According to the weather forecast it looks like it's going to be storming all day Saturday and maybe even Sunday am. I was hoping my wife would get her first bird this weekend but if the weather doesn't cooperate she may have to wait till next season. We are not able to hunt during the week and this is only her second season hunting and I was really hoping to improve on last season. We didn't see a single bird last season until we were on the road headed home. I guess we can atleast drive around till about noon and hope to get a break in the weather so we can atleast get in the woods for a little while. If we don't get to go this weekend it will pretty much be pointless to go next weekend. By then the birds will probably be so call shy from all the hunting pressure that it would just be pointless. OH the joys of hunting public land.[:@]

The birds are stil out there get out and hunt. You afraid of getting wet?

Pointless to go next week? You are kidding right?

You'll never get one driving around in the car(maybe you could) or sitting at home.

Charlie P,

If it was just me going you can bet I would be out there. I have never let a little rain stop me. But my wife is just getting into hunting and I don't want to do anyting that would turn her off to hunting this early in the game. It's bad enough that we are going to be doing a good bit of walking in hopes of finding some birds that will actually come in.

The land I hunt is public and usually if you haven't got your bird in the first week it is going to be pretty hard to get one at all.

And your right, we will never get one driving around in the truck but I can at least keep her dry and show her some more land that we may hunt.

But who knows maybe it won't be so bad on Sunday and we might get lucky.

I hear ya. It is the same in my neck of the woods as well which is why I am trying to hunt a more remote location this season. Good luck and I hope the weather holds out.

I don't savor hunting in the rain, but I still go because the turkeys are still out there. One of the locals here in Garrett Co. where I'm hunting says he's hoping it will rain because he always has had better success then. I've killed them in the rain too. This morning it poured rain on my buddy for about 10 minutes while I saw no rain. The kicker is we were hunting the same farm!

If it's just raining and no thunder or lightning in the morning I'll see if the wife wants to sleep in while I go see if I can bag one my self. But from the looks of it we will both be sleeping in.[:@]

Hey Sapper I live in Joplin too. I am planning on going out in the morning and doing what we can. Our biggest fear is the little bit of private land we can hunt will surely be flooded. Not all the land but the creeks we have to cross will be to high. What public lands do you normally hunt? I have a feeling we will be going public tommorrow also. At least Sunday should be nice. I have yet to get a tom to answer to calls this season and I have been out in KS and MO.

Saturday morning the alarm went off at 3:45am and so did the thunder and lightning so no hunting on saturday. Sunday we get out to the woods about 5am and about an hour later start hearing birds. But these guys are call shy to the max I don't think we ever heard the same bird gobble twice. When we would hear a bird close we would sit down I would let out couple soft calls and then we would sit and wait and wait and wait but nothin!! Another thing was that it seemed like there was always a creek between us and the birds. We finally made our way to the edge of a small clearing and saw two huge toms feeding away from us and you guessed it there was a creek between us and them. I got them to gobble a few times and one even struted a little. Just seeing those birds got my wife all kinds of fired up. They eventually went off into the woods and we left the area. I think we are going to go back to the same clearing next weekend and set out some decoys and see if we can get one that way.

hcurt,

So far I have only hunted the public areas around Joplin during bow season. I mostly hunt Bushwhacker but this coming season I will most likely be driving even further to find some better places. During turkey season and the rifle season for deer we go to my mothers which is about an hour southeast of Springfield, MO. This way we have someone that we can leave our kids with while we are hunting. Turkey season and the rifle season for deer are the only times my wife gets to go hunting and I pretty much devote my time to getting her a bird or a deer during those times. So far my record is pretty bad[&o]. My little girl is almost old enough to start going with us but my little boy still has a few years left.[&o].