Barometric pressure

[taxidermyone]

Does anyone keep up with the Barometric pressure as it's riseing and falling affects gobbling. If so I would like more information on this. Thank you
Leland James

[Steve_In]

Someone probably has but I do not. I go when I have the chance. When I have been out in rain I hear few gobbles. The added background noise makes it hard for me to hear. Since I bought a hub blind I try to take advantage of bad weather to go to the F&W areas around here for the second chance draws. A few drops of rain really ups your chances of getting drawn.
Welcome to the forum Leland.

[shaman]

Turkeys are not nearly so sensitive to barometric pressure changes as deer. You know the thing about how cows lie down in the field when it is going to rain? Same thing for deer. Why? When you have 7 stomachs and you live by chewing stuff up and swallowing and then let it ferment, that's a lot of methane. When the air pressure goes down as it does with the approach of rain, those 7 stomachs bloat up.

Turkeys have a lot more straight-forward digestion process, and therefore, they are not going to just lie around. Having watched turkeys up close for over a decade I can tell you that the changes in weather do seem to affect turkeys, but it is not consistent. Sometimes the turkeys will sense a front coming in and they will change their roosting site so they are low on the ridge. Sometimes they will be up top. Some times there will be a drop in pressure and rain due in by noon and that will make them get lockjaw. Other times they will have been quiet for days and the approach of bad weather will light them up.

If there is a consistent pattern to it all, it is too complex for the likes of silly old me. The one thing I can tell you is that barometry does make turkeys change what they are doing. My guess is that temperature is actually more of a determining factor.

[Cut N Run]

I don't keep records on pressure either. I have killed turkeys right before a low pressure front dropped rain. I have killed turkeys right after a rain, and in cold, clear temperatures that were probably better suited to deer hunting.

I dislike hunting in high winds more than rain.

Like Steve_In, I hunt when I get the opportunity. Rain is why they make GoreTex & popup blinds.

Jim

[WillowRidgeCalls]

I pay more attention to the Dew Point than I do the preasure. Up here the birds will gobble most all day long if the dew point is in the low/mid 30's. If it gets up higher in the 40's they gobble only a short time on the ground, and if the dew point is in the mid 50's they useally don't gobble on the ground, only in the roost. It kind of tells you what to expect as you head out in the morning. The birds are still there, they eat, sleep, and live in all weather, but it will give you some kind of expectation of what your going hear that morning? As the dew point raises and lowers, effects the bird on how much they are going to be gobbling that day.