Okay my 2 cents

You don't see many turkeys drving now - WHY????

The poachers have taught them real well. I see birds running for cover when the HEAR a car - get that HEAR and not seen!

Over the years of my hunting adventures I ahve seen areas change drastically as we always drove around to scout. With the onset of Fall hunting as well as poaching we ahve trained the bird to be warier than ever.

Now the birds are there as - I called up a nice one for a bud 4/29.
I am seeing Toms all alone - that means hens are on the nest - all due to the extremely warm weather we are havning.

just my observations\\

and I get to hunt 4th, 5th, & 6th as well as Camp McCoy!

JW

Oh and I gotta add - the winters of 07 and 08 where very hard on many areas and winter kill did happen.

but 09 was not all that bad and with this 2nd warmest April - and If we don't get cold spring rains and it stays warm - many areas will rebound nicely

JW

I hunted zone 1, period B in Juneau County with 3 other guys. We didnt see any Toms and we didnt even hear a gobble. a couple lone hens and that was it. I hit every spot I could think of lookin for birds and put a ton of miles on my legs and my truck. nothing, didnt even see one on the side of road. I ran into several other hunters who had same reports.

I walked several miles down a firelane in the Necedah wildlife refuge and all I saw was piles of poop loaded with deer hair and I do mean LOADED! a pile about every 6 to 12 feet of the trail. My guess is wolves. We gun hunt in this refuge so I guess that explains why I havent seen a deer in 4 years

Im going up to zone 3 this weekend for turkeys. maybe Ill have better luck.

saw 24 when i shot mine 2nd period 5 toms and a mixture of hens and jakes.Have been working on our land every other day or so and have seen 8- 10 each time.Had a big winter flock of 30 or so birds that were pounding the corn food plots we left standing.Seems like 3 hens are nesting close by as i have seen them go to the same location many times.

Its probly a combination of wolves but also the refuge gets hunted really hard, Atleast thats they way i remember it. I've never heard of anyone doing well in the refuge.

Our group has been going to the same spot within the refuge since I was a kid and we have had good years there until they started with all this T-zone, kill anterless deer crap, not to mention a very large wolf pack. I remember hunting the refuge as a kid and you never saw a lone deer always strings of em together.

Thats true, we hunt the hardwood range and it sucks now, but my dad said 25 years ago you would see 75 deer opening day between being in your stand, doing drives and just driving to different parts of the range.

dam straight, them were the good ol days. now Im lucky to see 1 deer during the whole 9 day hunt.