tougher than usual this year??

[muddy]

Just kinda have to get this off my chest and get some opinions...

As I sit and stew about this past turkey season I can't help but think that the crummy weather,
higher coyote sightings, and birds that were either call or decoy shy were in more abundance
this year. I don't want to sound like a whiner but this was the toughest year I've ever hunted
birds in my life. I know that gobblers go to the hens but I usually find at least one bird through
the whole season that will work, this year I couldn't even get a hen to come close. Did anybody
else have similar difficulties?? I can't complain too much because I did manage to fling not one,
but two arrows at one bird and couldn't connect...I then managed to pop the head of a dandy-
lion at 30 yards not a hour later. =/ The ultimate frustration...being outsmarted by birds that
have brains the size of a prune...next year it's personal. =)

LimbChicken - FYI, I hunted the timber you mentioned earlier and there were birds everywhere.
I went on a mobile hunt last Thursday and saw at least 10 different toms over the whole day of
sitting and moving. I'm also stoked for bow season, mahy different bachelor groups of bucks
running around, hopefully the bad luck is outta my system and deer season will make things
right!! We all should get together after work again now that turkey chasin' is over...sound good
to you??

 

[hershy]

...I agree it was a tough year for turkeys!...we had just a handful of "spring turkey" days...instead we started with extreme heat, chilled down quickly, and it seemed the days it didn't rain the wind was ripping through the state! (I'll take wet over windy anyday)...the good news is that the birds were there and many will be there next year!...the bad news is that they won't be the gullible 2 year olds that they were this year...

 

[Rackaddict]

It was not any better in Southern Missouri either. I would say it was the toughest year I have ever hunted for turkeys. No one I hunt with got a bird all season. They just would not respond to calls of any kind and were dead silent when they got off the roost. I figured it was due to the weather being so rough. Oh well, at least the mushrooms were at there best this year. It just would have been nice too have a little bit of bird to eat with the 'shrooms. Maybe next time!

 

[Turkey River]

Although the weather didn't cooperate this Spring the turkey hunting in N.E. Iowa was excellent. I only hunted two days during second season, missed a shot the first day and took a 2 year old bird the second day. Between my hunting companions and our kids we filled 7 out of 8 tags. My 10 year old son's tag was unfilled, but the first time out we had a gobbler strutting and gobbleing his head off 60 yards out. The tom wouldn't come in, but my son is hooked on turkey hunting for life.

 

[Bowbendr]

Looking back at it, I think the past 2 years have been pretty tough in NE Iowa. I am beginning to wonder if we are getting birds that have call shy and decoy shy genes?? Between that and the inconsiderate hunters it makes for some tough times. Even the mushrooms seemed a little call shy this spring!

 

[GunnerJon]

I agree that this year was a tough one. 2nd season was a blast....4 college buddies and I all got birds and I was thinking that this was going to be an awesome year. Then 4th season rolled around I was hunting in central Iowa. I have never hunted gobblers for so long and have them give me the slip like they did. I hunted one old bird for 4 days straight. Each day he gave me the slip....would sail out of his tree the opposite direction.....wouldn't respond to my calls....would completely ignore my decoys. Nothing worked. I eventually tried to just plain bushwack him like a deer, and I got fairly close before he spooked. I worked only a couple other birds...but none would come into gun range. One day they'd be hot...the next day they wouldn't even gobble. Oh well....still had a blast.

-GunnerJon

 

[SHEDHEAD]

From the previous posts, it sounds like a lot of people experienced some frustrating turkey hunting moments. I guess since they are now damn near $200 for a non-res. to buy a license to hunt one of them, they must have decided that they better start acting like a $200 turkey and provide a longer and more difficult hunt so when a hunter does shoot one of them he will feel like he got his money's worth!! Or since the IA government seems to want to tell the DNR how to operate, maybe they are releasing a top-secret, indestructible super turkey---Terminator Tom!! Just my two cents!

 

[muddy]

True enough shed head, I've been discussing my season with guys at work and put it quite bluntly:

I couldn't get a bird this spring even if I would've been sittin' on 10 gallons of corn!

 

[BW]

Must be time and place for each of us. I thought the previous 2 Spring seasons were tough for me.

This year I had 2 (2nd & 4th seasons) of the easiest/shortest hunts ever. 1st was an hour and 2nd was 10 minutes.

I just happened to fall into birds that had not been bothered both times and never even saw a hen.

They are always near you, just not always willing.