Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Tough Year!?

Did anyone else have a tough turkey year out West? We hunted the Devil's Tower area of Wy and the birds were still flocked in big flocks, very few jakes and tom's running alone and wern't coming to calls. NE was a little easier and I called in 2 birds but got whopped in WY. How'd you do?

Oklahoma was fantastic, Birds had already broken off into smaller groups at the start of Youth season which started the first weekend in April. Sorry to hear about your luck.

Sounds like you got to hunt at least two states other than your own-that should fall under the catagory of a good year! Sorry it didn't work out in WY, it is hard when they are still in the winter groups.

I can't argue with that logic, lol.

Just came back from the Black Hills, and my wife and I both killed birds. Got hers the first day, called in next morning after roosting it the night before, then couldn't get any to talk for about 36 hours, although I saw plenty where I couldn't hunt. Finally, after a night of rain, I killed a soggy gobbler on the Bear Lodge. Saw very few hens, two and three gobblers with one or two hens, so it appeared there had been lots of hens going off to lay and nest since the beginning of the season. Understandable since it was so warm so early.
Two days in a row of no gobbling after they hit the ground. Saw lone gobblers way up on Warren Peak, which is unheard of this time of year, usually due to deeep snow, so they were scattered.
Lots of walking, since damned near every side road in the Black Hills is closed to those who don't run a 4 wheeler around the closed road signs.
I also got two in NE and one in SD. They were very talkative in those states early, and everyone must have read the weather forecast, since I only saw two other vehicles in four days.
The deer that are supposed to be down in number in the Hills were everywhere, with little or no loss of last year's fawns.

NC seems to be a mixed bag. Biologists are predicting a massive drop (50ish%) in numbers in the near future so we'll see. I had a banner year as I tagged out. A first for me.

Opening day a couple weeks ago, then last Saturday another bird. Numbers are down in most of Montana, but the real good hunters are still scoring...

It was tough here in MI, nothing would gobble on the ground and very little gobbling on the roost. There hard to kill when they talk and darn near unkillable when they wont. The guys that did get birds were mostly parked in a green field and not calling.

I did not kill in MT this year but the weather messed us up. Rain and snow 2 of the threee days we got to hunt. Got them to come in on the 3rd day but could not seal the deal.
I guess that is why they call it hunting instead of shooting.