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Will they still be ready play when the season opens…..
- Thread starter redblood
- Start date
Awesome view!
Of course they will, the third week of season is always on fire
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
Toms will be even more fired up in 2w than right now.... but if you don't have good nesting habitat, you may not have any to play with.
Subflocks are just now breaking up into actual breeding flocks, and hens are venturing out from their winter/ early spring grounds looking for suitable nesting and brood rearing habitat. The toms are following the hens. The satellite toms are just starting to desperately look for their own hens to claim, so they are on the move as well.
I just had a small flock show up yesterday on one of my farms we don't hunt. Haven't had a bird on it since last summer, but 1.5 miles down the road the winter flock had 12 toms and about 50 hens. I'm hoping its from all the habitat improvement I've done on it over the past 4 years. Last year I had 1 tom and 3 hens using it all of April- June. Not hunting it hoping to get hens to imprint on it and hatch successfully, so in the future there will be a huntable flock that uses it every year.
Subflocks are just now breaking up into actual breeding flocks, and hens are venturing out from their winter/ early spring grounds looking for suitable nesting and brood rearing habitat. The toms are following the hens. The satellite toms are just starting to desperately look for their own hens to claim, so they are on the move as well.
I just had a small flock show up yesterday on one of my farms we don't hunt. Haven't had a bird on it since last summer, but 1.5 miles down the road the winter flock had 12 toms and about 50 hens. I'm hoping its from all the habitat improvement I've done on it over the past 4 years. Last year I had 1 tom and 3 hens using it all of April- June. Not hunting it hoping to get hens to imprint on it and hatch successfully, so in the future there will be a huntable flock that uses it every year.
Are we neighbors? All my birds disappeared, first time in over 25 years. Its very odd.
Just imagine !;
Nobody crying about "henned up" gobblers!
Lol
Nobody crying about "henned up" gobblers!
Lol
I've always thought the hunting was better in mid to late April so I think you'll be fine. Need me to come verify let me know. 
Huntaholic
Well-Known Member
Quit worrying and crying. Look at it like this, if you only got laid for a very few weeks out of the year, wouldnt you still be DTF whether its early March or late May?
It will be fine April 15th ,but I love the henned up Gobblers at the first of the year that's part of the fun of it. Knowing you have to somehow get between him and his hens or get a fired up hen to drag him to you. I love the ones that gobble at every thing you do but get farther away( hen running with him) Lol. Not much a chance of killing those early Toms but if it was easy , I would not want any part of it.
TheLBLman
Well-Known Member
I actually believe the mid-April opener will be much more exciting for me than April 1st. Many hens will be nesting, and many gobblers will be "lonely". What's difference this year compared to the past, is that 70% of the gobbler won't already be dead by mid-April!
Aren't you glad the season is NOT opening in the morning?
I am. Tornado weather & high winds where I normally turkey hunt.
Aren't you glad the season is NOT opening in the morning?
I am. Tornado weather & high winds where I normally turkey hunt.
I've always thought the hunting was better in mid to late April so I think you'll be fine. Need me to come verify let me know.
Im fine either way. Im more interested in fishing for stream smallmouth anyway. But they are sure fired up here at the house todayNo im not glad lol i wished it open up two weeks ago
You catch some fish while I'm hopefully killing a turkey and then we'll cook them all right then and there. Sounds like a fine time to me.
Lol. DealYou catch some fish while I'm hopefully killing a turkey and then we'll cook them all right then and there. Sounds like a fine time to me.
Longbow2240
Well-Known Member
Yep
Setterman
Well-Known Member
It's different for sure. I miss watching the woods around here go from dead of winter through the entire green up while hunting. Oh well, if it helps the birds I'll adapt. It's only two trigger pulls now, so it might be over fast anyway lol
I wont mess with these birds at all. My son will chase these when he gets home after school and on the weekends. I will hunt my family land a few miles away. Thats where i cut my teeth turkey hunting and love renewing that yearly ritual where it all started for me
I think we will find that the date of opening won't have all that much difference on success. I've only hunted in Tennessee for a decade but have found that sometimes opening week is dead, but third week is great. Sometimes before season opens they are gobbling their heads off everywhere and seem like easy to kill one. Fresh, unpressured birds are still going to be fresh unpressured birds.
Exactly! Opening day is still opening day, the first two weeks will still have more kills than the rest of the season as lots of people will quit hunting after two weeks and the birds will have pressure. I have been out and they have absolutely roasted it this morning. Heard one at 10AM that was on the death walk, walking and gobbling his head off. I am going to have a breakdown! Lol
