Spring Turkey 2023

Geez do you bleed them in the back if the truck instead of hanging in a tree?! Nice photos though.

The turkeys were thick in the fields last night, drove to Lindstrom. Between nb and Lindstrom the kid and I counted at least 60 birds and well over 150 deer. Some groups of deer over 30 or 40 in one field. Hopefully tonight will be the same

My season lasted about 30 minutes.
Forecast called for rain but the radar looked like it might be just doable. Got to my chosen spot and got set up. Then the wind picked up, followed by a light spitting rain. The rain quit just as the season opened.
Then I heard a gobble off in the distance. I answered with a hen cackle. It took them about 15 minutes to finally show up.
Five of them in the group. Worked their way steadily across the open field.

Attachments:

1. 

   3RDSEASON2.jpg
   

2. 

   3RDSEASON1.jpg
   

Nice work Dave.

My youngest and I are Turkey Hunting for the first time, really just trial and error after doing a lot of research. Plenty of Turkeys in the area where we hunt but we’re limited to 80 acres. We’ve only been able to get out twice for a few hours in the evenings after work/school. The first evening we had some gobbles and one got pretty close but we hunt in the MN river valley with some steep ravines, he was at least a ridge away and then went silent. The next night they were completely incommunicado. Starting in blind set-up and giving it about an hour with brief calls every 15 minutes. If no response, we’re poking around different areas of the property a calling to see if we can get locator gobble. If nothing else we’ve had some great outdoors time so far and it’s been fun checking out the creek bottoms with the high water, etc. This Saturday we’re finally going to get out at first light and we’re hoping that offers a different dynamic. My tag is not until season C and I tend to be a little more “patient” when I’m out there by myself.

My son and I got in the blind at 520, had 3 hens 50 yards out within 10 minutes. At 640 a monster Tom came out silently from behind us. It was just out of a clean shot for the boy. But that bird stood tall and looked at my decoys and was gone. I think the decoy set up spooked him away. Dang it !!!

Nice work Dave. I love seeing all the success of everyone in this thread so far. I’m excited to get in the woods next week

Tagged out

Attachments:

1. 

   EE5779F1-313E-4470-A34B-37166305EBC5-scaled.jpeg
   

Haha. Nothing like hunting spring turkeys in the winter conditions.

Nice

Nice kills Dave and Don.
Hopefully tonight is my kids night. We messed up and bailed to early last night, we walked out after spooking Tom away, and to our surprise we bumped a flock that was coming in. Dang it. Patience is key and it’s tough. If tonight doesn’t work then tomorrow we are trying a different property that’s been un touched in rush city.

Nice work boys!

Congrats on the birds

Good luck Bear hope you get the boy a chance.

Nice bird Don! Were you in a blind?

They’re out and about, ripe for the shooting in SE Minnesota. My daughter was bombing around in the garage with me this week and came to get me to show me a nice tom and 2 hens in the yard 20 yards from the garage door between bouts of rain.

buckybadger wrote:

They’re out and about, ripe for the shooting in SE Minnesota. My daughter was bombing around in the garage with me this week and came to get me to show me a nice tom and 2 hens in the yard 20 yards from the garage door between bouts of rain.

The light rain has made them very predictable on being near the field edge. But when you have 2000 yards of edge it’s a gamble where they might be playing

l

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

Nice bird Don! Were you in a blind?

Barronett 250 , i have several . Shoot right through the screen .

Good luck to those just starting .

Success yesterday morning! I was setup pretty close to a roosting spot with a couple decoys on a field edge. They quit making noise for a couple hours but I wandered around in the woods and made some noise and got one interested. He popped out of the woods about 15 yards away and I had to take a quick shot before he spooked. I think my decoys gave him something to look at while I moved and aimed. I was only out about 4 hrs in total this season and managed to get my 1 opportunity. This was the only bird that seemed active at the time too. The weather started turning sour about the time I made my shot and today’s weather is pretty rotten too (SE MN). Good luck to the rest of you.

Attachments:

1. 

   photo_2023-04-22_10-41-52.jpg
   

2. 

   photo_2023-04-21_12-53-12-1.jpg
   

3. 

   photo_2023-04-21_12-53-11.jpg
   

4. 

   photo_2023-04-21_12-53-12.jpg
   

Love seeing the success and it gets me fired up. I have not hunted turkeys in ten years due to an incident where a guy shot my decoy while i was hunting public land. It put a sour taste in my mouth for many years. I plan on getting back in to it this weekend in SE MN as i have no access to decent land up near the cities. If i can get a sneak on a bird in range i think that will make my week whether i shoot or not. Weather looks miserable unfortunately, but its the only weekend i have free.

For what it’s worth, you don’t always need to use a decoy. In fact for most of turkey hunting people hunted without them. I think the main advantage of a decoy would be hunting a very open field. Decoys can scare birds off at times. If you’re hunting woods turkeys, it’s often best to just find a good calling location, make a few short calls, then shut up and let the tom hunt for you.

Kinda bummed. A local couple that would come into the bar where I have lunch on days I dont go into the office said they would let my kid hunt. He went out there yesterday because I told him he needed to talk to him, introduce himself and then figure out where he wanted him to park, and get an intel about the birds habits. Turns out he had a chance of heart and now said no one can hunt there. Apparently some other hunter was wandering around and that ticked him off. I dont think it was even this year. So back to square one. I dont blame the guy but come on people done ruin it for everyone else. My kid is very respectful and now some other dude stole this chance for him.

Walleye Hungry wrote:

due to an incident where a guy shot my decoy while i was hunting public land

That is downright scary. Would rattle me too.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Walleye Hungry wrote:</div>
due to an incident where a guy shot my decoy while i was hunting public land

That is downright scary. Would rattle me too.

Yeah it was my first time out ever too. So needless to say it took awhile to come around to the idea of getting back out there.

Been pretty quiet around here. Im heading down south tomorrow to try and get my first turkey. Havent seen many around here lately which is discouraging me a little but getting out of town will be nice either way. After watching some more youtube videos it seems like i should be very aggressive and cover lots of land walking? how would you approach this weekend?

Was on the fence about C or D season for MN. With the forecast showing daily rain for all of C season, looks like I’ll opt out of WI walleye opener and hunt turkey next weekend.

Got it done yesterday with a 24lb dandy. Zone 4 WI

Attachments:

1. 

   IMG_20230426_141116699_HDR-scaled.jpg
   

Congrats on a nice looking bird.

nice work Scott.

I’m heading south to bluff country tonight and will have a little time before sunset to do some scouting and see if I can roost something. I’ll be in the woods tomorrow and am pumped. Good luck to everyone still hunting.

Been good reading this post. I’ve never Turkey hunted but kinda excited about giving it a try next spring. We purchased a farm last summer north of Milke lacs. Plenty of turkeys running around and nobody has ever hunted them. Snapped a quick photo of three strutting at the top of the feild last Sunday trying to entertain the one hen. To much stuff going on this spring to get after them.

Attachments:

1. 

   20230423_110937-scaled.jpg