Turkeys Gobbling ?

treefarmer87 · March 15, 2011, 09:34:03 PM

I havent heard any yet, im sure they will start in the next week or two. i have heard them gobble in t-storms. i heard them gobble at crows and geese, and even a truck door slamming

Magicman · March 20, 2011, 08:43:46 PM

We worked on those priorities this weekend. Grandson Ben, got his first turkey.

There were three big birds and 4 jakes. He took the first one that gave him a shot.

beenthere · March 20, 2011, 11:27:27 PM

Nice bird.
Did you tell him not to smile?

Yesterday there were 9 good size tom's that paraded around about 20 hens and a few jakes that had to be run off. All 9 were sporting 8-9" beards.

Chuck White · March 21, 2011, 08:44:23 AM

We hear them gobbling on the hills just at daybreak!

Then about 9:00 they're out in the field behind the house strutting and necking!

Magicman · March 21, 2011, 09:44:53 AM

Quote from: beenthere on March 20, 2011, 11:27:27 PM
Did you tell him not to smile?

:D I think that was about the ???th picture and by then his smile was probably tired. :D At least we had finally moved to the shade and gotten the sun out of his eyes. ;)

chain · March 21, 2011, 01:20:55 PM

I know you are just as proud as your grandson is! Think he would hire out as a guide?

beenthere · March 21, 2011, 03:00:06 PM

I heard the gobbling going on this morning, and managed to get a poor video of them through the screened window.
There were four tom's strutting and trying to entice a flock of about 20 hens.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX08ZF2frK8

Ron Scott · March 21, 2011, 08:15:16 PM

Well done! What's he shooting?

ellmoe · March 21, 2011, 09:36:49 PM

Autocar came by the mill today with his hunting partner. He has found out that our woods can be THICK. So far not any luck with calling in a gobbler. He said that he couldn't even get the hens to respond to his call. I politely respnded that these were Southern turkeys, "they don't speak no yankee yelpin' ". ;D Hopefully he'll find a translator for his call and change his luck around.

Mark

Magicman · March 21, 2011, 10:13:53 PM

Quote from: Ron Scott on March 21, 2011, 08:15:16 PM
Well done! What's he shooting?

His Dad's 20 gauge 870. It is such a joy to see the fun being passed down to yet another generation.

Ron Scott · March 22, 2011, 08:58:07 PM

Great gun for him.

Autocar · March 24, 2011, 09:45:46 AM

Well I got back yesturday and had to come back to the Forestry Forum to see a dead gobbler :D Nice turkey there magicman and I bet a happy grandson. The weather was great clear and temps around 80/85 degrees. I hunted in green swamp its sort of a screwy set up they have two gates to get into 50,000 acres they don't unlock the gate till the day before the season opens and that is at 8:30 so the gobbling was all over with by them. My friend and I drove around on the five roads and walked a few fire lanes and came up with a plan. Opening morning 200 hunters lined up at the two gates starting at 3:30 in the morning. At five a fellow would shows up [ gate keeper ] and at 5:30 he would unlock the gate and you would move forward till he gave you a ticket [we got two ] then they would rip out like those bass tournament boats. Road signs said 5m.p.h. we was driving 35 and they were passing on the right side and left side doing 60. Washed board roads and gravel I thought they were nuts ! Pulled into a spot and started getting out and a fellow wheels in and jumps out and goes back the trail we were planning on walking in on. So we left and found another pull off. Over the week we hunted, I heard gobblers about every day but the woods is like a jungle palmettos and some kind of brush I couldn't even penatrate it with out sounding like a tank coming though. We roosted birds a couple of days and would rip down the roads like we were nuts also only to have a couple of trucks there already that came from the other gate ten miles north. My friend did get on a gobble the last day telling me the hens came first, one witn in arms length staring at him for a few minuites,while all the time the gobbler is going nuts. Then at twenty yards he gobbles again from behind a palmetto and by this time he's wiged out big time :D telling me the barrel was going in a circle like a texas tornado ;D about that time he pops out and fans out and he missed him :D needless to say we will be back they kicked our butts but pay back is H :D Anyone thats hooked on turkey hunting knows what Iam talking about your heart is pounding and the longer it takes him to come the more you get wired up :D. Alligators everywhere if there was a mud puddle the size of a pickup bed there was a gator in it . We saw 2 footers to 12 footers one was on the road and I thought someone hit him so I take a stick and pock him he spun around and I found out in a hurry that if he wanted to catch a fellow for sure he would out run a man. One night I roosted a bird and had parked my truck a half a mile away,about dark two bob cats get into a fight, man alive I went twenty feet straight up in the air I guess I was wiged out also :D. Then as I walked back to the truck I heard something coming towards me it sounded like a 400 pound wild hog it turned out to be two armadillas about a foot long ;D Lots of hog sign, seen a few cotton mouths over all a great time hunting. We also went to Allmoes sawmill up at Bushnell Florida Mark was busy but took time to show us yellow pine lumber and cypress and a few other kinds very interesting for me ive never been around southern lumber before. I enjoyed all the products he makes there tonge and groove siding , privace fence real cool all I ever made was boards :D Ellmoe thanks very much for your time it was very intereting. Over all theres tons of people but the weather made up for it, I got up this morning to a little snow :(

clww · March 24, 2011, 10:55:52 AM

Attaboy to your grandson, Magicman!
We went to the property in Highland County last weekend while at the Maple Festival. Saturday evening while driving a dirt road, we saw a flock of about a dozen birds out in a field. I guess they were eating seeds because it's still to cold up there for the bugs to be out.

beenthere · March 24, 2011, 11:10:45 AM

autocar
Interesting turkey hunting story. Doesn't sound like a desireable place to try to hunt with the wild vehicle clamor. But if that is all that is available, then maybe better than nothing.

I'm puzzled by the term "wiged" as you used it a couple times. What is that?

Autocar · March 24, 2011, 02:49:40 PM

Beenthere, Autocars Dictionary ;D =Wiged Out means So excited, adrenaline rush,heart pounding :D

ellmoe · March 24, 2011, 09:02:29 PM

Quote from: Autocar on March 24, 2011, 09:45:46 AM
Ellmoe thanks very much for your time it was very intereting.

Your welcome very much. I enjoyed your brief visit and am glad to hear that your partner learned to yelp in "Cracker". ;D Sorry you went home empty handed. Hope you'll come back and try it again.
Mark

Magicman · March 24, 2011, 09:39:56 PM

After maybe winning a bout with a wretched cough, I'll go back over to the tree farm tomorrow. I'm carrying another load of foundation blocks, and a new mouth call. I'll be alone Saturday AM, so maybe I'll just walk back and see who is ~~talking~~ gobbling. ;)

Ron Scott · April 09, 2011, 10:59:25 AM

The season is getting closer. The snow should be out of the woods by the end of April.

Tom · April 09, 2011, 03:21:42 PM

I have always wondered why the Wildlife people open a season on turkeys in the spring. It always seemed to me that the continued hatching would require a period where the birds were not molested. So, I decided to try to find out by Googling for a reason.

The reason that I found is that the opening of Spring Turkey season coincides with the middle of the laying season, with the logic that the female birds will have already mated and be on their nests and relatively removed from the dangers of being killed by the hunters. Spring Turkey hunting will have different dates from State to State for that reason and the dates may even change depending on that year's weather.

That is some mighty finite, micro-managing of wildlife, isn't it?

beenthere · April 09, 2011, 04:18:31 PM

Tom
I didn't google it, but your findings are a little different than what I've been hearing over the years of hunting turkeys, and also from my limited experience.

Our spring season in WI starts next week and consists of weekly hunting periods of five days (Wed - Sun). A drawing for one of these periods is handled through application (before Dec. 10 deadline for Spring season) so the dates are not flexible for weather (just luck of the draw or rub of the green

). The tom turkeys are courting the hens now, but likely nothing happening yet. The toms call the hens to come to them (the hunters try to act like hens and get the toms to come to them :

:

).

From what I understand, the hens find a nesting place and lay one fertilized egg about once a day. When the nest has a clutch of eggs, the hen will set on them to begin incubating so all the chicks hatch about the same time (apparently nature figured this out for them so the young were not hanging around while more eggs were to hatch). The hen is vulnerable to fox and coyote while sitting on the nest, as well as after the chicks hatch until the hen and chicks can fly into the trees to roost at night. They say, once a nest is disturbed (hen chased off), she will not come back to that nest but find another spot or wait until the following year.

The most sought after hunting periods are the early ones. Partly due to the activity of the toms, partly due to the hens ignoring the toms as they are not ready to come running when they hear a gobble, and mostly due to the flora is not thick and green yet so the tom turkeys are more visible at a greater distance. So our periods go from before egg laying to after egg laying, near as I can decipher.

No facts here, just my understanding (and going to count on it as my season starts next Wed the 13th).

Edit:
I do not find a source of info on the daily fertilization. Found laying one egg a day over 12-14 days, then setting for 26 day incubation.
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/wildlife/Articles/turkeynest.htm

clww · April 09, 2011, 06:29:21 PM

Today was opening day of Spring Gobbler here in VA. I didn't go this morning. I'm having surgery on Tuesday, so my plan is to head back up to Highland County next Sunday to hunt for 3 days during my recuperation and time off from work.

Tom · April 09, 2011, 07:22:04 PM

It sounds like there must be two reasons to have a season, Beenthere. I wonder if they do the same thing for fish somewhere. Does it make you feel like you've had blinders put on your head? :D

beenthere · April 09, 2011, 09:08:52 PM

:D :D :D
The big reason for the season is the collection of the revenue.

With our fishing season, one doesn't really know if he's afoot or horseback. The rules and regs are endless. Different rules for different stretches of streams I've heard. But I don't try to go trout fishing anymore. ;)

Trout regs, for the state, if interested.
Best know every stream ahead of time.
http://dnr.wi.gov/fish/regulations/2011/troutsalmon.html

Autocar · April 10, 2011, 12:04:13 PM

Between turkey hunting, mushroom hunting and fishing I run in circles in the spring ;D

Magicman · April 10, 2011, 09:06:35 PM

The tom only has to mate with the hen once to fertilize the entire clutch of eggs, even though they are laid about one per day. Yes, incubation only begins when the hen has laid all of her eggs and begins "setting".

I'm seeing "single" hens that have separated from the flock. They are most likely already laying eggs.

I've read that legal hunting has virtually no affect on the flock size. Predators and disease are the real limiters.