ManofTheFall

I did see 2 nice looking birds from about 200 yards right around 6:30. Other than hearing a few hen clocks every so often that was day one. Hoping for better luck next time out.

Zim

Congrats to all who have scored. Team keeping up so far. I got cheated out of my 2nd & 3rd IL tags due to two legal problems that had to be addressed. But no big loss, wasn't expecting much on those. Now taking 3 weeks off to visit the wife in China. Typing from Bejing on a layover. Flying west to Chengdu this morning. Three more hours then a one hour bullet train ride. The mother-in-law wants to try some of my turkey fillets. They don't got any here and she's never even seen one. Resuming hunt upon my return May 13th. Got 2 WI zone 2 slammer tags I should fill.

Strut&Rut

In my experience with my son and other young hunters, they are typically over cautious about squeezing the trigger.

I think part of it is the realization that they are going to kill an animal and take it's life. We seasoned veterans look at it as another turkey - he is probably looking at it very differently. It also doesn't matter if they killed other animals, each one is a different battle at the younger ages.

It may be the recoil. Not sure what he was shooting, but my son refuses to shoot my 12ga pump with turkey loads. He's 12yo and will only use his 20ga, even though he knows he can shoot farther with my 12ga. The pain from the recoil isn't worth it to him.

And finally - the birds were so close he may just be scared of failure. If a young hunter takes a well aimed 35-40 yard shot and misses or the bird runs off - at least there's an explanation. Missing a 15 yard gimme is like a pro golfer missing the tap in - 99% of the time the only reason is human error, and at a young age the kids can suffer some longterm hangups with failure.

Collectively, I've learned there's lots of reasons why not taking the shot can sometimes be the lesser of two evils...

springspur

Had a late start & winds were gusting to about 20 mph, figured calling wasn't going to be too effective so got on a treeline and set up a hen decoy between the treeline & a winter wheat field. Had a hen putting and clucking behind me but she didn't bust me. Just sat for about 45 minutes and heard a couple gobbles then spotted 3 toms coming through the winter wheat. I had a clear shot and killed the biggest one the others took off and rolled the next biggest one. After I walked out I noted they were jakes...I couldn't judge the beards properly due to the height of the wheat. Still legal birds & S.C. limit is 2 per day.
Bird 1-14.25 lbs, 3/8'' spurs, beard 5.5'
Bird 2-15 lbs, 1/2''spurs, beard 6 1/8''

springspur

Reservation for the Saturday hunt at Poinsette Electronic Combat Range Shaw AFB, S.C. I drew South 3, my favorite unit. Got to the Long field and set up my decoy spread. Heard the first gobble at 655 AM. Waited about 5 minutes for him to pitch down from the roost and he gobbled again closer. Hit my box call and got an immediate response, it took him about 20 minutes to close the distance to the field. As soon as he saw my jake decoy he sped up his strut and hit the jake decoy hard! standing on top of the decoy he paused a second and raised his head. Knocked his head with a load of #5's at 30 paces and flopped him. 18.2 pounds lt spur 15/16'', rt spur 1'', beard 10 1/4''. Tagged out now, don't plan on hunting out of state so good luck Rejects, keep knocking them down. By the way, the Vortex Venom red dot worked great.

Zim

Dang, springspur, you are efficient! Good job.

DTC

Things went from good to great for me since my last post. Killed bird number 2 for MO on Monday morning. He won't up my score but nice to fill both tags.

Bird #1. 21 lbs, 10" beard, 7/8" spurs

Bird #2 18 lbs, 10' beard, 3/4" spurs

Bird number 1 was killed on a rainy morning. Not a gobble until after fly down. I was working a couple birds and had 2 come out of no where across a big field. They never made a peep until they were at 30 yards. Of course I wasn't expecting them from there so they knew something wasn't right and the lead bird jumped and flew on the ridge. The other bird didn't know what happened and ran back across the field and started gobbling. I called and he answered. The gobbler circled the field and came on the ridge with me. So at this point I have the 2 I was working on the ridge and the bird that flew on my left and the other bird on my right. I decide to drop down the ridge thinking 1 of these birds will fire back up in 30 min to an hour. I take 3 steps and one gobbles. I just set up and call and he answers me. 30 seconds later I see his head coming through the timber.

Bird #2 I was asked to go with a buddy hunting on a new piece of property that I was told held some birds. I chose our set up on what little details he gave me. We had a couple birds gobbling about 100 yards up the ridge. The first hen pitched off and hit 200 yards from us in the field, the 2nd hen pitched about 80 yards directly in front of us. The 3rd bird was one of the gobblers. He saw the decoy and hooked right into us at 20 yards. My buddy missed and I killed him running off.

I am scheduled to leave May 3rd for a NE hunt. Good luck!

Strut&Rut

Dang! Great job guys.

My son is hunting 1st season in MI, started yesterday. We're hunting inside the woods and had 2 hangup at 40 yards, he wasn't comfortable with the shot. Spring here is really late this year, vegetation is about 3 weeks behind - which means the woods are still bare and the birds can see everything. Bringing the hen dekes for our next time out on Thursday.

My season starts May 7 and runs through May 31.

springspur

Nice.
I believe most of the hens started sitting on nests last week, birds very active.

ManofTheFall

Here's a question for you guys. I still consider myself to be just above a beginner when it comes to turkeys. What is the longest shot you all would take on a nice gobbler with nothing but open field in front of you. You can tell hes getting antsy and will probably bolt soon. What is the longest shot you take without it being a hope and a prayer.