Worst Turkey Season Ever...
 

This year was a doosy for me. Started the season with a missed opportunity and a missed bird. Took vacation the first week of April and didn't hear a bird two of those days. Had one day of rain and another couldn't hunt that week. Had a cold mill outage the 3rd week of April which pretty much ruined my season. The birds I did get on were henned up and would go silent on the ground. It was pretty frustrating.

Hope everyone else had a good season.

been slow here...
managed to get one first week... but not the usual action I have had in past

Seems a lot of places right into Canada has had the strange weather this year. Our opening day was Rain-snow and ice, something I don't care to hunt in anymore.

Started out slow and wet. Then the end of last week, got one on Thursday, then got one of Friday. Gobbling like crazy on Friday. Hens should be nesting more about this time. This week should be a better week.

Mother nature gave us rain for the opener and again today.
Tuesday and Wednesday look to be better days to be out.
Not a fan of rainy weather at all.....

To date - the 9 birds I have called in. All but one was silent.

One did gobble off the roost. The majority came in strutting

Most of the days I have been able to get out this season, the birds have been fairly quiet. Unusual it seemed to me but then again my son is doing baseball this year and the games run on Saturday morning so i am only able to get out in the afternoon which might be one reason. Not a horrible season but a tag eating one.

Today was one of my best days of Turkey hunting, surrounded by gobbling Toms and Jakes, estimating at least 5 Toms and 4 Jakes .
Gobbling continued once they hit the ground. Then they all got together about 125 yards from me and the worst "barnyard"
brawl that I've ever heard with winds flapping, branches braking
and the racket they made was almost over the top. This lasted
for at least 5 minutes. As soon as the racket died down I called and within seconds I could see 2 Toms heading in my direction. They
came to 20 yards and stopped to look for me, one will never look again. The season started Monday, with a 2 bird limit and I'm
tagged out with the other bird coming right at fly down yesterday morning. I feel like I need to file a complaint it was such a short
season this year.

I feel you my friend, I've had a very similar year! Please don't take my words wrong... just remember, the hens WILL sit on the nest, and Toms, WILL hear you!

Will they always gobble, nope!
Will they always come in, nope!

I would argue that with enough patience, if there is a Tom in the area and you can call well enough, he'll come check you out eventually.

Realizing this I have not eaten a tag in 12 years, yet in those years I would bet that 75% of my birds were dead silent and taken between midday and late afternoon.

Hang in there my friend... it's a VERY frustrating undertaking.

This dude was stone silent at 3:30 in the afternoon!

My Ny season was a bust. Was out 10 mornings and never seen a gobbler!!!
Called in 7 jakes one morning, but that was it!!! Heard a couple sound off only once before 6am, then complete silence the rest of the morning!!! Tuffest season here in New York that I can remember? The fat lady is singing her song!!!

My New York season ended yesterday morning. Was out a total of 10 mornings, and nothing to show for my efforts.
Called in 7 jakes one morning, and that was it......complete silence the rest of the time!!! Very frustrating season to say the least. Look's like the fat lady has sang her song.....:nonono2:

Crazy year for me too and I finally ended up with at least some meat in the freezer when I shot the biggest of two Jakes that came in late the last morning of my hunt on 5/18. We even woke up to an inch or more of snow on the 15th!

Birds acted a little odd in SW Michigan this year, mostly because of the wacky weather patterns. We had a week of 60 deg weather in early February that brought them out earlier than usual - birds were strutting in fields by the 2nd week in February. A month later - when they typically start strutting - we had a few heavy snows in mid to late March. Given the number of hens I still see with the toms, including those in the afternoon the last week, I'm quite confident that many hens started and lost nests.

The winter here was mild and we have a good number of 2 & 3 year old toms. However, late nesting will lead to large numbers of late hatches and small poults heading into winter, which will be especially bad if we get a colder than normal winter due to La Nina.

Maytom - you need to hunt a different section of NYS. I heard from friends that the birds in the Central and Southern tiers gobbled hard most of the season, with only the normal lull during the 3rd week of May. One of my friends and his dad, from where I grew up in the Southern Tier, had action every day the first 10 days of the season. His dad bagged his best bird to date in 40 yrs of turkey hunting and my buddy missed a bird he named 'turkzilla'...

You should have waited it out for tom this year! The birds started gobbling crazy again in our area on or around Saturday May 21. I filled my tag on May 22, and my son and I played tag with 4 toms the entire last week...

I couldn't because I had a 2 week trip planned to Wyoming that was to start a couple days after I shot that Jake. The 19th when I was packed and ready to leave the next morning my truck started misfiring and by the time I could get it in and fixed the short two week window I had was shot. The good thing is that I saw a great new red 2016 Silverado on the lot while they were working on my 2006 and it's now in my garage! I know what you mean though because I shot my bird on the 20th down here last year, so they are there for the taking the entire month of May if you have patience. I had the patience, but just flat ran out of time and then didn't have a tag for the final days of May when I was here at home after the truck problem.

Wow! Congrats on the new truck. So you were just in Wy? My wife and I just got back last night. We were out for a week. Had planned on taking my wife to the place you and I camped last year, but we ran out of time.

I was a part of two classics hunts for the 14 birds taken. The rest came in strutting totally silent.

I did witness two good toms who where strutting and did gobble only to be attacked by 3 or more Jakes that came from no where! That right there will make them silent too! Those darn Jakes broke up to sure things I thought I had going. One bird was at 25 and I should have just pulled the trigger but I let it go.
My fault.....a costly one.

JW

No, the Wyoming trip was cancelled due to the truck problem. I only had a short two week window because John was going to Ohio the first of next week and then as soon as he got back was going on a trip to Alaska. I would have only had a week out there due to the truck problem and I decided it wasn't worth two days each way for that limited amount of time when it wasn't a hunting trip, LOL! I'll make up for it this Fall with a two month trip that starts in AZ in early September and goes through the end of October with hunts from 10/1 all the way to 10/31 in Wyoming.

Top -

Sorry to hear about your trip, but congrats on the new Silverado! Your fall trip sounds fantastic...

Ok, sounds good Topgun, I'll be hunting bear in NH this fall.

Had my best season ever, season started the 20th of march and I tagged out on the last of 3 long beards the 11th of June. Season ended the 5th of may.

Better edit your dates pardner. I think you meant to say you got your last one on April 11th, seeing as how June 11th is next week and May 5 was the last legal hunt day!