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I buy tags every fall, but to me, it just isn't the same as a spring hunt. In the fall, I'm already in the woods bow hunting for deer. In the spring, I've been cooped up in the house after what seams longer and colder winters here. But I still buy at least one fall tag every year, sometimes I even get one! A very good friend has almost 300 acres just south of Mauston, WI. If I'm there in the fall, not hard to run and gun a fall turkey hunt and there's birds all over the place. At my property in NE WI, a little east of Green Bay, it doesn't take long to run and gun the birds completely off my 40 acres. There too, there's birds everywhere. But I still love being in the woods, just a different excitement level.
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
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Campfire Ranger
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Hopeful maybe. Turkeys are a sometime thing on “my” WMA because it's only about a square mile. The hope comes from the October opportunities I’ll have, two senior days for bear and antlerless deer during the turkey season, then four more when the mammals are both in. Reminds me of the good ol’ days a bit, when seasons weren’t so chopped up. Adds a little spice.
What fresh Hell is this?
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Not really. Fall turkeys are targets of opportunity for me. Would rather hunt deer and small game, but I'm not adverse to taking a turkey if the opportunity presents itself. I've killed more turkeys in the fall while hunting other things than in the spring. Deer, small game and fall turkey seasons here overlap. Fall turkey season here is broken up into three or more segments, IIRC (I always have to look at the regs the day before deer hunting to see if turkeys are in). Always have to be careful when deer hunting that turkeys are legal that day.
Here are the season for fall turkey in the counties I hunt most:
County 1 October 22 through November 4, November 23 and 24, December 5 through December 31, and January 14 through 28
County 2 October 22 through November 4, November 23 and 24, and December 5 through December 17
One thing I've notice is how differently fall turkeys act versus spring. A group of fall turkeys will forage below a tree stand or out from a ground stand seemingly unconcerned that there is an orange clad hunter near them. It's always been that way. Sitting in a ground or tree stand wearing and orange vest, only to have a flock kicking up leaves and eating mast work their way in nearly up to the tree.
Last edited by 10Glocks; 09/13/22.
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Joined: Nov 2015
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Campfire Ranger
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I went fall turkey hunting one time. Saw a big flock of birds out in a creek bottom, and called to them. Every bird in that flock, which I'm guessing was somewhere close to 60-70 birds, came in at practically a run. I thought to myself that this is to easy, and I never fired a shot, nor have fall hunted again.
I know that that was the exception rather than the rule, but I just don't care to fall hunt for turkeys.
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A turkey should never be an opertunist target.
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Campfire Ranger
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A turkey should never be an opertunist target. Maybe, Maybe not, but if you want to test your hunting skills, sneak up on a flock of jakes and shoot one with an old Burgess shotgun loaded with 2 inch #8 shot shells. You will soon see how good a hunter you are. Here is a 2 inch shell for comparison. It isn't a real potent shell, you need to be stealthy...
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That's a super nice gun. Always enjoy seeing your collection.
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Campfire Savant
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Yes, I hunt them with a bow along with deer, pigs, and Aoudads. The season starts soon, Oct 7 I think.
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Not really.
I've hunted fall turkeys since I started hunting them. But, after a while, it just lost a lot of its appeal to me. You go out. You hunt the current food source. You break a flock of hens and poults. You sit down and call. You decide which one of 10 or 20 birds is going to commit assisted suicide first. The hardest part is the walking and the finding............which isn't usually very hard. The calling and killing is actually not much sport in my personal opinion. Some guys......some really good friends......fall hunt with some very good dogs. I've never gone along. I could imagine the dog work would be very satisfying. But, still, really not my cup of tea. So, if you want a bit more challenge, you target longbeards. I've done it a few times. I've had good success. But, I've only ever pulled the trigger twice because I'd 1000X rather shoot a longbeard after he strutted and gobbled the whole way in and gave me a show. Not when he slid in quietly on the sly. I have called flocks of fall longbeards in, only to pull down my facemask and say "See ya in the spring !!" The two fall gobblers I did actually shoot were two of the biggest birds I've ever taken. But the length of the beard(s) and spurs aren't the only things that make a hunt exciting or make a mature tom a trophy to me. This is not to say I won't go out this fall or another year. My older brother LOVES fall hunting. I enjoy sharing hunts with him. Calling birds for him. There will be a day we won't be able to............
Wollen nicht krank dein feind. Planen es.
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I suspect here in the fall a turkey dog will do to turkeys what deer hounds do to them - send them straight up into the trees. East of the Blue Ridge in Virginia is deer hound country. During the general firearm season the hounds are out running deer. Dogs send the turkeys straight up. Birds will sit there for hours. Once the hounds are done working an area, they come straight back come back down. There is no "scattering the flock" and calling them back in. They fly to the trees in a group and come back down in a group. Scattering a flock with a dog and calling the birds back in may be doable in places, but where turkeys are habituated to all the damned deer dogs running, they've become desensitized to dogs and just aren't that freaked out by them that they go in all different directions.
Last edited by 10Glocks; 09/13/22.
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Campfire Savant
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I suspect here in the fall a turkey dog will do to turkeys what deer hounds do to them - send them straight up into the trees. East of the Blue Ridge in Virginia is deer hound country. During the general firearm season the hounds are out running deer. Dogs send the turkeys straight up. Birds will sit there for hours. Once the hounds are done working an area, they come straight back come back down. There is no "scattering the flock" and calling them back in. They fly to the trees in a group and come back down in a group. Scattering a flock with a dog and calling the birds back in may be doable in places, but where turkeys are habituated to all the damned deer dogs running, they've become desensitized to dogs and just aren't that freaked out by them that they go in all different directions. I’m glad they did away with dog hunting in Texas
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Fall turkey hunting is my favorite. All the nuts are out in the spring gobbling and hooting. I gave it up. I only hunt in the fall.. Spring time is the time for bear hunting.
Molon Labe
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Fall turkey hunting is my favorite. All the nuts are out in the spring gobbling and hooting. I gave it up. I only hunt in the fall.. Spring time is the time for bear hunting. I hunt bear in the fall. Spring is when I come to Wyoming and shoot your turkeys. I don't do any gobbling or hooting, though.........
Wollen nicht krank dein feind. Planen es.
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I much prefer to be in the woods in the fall/winter. No need to screw around with head nets and bug juice to keep from being eaten alive come fall. In the spring the black flies make the woods a miserable place to be. Spring is better spent fishing and shooting woodchucks out in the open where the little bastards ain't so thick.
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Any time someone tells you how easy it is to kill turkeys in the fall its evident they dont know chit from shinola....
Years back I've taken people fall hunting with my turkey dog Buster the Brown Bomber and when I was sure we had flushed a flock of Gobblers I remarked that when I get them talking you are going to hear turkey talk like you have never heard in your life....
If you hunt enough and payed attention you can tell from the dogs barking if he has flushed hens or a flock of gobblers...
Hens are not like calling longbeards....lots of factors flushing hens with a dog. Like was mentioned hens go to the trees a lot of the time and can be difficult to deal with....then you have the "fear factor" when dogs flush a flock of hens it scares the hell out of them. A lot of times they come in peeping.....every once in a while you'll get a boisterous hen doing the kee kee kawking run.
With longbeards the "fear factor" is a lot less....when you flush a flock of gobblers and get one to answer the call they will go into wild calling....yonking and sometimes gobbling.
The best I can describe the experience is being circled by sharks....if you're skilled and lucky you might get 2 or 3 maybe 4 kills then it's over.
I dog hunted during a period in Tennessee that pretty much had unlimited fall tags.....one fall I remember having 42 tags for two counties and I also hunted Fort Campbell military base weekly. Then they had a 4 month season with a daily limit of 2 turkeys.
My dog is in the happy hunting grounds, bag limits are gone.....fall hunting is no fun if you can't kill a pile of turkeys.
So I just spring hunt now.
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Any time someone tells you how easy it is to kill turkeys in the fall its evident they dont know chit from shinola.... OR............... Someone who thinks killing fall turkeys is HARD........may not be as good at it as they think. Some may quit when their dog passes on. Some may quit when it stopped being a challenge.
Wollen nicht krank dein feind. Planen es.
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Any time someone tells you how easy it is to kill turkeys in the fall its evident they dont know chit from shinola.... Turkeys show up in/on pasture, field, oak ridge at XX time, be there the next day around that time, shoot turkey. Yeah, it's rocket science.
WWP53D
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Ambushing turkeys is no real challenge.
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I guess I never really understood the allure of finding a flock, not shooting one, breaking the flock up, then calling them back in, and then shooting one. I guess that has appeal if you just want to fall call. Hell, I've had flocks forage nearly up to my deer stand apparently unconcerned I was there. I've stood up or made a noise with my feet, scared them off a ways, only to have them work their way back to the same location 20 or 30 minutes later. Like they don't even remember I was there. I just don't see fall turkey hunting as hard as spring hunting. And taking a bird from a flock that forages up to your stand is certainly no less ethical than setting up a deer stand on a deer trail and waiting for a buck to head from where he's bedded to a field. One method is not more "ambushing" than the other.
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I've done it a few times. I've had good success. But, I've only ever pulled the trigger twice That's sure iZ a lOt of success Denise....in 12 years my dog sat in on about 200 fall kills without the use of a sack or a the use of a blind.
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