Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk ALTurkey Talk -- Beards and Spurs LFTW 5/7

Dead here. Nephews are two roads over, dead there too

I got up at 430 ready to go but it rained during the night and my wife said she didnt want to go. Went back to bed .

Just had a velvet buck walk up to 10yards and freak out when the wind shifted

Got out and tried it again. First set up was pointless. Second set up called in 3 hens to about 30 yards. Had to quit cause wife owns the rest of the day. To rub salt in the wound, found a roadkill gobbler on the way home.

Nothing like ending your season by wounding a gobbler. I’m sick sick sick. I walked up on him strutting in a road about 100 yards in front of me. I bailed off in the pines and closed the gap. While I was slipping through the pines he gobbled and I got set up. I called to him and he gobbled, and then gobbled on his own. Within a minute I saw him strut into the pines, set his wings and start walking straight to me. I pulled the trigger and he backflipped. Fan sprawled out and then inexplicably he got his feet under him and managed to get out of my sight. I had a buddy and his son help me look for him and we never even found a feather. I’ve lost 2 over my years turkey hunting but I’ve never been more surprised to see one get up. I wish I could say it was a clean miss but I don’t see how. I don’t know? No blood, no feather, no sign.

Do you need a tracking dog brought out??

Dang, hate to hear that. That is a sickening feeling

Matt that hurts me reading…been there done that…no worse feeling… keep the head up brotha! You will get him next time! Turkeys are resilient so fingers crossed he will be just fine. I’d check your gun though to see how it’s shooting to hopefully prevent it happening again if it is off.

Will your dog track a turkey? Sure worth a try if he will. I remember a morning back in the mid 60s when my dad wounded a big gobbler like that. He was using the only gun he had - an A5 with an IC barrel. It was probably not effective beyond 25 yds, so no surprise that the turkey ran off. Anyway, he took his Pointer quail dog back and he found the turkey. I remember being mad that he wouldn't let me skip school and go with him to look for it, but Rye tracked that turkey down and he was able to shoot him again.

Sorry you lost him, Southwood. That's the worst feeling in hunting. I hope there is a chance you can still recover him

I ended up hanging around just listening to him gobble. Finally spotted him moving on the hill in the thinned pines. He got close enough for me to hear him drum then a bobcat came slipping along on my side of the swamp and I tried to get on him. Don't know if the bird saw me or the cat or neither of us, but never heard him again and never got on the cat. At least I ended the season listening to one gobble. Time to go back to trapping now.

I’ve had a dog track a wounded turkey. Old man had a blue healer that he swore would track one. Well I wounded one and called the man. Sure enough his dog found the bird holed up in some private. Unfortunately the dog was out in front of us and flushed the bird and he flew off without being able to get another shot. Never could get back on him, he flew a loooong way when flushed.

It's definitely a different scenario than tracking a deer but in certain situations, yes it's possible......like if its wounded up and cant fly.

Yeah, in my experience if a turkey is wounded he will fly if he can. If he runs away, he's probably not able to fly and could be located with a dog. But I don't know of many dogs in AL that are trained to trail a turkey. I don't know how easy it would be to get a deer dog to trail a turkey. Rye did it, but he was used to trailing quail and then pointing them. As I remember, he took to the trail of the turkey and followed it several hundred yards, then pointed him in a downed treetop.

A wounded turkey will try to find some cover and hide in it. It would help to have most any kind of dog with you as you look for him. I once lost a gobbler that went into a hole in a creek bank. I had walked all over him and didn't know he was there. Found the remains the next week after some varmint had pulled him out of the hole and eaten him. Most any sort of dog would have found him, but I didn't have one.

I haven’t pulled the trigger since April 27, 2019……1106 days. Since then, I’ve only even gotten close to killing 3. 2 hung up about 80yds out, the 3rd was a jake I pardoned at 15yds earlier this season. Took me 6 yrs to kill my first 2 with the 3rd in season 7. Looks like it’ll be another several yr dry spell before I kill again. I’m salty…

tomorrow’s the end of the season, Gomer

It’s also Mother’s Day and we have 2 small kids, and I intend to stay happily married 😂

Honestly, from what I’ve seen so far, I won’t be missing anything. I’m pretty sure the birds on our places were “done” 2 weeks ago. I can’t even find tracks to prove they exist anymore.

They still coming to a call but not saying a word.

it’s not a religious holiday - you’re good 👍🏻😜🤣 also you know i dont believe you when you say “there ain’t no turkey’s” ... your track record is poor in that regard - IJS

happy Mother’s Day to Mal - Lord knows you need to honor her for as much as she has to put up with 😃🤣😂💩😎

Yeah, that's pretty much how its gonna happen if it does.......My cousin wounded one up like that a few years ago and we were able to find it in a privet thicket the same way you're describing.

So after this little experience, I moved on to check a couple of other spots and pull some SD cards. At my final spot the hay field makes a “Y” with both ends stopping at some hardwoods. I haven’t been to the right fork much so I headed that way. I got to the end and set up in the woods for about 30 minutes with no luck. I got paged to see an emergency patient so was running short on time. I decided to head back to the truck and drive down the left fork and pull the SD card from a camera that was at the end of the field, just inside the woods.

As I was easing up the hill on the left fork, something caught my eye at the knoll of the hill about 60 yards away. It was a turkey’s head…..no it was TWO turkeys wrapped up fighting! The grass was so tall, all I could see was the heads and them pecking and going at it! They didn’t act like they’d seen me due to the strong wind so I sprung into action!

I stopped the truck and grabbed my gun from the back seat and crawled to the edge of the hill, and peaked over. Nothing. I eased up a little farther and caught a glimpse of one of them in the woods but he was way out of range. I guess when I turned to get my gun, they saw my truck and eased away.

I just backed out and left without checking the camera. I don’t know how big they were because all i saw was their head and necks. I would have to think they were mature birds though.

Anyway, I’ll be at that spot before daylight and see what happens.

Congrats to the killers today!