What To Expect Mid-May

[Boll Weevil]

Permethrin, Thermacell, Cutter with Deet, and be patient in each location you set up. If you are able to hear drumming, tune into that (not everyone can hear it). Later in the season they're often more apt to drum their way in vs gobble every breath.

 

[LenS]

I got back in the USA yesterday evening. Planning on being out in the morning. I'll be spraying the clothes with Permethrin again today and hoping for the best tomorrow. It only takes one cooperative bird to make a great hunt!

 

[megalomaniac]

Still seeing toms strutting with hens on cameras in middle TN (as of yesterday)

 

[Southern Sportsman]

I've had some GREAT hunts in mid-May. As others have mentioned, public land turkeys or other heavily pressured birds may be tough by now, but if you have a few birds that haven't been harassed much, I'd just as soon hunt them in mid-May as early April. In April, a bird gobbles on the roost and is likely to be joined by multiple hens when his feet touch the ground. In May, you can often get a lot closer to them on the roost, and there is a better chance he'll be henless and horny when he flys down. I took my wife this past Sunday and she killed her first turkey. That hunt was about as good as a turkey hunts gets. He marched in strutting and gobbling all the way. She shot him at 15 yards with two more racing up behind him trying to out-gobble each other.