spring gobbler around the corner

[skeeter@ccia.com]

Yee ha...gettin close to my favorite time of the year. Spring turkey. I am watching 2 flocks. Daily. One had a little over 100 birds in it the other has 45....( for real)...all hens and jakes. So far the only long beard I have spotted is always alone and he looks mean as all get out.....maybe just plain ole worn out from all those hens....but he looks so tire I don't think I would even shoot him. One flock will cross the yard every morning....the other every evening.....by the way fabs, if you read this....these birds travel from that farm I told you about for sale....they cross the road onto our property.....I just wish all get out I had the money to buy the farm myself....and to think my wife's grandmother use to own it before she sold it to the current owners....booooo..still think you should spend those hard earned bucks fabs and buy it...
But anyhow, Bradys Run mayple syrup fest is next week...then trout season opener...then spring gobbler....going to be a busy month...

[8X56MS]

I am also watching a flock of turkeys. My son's gf has a farm north of town, and the birds are all over it right now.
I still have not bought a modern turkey gun though. I will be taking my ancient Browning A5 3 inch Mag 12 GA again. I use a Hastings 26 inch barrel, with their full choke tube. No scope, no red dot sight. Just the two beads. My load is still Federal Premium copper plated #4s.
Not very high tech, but boy it sure kills turkeys dead out to 60 yards.

[fishdoggydog]

Hey 8X56MS,
I use an old Model 12 Winchester 2 3/4" painted green and black with Federal #6 copper in it. I think I have 17 or 18 birds with it, 15 beards hanging and a couple of fall birds. The one rule I have is if the head is up it gets another round, I don't try to run up and stomp it, too many people lose them like that.

[skeeter@ccia.com]

I have taken many a bird with the 2 3/4" but then I had to think of a reason to get a 10 or 3 1/2"...lol...soon..

[Rocky Raab]

The birds are sure out. Was driving down a main highway yesterday, traffic pretty heavy and right at noon. There was an empty stalled car sitting by the side of the road, and peering into the passenger window was a HUGE gobbler!

Could not believe that it was standing right there next to a busy highway at noon, OR that it was big enough to be looking inside a car window.

Very odd...

[petey]

I'll be heading to IL with the Huntchat Prostaff in tow on April 19th. 2 Cameras and 3 hunters hunting on Kevin Hammell's property this year.

It's always nice to try someplace new, although I'll be right next door to Lamont's, where I've hunted the past 3 years. Kevin is an upstanding fellow and I met him down at the Esatern Outdoors Sports Show this year. Of course he's been a good client and sponsor of Huntchat since August last year. I never pass up a chance to hunt spring turkey some place new. I talked to him last week and he told me he had 17 longbeards in one group between his house and the lodge. Must be nice! Although I love hunting IL. Nothing like calling in a whole flock of longbeards which I've done numerous times down there. They just don't get the preasure like here in PA. I think I've killed 3 birds in 3 years in less than a morning's worth of hunting... Last year I did call in 9 different birds just to get video and to string out the hunt a little longer. The only thing I'm hoping for is dry weather (yeah right) It always seems to rain when I go and there's always major flooding in the area, which can make things a bit difficult.

Check out http://www.huntillinoisdeer.com (shameless plug!) I'm sure you'll be seeing the Huntchat crew with a few birds in his photo gallery in about a month.

I've been seeing local flocks daily, but I don't get to excited about my PA bird till mid April. It normally doesn't take me too long to locate the bird I want.

With the new job I took, it puts me back in my old stomping grounds, so I may get to hunt some places I haven't hunted in years on the way to work now. My second favorite thing to hunt, next to archery elk.. well maybe sitting in the stand with my bow in early November. That ranks right up there too. ;)

Almost time to break out the golf clubs too. A guy almost has too many hobbies.

[Jonesy]

Here in Western South Dakota, turkeys are a plague. They are everywhere. I see several hundred every morning on the way to work. My office is in a log cabin on the edge of a cemetery. This morning I had twenty or more only fifty feet out my office door. The toms are strutting hard. At my moms house, the turkeys come down and tear up her yard and crap all over her deck.

Don't need a guide, just go anywhere in the Northern Black Hills, it's almost all Forest service land. There's hardly any turkey hunters that hunt it. Most of the ranches around here are a little tight on the deer hunting, but most will be glad to let anyone take some turkeys.

Some of you guys should come out here and thin some of these birds out.