Strutting to early?
03-05-2002, 09:47 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Sugar Grove NC USA
Posts: 5
Strutting to early?
The birds here in NC are fanning and strutting quite a lot. I am a first time hunter, and it is 5 weeks until the season opens. How will this affect the behavior of the birds by the time the season arrives?
03-05-2002, 12:07 PM
#2
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Omaha NE USA
Posts: 261
RE: Strutting to early?
It will not effect them at all. Like me, tom's are horny all the time but it is the timing of the hens wanting to nest that will determine when the mating process starts. Contact your Game & Parks Biologist and I'm sure they've studies the averages of when the hens start nesting in your area. I've never seen toms burnout in the beginning of the season but have heard of them shutting down at the end of the season in mid-late May.
03-06-2002, 01:18 PM
#5
Spike
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: N. Attleboro MA USA
Posts: 24
RE: Strutting to early?
I tend to agree with BClark...I saw a nice gobbler strutting this morning which is very early for this area but based on the fact he only did so when approached face to face with another bird in the crop field they were feeding in. It didn't look as though he was trying to impress the 18 ladies around him and they could have cared less.
03-06-2002, 07:11 PM
#6
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: york pa USA
Posts: 40
RE: Strutting to early?
"how will this affect the behavior of the birds???" i think the better question is "how will it affect the behavior of you?" if i were you id'e be going NUTS seeing all that struttin around knowing i cant shoot one for 5 more WEEKS. like brokenbucket said, for once the females have full control, they will be bred when they are ready, not when the toms are ready. (hope my girlfriend doesnt read this)
"I got turkey on the brain"
"I got turkey on the brain"
03-06-2002, 10:09 PM
#7
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Baumholder, DEU/By Way of Arkansas
Posts: 2,849
RE: Strutting to early?
Got a big tom sruttin on video on February 28th. I'm gonna get it put as an mpeg on the internet so people can download it and see it. It's a site I tell ya! As soon as I get it on here I'll let ya know.
Our season here in Arkansas used to open up the 2nd or 3rd week in March but they moved it back to the 1st or 2nd week of April to give the birds more time to...well you know. And it's obviously workin cause our turkey numbers have gone way up in recent years. But heck, the toms are a lot harder to kill now since the season is later too. A bunch of times they're done breeding and are hard to call in and stuff. But nope, it's not too early for them to be strutting. It's been rather warm down here too. Good luck on the big boss tom!
Choices shape our future...not chance.
Our season here in Arkansas used to open up the 2nd or 3rd week in March but they moved it back to the 1st or 2nd week of April to give the birds more time to...well you know. And it's obviously workin cause our turkey numbers have gone way up in recent years. But heck, the toms are a lot harder to kill now since the season is later too. A bunch of times they're done breeding and are hard to call in and stuff. But nope, it's not too early for them to be strutting. It's been rather warm down here too. Good luck on the big boss tom!
Choices shape our future...not chance.
03-07-2002, 04:45 AM
#8
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: saint joseph missouri USA
Posts: 548
RE: Strutting to early?
I killed a tom turkey that went 21 lbs. two years ago in December with my bow. He was in full strut in the middle of four other toms with him. It is a dominance posture. As soon as he was hit and was nearly done flopping around, the other four birds starting attacking him and each other to re-establish a pecking order.
03-07-2002, 08:35 PM
#10
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: bogue chitto ms USA
Posts: 44
RE: Strutting to early?
i have seen some some struttin around here and was a little concerned but now i am not so worried after reading yalls posts. it has got me real fired up, made my wife turn around on our way to town and we sat on the side of the road and watched 3 strut for 10minutes. that was 2 weeks ago and our season opens on the 23rd.