Good luck guys..

Well team our snow is leaving us behind slowly with the temp reaching 44 here today.. Even though our ground here is still covered it should hopefully anyways be gone come Sunday I am guessing as the temps should be around 60 then.. Hopefully I will have some better reports from up next week..

I also asked about maybe getting a mod to e-mail the 2 that were added to our team as they have not came on after a pm to them.. We will see how it goes.. I am still quite confident that we will win again anyways as we surely have a great team here and the players will be playing soon..

I have been hearing some pretty good news guys.. I took a ride out to tend some maple trees and so an old friend that feeds the turkeys during the later part of winter.. So I asked him if he has been seeing any turkeys.. His answer was yes with around 14 on one day and then the next up to 45 of them.. He stated they have started strutting in his driveway.. He does not hunt them and a guy across the street who does not hunt them had given me permission to hunt them there.. But, anyways it sounds like the turkeys has been doing ok after our long hard winter they just went threw!!

Well, glad to hear everbody's seasons are getting ready to start and sounds like everyone is seeing good things scouting. I havent been on here in a few days, had a really busy easter weekend with all my kids and didn't get a chance to get out with my brother for opening weekend of youth season. My dad took him however and they had a great time, saw and heard a ton of birds, gained permission for some new land, just didn't quite get one in gun range. So I decided I had time to take him after work yesterday afternoon. When we got to where we wanted to setup, there was already a big tom strutting in the field. So plan b was to sneak in the woods that lead to the field and setup and try and call him in. When we reached the field the bird was no where in sight. So I grabbed my brand new Spring Creek box call (which if you are in the market for a new box call, look him up). I let out my first series of yelps of the season and the first ever in the woods for that call, and one ripped back behind us in the woods. We debated a little and I called a couple more times with one or two more responses from him and decided to go after him even though we knew he was on the other side of the river from us. We moved in and setup pretty much right on the bank of the river, which is about 15 yard wide bank to bank there. I got after him, and the more aggressive I got the more he liked it and he got really fired up. Gobbling non stop. He came a little closer and then kinda hung up, so I fired him up again and the went silent. Little by little he worked his way in, with mostly clucking and purring to finish him. He stopped at about 55 yards for quite a while and just looked, still gobbling pretty good. Finally he worked in to about 35 yards and straight across the river in an opening and he let one rip. The bird rolled and laid there flopping, acting like he was completely smoked. So we went upstream about 40 yards to a more narrow spot in the river and my brother stripped down to his undies to wade across in the freezing water. Then, just as he is stepping into the river, the turkey hopped up and ran off, clearly hurt bad. He crossed the river and looked all over. He finally spotted him but said he was laying down but still alive and it was almost dark so he backed out and found me and we went back today during daylight. We looked everywhere we could in the pouring down rain and found absolutely nothing. I was sick about this all night, couldn't sleep at all and sick about it all day again today. I'm just so frustrated about it! Earlier today I didn't even know how I felt about hunting the rest of the season. It just sucks to lose an animal, feels like a waste. Plus it's one less bird in that woods to hunt without the benefit of a harvest. Idk how I feel now, but I do feel betting having put the effort in to look like we did. I suppose I'll like my wounds this week and get back at it this weekend. It was just an amazing start to the season and then took a horrible turn so fast!

I had a great Easter!! Any word on a grand baby??

jepcho

I also take it very seriously when I shoot and clearly hit the Turkey , deer or other animals and one gets away poor shot placement, bad weather or something else.

Just this past archery season I shot I nice doe opening day from the looks of the blood it was a lethal hit, I searched until after dark and in the middle of the night I went out because I couldn't let it go. GPS took me right where I left off and 5 more hours of using every tracking and locating method I lost the deer. It was a tough one to swallow!
I wanted to just quit bowhunting but in a week or so I started going and passed on several shoots for about 2 weeks and I went out the next time I told my self if I get a good clean shot I was going to take it and sure enough an 8 point walked up perfect as can be I took the shot and he went about 60yrds and just fell out.

Point of the story keep plugging away because sometimes you can do everything right and something can still go wrong.

Good luck and get back after them!!

No jepcho, I have nothing to report there except her due date was yesterday.. The nurse that had her put in there was a 25 year vetran there and messed up .. The wife was all excited and i stayed up most of the night expecting to hear something.. She saw the doc yesterday and all is fine.. If she does not have the baby by Sunday they are going to induce her.. But for now nothing to report on the new grandbaby..

I am sorry to hear about your luck jepcho.. But, I too know what you and bigc870 mean by it.. It tore me up when I shot at my first turkey ever.. It was in full strut strutting his stuff to the ladies.. I fired at him and down he went flopping like crazy and while I was walking up to him he took to the air.. No blood to follow or anything except for a few feathers off from his neck area.. I search most of the day down in the direction it flew and never found anything.. Then last fall out bow hunting I was taking a shot at a spike and he step forward just as the arrow flew.. I had 30 minutes before legal hours ended and I waited for 15 and went in searching for him. I had seen it hit farther back than I wanted it to but time was running out. After jumping him 3 times I left and went home to eat and call our local warden so I could go search for him.. A rain had started that lasted for 3 days and I knew it was going to be hard searching. While I had my hopes up on finding him I had no luck.. I then went back the next day and searched 6 hours looking for him and then again 4 hours the following morning as I had been working night the night before and had to go back in.. The tore me up all season last year so it ruined my hunting just thinking it over and over.. Our deer population is very low compared with most states and also most areas of this state as well. I hope you do not let that get to you to awfully bad.. This stuff happens to most all of us.. Keep your chin up and get back after them another tom will move in and take care of those hens.. You can count on it..

I took a drive this morning guys and here is 5 toms for you to see.. Hopefully I will be seeing at least 1 of them come May..

http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/memb...tting-snow.jpg

Phil That is a very nice pic!!!

Thanks bigc870... as you can see our ground is still covered in snow.. They are currently walking around and strutting on top of it due to all the melting during the day and the cold nights we are getting. Most of it should be gone after this weekend I am hoping. That should help me see some more birds then..

Thanks for the encouragement guys. I am moving on and getting ready to take him out for one more hunt this weekend, then next week the adults get to hunt! I am really pumped! Phil, nice pic! That is a good sign for you!

Thanks jepcho .. Hopefully you and the young fella will see one and he can go home wearing a huge smile on his face.. If not as long as you both enjoy it then that is the main thing.. Stay safe out there and have some fun together..

Thanks jepcho and hopefully I will get a chance at one of these as well. A lot can happen between now and when my season opens up in may though..

Nice pic Phil! Thanks for sharing. Hang in there Jepcho! good luck this weekend

Just a few more days until youth season. I coach my daughters softball team found out yesterday that we play at 9:00 Saturday morning (dang). Might try to squeeze a hunt in that morning don't know yet.

We are still out practicing with 410. I put some high velocity lead #6s in last night. She is shooting good out to 20yards. The shot was punching through 3/8 plywood. So I feel confident that a good shot at 20-25 yards will kill a turkey. Hopefully she will get a shot at a turkey. I am definitely looking forward to bonding with my first born daughter.

Thanks for the comment on the picture swampbuster..

I am sorry to hear about your daughter's game scheduling.. Hopefully you both will be lucky enough to squeeze a short hunt in together.. Even better if she has a little luck come her way.. If not maybe try and get her out with you on another weekend some how.. Good Luck!!

We will definitely be out Sunday morning. Hopefully we can get on one then if not Saturday

Anyone know how far behind we are? I know team 3 has several birds down. Team 2 has a few as well. I think we only have one team member that has a open season. I think most of our seasons open up late.

My season opened on Monday. I was going to head out to give it a go Saturday morning but there are heavy thunderstorms forecasted so its kinda up in the air at the moment.

Well good luck if you do make it out to the woods.

Good Luck if you get a chance to give them a try.. I know those storms down your way can be really bad at times.. So why take the chance when your safety can be at stake.. Hopefully if you can not make it out there you can at another day.. Good luck hunting and stay safe..

I am not sure yet how the other teams are doing. I do know they have been posting some birds though.. But, they all did before us last year as well if I can recall it right.. Most all of us have seasons running later on.. So hopefully we can pull it off like last year and sweep things up from behind.. I will see what they have after I get off nights so that we will have an idea on what we maybe up against..

Good luck to your and your daughter out there Sunday or if you can squeeze in a little time Saturday.. Either way good Luck to you both and we hope she can nail a nice one! I keep forgetting that most states allow Sunday hunting now.. We still can not even though some bills have been put in. This state's hunting is mostly on private land and the landowners do not want people hunting 7 days a week on their land.. So every time it gets brought up more land gets posted.. Just can not win it with them..

Yeah I'm not too worried about being down in the contest now, we will get our birds. We just need seasons to open up. I'm 9 days from having my chance at my first of the year and I cant wait!! Gonna hunt Saturday with my brother for the final weekend of youth season, then my dad has a tag for 1st season here, so I'll be out starting Monday with him trying to get him a bird. Then finally on April 18th I'll be at it!

I am not worry about the other teams right now. Like it was said before we have only one person hunting right now.

April 20th my season opener is in sight, it doesn't seem all that long ago when I checked in and thought turkey season is a long way off. I know for alot of us we are less than 2 weeks out.

I was out shooting some Magnum blends and forgot just how hard that they kick!! I was setting and it all most put me on my back. My Hevi shot #6's don't kick near as much as the Mag. Blends. Does anyone know why that the blends kick so hard and the standard single shot size hevi shot don't kick as much? Same powder load.

May 4th for me and hopefully the snow will have just left by then.. That will make locating and calling them much easier.. At least that is what I am thinking.. My field up back is still 2 to 3 feet deep.. It is all like ice pellets now from all the melting and freezing it has been doing.. Early in the morning I can walk on top of it.. I am not used to walking on tope of this much snow.. But, it does make it better for the turkeys to get around better..

I also shoot the magnum blends, and they do have a bite to them. I have not shot the hevi 6s. Those magnum blends puts em down.

Definitely not worried, as Phil stated we were in the same situation last year. All our birds were harvested the middle to end of the contest. We will have birds rolling in soon enough.

Phil I am guessing that you have not heard from any of our newly added team members

I have heard absolutely nothing.. I have no idea why but have mentioned that a mod may need to e-mail them? It would be nice if they would show up though.. I am pretty confident we can still win this contest again though whether they show up or not.. We have a great team of guys here and we all love to hunt those thunder chickens!!! We can pull it off again I am thinking..

Nephew and I are headed out EARLY tomorrow morning for our NC opener! Wish us luck!

Good luck blackheel, hope you guys have fun and get into some birds. Is it youth season opener or everyone's opener?

Going to go and see if we can have one run over us in the morning. Going to be picture perfect conditions. I wish that we could hunt longer than a hour and a half. Hopefully we can get on some birds fast.

Good Luck blackheel.. I hope you and your nephew get onto some birds !!

Good Luck swampbuster.. I hope you and your daughter has some great luck as well...

In position on o opening morning. Getting light and whipperwill is calling.

Good Luck Talondale... I hope you get one or at least get to see one of them.. But, most importantly enjoy your hunt...


Stay safe out there guys !!!!

Well guys we SCORED, and we won our first softball game we play again at 2:30. Unbelievable hunt and story to go along with it. Will post and share when I can