turkey transition periods

[icdedturkes]

ORIGINAL: Fan Club

ORIGINAL: eggshell
I think we make this too technical and we really need to make it instinctual.

Great observation. I just sold my K&H "Gobbler Guide" set on E-Bay last week. As a traveling hunter it really peaked my interest and I studied it intently the year I got it. When we got to Missouri that year it was the strangest spring ever. Absolutely no foliage, it looked like January, but temps were in the high 80s, it felt like July. The turkeys were all screwed up and the transition period information had zero relevancy. Turkey transition periods are something all turkey hunters should know about, but are of questionable value when applied to actual day to day hunting. They do not take into account early or late spring weather patterns, elevation as has been noted or other factors such as hunting pressure.

I agree, your best bet is to be observant, try to identify what transition the birds are in for yourself and adapt your hunting style to that.

Your observations are correct.. Yes their is a breeding cycle but if you totaly believed what they said you would believe their is a gobbler on every ridge top up here gobbling his brains out lonely for the last two weeks of may LOL With turkey population high everywhere  their are more and more hens and jennies that occupy a gobblers time from the first day of season until the very last.. You can run into lone gobblers every day of the season..

[DeanoZ]

This is very interesting information.  I had heard of transition periods before but never put two and two together.  Just out of curiosity, generally speaking of course (and I know weather has some to do with it just like the rut for deer) when does the first transition period usually begin in the northeast (NY, NJ, PA) and how long does each period generally last?

[Fan Club]

Deano-

You're going to have to do the math for the NorthEast, but here's an excellent primer on the basics of the transition periods-

http://www.kdfwr.state.ky.us/spg03mg6.asp

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