Post by bsutravis on Apr 27, 2007 17:18:58 GMT -5
First..... I apologize to my circle 'o buddies for the stoppage of text messages / phone calls to you all....my cell phone finally died on Thursday. (It suffered some salt water poisoning while on vacation in Florida last month.
Now....on to the hunting. Let's just say, I got my ARSE kicked the past 3 days. I was hunting alone down at Patoka and since going there for the first time 5 seasons ago I have never heard the birds so quiet and conditions so tough. To sum it up, until this morning I had heard a grand total of 2 gobbles....... not "gobblers" gobbling over and over, we're talking 2 gobbles. One on opening day late morning, and the other Thurs evening at dark. Both were WAY off and no way to get a position on the birds. They just were not vocal at all..... FINALLY this morning I heard some good gobbling all around me, but nothing near where I sat up...by the time I made my way to the closest bird, there were several other hunters working it and he had shut up. I did find some birds in the fields, 2 toms over the past 3 days....and several hens. The toms were totally unresponsive to calling. All I can do is shake my head at the past 3 days and tell myself, "That's why it's called huntin' and not killin'" I wasn't the only person having the same result, I heard a grand total of 6 shots over 3 days, and one of those was a double shot.
I talked to a guy when I was leaving this afternoon down there and he had the same results as I did. He said (and maybe someone can verify this) that he had heard that the eggs of the hens that were bred earlier had froze in that cold snap and all those hens are re-breeding........thus all the gobblers have plenty of willing hens, so they aren't looking/gobbling/etc.. Anybody heard anything like that? I'm pretty ignorant about the reproduction cycle of turkeys, and whether or not their eggs can die from cold, and if they do whether or not the hen will re-breed.
Anyway.........I spent nearly every daylight hour in the woods with the exception of a short lunch break. I'm sore all over from all the walking, and all I can say is....God that was fun, even though I got it handed to me! Hope everyone had better results. I'll try again next week........hopefully results will change!
Now....on to the hunting. Let's just say, I got my ARSE kicked the past 3 days. I was hunting alone down at Patoka and since going there for the first time 5 seasons ago I have never heard the birds so quiet and conditions so tough. To sum it up, until this morning I had heard a grand total of 2 gobbles....... not "gobblers" gobbling over and over, we're talking 2 gobbles. One on opening day late morning, and the other Thurs evening at dark. Both were WAY off and no way to get a position on the birds. They just were not vocal at all..... FINALLY this morning I heard some good gobbling all around me, but nothing near where I sat up...by the time I made my way to the closest bird, there were several other hunters working it and he had shut up. I did find some birds in the fields, 2 toms over the past 3 days....and several hens. The toms were totally unresponsive to calling. All I can do is shake my head at the past 3 days and tell myself, "That's why it's called huntin' and not killin'" I wasn't the only person having the same result, I heard a grand total of 6 shots over 3 days, and one of those was a double shot.
I talked to a guy when I was leaving this afternoon down there and he had the same results as I did. He said (and maybe someone can verify this) that he had heard that the eggs of the hens that were bred earlier had froze in that cold snap and all those hens are re-breeding........thus all the gobblers have plenty of willing hens, so they aren't looking/gobbling/etc.. Anybody heard anything like that? I'm pretty ignorant about the reproduction cycle of turkeys, and whether or not their eggs can die from cold, and if they do whether or not the hen will re-breed.
Anyway.........I spent nearly every daylight hour in the woods with the exception of a short lunch break. I'm sore all over from all the walking, and all I can say is....God that was fun, even though I got it handed to me! Hope everyone had better results. I'll try again next week........hopefully results will change!
