As my previous post went over, I headed down to South MS last thrus night and hunted Fri-Sunday then headed to NW FL to hunt with some of my old high school buddies I havent seen in a long time (my mom and brother still live down there so also got to see and hang out with them some)
As far as MS goes, man that is a tough tough area to hunt turkeys. Just the habitat and behavior of them down there is very very different and causes a lot of challanges. I grew up hunting south central alabama so the terrain is close but at least for me this area is harder. Granted my sample size is 2000 acres of it (private property) but from what I could see driving around its all pretty much just like my nephews place.
Friday we hunted sun up to sun down and didnt hear a bird, no hen, no gobbles, no nothing. We covered every inch of that property and didnt even get eyes on one till almost 5pm. Ended up setting up on a powerline that was planted and had a Jake come out and strut for almost 2.5 hours in front of us at 15yds. Finally saw 2 toms on the other end of the powerline on the way out so we had an idea where they were roosted. Problem was my nephew was coaching his daughters soccer game at 8am sat morning lol.
Sat - we went in knowing we only literally had like 15mins and we did hear 2 gobbles but decided to not push it and just come back after the game. Got back in the woods at 11am and eased back to some small oak bottoms we thought they were headed to that morning and ran into a hen half way in so we just sat in that spot (she didnt see us somehow) for 2 hours and didnt hear or see anything. headed to his house to grab a bite to each and headed back to the woods at 2:30 and planned to just go set up where we saw the 2 toms the night before on the powerline.
Walking down the powerline (The terrain rolls up and down some with sandy bottoms on the powerline and the tops are planted footplots) and as we get to the top we see a tail fan in the bottom working back and forth with 4 hens at 80yds so we back up just a tad and get set up. Ended up calling him up from the bottom enough, he came just far enough to not leave the hens but also be able to see over the top of the hill for us and shot him at 37steps. Just wild how timing works, if we are 10 mins later we prob get busted or cant get to him, if we are 10mins earlier we prob get busted pushing down the powerline and not knowing they were just off in the woods were we could not see them.
Sunday - went to the other side of his property and got on one actually gobbling really well which was the first time on this hunt. Could only get to about 100yds at best without getting busted. He was roosted about 50yds off the road we walked in on, unfortunitly we would have much more prefered to be on the other side of the road to the North vs the South side we were on but there was just no way to get there without being seen. Crazy thing is he stayed in the tree gobbling every 5-10mins till 8:30am when I hen came down the road from the north and he then flew straight down to her. Sat and watched him strut for over an hour until they moved off. We tried getting around and keeping up with them but he never gobbled again.
Its just wild how thick and nasty the woods are and unless you see it and try and hunt it, I cant even really explain it well. The pines are 80ft tall with no limbs till the top, the ground cover is THICK and about 10-12ft tall so when they are in the tree they can see a country mile and down into it but if your on the ground you cant see 15yds in most places. Trying to get to a roosted bird he has ALL the advantage you are at a HUGE disadvantage. When they are on the ground and at their height they can see through the bottom of a lot of the thick stuff but at human height you cant see crap lol. its the one place Ive hunted where you are at a big disadvantage ALL THE TIME and the birds just dont gobble a ton. But if you can connect, the sense of accomplishment is even higher for me that you took all the information from all the hunts and put together a plan and it finally worked.
as a bonus I got to shoot and see my first ever hog, 175lb sow and let me tell you now that ive seen one in person......they kinda scare me :)
As far as MS goes, man that is a tough tough area to hunt turkeys. Just the habitat and behavior of them down there is very very different and causes a lot of challanges. I grew up hunting south central alabama so the terrain is close but at least for me this area is harder. Granted my sample size is 2000 acres of it (private property) but from what I could see driving around its all pretty much just like my nephews place.
Friday we hunted sun up to sun down and didnt hear a bird, no hen, no gobbles, no nothing. We covered every inch of that property and didnt even get eyes on one till almost 5pm. Ended up setting up on a powerline that was planted and had a Jake come out and strut for almost 2.5 hours in front of us at 15yds. Finally saw 2 toms on the other end of the powerline on the way out so we had an idea where they were roosted. Problem was my nephew was coaching his daughters soccer game at 8am sat morning lol.
Sat - we went in knowing we only literally had like 15mins and we did hear 2 gobbles but decided to not push it and just come back after the game. Got back in the woods at 11am and eased back to some small oak bottoms we thought they were headed to that morning and ran into a hen half way in so we just sat in that spot (she didnt see us somehow) for 2 hours and didnt hear or see anything. headed to his house to grab a bite to each and headed back to the woods at 2:30 and planned to just go set up where we saw the 2 toms the night before on the powerline.
Walking down the powerline (The terrain rolls up and down some with sandy bottoms on the powerline and the tops are planted footplots) and as we get to the top we see a tail fan in the bottom working back and forth with 4 hens at 80yds so we back up just a tad and get set up. Ended up calling him up from the bottom enough, he came just far enough to not leave the hens but also be able to see over the top of the hill for us and shot him at 37steps. Just wild how timing works, if we are 10 mins later we prob get busted or cant get to him, if we are 10mins earlier we prob get busted pushing down the powerline and not knowing they were just off in the woods were we could not see them.
Sunday - went to the other side of his property and got on one actually gobbling really well which was the first time on this hunt. Could only get to about 100yds at best without getting busted. He was roosted about 50yds off the road we walked in on, unfortunitly we would have much more prefered to be on the other side of the road to the North vs the South side we were on but there was just no way to get there without being seen. Crazy thing is he stayed in the tree gobbling every 5-10mins till 8:30am when I hen came down the road from the north and he then flew straight down to her. Sat and watched him strut for over an hour until they moved off. We tried getting around and keeping up with them but he never gobbled again.
Its just wild how thick and nasty the woods are and unless you see it and try and hunt it, I cant even really explain it well. The pines are 80ft tall with no limbs till the top, the ground cover is THICK and about 10-12ft tall so when they are in the tree they can see a country mile and down into it but if your on the ground you cant see 15yds in most places. Trying to get to a roosted bird he has ALL the advantage you are at a HUGE disadvantage. When they are on the ground and at their height they can see through the bottom of a lot of the thick stuff but at human height you cant see crap lol. its the one place Ive hunted where you are at a big disadvantage ALL THE TIME and the birds just dont gobble a ton. But if you can connect, the sense of accomplishment is even higher for me that you took all the information from all the hunts and put together a plan and it finally worked.
as a bonus I got to shoot and see my first ever hog, 175lb sow and let me tell you now that ive seen one in person......they kinda scare me :)
