The shotguns are back on the rack. The ammo and calls are put away. For all their work, Angus and SuperCore are eating tag soup. However, we all walked away with actionable intelligence. This was a good year overall for us. Everyone had shooting opportunities.

First off, let me talk about the weather and how it affected the turkeys. Coming off a mild winter, this was the most pleasant turkey seasons we’ve had in 15 years at the farm. We had fairly warm mornings in the low-to-mid fifties and highs frequently going into the low 80’s. I think this accelerated things with the turkeys. When we showed up for The Opener, the hens were already sneaking away from the flocks to nest. We saw numerous ones, singly and in pairs, out roaming the fields. However, it seemed the gobblers were still fairly henned up. We heard fewer shots this year overall. That was just our part of the county. Overall the harvest was the best in over a decade in Bracken County. This is at a time when the harvest in the Northeast Region is in a fairly deep hole. The statewide total was at a 3 year high.

There had been a Cicada hatch in 2014. I knew 2016 was going to be a good year when I saw all the jakes running around last year. Unlike the gay turkey herd we had after the last big Cicada invasion, these guys were hot for hens. I took both of mine from the new Honey Hole out of this cohort. Only the gobblers in the center of our property seemed to be active, however. SuperCore and Angus spent their time Opening Week on the east side, mostly hunting around Dead Skunk Hollow and Gobbler’s Knob. For the most part, they came up blank. There were gobblers and hens there, they just did not respond to calls.

The latter part of the season was dominated by more mature birds. I took SuperCore out to the new blind at Westwood on a foggy morning and called up Gobzilla. My back was to the action, so I did not see him. SuperCore said it was the biggest gob he had ever seen. Sadly, SuperCore shot over the gob at 10 yards or so. I told SuperCore later, after his prize had run off, that he had enjoyed the best part of turkey hunting– counting coup on a bird without having to schlep the carcass back to clean it. I do not think SuperCore shared that feeling.

Angus had a similar problem out at the new Honey Hole on the last morning of season. However, his mistake was the same as mine with my first bird. He managed to shoot at a beard-dragging gobbler at the exact same spot as I had, only his wad cut the line holding the blind. His gobbler flew off without a scratch.

What is interesting here is that this kind of reflects back towards what I have been saying about hunting pressure. Both Angus and SuperCore had opportunities at mature birds in the latter half of the season. My guess is these guys had been able to keep hens with them much later than other birds and so had only become lonely enough to come to a call later in the season. This matches what folks say when they talk about hunting pressured birds on public land. The big old smart birds are there, but somehow they know to keep low until later in the season after the hunters leave. I see it a different way, that downplays the human influence. The way I see it, these are the birds that can attract females to them until later in the season. As a result, they have no reason to venture out in search of a strange call. Indeed, the last weekend of season, I sighted mature gobblers out in the field several times. I was tagged out, but I could see them traveling about. SuperCore was able to hook up with one last Saturday. However, the coyotes came out and ran him off. One that I had spied going into Hootin’ Holler was the one Angus shot at.

It dawned on me this season exactly how loud folks’ calling can be. As I was coming out with my first bird, I started hearing a loud hen down in Hootin’ Holler, and I pulled out my Shamanic MK I box call and worked her for a little while, just to see what would happen. After several minutes, it dawned on me that I was trading calls with Angus clear over on Gobbler’s Knob, maybe 800 yards away. I confirmed this via walkie-talkie. Later in the season, I did similar experiments with Angus, and realized that our calling from 600+ yards sounded like a normal hen at 50. I do not know enough to tell you if this is good or bad. My point is that I frequently hear hunters calling from great distances that I know are not real hens.

Let me talk about gear for a moment. First off, I want to amplify what I said about my ammo. I have been flinging 3-inch Federal #4 lead. This year, I trouble, but I will not say it was the ammunition. In the first instance, the wad was upset going through the fabric of the blind, so the turkey did not get a full load. In the second instance, I misjudged the distance. The fix for all this is to rethink the new Honey Hole blind. The blind is larger than normal. I did this to compensate for the exposed position. As a result, it can be hard to gauge how far over the blind you have to shoot to clear it. I have other options, and I have a year to think them out.

In regards to calls and calling, I cannot tell you how happy I am that the Shamanic MK I box call worked. I used it to call in the first gobbler, who was less than 60 yards out when I sat down. That is a lifetime achievement right there– making your own box call using it to bag a bird. I have the fixings for several more. On the other side of the spectrum, I used the box I bought from Al Shoemaker at SS Custom Calls later in the season. It money well spent. That was brought in the herd of 3 gobblers that let me fill my last tag. Mine’s about as crude as you can get. Al’s are works of art. However, they both bag birds.

As far as the other stuff, I think I have finally found a good pair of turkey boots. Over the winter I did a search for “duck boot” on Amazon, and found a pair of insulated, rubber bottom boots for $35. I can say that for the first time in my 35 years of turkey hunting, I finished a season without cold wet feet. My demands for a turkey boot are not all that stringent, but I do have a lot of wet grass to cover, and temperatures can get into the mid-30’s, especially on pre-season scouting trips. I’m happy as a clam!

I also want to give a shout out to Plot Spike’s Clover Blend.  I put out a bag of this stuff mixed 50-50 with Ladino clover in the field next to the Honey Hole during the last full moon in February.  It was up and growing by the time season started.  I found the vetch component in the craw of both turkeys I nailed, and I am certain that it was attracting birds.  The field in which I sowed it had been some of the poorest ground on the property, an old play-out tobacco field.  Last fall, I fertilized with a product called Pasture Fertilizer from Tractor Supply, where I got the seed.   It really rejuvenated that old field.

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