Turkey Time...

yoderjac

yoderjac

Well-Known Member
It is getting to be that time of year again. Spring is in the air and turkeys are gobbling here! We taught a Turkey Hunting Workshop at Quantico today. Our new format of push-pull-interactive seems to be working pretty well. We push basic information out in short concise videos and then have a Q&A session where students pull the specific information they need from our instructors. As topics become more complicated, we use interactive presentations. We mix in hands on sessions like calling with the class broken out into groups. We had just under 20 attendees. Experience levels go from never hunted turkey to fairly experienced. Each workshop seems to have a different mix of experience levels. This push-pull-interactive technique seems to work well with the broad mix of students. The basic push videos are concise enough as to not bore the more experienced folks and address the needs of the newbies. We provide youtube links for these videos to the class so the newer folks can go back and review them after class if they like. The Q&A sessions encourage both novice and experienced folks to pull the specific information they want from our instructors. The hands-on demos and interactive sections keep things from getting too boring with attendee participation.

Now for the real test...The season is just around the corner...

I'm seeing hens and gobblers from time to time at my retirement property despite the new home construction activity. I'm hopping to harvest my first mature gobbler from the retirement property this year. I harvested a jake one spring here. Most of my turkey hunting has been at the farm.

Anyone else starting to see good activity?
 
I've been watching a mixed group on the property next door. I've still got a couple weeks before our season opens. Given my new knee, I hope to put up a blind here. I was at the farm today. I grabbed the pictures. Plenty of turkey there as well.
 
We have a youth/novice day on April 5 & 6, but with my new knee, I won't be taking a kid out this year. The regular season starts April 12th this year.
 
I've used a bunch of them over the years, both for myself and for kids I've taken out. For the class we taught, we use a push-pull-interactive method. Our students have a very wide range of experience. The push videos concisely deliver basic information quickly. They are followed by a Pull Q&A section where the students can pull the specific information they like. The more intricate sections are taught interactively using typical powerpoint slides. We also have hands-on break-out sessions for calling and such.

I say all that only to let you know that all of the firearms I've used for turkey you can actually see along with their performance here in this push video DIY section:
Turkey Hunting Workshop - Equipment - Firearms video

Beyond that, I've harvest one with a compound bow before my shoulder got too bad. I've harvest several with a crossbow in the fall. This thread has a picture of the crossbow: https://deerhunterforum.com/threads/what-is-your-“go-to”-weapon-for-deer-hunting.6873/page-2#post-126708. One fall I also shot one with a muzzleloader in the fall.
 
I decided to put in an early spring plot at the retirement property to see if will be an early season draw for hens while the Tom's are henned up. I stopped at the coop and grabbed a couple bags of spring oats and a bag of crimson clover. If the weather permits, I plan to spray, broadcast the seed, and cultipack tomorrow morning. They are calling for rain later in the day. That will give me almost 2 weeks before opening day for germination.
 
Our birds here in SC are still flocked up but stating to sort things out and break apart

Should be a fun season
 
In my part of VA, the dominant birds are usually henned up for the first week or two of the season off the roost.
 
One of those days when everything goes wrong! I planned to spray a couple acres of grasses that I plan to use for managing weeds and about an acre for planting. I thought I was all setup last night an then remembered, I forgot the foaming agent at the farm. I did not want to drive the whole way back there, so I stopped at TSC on the way to dinner because the coop was closed. The don't carry marking foam, but they gave me some blue dye that you mix in with the gly to serve the same purpose. It was expensive, $33 for 32 oz and I'd use about 1/2 of it for one tank in the sprayer according to the instructions. I figured it was better than driving to the farm so I bought it.

This morning came around and I was itching to go since they were calling for rain in the afternoon and/or evening. I opened the hatch of my car to grab the 1 gal I grabbed from the farm in an old antifreeze jug. The jug was empty. The jug looked fine to the eye, but when I filled it with water, I found it was cracked at one of the seams on the bottom. There are no green plants growing in the back of my car!

So, I grabbed a couple more jugs and headed back to the farm to grab gly and I figured I'd grab the foam marker agent as well. I was in a rush, and on the way back to the car, I tripped. It was my first fall since I got the new knee. It as not pleasant. I don't think there was any permanent damage, but it is swelling up more and will definitely be a setback. When I got back, I cleaned the sprayer and made sure it was running fine (after removing a dead mouse. I'm not sure how mice get in there since there is no leak and a screw-on lid on the boom sprayer.

At any rate, I added the gly and the foaming agent to my DIY foamer. I started it up and NOTHING. Last year, the cheap harbor freight 1/4" air hose disintegrated. I replaced it with a short 3/8 hose with full flow quick connects. After playing around with it, I decided the larger air hose increases the volume but decreases the pressure of the air. The compressor was running but at a very low pressure compared to normal. So, it looks like I need a trip to Harbor Freight for another cheap 1/4" hose. I decided to let it turned on just to see what would happen. Ove time, it did produce foam, but very little, not enough to mark my path.

I decided to give the dye a shot. I added it according to directions, but it did nothing. I think it might be meant for little spot sprayers, not a boom sprayer. Either way I could not see it. Fortunately, the grass was just right so that I could see my previous tire tracks most of the time, so I decided just to wing it.

After I finished spraying, I took a break for lunch and iced the knee. I then broadcast the seed and cultipacked it. So, I got the plant done ahead of the rain at least! I hope those turkeys appreciate it!
 
Our season starts a week from tomorrow. I decided to put up a blind. I can see the area from the security video cameras I have on the barn. It is far enough away that I can only distinguish a gobbler from a hen when they are in strut.

I reviewed the video this morning. I would have had at least 3 different shot opportunities at 3 different longbeards by 11:00 am.

Hens and gobblers are still grouped together here for the most part.
 
The turkey were all absent this morning from their previous couple week routine. I did not find them until about 1:30 pm. They were in another open field strutting with hens about 500 yards from their normal hangout.
 
The local flock is becoming less visible. I saw nothing in the fields this morning and didn't see any in the fields until 7:10 PM, just before fly up.
 
No corn in the area. They are rarely on my property. Mostly on the neighbors property. They roost in pines on a 3rd neighbors property across a ravine from the next door neighbors property. For the last two weeks they have been coming out in the neighbors hayfield every morning a little after 7am. I've been seeing them off and on in that field during the day, and they go back to that same field corner where they come up just before fly-up time in the evening. On occasion, they will come on to my property but not a lot. They have been within shooting distance of my property regularly. I have permission from the neighbor to hunt on his place (he lives elsewhere). My blind is actually on my property but I can shoot on to his. I did not want to put my blind on his property as he has a farmer cut it from time to time.

I think what is happening is simply the normal progression of spring. The birds have been in these mixed flocks pretty much working the same area. At the hens are bred, they will be going to their secluded nests to lay eggs. Once their clutches are complete, they will largely abandon the gobblers and go sit the nests. I'm still seeing them largely in mixed flocks, but we are at the beginning of the change. I will soon start seeing a few hens with no gobblers around. That should happen in the next week or two.

Our season comes in a bit late this year. The start date varies from year to year. I'm guessing by the time the first week of our season is over, gobblers will only have a few hens with them in the morning. I'm sure the turkeys have not left the area. They are just beginning to become bit less predictable as our season draws neigh.
 
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