2024 Spring Turkey hunt

I hunted Saturday not much gobbling although I arrived at 8:30am. Saw two hens come into the spread right away and hang out, but no toms ever showed up with them. Fast forward to 3:15, I walk to stretch the legs and glass. I look back to my blind (80 yards) at 3:30 and there’s a flock of turkeys walking by it, including a big tom. Sunday I got out there at 6am. Decent amount of gobbling for half hour then it all goes quiet. 9:30 a hen walks in and hangs out for a long time, right next to the blind. About 10 I heard for the first time in my life a turkey spit and drum as they call it. WOW! That’s one of the coolest sounds I’ve ever heard in my life! Long story short, I’ve got windows closed that should be open, etc. I look over and there is a GIANT turkey. I bet he was pushing 30 pounds(32 on his cheat day). Coke can beard, tail fan big enough to cover Kim Kardashians ash, and a head whiter than Casper’s. HOLY SMOKES! He was already in range, but I had the window closed I needed to shoot through. He saw something he didn’t like and put his tail down and started walkin’ away. I put the gun in the off-hand and pretzeled out the front window. I took my shot and Blair Walshed it. Then the gun didn’t cycle so that was it. My you know what was knocked in the dirt. Ten minutes of self-pity later I grabbed a pop and started reading a book. Two hours after that I looked out the back of the blind and lo and behold a turkey! It took me several minutes to identify, as the bird was standing in taller grass. Yes, he’s a tom all right. And you guessed it, all the back windows were velcro-closed. Damn the torpedoes! I started like a snail, and a few slow, painful minutes later I had the zipper completely up on the door. Meanwhile the tom had literally laid down completely out of site in the grass under the shady pine tree. A couple yelps on the mouth call, up telescoped his noggin’, and my load of longbeard 6’s left him in his final resting place. Turkey Huntin’. I’m not sure if I’m glad it’s over for the year and my tag is punched, or if I wished it’d never end.

Haha good read Crawdaddy, you crack me up. Congrats on the bird that is a nice picture.

I got a good laugh out of it too. Damn those torpedoes.

Sheesh that is a funny story, but Id be looking for a different blind that didnt have velcro that is a recipe for disaster. I got a 2 for 1 deal on blinds off facebook and they are fantastic.

Mine has velcro windows. I open all of them right away when I get in there so I don’t have to do it when a bird shows up. Made that mistake once, won’t make it again.

Mine have mesh screens that just slide down. Yes, there are blackout windows that velcro, but there are screens too.

Might attempt to put a Mn bird down Thursday after work. Otherwise too busy unfortunately to get out.

We did get down to Nebraska for our annual trip and filled our 6 tags as a group. Windy early on, but as always, lots of action.

Early in this when I said I dont care about the wind and cold as long as it dont rain. I lied. The wind sucked. By saturday morning i would have sat in the rain just to have the wind die down. Held out for the big one ive seen for 3 years now. Should have shot one when my daughter did Wednesday afternoon. Now i get to grill my tag unless i can get one after work today or tomorrow. Yesterday morning got out and realized after my 30 mile drive i brought a different jacket cause it was nicer out. Bad thing is my shells were all in my other coat. Lucky found one on the floor of truck. Got frustrated and shot at a jake and somehow missed. First ever missed turkey. No bullets left turkeys gobbling everywhere on my walk of shame back to truck.

Brutal Jeremy. I agree with the wind factor. You can’t hear as much and the birds can’t hear you either.

gimruis wrote:

Mine has velcro windows. I open all of them right away when I get in there so I don’t have to do it when a bird shows up. Made that mistake once, won’t make it again.

This was my biggest lesson of the season. Looking at all the options when setting up. You need places to shoot out of when the turkey shows up at an often unexpected location. But there’s also consideration for the fact that if windows are open on all sides then a turkey can peg you easier with his great vision. It’s important to leave a dark spot in the blind to conceal your movements.

On another note, the turkey I ended up getting was a curious fellow. When I first spotted him he was just hanging out. There’s no telling how long he was there. I watched him for several minutes and he was just relaxing. I had been calling sporadically and he never made a peep. Also, I had two decoys out 20 yards in front of the blind. He was about 15-20 yards behind the blind. He seemed super-relaxed for a turkey. Maybe he heard some calls and saw the decoys and figured it was a nice place to loaf about. Maybe it’s just where he felt like stopping to take a nap. I saw him lay down in the grass right before I swung out of the door. Every season and every bird is different.

Maybe he laid down cause he had the bird flu?

Finally got one in the hurricane last night. Not a great picture, daughter didn’t wanna get dirty cause she already took a bath.

Sheesh that beard is very impressive! Nice work.

JEREMY wrote:

Finally got one in the hurricane last night. Not a great picture cause daughter didn’t wanna get dirty cause she already took a bath.

Nice one! Shoot the xbow next year and you can hunt all season, although doesn’t sound like filling a tag is too difficult for you!

The last 2 years have been good to me. Not always the case. Favorite spot will be gone next year. Some years theres alot of birds at my parents farm other years not so much. There was a bunch on camera at the other end of the property last night when I was there so hopefully can get my 10 year old stepson his first yet.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Sheesh that beard is very impressive

What was impressive was that nasty waddly thing on his face. Had to be 4 inches long.

Good work guys. I’ve had a whopping 3 hours to hunt and it was brutal wind. I don’t think I’ll even get a chance to go back out any time soon.

For anyone interested here is the recipe I used to smoke my turkey breasts, turned out amazing! Have to figure out what to do with the legs at some point but those are in the freezer now.

Smoked Wild Turkey Breast:
In a large glass bowl, combine the brown sugar, salt, pepper and water and stir until dissolved. Add the turkey and weigh down to completely submerge if necessary. Transfer to the refrigerator to brine for 12-24 hours.

Brine Ingredients
1 1/2 Cup brown sugar
3/8 Cup kosher salt
3 Tablespoon cracked black pepper
6 Cup cold water
2 Turkey breast

Once done with brine, rinse the breasts and pat dry. Coat them in yellow mustard and then liberally cover with the dry rub of your choice. I used 50% Meat Church “Holy Gospel”, and 50% Meat Church “The Gospel”. The Holy Gospel is more peppery.

Smoke at 225 degrees F until an internal temp of 165 degrees F is reached. I had a dish with 50% apple cider vinegar and 50% water in the smoker and periodically brushed this liquid on the breasts throughout the smoke. When done, wrap in tinfoil and let rest. Slice and enjoy. They are even better as leftovers the next day.

I hunted season B and yesterday was my first day. It was glorious out there. Only the second day all month with light winds. I saw a nice group of turkeys in the morning but they were too far and wandered off over a hill. I moved my blind a little and went back for the evening hunt, expecting them to return on a similar route. That plan worked, and around 7:15pm, 5 hens, 2 jakes, and a tom came walking back. The jakes and tom immediately spotted my hen and Jake decoy when they were within sight. Didn’t even need to use the turkey call. Dusted the tom at 25 yards. Its only the second time in 17 years that I’ve been able to fill my tag on the first day.

Looks like a nice bird gim, way to go!

Thanks!

Nice bird gim good job.

Appreciate it

had to been that hat!!!!!!!!

I left work early today and was out scouting for deer and buck territory, figured it was a perfect day loud wind and rain made it quiet to move around. I put 5.5 miles in the woods from 11 am to about 6 this evening. I carried my bow but didn’t really want to shoot a turkey unless it was closer to my truck. On my walk out I crossed paths with a giant Tom who had a beard that almost was touching the ground. So now my morning tomorrow will be sneaking back to that area and trying for him. But every field I walked in had turkeys, it was pretty nice I ran across lots of signs of bucks in some thick thick areas. Great spots to start my season in this fall.

I took my buddy out turkey hunting today. We got setup at 8:30, a group of turkeys were gobbling already before we hunkered down in the blind. I already tagged out, so I let him run the hunt. He put out 2 decoys and was calling a lot more than I would of. The turkeys were answering him sporadically. A little after 10 the turkeys started gobbling a lot. Again he was blowing away on his calls. We saw two tail fans coming up the rise and a couple white headed puffed up toms. They walked right to the decoys on a rope and my buddy dropped one clean at 18 yards. If you’re thinking about going, it’s just getting good now, and it should only get better till the end of season. Good luck everybody.

Went to a different property this afternoon, figured I’d sneak in with the rain and wind. Went to set up my blind about a mile from my truck, opened it and I grabbed our portable pack and play and not my blind. So that was a disappointment lol.
Just get within 40 yards of a big Tom and Drew my bow back but he went in to the thicket instead of coming out. He never seen me, so I’ll go back for him soon.

Two down, none to go!

Son shot a 26lb bird with 1 1/4” spurs last week. (He had a good guide) and I got one with my crossbow yesterday with a Texas heart shot.

Both birds came from behind us and walked within 5 FEET of the blind on their way to our dekes.

Gonna fire up the smoker soon!

Smoke the legs and add them to red beans and rice. Incredible!

Been a busy start to the season. Took my dad to a new chunk of land season A and he was able to harvest his MN bird. Then he had WI B season and took a nice bird opening morning.

I was finally able to get out season B and took a bird Thursday evening. Had a bird coming in from my off side silent but I could hear him walking. He got in to a few feet but on the side I could not shoot through a blow down limb. Then some sneaky Jakes got in ran past me a few feet and beat the single bird up and chase him out. I was able to take one those bully jakes and punch out my MN tag. My hide was pretty dang good and these birds got nice and close.

Now take a few more people out and then head to WI for my last hunts of the season for me.

Congrats to all that had success so far this spring.