Best gobbling - Over?

My youngest killed three the week of youth season. (March 9-14) Turkeys gobbled good and worked really well. How many think it happened early this year? How many think the best is yet to come?

The best is yet to come in my area

Didn’t think it was a week of youth season…unless I’m wrong

Haha oops

I’m right on line - MS. It was actually March 8-14 but you are kind of missing the point.

Was gonna say, he’s in Mississippi. But na I don’t think it’s over. Bout April 12-20 has been fire for my area for long time every year.

Central Ms has really slowed down after about the first 8-10 days, I have hunted every day but two and today was the first day I heard nothing!

Lots of pressure this year. I would like to see the number difference in hunters each year.. one club I’m in is worse than wma..

Most clubs are worse when it comes to pressure, but don’t let the public land guys know - they’ll get all worked up about it

The answer for SW AL is a definite yes. Two main reasons. They always gobble better here before full summer greenup, which is before April begins. And, we gave the early bird hunters 10 more days of the absolute best hunting to kill even more birds.

We call that Corps land with four wheelers. 😁.

The pressure is no joke for sure. The data that has been collected this year has brought forth some scary concerns. The main highlight was its ESTIMATED we have approximately one gobbler per hunter across the state.

What 247 said - where we at - mid march to 26-28th the best. I was very lucky to hav them still looking 2nd day of season. Heck - like 247 said - we see this year after year after year. I always killed more birds mid march to march 31. Hunts or gobbling is quick now - why - hens close - ie - gobbler looking hard stage or the fun stage for hunters is over where we at

No

It certainly depends on where you are, and all the factors of the local environment.

You wouldn’t want to hunt where I am the majority of April.

In my experience it's cyclical. It's up and down

I would take March 15- April 15 over the current dates we have. Turkey hunting in May??? No thanks.

I’ve always done better later in the season, regardless of where I was hunting. The season doesn’t start getting right until April and keeps getting better the later it gets.

My take, over all I hear less birds in the morning the later in the year it gets. But if you find one gobbling he’s usually pretty easy to work.

I brought this up a month ago and was enlightened lol Yes you are right

In our area the gobblers are flying up with or very near hens . Gobbling on limb fair hitting the ground and drumming with hens all day. Some days not even giving a courtesy gobble. It usually last week or more then you start seeing lone hens by themselves and gobbling starts to pick up and the ones that haven’t been shot yet loose their mind the last of April into May. That’s my experience and seems to be true most years.North Jackson

We killed2 this morning around lunchtime

There was 4 gobblers and they gobbled about 40 times each

So. I don’t know.

247 spot on as usual

And yall aint hunted clarke r marengo county of u dint know that. Our henned up now - gobbling down. Always like that this time year

I lived and hunted in Monroe County for about 4 years. Every season got better the later into April it got.
Same goes for all the years I hunted in Coffee County. 🤷‍♂️

Good for you - i hav heard people up north say it got bettr n april - never seen that here. Hav had good hunts in april but not near as consistent as march
Maybe u had incredible property

Beyond any question whatsoever, the best gobbling of the season is behind us for the properties I hunt in Perry, Coosa, and Tallapoosa counties. It's that way year after year. Back when we had the 3/15 opener, I always tried to be done as a shooter by the end of the first week of April because I knew it would be tough to find a gobbling turkey after that. My record of carrying others as the shooter has not been very good; mainly because most of those trips we never even heard one.

In all the years I've hunted, I can't remember ever hearing a turkey gobble in the afternoon once the temps started getting into the high 80s and 90s. On the places I've been able to hunt, it becomes strictly a morning thing to hear one once you get to that part of the season.

In the last week of April, I've seen groups of 3-8 longbeards back together with seemingly no interest in a hen. They don't gobble and won't even look in your direction when you call to them. The breeding season is over for them. Of course, there are always exceptions and I've heard a turkey gobble in every month of the year. I've heard them gobble good in May and June, so turkeys will always do whatever they want and they don't follow any rules.

Part of this might be the size of the turkey population on the places I can hunt. I've never heard the crazy numbers of turkeys gobbling the way a lot of hunters on here have mentioned. All I know is my own experience, and I am sadly confident that the best gobbling of my season is behind me. Consider yourself blessed if it isn't that way for you.

No

I haven’t heard a gobble yet. They didn’t really get super excited last season until 2nd week of April so hopefully they turn on in the next few days. I’m guessing they’re already henned up bad by opener and just have to let them do their business first couple weeks.

In my personal opinion, I will have to say so, for the areas I personally hunt. I have yet to hear much gobbling this year in SE and SW Alabama. I'd say I have heard maybe 50 gobbles all season, including the few days I listened before season. A very strange year for gobbling.

Due to life this has been the first year in several that I have been able to participate in my passion, I have gone pretty much everyday since the NW Fl. season started and have been real disappointed in the lack of gobbling but it sure has been a pleasure to be in the woods again

What PCO said - after march - its tuff

That Why they moved start date back - to save birds - and it saves some

Been that way for 40 years here - gobbling today - ended quick

And the rules for the small time property guy with very few turkeys really hurt. Those that may have 7-15 plus birds got options - way easier to find a bird. Those that nay hav 1-2 on certain days - your chances go way down when henned up

If people dint quit terrorizing them…maybe😐

This is exactly right for the majority of the southern 1/3 of AL, whether you like it or not

Hens are not interested in gobblers unless their nest is broken. It’s green, it’s hot, and for whatever reason - gobbling decreases drastically. Of course - a boat load of adult males are dead anyway - so theirs that.

Most of my experience is from Jackson County and the best action was the last 2 weeks of March and maybe the first few days of April. After that you were just tick bait.

Y’all must’ve really let the turkeys go to crap since I left south Alabama, then. 🤣🤣

This is my own personal info analyzed from 2015 to 2022. I haven't added earlier or later. Just put it together for interest in 2022 when I had 40% of my mornings with 0 gobblers heard. This is the percent of mornings I heard 0 birds by week. Week 1 is 3/15-22. Week 2 3/23-30, etc... We start in early week 2 now. Seems like I consistently hear a gobbler later in the year with less goose egg mornings.



This is the average number of gobblers heard per morning by week. Seems like I hear more turkeys the second week of April than the rest of the season. Ive also killed more turkeys in the third week of April than any other week.

You aint in clarke or marengo

And why the heck ever complain about chuck if moving it back dont hurt u??? I known-its diff up north part of state - not here. All my hunting buddies just had crappie weeks - slow time

I done w this - the best n this area will tell u this - always a lull and thats like now for here

Flushing this thread - where i at - generally sucks now. Hope i kill n morning - but not likely. They not searching now where i at - put that on the graph 😀

South of the big, yellow gate at Carlton might be a different story. 🤷‍♂️ Maybe the gators keep them quiet later in the year. 🤣🤣

Damn dude, take a chill pill. Just posting what I have seen personally. Didn't say anything about marengo, clarke, chuck, season dates, good or bad, lulls, north vs south. BTW I am very central. You sure read a lot into my post I think you should just quit!

I don’t know what the answer is

We had 4 gobblers burning it up at 11am yesterday

We killed 2 of them

This morning we heard 4 or 5 in the tree then nothing on the ground. Hunted till 9:30

Could we have made a hunt if we hunted till mid day? Probably.

I will say that I usually hear a bunch of turkeys gobble the last week of April if we
get cool mornings

I like cool morning cold snaps, rising pressure, and sun… turkeys are weird but it ain’t over yet

Mine are still with hens all day long they will start gettin lonely soon I hope. Not a whole lot of gobbling on limb especially on the ground till this week.

I’m glad to hear yall have hens

In the past few weeks the most hens I’ve seen with a gobbler(s) is two except one gobbler he had 4 hens.

Been seeing single hens out and about by themselves for several weeks now. Some act like they’re setting already. I know of two nest that are about or get busted up I bet.

I’m gonna hunt public land for the first time in years.
I’ve heard 3 birds that were about a mile from our farm in the 3 days that I’ve hunted.
I can hunt them but several guys are chasing those field birds hard since they live by there. I’m hoping they run one back my way at the farm but nothing on camera yet. Did see a few single hens the other day though.

As far as gobbling here in Colbert. It used to always be very strong during the season (April). It ramped up until the second week when pressure shut them up. The third and fourth weeks were always very strong. I still hear them into May.

The public land birds here have always been iffy depending on area. On WMA they might wear it out one day and nothing for several afterwards
It’s hard to stay on them and why I don’t usually hunt these birds. They also travel so you may see them here and they’re a mile away the next day. Once the hens start nesting the gobblers travel. The TVA lands were always a favorite but they don’t gobble nothing like they used too. Every time the rock quarry would drop a load ulyiud hear them. No need for a locator call.


Here’s a question I have and have had a while.

Does lack of competition amongst males drive gobbling efforts. If there’s so little competition why gobble. When we had tons of longbeards we had a lot of hard gobbling. As the population dropped so did the number of gobbles and intensity.

There have been years where the birds didn’t gobble in the limb but waited until around 8 to fire up. I always assumed those had hens roosting with them and no need to gobble. Also killed yotes while turkey hunting when they snuck in

Marengo used to be best from Now til the end of April when I hunted there
I think it depends on property type as well. Birds use different properties more early then move to other properties later sometimes

Mine are still with hens, all the way up into the afternoons. They are gobbling, but are more on the quiet side when they hit the ground. I have not been able to strike one mid morning or in the afternoon. Seems like overall number of gobblers heard are down.

The "Great Mystery." Best gobbling is when he decides he wants to. I have been near some woods working construction in February when it is 28 degrees and they would be burning it up. Working on some property one year well into late May and heard one hammering every breath. As said earlier, it is a roller coaster. So many variables. The last 15 days in March are usually more enjoyable to hunt like it always was for a long time. I prefer that because of the weather. Good thing about April is the hens at some point usually leave the gobblers alone to go nest.