ILBUCKFEVER

Well, I just got back a couple hours ago from a turkey hunting adventure with my dad and a friend. We really don't know much about turkeys, and none of us have ever harvested one, but it was more of a social gathering than anything. Anyway, we set up a blind Thursday evening on the edge of a freshly planted cornfield and got set up early the next morning. About 10 minutes after we were set in the first bird gobbled. We believe there were three different gobblers going off and they gobbled hard at us for about 40 minutes. When the sun came up we saw a bird out in the field making a b- line for our decoys (approximately 300 yards away). All of a sudden the bird turned around and booked back into the woods, and as this happened I looked to my left and 4 deer were trucking past me in a full out run towards where the turkey was. After that we didnt hear anything and went back to camp for a little bit. We went out around 10a.m. to hunt a different location and got back in the truck right at 1:00pm (end of shooting hours) and drove back to camp. We pull into the field where we were camping at 1:06 and there were 4 turkeys about 200 yards from our campsite. The rest of the afternoon we sat in the back of the truck and watched the birds travel back and forth from the creek to the woods. We also had a coyote running around the field.
To be honest, we felt real good goin into this morning because we knew where the birds were hanging out and we got set up at 3:00a.m. a couple hundred yards from where they were the night before. We sat until well past daylight going some soft purrs and didn't hear a peep. There were a lot of deer running around but no turkeys to be seen.
Now, if you have read this far, hopefully you are willing to answer a couple of beginner turkey questions. 1. Why do shooting hours end at 1:00p.m. (I'm sure theres a reason for it)? 2. Is it strange that the birds were gobbling good one morning and not at all the next? 3. Is it possible the coyote running around scared off the birds?
This is by far the longest post I have ever typed, but I am still going on adrenaline even though I'm back at home now and don't have a bird. It's just great being out when the sun comes up and hearing everything wake up. I now see how addicting turkey hunting can be and what an accomplishment it is to actually get one. This is by far the trickiest critter I have been after, and can't wait to get back at it in the following years. Any advice or responses are appreciated, and congrats to all that have bagged one this year.

RIStrutStopper

I'm no expert either, but I think the 1:00 thing (noon in CT where I'm hunting) has something to do with the DEP not wanting people to bump birds while they're nesting. Its not unusual at all for birds to gobble their heads off one day and nothing the next. Sounds like how my season is going so far. A yote will definitely spook the birds. I don't know how it really effects them tho, like if they will be back soon or stay away for a while...

matt068

Strutstoppers right its to keep the hensfrom being bumped from thenest hopefully producing a better hatch rate. Yote will mess up a hunt but i found it doesen't send the birds into the next county they'll be around Turkeys have predators and one being us they deal with it Good luck

BuckRogers

Shoot the yote if its legal... the birds wont mind a bit, they just think its thunder or some other loud harmless noise. personally I think getting set up at 3:00 in the morning is a bit...well unnecessary unless it was a typo. I get up at around 4:00 and dont get out till around 4:45-5:00. unless you set up too close to them they will never even know you are there. As said before turkeys can and will be vocal one morning and dead silent the next.

jepcho

I would hate to have to quit hunting at noon or one. Here in Iowa we can hunt all day and I have had some great hunts in the evening. As far as the yote, it possible he could have scared them off, but I have watched birds get chased by a coyote, fly up to a tree and as soon as in the tree, begin gobbling. I dont know what happened. Maybe they just roosted somewhere else that night.

ILBUCKFEVER

Thanks for the replies... I would have definetely shot the yote if it was in range... He was a couple hundred yards away. [:@]