|
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 9,948
Campfire Outfitter
|
OP
Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 9,948 |
We have a short season in MN and I'm hunting Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Both Friday and Saturday look rainy. Saturday morning potential thunder storms.
I'll probably hunt out of my pop-up blind and may not have much competition on my public land area.
Do the toms still move and respond to calls in the rain?
Last edited by humdinger; 04/12/17.
Other than that, How was the show Mrs. Lincoln?
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 1,902
Campfire Regular
|
Campfire Regular
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 1,902 |
As long as it's not a downpour or very windy, you got a chance. In rain whenever I can I'll hunt near a field, see them in the fields all the time in the rain.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 7,132
Campfire Tracker
|
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 7,132 |
They still move, gobble, eat, breed, etc. It may not be the exciting blue bird day action, but yes, you can still kill them.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 46,745
Campfire 'Bwana
|
Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 46,745 |
We have a short season in MN and I'm hunting Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Both Friday and Saturday look rainy. Saturday morning potential thunder storms.
I'll probably hunt out of my pop-up blind and may not have much competition on my public land area.
Do the toms still move and respond to calls in the rain?
In my experience they don't call as much, but are pretty active out in the fields. Actually, I see a lot more game in the open during the rain. I've also noticed that they'll stay up on the roost a long time. As in sometimes until 7:30-8:00AM. If there is a blind to sit in, I don't mind setting up in a clearing, a hayfiel, something like that.
Camp is where you make it.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 7,005
Campfire Tracker
|
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 7,005 |
Yes, you can hunt turkeys in the rain. Biggest tom I ever killed in Missouri was in a driving rainstorm. He came in silently to my call, and suddenly appeared near my decoy.
I'd rather be a free man in my grave, than living as a puppet or a slave....
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 8,643
Campfire Outfitter
|
Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 8,643 |
Just be sure your there when the rain stops. It's game time then.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 5,279
Campfire Tracker
|
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 5,279 |
Thunder often gets the gobblers real talkative, and I've had them get very responsive when the thunder stops.
Steve.
"I was a deerhunter long before I was a man." ~Gene Wensel's Come November (2000) "A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user." ~Theodore Roosevelt
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 28
Campfire Greenhorn
|
Campfire Greenhorn
Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 28 |
As described above...You can't go wrong hunting fields when its raining or just after. I'm not sure if its because the food they eat in the fields or if it just helps them dry off faster that makes them like the fields better. I love hunting on a "light rainy" day. It isn't like they can go inside
Last edited by Wes_D; 04/12/17.
"The greatest danger to American freedom is a government that ignores the Constitution." -Thomas Jefferson
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 5,279
Campfire Tracker
|
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 5,279 |
As described above...You can't go wrong hunting fields when its raining or just after. I'm not sure if its because the food they eat in the fields or if it just helps them dry off faster that makes them like the fields better. I love hunting on a "light rainy" day. It isn't like they can go inside A couple of other possible reasons turkeys go to fields during rain: 1. There's lots of noise in rainy woods, which diminishes their hearing as a defense, so maybe they go where they can rely more on visibility. 2. Rain might slow the grasshoppers and crickets down more, so it's easier to feed in fields during rain. (This might also be a reason why they use fields more in the early morning while the grass is wet.) Steve. Maker of The Northern Scratchbox turkey call.
"I was a deerhunter long before I was a man." ~Gene Wensel's Come November (2000) "A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user." ~Theodore Roosevelt
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 28
Campfire Greenhorn
|
Campfire Greenhorn
Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 28 |
As described above...You can't go wrong hunting fields when its raining or just after. I'm not sure if its because the food they eat in the fields or if it just helps them dry off faster that makes them like the fields better. I love hunting on a "light rainy" day. It isn't like they can go inside A couple of other possible reasons turkeys go to fields during rain: 1. There's lots of noise in rainy woods, which diminishes their hearing as a defense, so maybe they go where they can rely more on visibility. 2. Rain might slow the grasshoppers and crickets down more, so it's easier to feed in fields during rain. (This might also be a reason why they use fields more in the early morning while the grass is wet.) Steve. Maker of The Northern Scratchbox turkey call. Makes sense...
"The greatest danger to American freedom is a government that ignores the Constitution." -Thomas Jefferson
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 344
Campfire Member
|
Campfire Member
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 344 |
YES I have killed Toms during light rain, heavy rain and thunderstorm downbursts.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 9,948
Campfire Outfitter
|
OP
Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 9,948 |
OK guys... Im going to hunt in a thunderstorm!
Maybe point the shotgun down when I walk out to the blind though... ;-)
Other than that, How was the show Mrs. Lincoln?
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2016
Posts: 5,780 Likes: 2
Campfire Tracker
|
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Dec 2016
Posts: 5,780 Likes: 2 |
Yes, they don't go to Motel 6 and are still in the woods! I've had a lot of success immediately after a storm.
It isn't what happens to you that defines you, it's what you DO about what happens to you that defines you!
NRA life member
Illinois State Rifle Association member
|
|
|
|
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 3,945
Campfire Tracker
|
Campfire Tracker
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 3,945 |
I once killed an old tom,literally minutes after a tornado passed a few hundred yards from my pop up blind.
The weather suddenly cleared and the gobler came in silently to my calling. Killed him and went home to an angry wife who was afraid the tornado had killed me.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 4,293
Campfire Tracker
|
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 4,293 |
..gol dern, Doc! You my new turk chootin hero. Id of fled the area.
Trump HAD the World, ", Trump saw our children, " Trump saw a way to make a brighter day so he started giving There was a choice he was making, he was saving our own lives Its true he made a brighter day for you and me. --Trump WINS 2016
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 6,284
Campfire Tracker
|
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 6,284 |
Doc, got caught in a similar situation once - got a call from the farmhouse telling us that tornado warnings were posted for our area. We were five miles from the truck - just kept on hunting in the thunder, rain, and lightning. Not much choice. I don't hunt turkeys in the rain by choice - if it happens it happens - and they do move fine in light rains.
One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others. Archibald Rutledge
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 2,536
Campfire Regular
|
Campfire Regular
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 2,536 |
I think a cold light drizzle is the best turkey hunting. Keeps the hen on nests and the Toms get lonely fast. Heavy pouring rain and wind make it hard for the birds to hear you and vice versa........
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 5,279
Campfire Tracker
|
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 5,279 |
I remember hunting in a T-storm once, in Pennsylvania near the New York line. The only problem was that while it was thundering and lightning, I was holding a big lightning rod in the form of a 10 gauge single shot. It made me so nervous I leaned the gun up against a tree about 40 yards away until the lightning ended.
As soon as it ended, the gobblers started sounding off across the line. I made them residents of PA, and then sent a load of thunder from that big barrel.
Steve.
"I was a deerhunter long before I was a man." ~Gene Wensel's Come November (2000) "A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user." ~Theodore Roosevelt
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 6,786
Campfire Tracker
|
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 6,786 |
Rain wind lightning hail today.. 2 of us killed 5 birds..
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 17,726
Campfire Ranger
|
Campfire Ranger
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 17,726 |
I went to a small gun show yesterday and saw alot of turkeys out in the fields! but they were 20 miles from where I hunt!
Deer Camp! about as good as it gets!
|
|
|
|
514 members (1Akshooter, 1beaver_shooter, 222Sako, 2500HD, 01Foreman400, 21, 61 invisible),
2,461
guests, and
1,218
robots. |
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
Forums81
Topics1,192,450
Posts18,489,657
Members73,970
|
Most Online11,491 Jul 7th, 2023
|
|
|
|