Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Weather Effects on Turkey Hunting

I was doing a little research for this weekend and came across this little blurb about weather effects on turkey hunting and turkey populations. Some of it sounds like BS, some is pretty obvious. Interesting read none-the-less. Does this seem pretty true to you guys?

Linky

I believe weather plays a major role in turkey hunting success.

Rain and high winds seem to make them stop gobbling from what I have noticed.

Temp I think also, but have had success in colder than average days too so I dont think its too big a factor in success.

I seem to notice that the most gobbling I hear is on a warm sunny day with little or no wind.

agree with ya Tom!

Rain and wind make better spot and stalk ....

Very interesting article, I agree with most of it.

Where I live in the Black Hills of South Dakota, you have to add in snow.

Bad weather makes them go into what I call a survival mode. I have hunted the day after we have received over a foot a snow and the turkeys never left the roost. They would gobble at us, but wouldn't leave the roost. I have had this happen more than once.

I have also snuck in on gobblers in the roost during a thunderstorm, they would gobble at the thunder. A very neat experience.

I have called in turkeys in light rain, snow, and even called them across the top of snow that I had to post hole through to get anywhere.

So unless the weather is really horrible, I go hunting. But I am also dealing with Merriam's out here which are more vocal compared to Eastern's.

If you have a severe cold snap while hens are sitting or when poults are small, the success rate for those off springs to make it to maturity is slim... You'll have a bad hatch...

Same goes for a lot of rain and cool mornings after a hatch, many poults will die of the cold...

High Pressure, A Good Dew before dawn and low to no wind = gobbling in the spring...

Low Pressure, No dew before dawn and wind = poor to no gobbling in the spring...

Pretty much what I see too. I do notice around here, in the rain and snow the birds like to hang out in the field a lot more.

Sunny cool mornings, we have lots of gobbles. If it's windy, they'll gobble real early, then shut down.

Rain and wind can have an effect on how vocal birds are, if you have turkey hunted at all, you know that. That doesn't mean that birds will not work to a call if you set up in a spot that birds are comfortable being in. You can still get birds killed in inclement weather, although more difficult

If a bird doesn't act like the hunter wants them to, ie. come running to your calls....the weather is always easy for people to blame. Maybe you made a poor choice deciding where to set up, maybe you call too much, you call too loud, you move around too much, or you just don't sound anything like a turkey b/c you insist on using a diagram that you are not good at using anyway.

I very much believe the notion that rain after nesting and the "wet hen theory" does make hens more detectable and therefore easier for predators to locate. Egg-eaters like raccoons, skunks, possums and yotes can put a serious ongoing dent in the turkey population if not dealt with.

Agreed, but I have killed 2 of my bigger turkeys in hard rain, both on opening days and neither made a sound. I dont know if I was where they wanted to be or where they were passing by, one was 23 lbs with 1 1/4 spurs and the other was 25 with 1 1/4 spurs, both had 10 inch beards. I like rain.

Slower hunting on rainy and windy days seems pretty straight forward. Looks like I'll have a mix of it for the hunt this weekend. Clouds and rain on Friday, Clouds on Saturday, and Sunny and 70 on sunday. Should be able to make something work.

AK...what state are you hunting?

Hitting Medford, OR this weekend. Meeting up with a friend of my dad that has access to some private land. Should be a good time. Now that my life has stablized and my dad is semi-retired we're trying to do a hunt together atleast once a year.

good for you and your dad, good luck.

I came up empty handed this season, but between time in the woods, I drove around in gusty wind and off and on rain mist. In this weather I saw numerous groups of gobblers strutting all over. The conditions didn't seem to bother them one bit.

Getting pumped now. I'm sitting in Portland waiting on my Medford flight. Hopefully tomorrow morning will be Gobble, Gobble....... BOOOOM!!!!

Can't do that in Pa. I've had guys sneak in on me calling and shoot at birds I was bringing in. Dangerous situation to be sure.

No luck yet. Had a bobcat walk by me last night. It was pretty neat. Sitting about 30 ft away. Watched it catch mice in a field for about 30 minutes. This morning we saw a nice Tom but it wasn't interested in what we had to offer. Ended up calling in a coyote first thing today. He was looking for a turkey for breakfast. He popped out of some brush about 20 ft away and was gone before I could get my gun on him.

Weather effects the hunter far more than the bird. On some really bad days I've seen it where they won't leave a roost, but those days are few.

Folks seem to gauge it by gobbles, I know lots of guys that will be out of the woods if they don't hear anything, whatever. Remember, they ain't deer and they ain't going to go nocturnal on you and all you need do is be where they want to be, not where you think they should go.

That's 95 % of it right there.

We had 3 days of heavy winds, 15 to 25 mph and then we got some of those 40 mile per hour gusts too. I don't mind a little rain now and then but those heavy winds just make it near impossible!