Do you know where your gobbler is??
With Monday’s kick-off to the province’s annual gobbler season, it is ‘turkey time’ throughout Ontario for both novice hunters and gobbler gurus alike.
For thousands of wild turkey enthusiasts, April 26th marks the beginning of what should be another exciting gobbler season. An incredible 9, 252 birds were harvested last spring, and I wouldn’t be surprised if even more are taken this year.
Thousands of those new to the sport and a growing number of seasoned veterans will be hitting the woods in search of the province’s favourite new fowl.
The wild gobbler is, without a doubt, our biggest wildlife success story, and thanks to many ‘turkey transplanting’ programs and conservation initiatives in the past, turkey numbers have been expanding exponentially.
For more information on the Ontario wild turkey season, including the latest rules and regulations, and even diagrams for those of you who can’t tell a Hen from a Tom:
http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/239847.pdf
I invite all you Gobbler Guru’s out there to send me your best ‘turkey success story’. I will feature your story and photos right here on the Outdoors Guy Blog…and a prize package will be awarded to the person with the best story.
Although I cannot offer any turkey garb, I do have a selection of the latest Tinks deer and moose hunting lures and scents up for grabs.
Now, ladies and gentleman, go get those turkeys and may the best Tom (story) win!
Oh yeah and Happy Earth Day!!
Outdoorsguy
wow.. the daughter and I were out today scouting for birds. we seen a few . last year we went out for 1 day there was not alot of birds around and she said we should give them a break (birds in my area were far and few between ) this year there are a few more . Looks like she has a essay to do when she gets home as she has a good story on her first bird ever taken 🙂
Sounds great Chessy!
Outdoorsguy
Those birds are among the ungliest in the world, after vultures. But, they look great on the dinner plate!
As they say GPG, “they’re nice from afar, but far from nice”
..and I agree about the dinner plate part!
Outdoorsguy
Hey Jeff here i am at work on a Sunday night and Monday is opening day for the giant bush chicken and when i get off work you know were i’ll be . i’ll let you know how the morning hunt went !
Well although the gear was in the car since last night, and the alarm clock set for 3:00 a.m. for my hour long drive and set-up, darn radio or radio station was silent this morning. Consequently, the weekend chores got the best of me and I slept right through, missing the opener.
Is it old age or just bad luck with the radio? I had tested the accuracy of the radio last night, and when I checked this morning it was all set-up properly and the radio station came on when I checked the setting.
Good thing it is a long season.
Turkey 1, LeGrand 0
Well, sadly LeGrand, that’s the best turkey story we have so far….but as you say its just opening day.
Outdoorsguy
Well, got my tom this morning at 620 am. Shot him with my Martin Firecat. He was 24 lbs, 8.5 inch beard and 1 1/4 inch spurs.
Left 3 hens, followed a fourth right into my Pretty Boy set up. He ran in, strutted aroung my decoy, proceded to attack my decoy twice…then I decided to take him. What a rush.
serge
Awesome Serge…sounds like one heck of a big Tom, especially take with a bow!
Is this your personal record?
Outdoorsguy
Hey Jeff i got off work at 06:45 and i was home at 07:20 in the bush at 07:35 and then watched my decoy get the crap beat out of it by two pissed off hens , then the toms came in and i took one and not too bad , 6 in. beard 1in. spurs and 10lbs. cleaned up . and i was back home at 08:45 .So i’m off this week end and we are going to have a little beer and wine a litte bit of wild garlic with a bunch of bush chicken yummm.!!
oh buy the way the score = Paul 1 Turkey 0 and time for another tag .
Way to go Paul!!
Outdoorsguy
My last 3 tom’s were all 24 lbs and the beard and spur length about the same. My biggest tom is 25 lbs.
I hope to beat it, I found a big guy, so now the planning starts. 🙂
That’s great Serge…any idea how old a Tom of that size would be?
Outdoorsguy
As a guess only, I’d say 3-4 years old.
I left the house this morning at 3:45 and stopped at Timmy’s for a coffee. The guy said he was in a great mood and the coffee was free. Nice way to start the day 🙂
Anyways get to my spot at 4:45 and in my blind and set up by 5:15. 15 minutes to kill till I can load my gun. Waiting for some gobbling and didn’t hear anything. About 6:15 I hear a shot go off at a neighbouring property. 5 minutes later I finally hear a distant gobble (very far away) Still sitting and waiting and I am sitting in my blind half asleep and doubting my location, my eyes are half closed when I look up and see 2 jakes 10 yards away from me. I take a double take, I am totally unprepared. I try to raise my gun slowly. I finally get it up on the biggest bird and let him have it. He goes down right away. Woo Hoo. All together I heard 1 gobble and 5 different shots. I wonder why they were so quiet today?? To me the most thrilling part of turkey hunting is the gobbling. Hopefully they will be a little more vocal on the weekend when I fill my second tag 🙂
Thanks for the story Bruce btw…any luck on that second tag?
Outdoorsguy
Well, Last friday, my season came to an end. I arrowed my second gobbler. He weighed 22 lbs, 9 inch beard and 3/4 inch spurs.
So Serge, not a bad year I’d say?!
How are the turkey sandwiches going down?
Outdoorsguy
Well, I’ve shot 1 jake so far. 4 inch beard and 3/4″ spurs. The best part: i managed to film it in 720P HD with my Pentax K7 DSLR! I had set it the tripod up the night before so in the morning, I just slid the camera in, double checked it and it was good to go.
A hen came in for a bit, but she was in the shadows. When she came out, I noticed she had a beard!!! I was tempted to shoot her, but then thought she was the one to spawn more turkeys to kill so I hmmm and hahhed and let her walk away. About 20 minutes later, another hen comes back from the same direction in which she left. But the way she came in, I couldn’t see her chest. I watched for a few minutes and then I decided to call her a bit to see if she’s stand up to reveal a bird, but she was still in the shadows.
After the 2nd call, I suddenly noticed 2 jakes just a-runnin’ towards my tent! I had turned the camera on before I started call the hen so it was rolling. I wasn’t going to wait so as soon as the first jake came around the corner, I got him.
Happy that the hard work paid off from scouting and knowing that hen and others were around that spot often (it’s a naturally meeting place between a few fields and some bush), but I was more excited that the video came out!
I’m going to edit it a bit then post it on youtube. Will post the link when It’s ready.
I’m after a big tom who’s been sighted, but not much was seen the last few days. going to lay off for a bit to ease the pressure then go back 🙂
Thanks Keebler…unfortunately that video you sent still did not load..I need to clean-up some stuff
on my harddrive..that file is big!
Great story btw..not sure ive ever seen a bearded hen..cept maybe at the circus!
Outdoorsguy
Not yet but am going to try tomorrow morning: I went out on Sunday and turkeys were gobbling everywhere, about 6:45 had a hen come in and stand around me for 10 minutes or so then left. About 7:30 I had to take a leak so I look out in the field and nothing so I stand up and walk behind my spot It felt so goo to stretch my legs I walked around in the bush where I was sitting. Sudenly I notice movement tI spooked a turkey from about 40 yards where I was sitting. I stopped and slowly tried to head back to my spot ( I had no gun on me) as I moved a second ,then a third bird ran away. If I woudl have waited 5 more minutes before getting up, I would be done lol. Legrand got to watch all of this with his binocs lol
Ah man, isn’t that always the way..evidently these birds can approach in always complete silence.
LeGrand, has your luck improved since last Monday?
Outdoorsguy
Yes, it’s been a great spring. Dedicated this spring’s turkey to hunt with the bow only, never thought I would get my 2 turkeys in 2 hunts. I’m very thankful. I cherish it, next year I may get skunked…LOL
Were having a turkey feast on Saturday with friends, I’m sure it will be good.
thanks Jeff.
I read that 97% of bearded turkeys are males so I was quite surprised.
I won’t touch her until the last few days and if she appears, I might just take her just to say I took a bearded female 🙂
And that day taught me a valuable lesson – never leave the binos in the truck! Thank God I had a large zoom lens on the camera 🙂
That file is about 123 MBs – it’s HD so hence the large size. I’ll hopefully get an edited version done soon for youtube.
Hey guys, not hearing as much gobbling in my area this year. Are the turkeys ahead of schedule because of the early warm spring??
yes there is reports of poults running around.. not good cause it is getting cold and rain tonight not good for the little ones
I managed to shoot my 1st “Tom” around 3:10 Thursday. I saw a hen, but she walked away. Then I gave a ‘challenging jake’ call about 40 minutes later and 2 jakes and a tom came in from another direction. The tom was all fanned out with his blue’ish white head and beard dragging on the ground. I thought he was going to leave into some trees so I took a shot and nailed him. 20.4 lbs, 10″ beard, 1 inch spurs and the shot was taken at 64 yards with 23/4 inch shells at 1.5 ozs 4 shot. I also managed to film this in 720PHD as well . I need to edit then will post a link 🙂
Congrats Keebler!! I have that video saved and will have a look at it later…sounds like a real nail biter!
Outdoorsguy