LFTW…APRIL FOOLS DAY

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Me and GomerJr headed out for a short one. Only gonna be able to hunt until 830ish but better than nothing

Here again and hoping the bull gnats are as hungry as they were yesterday

Really hate I decided to go back to work full time. Good luck fellas I might try en after work

Guvmint land opens today. Here with Hootn

Here for my usual dose of butt whooping. Coyotes going nuts right now.

Here waiting on him to gobble.

Stuck at school and clinic today. Hate that I'm missing the public opener. Good luck gentlemen!

Had two gobble about 15 times on the limb across the creek. They’ve gone quiet since fly down.

Turkeys are quite in Waverly, unusual.

Back at salt mine - good luck - maybe i get to go some before work this week - more cool coming and thankful for it

Nothing here yet. About par for the course, but I guess it is better than rolling into work right now.

Silence

Good luck fellas. The duck hunters wanting water let out fixing to climb on excavator. But they let me hunt everything but ducks !!

Work per usual. Y’all kill em up. Must be nice to be a YouTuber and not work nor have family or other obligations

Nothing gobbling in Baldwin on public. Muggy warm and mosquito weather. Walked up on a guy sitting in a ground blind in the middle of the road and that’s about it.

Sit tight. They’re likely to show up unannounced.

Chambers County: Heard one gobble to the North.....1/2 minute later another one gobble to the South. That's IT....they shut up!! Least it wasn't windy.

Nothing but silence for me

These boys ain’t talking today

Heard 2 a LONG ways off but that was it

Nagative on goobles today..try again tomarra

Complete Silence!

Can all turn around in an instant!!!!

On public. My spot was taken at 05:45 and there must be a truck parked every 200 yards off the road.

Man, you ware running mighty late for any public especially on opening day, hope you find a spot with one cooperative!

Dead at 8:52. He gobbled about 7:20 ish and didn’t stop until I killed him. It was wild hunt too. Should’ve killed him earlier but he came in hard left. He putted a little bit and eased off. Started back gobbling, and we just played the game across 3 ridges and I finally got a shot.

Confound turkeys be hard to understand. Grandson killed a nice one Saturday. We heard one east, one west, and there were four others with the one he killed. All this is on a small tract. Went back this morning to only hear one about a mile away gobble once. There is no doubt that a turkey was in earshot. They simply did not say a word or show up in any of the pastures/fields around. It is frustrating because grandson goes back to school tomorrow so we are done for the week. It just goes to show that if you make a single visit to a place without a gobble, it does not mean they are not there.

I took another vacation day from work today to hunt the Winston County opener with my Dad…No gobbles on the limb, so we got settled in a good spot and I did some blind calling about every 20 minutes. At 7:30, I had a gobbler answer my calling about 400 yards away. Within 5 minutes, he was half as far and I could hear two birds at the same time there together. Sure enough, it was the survivors from Saturday's hunt when Emory killed his gobbler…I called to them one sequence when they were 200 yards away and across a hollow. They both gobbled and I put the call down. 3-4 minutes later, they both strutted into the foodplot we were set up on and began working our way from 125 yards out. Luckily, they had come into the field from downhill of us and they couldn’t see up the hill. It took them about 10 more minutes to close the gap and strut up the hill to find the hen that had been calling…That’s when the madness started!! We were trying to double and I wanted my Dad to shoot first to make sure he killed one…The lead strutter got to 35 yards and craned his head, but Dad’s gun wouldn’t shoot. Dad racked another shell into the automatic and the second shell wouldn’t shoot either. The gobblers were getting spooky at this point and I handed Dad my gun. He’s an old school iron sights type guy, so he’s never shot a red dot sight like mine. I was telling him how to center the dot in the aight window, etc. But, he still missed on the first and second shots with my gun. The third shot rolled the gobbler at 50 yards and the second turkey flew off.

Glad that Dad got him one!! What a debacle!!! Definitely a memory we won’t ever forget!!! 🤦🏼‍♂️🤪

Heck of a week for us!!! Thank you, Lord, thank you!!!

Killed my biggest bird this morning,started out not hearing anything so I went to an area I haven’t been in this year,I stopped about 100 yards from a foodplot in some big thinned pines you can see a long ways through and yelped a few times and didn’t hear anything,I get in the truck and pull down to the foodplot and get all my stuff on and walk across to the other side of the plot to a road that cuts through the woods to a powerline,i Yelp and one answers me down the hill,i ease down the road 50 yards and check him and he answered in the bottom and i was thinking he was 75-100 yards away in the bottom so I ease down the road and was gonna just get on a tree right there and before I could get there I walked up on some hens about 30 yards into the thinned pines,I freeze and when they go back to pecking I ease down to my knees,a minute later I see the gobbler strutting and he’s going to my right,the hens have gotten within 15 yards of me but there’s a dirt mound between us so they don’t see me,a minute later the gobbler steps into a thinned row and he picks me out,he had already stretched his neck out was making those nervous steps like he was about to get out of there so I raise up and pop him before he has the chance,hunt took probably 5 minutes total,he had 11” beard and right at 1 1/2” spurs,probably the fastest hunt I’ve ever been on

congrats to the killers

0.

Congrats to the killers.

I sat down to eat some lunch on the front porch and there is a jake gobbling his head off on the other ridge. He got a couple older birds to sound off a few times. Too bad season is still two weeks away.

Good story. It can happen fast.

It tells me they were not there today, since they did not gobble. Had they been there like Saturday you would have heard them. They move miles per day often.

Not necessarily. Some days they don’t gobble, even if they blew the woods wide open the day before. Seen that quite a lot. I’ve had birds that I KNEW where there and you’d never know it if you didn’t walk up on them. The next day you may hear 5-6. They were there the whole time.

But yes, they will also travel great distances at times.

The more I go the more I think the ones that crank up at 730 or 1030 just finally walked into hearing. I am sure I am wrong but that makes way more sense to me

They are crazy birds. Sometimes they dont gobble but only drum and spit. They arent gone they just dont want to play. Hunting out west it it much easier because you can tell what the birds lije. If one is 600 yards away you can still see him. He might be reacting to your call or coming in. In the thick timber in the eastern US you never even kniw that bird is there.

That definitely happens. I’ve also roosted birds in the evening, to not have them gobble a single time the following morning, but they will pitch out, strut, spit and drum, and do other turkeys things. They’re strange critters.

I called a bird in Saturday that is likely the longest I’ve ever called a bird in from. He was the last to start gobbling, gobbled the least of them all, but covered the most ground to come in. It was quite a show. First time I heard him he was about half a mile. When I relocated I got to about 600 yards, and for some stupid reason he was the one that decided to die, while the other two, who were far closer, opted to stay in their strut zone and gobble like idiots all morning.

Had one bird gobble one time on the limb this morning. Got busted at 10:45 damnit!

Don’t give Gobblebox the keys to your lease. He’s a flat out turkey annihilator.

5 vehicles at the wma gate this morning. A few private track scattered. Not that many birds to go around. I guess Hunters meeting hunters chasing the same birds. Heard one gobble never gobbled again once he hit the ground.

40+ years of turkey hunting and never killed one on April 1st. Streak continues. Nothing gobbled at dawn. Heard 1st bird at 715. Had 2 super jakes with 6” beards at 60 yards gobbling like they was grown. Strutter drumming at 80 yards. Saw him but his hen took him away. Sigh. Congrats to killers!

Congrats killers - dandy bird gobblebox

Went this evening had one come in silent. He popped up on the logging road at 43 yds couldn’t tell if it was a Jake or a long beard so didn’t pull trigger he didn’t see what he wanted to see didn’t stay long enough. Maybe Wednesday I’ll try again

Well they never showed, I sat for a while and sparingly called to see if I could get one to respond to get an eta. I wasn’t able to set up as close as I liked and my only thought is they had some hens that took them the other way. I’m going to give a try again in the morning.

Congrats to all who got one. Seemed like a better day for fishing to me

This morning’s April Fool’s joke carried on to the afternoon hunt and I wasn’t amused one bit!!! 😡

I walked past a Cottonmouth on the way in to hunt as I was crossing the creek.


Then, I noticed some turkey feathers in the nearby foodplot along the creek. Upon further examination, I realized something had killed a gobbler there in the field as there was a wad of beard and all types of feathers scattered for 100 yards across the field 😡😡😡

Mother Nature can sure be hateful sometimes!!!

When I first heard him this morning I wasn’t sure it was gobble due to some cutting on the neighboring land. I cut a little louder and he had gotten closer. I was set facing directly down the middle of the ridge, he hung left and I didn’t see him until he was 35 yards. I tried to move the barrel to him, but he saw movement and putted 2-3x and eased off in the bottom. Few minutes late he started gobbling so I knew I was still in the game. I watched him strut and gobble for about 8-10 minutes waiting until I could move on him. He eased on to the next ridge, so did I. He got quite on me, so I was waiting him out. A wood pecker fired off right above me, and he ate it up, but had moved to the next ridge. While he was hot, I cut at him pretty hard and he cut it off. I caught glimpses of him working the other ridge, and noticed he was coming. The only place I didn’t need him to come was hard left, and you know he did that. He was in some thick stuff drumming for about 8 minutes gobbling periodically. It was frustrating knowing he was so close but I couldn’t see him, but was awesome feeling/hearing him drum. He finally broke out behind the thick cover and I threaded a needle. We battled from 7:15 until about 8:50.


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Beautiful picture! Congrats!