Our spring turkey season here is the month of May and it's usually a great time to be out (temps in the 50's and 60's). I've been out a handful of times this season and have heard nothing. The most excitement I've had is when a fat raccoon wandered out at sunrise to examine my decoys. I am becoming an expert on being where the birds aren't. I am also wondering if our cold spring comes into play. Sunday morning felt more like deer season with snow and temps in the high 20's. Anyone had any success?

There is a farmstead up on Highway 6, going in too the big city. It had 12: turkeys in the bean field , then ten days later it had 7 birds right in the front yard,

Well the next time that we passed by, I drove pretty slow

Turns out that the same 7 turkeys were in the same part of the yard.

I pulled over and glassed them from about 130 yards, they were silhouette decoys .

bendable, that's a lot of decoys!

I am not as passionate about turkey hunting. My true passion is deer hunting. However, I always love getting out in the woods and fields and with the COVID19 crap going on being able to get out and away has been good for me.

Geez..New York is plastered with turkey. Pretty common down in the southern tier to see flocks of 20 to 80 plus birds.

A buddy of mine tried hunting them for years & could never get lucky. Then he hit one going 65 mph in his truck. Flew up and demolished his grill & side mirror.

I gave him hell over it.

We have to dodge them all the time on the ranch. The funniest was the time one of them puffed all up and was trying to chase the wife’s SUV off.

Until PG&E reframed the 12KV line running up the valley we had a power outage every two to three days last spring. They’d roost in the oaks on the south hillside, then fly down to the field early in the morning and way too often one would hit the southern most leg, drive it into the center leg, and pop there goes two fuses. The coyotes soon figured that pop meant a snack was waiting for them.

You are not alone, I've heard the same from several people.
I was out the first six days in NY. Heard NOTHING. And that's never happened before.

From what I gather, a combination of windy, rain, full moon, no leaves on the trees and just funky weather (low 20's and snow the second week of May?) made for the perfect storm of Tom's not gobbling.

I plan on going again late in the month... and battle the hell of a million flies.

Oddly, I probably saw more turkeys after hours, or in people's fields and yards than I have in years. Just no gobbling.

I see at least a dozen every time I go for a drive in Franklin County VA../

Let’s see. I had 5 turkeys and 3 pheasants wander through my yard today. Just another day in NW Montana.

I saw 14 of them yesterday.
The day before opening day, I had one 4 feet away.

Not the same thing.

The 1st group we saw in bean field were real , the ones up in the farm yard were fake

When I was a teenager in the mountains of western NC, I would see them whenever I had a rifle....six, seven, ten of the things...

Shotgun in my hand and deer would walk out of the laurels and watch me...


Bastages


My neighbor a retired federal wildlife officer could call in a turkey from his carport with only his mouth..he was about fifth generation hillbilly and knew every gap for miles around...

He was about seventy when I went to bootcamp and never saw him again but he was truly an outdoorsman.