Head home after 10:00 a.m.?
04-01-2003, 11:19 AM
#12
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: SW Michigan
Posts: 1,906
RE: Head home after 10:00 a.m.?
This questions comes up every spring...
The answers are always varied. The three biggest factors are 1) can you hunt all day and 2) how much have you scouted and 3) how big & how many properties do you hunt.
If you hunt on small parcels (like I do in CT---the large parcels are few and far between, and almost impossible to get permission), then you have to scout like mad. With that said, I know on three of my properties that after 8 am if I' m empty handed I might as well go home till about 11. At 11, I can come back and try to bring em in close that last hour. It all goes back to scouting.
My 4th property, I don' t even go there until 9 then wait it out until noon...
I must be doing something right, I fill tags consistently
and have fun doing it.
With everything I just said, anyone that says they prefer to hunt after 10 is either full of BS or can' t drag themselves out of bed, because the number of gobbles you hear after 8 am drops off greatly, probably around 5% of what you' ll hear doing the first 2-3 hours of sunrise.
The answers are always varied. The three biggest factors are 1) can you hunt all day and 2) how much have you scouted and 3) how big & how many properties do you hunt.
If you hunt on small parcels (like I do in CT---the large parcels are few and far between, and almost impossible to get permission), then you have to scout like mad. With that said, I know on three of my properties that after 8 am if I' m empty handed I might as well go home till about 11. At 11, I can come back and try to bring em in close that last hour. It all goes back to scouting.
My 4th property, I don' t even go there until 9 then wait it out until noon...
I must be doing something right, I fill tags consistently
and have fun doing it.With everything I just said, anyone that says they prefer to hunt after 10 is either full of BS or can' t drag themselves out of bed, because the number of gobbles you hear after 8 am drops off greatly, probably around 5% of what you' ll hear doing the first 2-3 hours of sunrise.
04-01-2003, 01:17 PM
#13
Fork Horn
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Honeyhole, IA USA
Posts: 494
RE: Head home after 10:00 a.m.?
I love hunting midday and evening. It usually means less hens.
I killed this 26# tom last year with a Knight TK2000. I shot him at 5:30pm. It was one of my funniest hunts. He gobbled and strutted all the way down the ridge next to me. He then came off that ridge and crossed a DEEP ravine (which they never do-just ask an outdoor writer) and I shot him at 15yrds. After the smoke cleared I thought I had missed because he was no where to be found, but I had rolled him back into the ditch.
I killed this 26# tom last year with a Knight TK2000. I shot him at 5:30pm. It was one of my funniest hunts. He gobbled and strutted all the way down the ridge next to me. He then came off that ridge and crossed a DEEP ravine (which they never do-just ask an outdoor writer) and I shot him at 15yrds. After the smoke cleared I thought I had missed because he was no where to be found, but I had rolled him back into the ditch.
04-01-2003, 03:43 PM
#14
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Gleason, TN
Posts: 1,327
RE: Head home after 10:00 a.m.?
All the turkeys on my property are all hened up in the morning. So I hunt in the afternoon. I just got one at 3:00 and he was stutting and gobbling the whole way in. I located him at 1:00.
04-01-2003, 05:56 PM
#16
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: sardis ms USA
Posts: 561
RE: Head home after 10:00 a.m.?
I HAD A BIRD GOBBLE AT 11:00AM MON WITH A HEN.MY CALLING BROUGHT 3 JAKES AND A HEN RIGHT BY ME ON THE WAY TO THE OTHER BIRDS.THE WHOLE FLOCK LEFT ME BEHIND! I WENT BACK TUES AM AND CALLED THE TOM IN AT 11:40AM.HE HAD A DOUBLE BEARD.ONE WAS 91/2" AND THE OTHER WAS 6" .THERE HAD BEEN NO GOBBLING THAT AM AND HUNTERS WERE LEAVING BY 9:00 AM.
