Conquistador

Hey, I am going to tackle my first turkey hunt this year. I don't have much hunting experience in general but I've been doing my research, have my gear prepared, also been driving my fiancee nuts with my turkey calling. I drew my tag for the 4th spring season (last week of April) here in northern Illinois. Hunting on public land and I just wanted to hear your experiences from any of your late season hunts. I know it will be difficult, going in enthused but not over confident, if I am not lucky at least ill be enjoying the outdoors.

RPD63

First off, welcome to HuntingNet. A bunch of knowledgeable turkey hunters here. I only hunt public land down here in Florida. In my experience, late season public land turkey hunting can be both good and also tough. The hens have left the gobblers to tend the eggs but the gobblers have been hammered by lots of hunters. Do you have a turkey hunting mentor? A mentor can REALY reduce the learning curve. Keep practicing your calls but remember, less can be more with calling. For me, learning the woods im going to be hunting and what the birds are doing is more important.
Get out and scout.

JW

In Wi here. Last part of April should be prime.
Find the hens you'll find the Tom.
And I hunt all of May as well

JW.

grinder67

I hunt public land in northern Indiana and have harvested many many turkeys on the last weekend of the season. My best advise ( i am no expert by any stretch) remain positive, be persistent but patient and be versatile. One hunt that sticks in my head was on the last Saturday of the season and was trying to get a bird for my wife. Late in the morning I got a tom to sound off to a gobble call ( it was one of the kind you shake made by Quaker Boy I believe). We hurried up and got set up and I made some soft yelps on my slate with no response. Then tried the box call and mouth call, also with no response. So i shook the gobble call again and instantly got a gobble. We re-positioned and I called that bird to within a 100 yards using the gobble call very sparingly(made him look for me). I could not see him but knew he was close so i switched to hen yelps to finish him, he went silent and the next time I heard him he was 4 or 5 hundred yards away. So i started working him again with the gobble call but this time when he sounded off at around 100 yards I gave him one last gobble and put the call down. About five minutes later my wife killed that tom at 22 yards! This bird obviously did not want anything to do with a hen but it took me a while to figure out what he wanted.

Late season public land hunting can be just as productive and fun as opening day. Seems like hunting pressure gets lighter after the first couple weeks and Toms seem to have less hens around them late in the season.

Hope this helps and good luck to you!

Phil from Maine

I am thinking the same thing as what JW has stated.. My season up here does not open until May 1st.. So the season you have would have been really super for me up here. The birds are really going then here. I keep hoping that they will move our season ahead 1 week but it has not happened yet. But be careful of using the call to much as they maybe be call shy if there has been a lot of pressure one them.. Good Luck and welcome to the forums.

woodenb14

I'm in northern Illinois myself and always draw third or fourth season. Usually better weather than the early seasons. If you don't get on one at first light, around 11:00 seems to be the best time to get gobbles again

Wingbone

Don't call too much. They've heard that already. Don't use the two-hens-and-a-jake decoy combination. They've seen that already. Maybe a hen decoy or no decoy at all and a couple of clucks will peak their curiosity. Usually in the later seasons the leaf growth is such that by the time time they should be able to see a hen, they're in range.

Conquistador

Thanks for the welcome, I hope to stick around and get out there more. It seems like in the later season less calling more patience is the way to go. I don't know if I would use a decoy set up on public land, but I am really getting pumped to get some more scouting done. Nice story grinder, glad your wife and you were able to get a successful hunt in the late season.

shemp

That. The only challenges I could imagine with later season vs. earlier season are 1) it's a lot hotter, so it's a comfort /patience issue with being able to sit in 90degrees [in Florida] and 2) by the law of averages several birds have been shot and more have probably been shot at. They're spookier, but the cycle and hen availability could have the birds stirred up.

I've heard turkey gobble on Christmas Eve and on Memorial day, but our season is mid-march through most of April.

If you know the woods and can pattern the birds, it's a lot easier to lure a turkey from 50 yards to have a look than call him from 600 yards.

I probably spend more time scouting than hunting most years, depending on schedule

woodenb14

What public ground in northern Illinois are you planning on hunting?