Ok, hey guys. I live in SC and today is the first day of turkey season. I'm a new guy to turkey hunting, been hunting over a year without season a turkey during turkey season. I have private land that I hunt deer off of and have seen turkeys there many times while deer hunting. SO i got up this mornign excited and ready to hunt, I go out there before sunrise and blow my owl call, nothing.. Walked through the woods, near my feeder that had corn up until the beginning of the season, and everywhere. No answers. I tried my crow calls and even sat down and tried yelping and cutting. It was about 60 degrees with 5-10 mile/hr winds. Just a week before they where everywhere over my camera, but nothing today. Do they travel that much (the tract is 500-1000 acres)? I did a little running and gunning, then set up in a field next to another property, but no action. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas? When i sat twice, i sat for about 30 min with no response. I know they are skittish sometimes, but its only me and my friend that hunt it and those turkeys are NEVER hunted, atleast on our land. THanks for any input
zack thats a pretty cool picture. I have hunted from Wisconsin, South Dakota, Oklahoma, to Florida. For a bird to have the brain of a wallnut they will whoop your butt some times. Im not sure what the birds are doing in your state this time of the year, however if they are just starting to break up from thier winter flocks, usualy you will see four or more toms haning together when they are just starting to break up. If this is the case with your area it can be hit or miss, because the birds are not all spread out like they are latter in the season. The other case you may be running into is that the toms are in thier peek breeding cycle, when this occurs the gobbling seems non existant, however they are still there. when this is the case look for areas with good turkey sign, sit tight and be patient. We usualy set up for several hours, after two or three hours of random calling with no results we will move to another location. This method is slow and painful but works for those birds that have lock Jaw! Becareful with your movement and dont expect a gobble just be looking for that bright red head and black body to pop out of no ware checking out your set up. They key is to stick with it, good luck this spring!
