Phil from Maine

Maine bird down and the hunting has been hard with our low numbers.. I have been on vacation last week and hunted everyday and never heard a bird gobble back. Not even one time and I saw two nice toms alone but no response. This morning I saw four jakes, two jakes together one alone in different areas. Then I went and tried another area and two hens showed up with two toms and a jake in tow. I did manage to get a shot at one of the toms. That one turns out to be my heaviest tom ever. Here a big Tom normally is 18 to 20 pounds. This one had a 10 inch beard with 3/4 inch spurs weighing 23 pounds! I am quite proud of this one. But then again I am proud of getting any bird anyway..

Bocajnala

Nice one Phil!

-Jake

mrbb

well congrats to you

Phil from Maine

Thank you Jake and mrbb!

Champlain Islander

Wow that is a honker Phil. I have killed dozens of them and never hit 23 pounds. Great bird. I haven't hunted and been fishing. If I hear a gobble or see a flock I'll hunt for them but so far in the season no birds around my property.

Phil from Maine

Thank you CI but none of the birds that I have seen even today had not gobbled any. That makes for a very long hunt..

SportsmanNH

Nice Bird Phil ! Congrats !

What part of Maine are you in ? I have a house in Solon . About 10 years ago there were turkeys EVERYWHERE !
Sometimes you would have to stop the truck on the gravel road to let 100 of them cross. I couldn't figure out why there were so
many of them considering all the coyotes and fisher cats in the area. But the last couple years I hardly seen any .

mrbb

a cold front came thru here last week and still cold
and it shut down all the gobbling here as well
haven';t heard one gobble now in about 5 days or so!
funny how weather makes them change how they voice things

Phil from Maine

SportsmanNH I am in Washington County near the Calais area. We had a lot of birds up here as well. Then we had a very hard winter with something like 160 inches of snow. Most of that was powdery and we lost a lot of birds. Then the bobcats also made a big rebound add that to the coyotes and everything else the turkeys had taken a big hit.. The added fall hunting season and the shooting of hens has hurt it as well..

Phil from Maine

Yes it is mrbb. Those turkeys shut right down completely.. We had 7 inches of snow this past Saturday and I was able to see two turkeys in the snowstorm. One was a hen and the other I think was a tom from the way it acted. But I really couldn’t tell as it ran behind a snow covered bush as I was leaving..