swampbuster

Sounds like a bunch of fun camokenny! Have fun!!

bigc870

camokenny Hope you get out there hunting and a blast. Good luck!!!

My dad has been fishing at a lake about 30-40 milles from one of my hunting spots and he has been out there pretty early in the morning and through out the day tell a little before dark and he hasn't heard any gobbling at all!! He goes around this time of year every year and in the passed 5-6 years he would call and say the turkeys are really gobbling, but not this year.


With our season starting the 20th if the weather will straighten up I think we hit it just right for the season opener. The youth hunt this weekend looks like it is going to tough hunting if the gobbling doesn't pick up. My daughter was going to go this year during youth season for the 2nd time but she has prom that weekend and she plays softball but with all the rain out days and if the weather ever clears she will be playing on the weekends to make up those games. So I don't figure she will go, and I am not 100% sure if she gets a chance to go that she will want to but I leave it all up to her and not push her.

But everything around here is 2-3 weeks late as far as trees budding and undergrowth hasn't started yet. Our weather has been very rainy and with little sunshine for the past week and the first couple of weeks of March where Cold and snowy which is unusual for here. From mid March and now we have just had alot of cool days and cold nights with alot of rain. It is warming up right now but we have rain at least every other day and sometimes we have had rains for 3-4 days in a row, it's not con stent rain on most days but enough to mess up outdoor activities and with very little sunshine even on the days it doesn't rain.



Is there anybody on our team actually hunting right now?

Phil from Maine

Hey camokenny have a blast and I know we can hardly wait to see the birds and hear the stories!! Good luck to you!

bigc870, I hope they are with some hens right now.. Most likely that is the case I have seen a tom here strutting and it looks some different seeing it strut on top of the snow.. We are still buried in snow and even received 2 inches last night.. But it is supposed to warm up this week and spring is to start arriving them according to the weatherman.. I hope he is right. Anyways i wish you the best in getting nice tom.. Good luck guys..

Phil from Maine

Well team our snow is leaving us behind slowly with the temp reaching 44 here today.. Even though our ground here is still covered it should hopefully anyways be gone come Sunday I am guessing as the temps should be around 60 then.. Hopefully I will have some better reports from up next week..

I also asked about maybe getting a mod to e-mail the 2 that were added to our team as they have not came on after a pm to them.. We will see how it goes.. I am still quite confident that we will win again anyways as we surely have a great team here and the players will be playing soon..

Phil from Maine

I have been hearing some pretty good news guys.. I took a ride out to tend some maple trees and so an old friend that feeds the turkeys during the later part of winter.. So I asked him if he has been seeing any turkeys.. His answer was yes with around 14 on one day and then the next up to 45 of them.. He stated they have started strutting in his driveway.. He does not hunt them and a guy across the street who does not hunt them had given me permission to hunt them there.. But, anyways it sounds like the turkeys has been doing ok after our long hard winter they just went threw!!

jepcho

Well, glad to hear everbody's seasons are getting ready to start and sounds like everyone is seeing good things scouting. I havent been on here in a few days, had a really busy easter weekend with all my kids and didn't get a chance to get out with my brother for opening weekend of youth season. My dad took him however and they had a great time, saw and heard a ton of birds, gained permission for some new land, just didn't quite get one in gun range. So I decided I had time to take him after work yesterday afternoon. When we got to where we wanted to setup, there was already a big tom strutting in the field. So plan b was to sneak in the woods that lead to the field and setup and try and call him in. When we reached the field the bird was no where in sight. So I grabbed my brand new Spring Creek box call (which if you are in the market for a new box call, look him up). I let out my first series of yelps of the season and the first ever in the woods for that call, and one ripped back behind us in the woods. We debated a little and I called a couple more times with one or two more responses from him and decided to go after him even though we knew he was on the other side of the river from us. We moved in and setup pretty much right on the bank of the river, which is about 15 yard wide bank to bank there. I got after him, and the more aggressive I got the more he liked it and he got really fired up. Gobbling non stop. He came a little closer and then kinda hung up, so I fired him up again and the went silent. Little by little he worked his way in, with mostly clucking and purring to finish him. He stopped at about 55 yards for quite a while and just looked, still gobbling pretty good. Finally he worked in to about 35 yards and straight across the river in an opening and he let one rip. The bird rolled and laid there flopping, acting like he was completely smoked. So we went upstream about 40 yards to a more narrow spot in the river and my brother stripped down to his undies to wade across in the freezing water. Then, just as he is stepping into the river, the turkey hopped up and ran off, clearly hurt bad. He crossed the river and looked all over. He finally spotted him but said he was laying down but still alive and it was almost dark so he backed out and found me and we went back today during daylight. We looked everywhere we could in the pouring down rain and found absolutely nothing. I was sick about this all night, couldn't sleep at all and sick about it all day again today. I'm just so frustrated about it! Earlier today I didn't even know how I felt about hunting the rest of the season. It just sucks to lose an animal, feels like a waste. Plus it's one less bird in that woods to hunt without the benefit of a harvest. Idk how I feel now, but I do feel betting having put the effort in to look like we did. I suppose I'll like my wounds this week and get back at it this weekend. It was just an amazing start to the season and then took a horrible turn so fast!

jepcho

I had a great Easter!! Any word on a grand baby??

bigc870

jepcho

I also take it very seriously when I shoot and clearly hit the Turkey , deer or other animals and one gets away poor shot placement, bad weather or something else.

Just this past archery season I shot I nice doe opening day from the looks of the blood it was a lethal hit, I searched until after dark and in the middle of the night I went out because I couldn't let it go. GPS took me right where I left off and 5 more hours of using every tracking and locating method I lost the deer. It was a tough one to swallow!
I wanted to just quit bowhunting but in a week or so I started going and passed on several shoots for about 2 weeks and I went out the next time I told my self if I get a good clean shot I was going to take it and sure enough an 8 point walked up perfect as can be I took the shot and he went about 60yrds and just fell out.

Point of the story keep plugging away because sometimes you can do everything right and something can still go wrong.

Good luck and get back after them!!

Phil from Maine

No jepcho, I have nothing to report there except her due date was yesterday.. The nurse that had her put in there was a 25 year vetran there and messed up .. The wife was all excited and i stayed up most of the night expecting to hear something.. She saw the doc yesterday and all is fine.. If she does not have the baby by Sunday they are going to induce her.. But for now nothing to report on the new grandbaby..

Phil from Maine

I am sorry to hear about your luck jepcho.. But, I too know what you and bigc870 mean by it.. It tore me up when I shot at my first turkey ever.. It was in full strut strutting his stuff to the ladies.. I fired at him and down he went flopping like crazy and while I was walking up to him he took to the air.. No blood to follow or anything except for a few feathers off from his neck area.. I search most of the day down in the direction it flew and never found anything.. Then last fall out bow hunting I was taking a shot at a spike and he step forward just as the arrow flew.. I had 30 minutes before legal hours ended and I waited for 15 and went in searching for him. I had seen it hit farther back than I wanted it to but time was running out. After jumping him 3 times I left and went home to eat and call our local warden so I could go search for him.. A rain had started that lasted for 3 days and I knew it was going to be hard searching. While I had my hopes up on finding him I had no luck.. I then went back the next day and searched 6 hours looking for him and then again 4 hours the following morning as I had been working night the night before and had to go back in.. The tore me up all season last year so it ruined my hunting just thinking it over and over.. Our deer population is very low compared with most states and also most areas of this state as well. I hope you do not let that get to you to awfully bad.. This stuff happens to most all of us.. Keep your chin up and get back after them another tom will move in and take care of those hens.. You can count on it..