Hunting Toms . . .

Kevin

Kevin

Wood is good.
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Kevin
One of my buddies down my county road told me yesterday he saw 8 or 9 turkeys last week a half mile from my house. He said there was 3 jakes and a very big Tom leading them across a dirt road. I've never heard of wild turkey in my part of the county. We have them here in my county and the surrounding counties but we aren't known for turkey like we are for dove and like we used to be for quail before the fire ants.

Do you experienced turkey hunters think they have just moved into this area suddenly, or that they have been here a while and I just never knew it? No one that I know of has ever seen turkey in this part of the county and I have been asking around even before this recent revelation. I've got to get permission from one of the landowners where they were seen so I can use some of these calls!

Does anyone have an owl hooter they want to sell or trade? I will probably make a thread because I need some other stuff too. I saw a video where a guy attached a scratch call beneath the barrel of his gun that he used by pulling a string. Cool as beans so I want one of those as well.

Okay I just found the video. I really like this guy's approach to it.

 
Turkeys are expanding their range here- when I was a kid they planted turkeys up on the breaks of the Columbia river. Now 55 yrs later there are turkey everywhere. The last couple yrs they started showing up next to the grade school 1/2 mile away. I expect they will show up in yard sooner or later.....
 
I'm not very familiar with Texas, but in Ky, the population was almost extinct In the 70's I believe, but after bringing some in and monitoring the population, they are in every county in the state, And in big numbers. I can tell you that there can be turkeys that you don't see, but it sounds like the population is growing in your area, and when there are more, sightings are much more frequent.

The area I hunt is, I'm sure, far different terrain than your area. There are TONS of turkeys. I had 8 tons gobbling probably within a 300 yard radius of me on Saturday morning. Guess how many I saw? Lol
 
Kevin,
Hard to say but to me it sound alike they are moving in - esp since no one has seen them before. The jakes seem to indicate that they have been around for at least a year.
Get you a gobble call to rouse the toms if the hen calls don't work. One of the most exhilarating hunts around - to have a big ole tom gobbling at your call within a close shotgun range!!!! Good luck.
 
Same as Mike, they were just re-introduced in North Missouri when I was a kid and sightings were a big deal, now they are so thick, I have a near miss with my car about every time I visit back there. You can almost always see flocks out in the fields in the evening when driving around. They are very adaptable, looks like your in for some fun...
 
It's about the same here. A few turkeys restocked at the Fed. reservoir several years ago. Now they are showing up here, about 3 mi. from the lake. All the old time quail hunters are bummed that the turkeys are back. The quail are in a serious decline, supposedly because the turkeys eat the eggs/young of the quail. Gary
 
Turkeys do not eat quail eggs. Quail are declining because of habitat. Back in the day, there used to be grown up areas around fields and such. Now farmers are using every inch of ground they have.
 
Turkeys were never in Washington and Idaho that I know of. But they introduced them and have flourished. They wander around the the south hill neighborhoods and eat everything. We used to have a cabin at the lake and a flock of 20 would get in garden out front. Grandson and I used to crawl out on deck and drop jelly beans on their heads. They would shake it off but finally our laughing would scare them off. They owned the road-sometimes would not move unless you bumped them with the car. A lot of them ended up getting bumped Hard!! They were funny to watch.
 
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