Anyone scouting yet?.....

[pitw]

Semp it don't matter how much noise you make as you still have a way better chance at them than me.  I'm really starting to want to hunt a turkey after reading about the fun you all have at it.  On a good note the little guys in the brooder house sure come to the turkey calls Don and I play with.

[HuntnCarve]

I was out at my friends farm the other day for a groundhog hunt.  He said there were four longbeards out in the front field in the morning.  As I was standing there BS'ing with him I noticed a single hen working her way across the top of the big field.  He said there was a dozen hens with the gobblers in the morning.  Long story short, I commenced to hunting the the big field for some chucks.  I could hear the hen up in the woods 200 yards away yelping.  The gobblers  were cutting loose up in the woods in front of me, and to the side of me!  Later when I shot the first of three chucks, they cut loose at the crack of the rifle shot! LOL!  I believe I know where I am going to be hunting for our opener this Saturday!

[KySongDog]

Jerry....we have had lots of rain and normally that would quiet things down in the woods but due to the ice storm there are lots and lots of small twigs, branches, limbs, trees uprooted, etc. that makes anywhere you step go crunch.      

Barry.......if ya ever try spring turkey hunting once I think you'll be hooked on it.  There's nothing else like it. 

[HaMeR]

If it keeps up the way it is around here I'll be taking Frogmans scuba course soon.    Didn't hear any gobbles. I finally found a place to hunt on my 3rd try this AM too.  Lots of sign there but no birds that I seen. I did hear a few shots tho.

[HaMeR]

The upside is my new rain suit works. 

[alscalls]

Keep after em Glen.......no rain till late morning here so off I go at 5 AM........

[alscalls]

Some one posted this on the WV Sportsman forum ......Thought I would share it with you.....

April 11, 2009
Gobbler season: Late or great?
West Virginia's spring gobbler season begins April 27. That's a sore spot with many hunters, who believe Division of Natural Resources officials bring the season in too late. Outdoors writer John McCoy sat down with Curtis Taylor, the DNR's wildlife chief, to go over that and other common criticisms of the DNR's turkey management strategy.

By John McCoy
Staff writer

State wildlife chief Curtis Taylor doesn't believe the state's spring gobbler season begins too late. He says DNR officials time the season opener for late April to take advantage of turkeys' gobbling habits and provide hunters their best chance of bagging a bird.Advertisement - Your ad here
West Virginia's spring gobbler season begins April 27. That's a sore spot with many hunters, who believe Division of Natural Resources officials bring the season in too late. Outdoors writer John McCoy sat down with Curtis Taylor, the DNR's wildlife chief, to go over that and other common criticisms of the DNR's turkey management strategy.

Gazette-Mail: The most common complaint is that West Virginia's spring gobbler season comes in too late. Does it?

Taylor: It absolutely does not come in too late. Our season is set based on the biology of the turkey. It is designed to protect the turkey population and, at the same time, give hunters their best chance at harvesting a gobbler.

Gazette-Mail: How does bringing the season in when you do give hunters the best chance of killing a gobbler?

Taylor: The season is set to coincide with the second peak of gobbling, which coincides with the onset of egg incubation. So the hens are sitting on the nest. Once they start sitting, they stay on that nest for 28 days. During that time, they're not out there cavorting with the gobblers. The gobblers are without [female companionship]. They've been with for three to four weeks, and suddenly they are without a girlfriend. It's much easier to call a gobbler in when you're not competing with hens.

Gazette-Mail: What about the folks who say, "I've heard birds gobbling since the first of March?"

Taylor: I've heard birds gobble in November. Does that mean we should open the season in November? No. Male turkeys gobble every month of the year. The first peak of gobbling comes in early April when gobblers are trying to assemble their harems. At that time, the hens treat them like a bunch of teenage boys. They won't have anything to do with them during the last part of March and the first part of April.

Gazette-Mail: What triggers the actual breeding, then?

Taylor: It's a daylight-dependent thing, just like antler growth in deer. The increase in day length tells the hens and gobblers when it's time to do their breeding.

Gazette-Mail: Why don't we open the season at the first peak of gobbling?

Taylor: Because you'd have very good hunting - for about two years. Then it would be over.

Gazette-Mail: And why would you only have good hunting for two years?

Taylor: Because you'd kill them all.

Gazette-Mail: You'd kill all the gobblers?

Taylor: Yep.

Gazette-Mail: They'd be that easy to kill?

Taylor: They'd be that easy. Yes. Keep in mind that we have a lot more turkey hunters here in West Virginia than most other states do. A lot of our hunting is on public land. We don't have a lot of big hunt clubs. If you go to Alabama or Georgia or one of those states and if you don't hunt on leased land, you don't hunt. There might be three guys hunting on a lease of 5,000 acres. Does their hunting have an impact on the population? No. In West Virginia, we have a lot more hunting pressure. That much pressure has the ability to affect the population.

Gazette-Mail: It sounds as if you're saying that if you turn that many hunters loose that early in the season, the hunting pressure would be enough to severely depress the turkey population.

Taylor: Absolutely. In addition, you need to consider that we already get a lot of hens killed - illegally - in the weeks before the season begins.

Gazette-Mail: How prevalent is that?

Taylor: It's huge. I hate to say that, but it's huge. Our studies have shown that.

Gazette-Mail: Why aren't we doing anything about it?

Taylor: You can't have a conservation officer behind every tree. It's something that hunters need to police themselves for.

Gazette-Mail: Does our season coming in late help generate some of the hen shooting that goes on?

Taylor: No, because hens are on the nest during the season. That's why we believe our season is set perfectly. The hens that have laid eggs are sitting on them. The hens that are getting killed illegally are getting killed by people hunting before the season begins.

Gazette-Mail: What about the argument that it's too green at this time of year, too hard to see turkeys?

Taylor: I guarantee it's green in Florida right now, and people are having success hunting Osceola turkeys.

Gazette-Mail: What about the argument that it's too warm in late April?

Taylor: Anyone who says it's too warm to go turkey hunting shouldn't go dove hunting in early September, either. That's like someone saying it's too cold in December for deer hunting.

Gazette-Mail: What about the argument that by the time West Virginia's season comes in, the gobblers are all "gobbled out?"

Taylor: My answer to that begins with a B and ends with an S. They're not gobbled out. I had a guy tell me, "A gobbler is born with only 100 gobbles in it. Once he does those he doesn't have any more." Well, that's simply not true. When we were doing our radio telemetry study on wild turkeys, on July 4 I was out radio-tracking a hen. I saw her. She was out in a field. A gobbler came out into the field, went into full strut, gobbled, and bred her right there. So if they're gobbled out by late April, nobody told him.

Gazette-Mail: Don't other states start their seasons earlier than West Virginia?

Taylor: Yes, but that doesn't mean they're right. If you'd call the turkey biologist in any state you want to name, and if he could talk off the record, he'd tell you that the best way to open a season is the way we do it. Politics plays a big role in the way turkey seasons are set up in a lot of the southeastern states. Thankfully, we've been able to set our season based on biology rather than politics.

Reach John McCoy at 304-348-1231 or johnmc...@wvgazette.com.

[KySongDog]

Interesting article.   

[msmith]

As much as I hate to say it, he does have a point. I have noticed over the years that Hot, late season gobblers are few, but when you find one, he comes in quicker and easier. When our season came in earlier, years ago, finding gobblers was fairly easy, but competition with the hens was tough at times. It did make for more exciting hunting imo though. Oh well, it is what it is I reckon, and we'll deal with it or take up a different hobby.

[Hidehunter]

I seen that post on the other forum and it has kinda changed my thinkin a little.

[alscalls]

Well I went out today Hunting in Ohio.......Had one gobbler working for about 10 Min. and coming a little closer each time he gobbled then he just went farther and farther away gobbling very little.... I think we were cut off by a hen.
Good time out though........Too wet for pics.
We found some more birds to hunt but can not get to them due to high water........We will try and find them on Thurs.

[KySongDog]

I'm going out again in the morning.  This time I think I will take my chainsaw to the woods so I can cut a path to the gobbler.