Spring Turkey Fever Yet?

[charlie elk]

What are my friends across the river in MN seeing for turkeys this year?

On my side of the river the winter flocks are breaking up, gobblers are sparring and strutting with some gobbling.  Lots of jakes this year.  Little stub beards just starting to protrude from their breast feathers. 

[charlie elk]

OK you Minnesota nice hunters I'll talk to myself here. [sm=rolleyes.gif]  You all must be busy.
Toured around bluff country south of Winona.  Heard some gobbling going on and saw a few long beards.  Lots of sign of them feeding on European Buckthorn  berries. Your state forests are full of them.
Reaffirmed some permissions to hunt private land with back access to some large tracts of public land. 

[arrowsonly]

[:(] Sorry to say but I will not be able to come over to MN Bluff country this year and it is breakin' my heart...
Unemployment & the fact that problems with my marriage are preventing me from my annual trip to the most peaceful place on earth!

[charlie elk]

Hope you can get those things solved.  Going through what I have called character building periods in my life is always challenging.  Hang in there. 

[dewey]

I have not been up to my hunting grounds in about 2-3 weeks but my in-laws who live there are starting to see the turkeys running around there place again.  I will be able to give a more in depth scouting report with pictures, hopefully, after Easter weekend.  I plan on getting the binoculars, spotting scope and a couple of beers and going scouting for turkeys one of those days.
 
Dewey

[dewey]

My fatherin-law, my personal on site scout, has just sent me some pictures from this morning of three nice toms in his yard.  I have knicknamed these 3 the three amigos as I have seen them the last 2 years but I never had a tag to shoot them.  This spring however I do.  Sorry about the quality of some of the photos.  He also said they are gobbling and strutting like crazy.
 
Dewey

[charlie elk]

Nice gobblers there Dewey. What time period do have?

[dewey]

I will be hunting with 2 other friends April 24-28 and "guiding" 2 other friends May 14-20.  Hopefully the 3 of us can lay the hammer down on all 3 of them.[:D][:D][:D]
 
Dewey

[dewey]

Here are some more turkeys from my in-laws place.  Boy is it nice to have my father in-law constatnly watching the turkeys and reporting back to me.  Apparently yesterday he went out the front door and there was a gobbler on the garage apron, distance of about 20-30 feet, that didn't even move.  He just stood there and stared at my father in-law.  I guess they were also in the driveway and my mother in-law had to literally wait until they go out of the road.  It is a good thing that they are so brazen right now because they have about 3 weeks until I will be coming out the front door with a 12 ga shotgun.

My father in law was also saying that this is one of the biggest toms he has seen this spring.[:D]

Dewey

[dewey]

After 2 mornings at my in-laws place I have realized there is more turkeys here than at the gocery store during thanksgiving. Friday morning I got up and counted 25-30 turkeys in the meadow by their house of those 10-12 were toms. I got the spotting scope out and zoomed in on a few and noticed that quite a few of the toms had spurs that were ~3/4" or larger. I also saw a couple of hens and toms doing the hibbidy gibbidy as well. That afternoon we walked through the trees and counted about 3 or 4 trees that the ground surrounding the tree was full of turkey crap, so I now know where they roost at. This morning I got up and "only" saw 10-12 turkeys in the meadow with 4 of them being toms. My father in-law also saw a 6 or so toms in the front yard.

I will post the pictures on Monday so they don't show up ungodly huge.

Dewey out.