April 6 is the youth opener in VA. When will Toms begin to respond to locator calls in the evening?
It's been my experience in the North East that Tom's will be receptive to evening locator calls in Mid March. This is when I start to see strutting activity.......
They gotta be gobbling good by now. I typically see them by February in Ny, NJ, Pa. It's just the beginning of gobbling but I had many videos throughout the years of birds gobbling, displaying in a bit of snow. My method would be to start locating winter flocks in Feb. Mostly audibly, long distance visual. Keep tabs til break up. Many are just out of sight/sound at that time but you'd know where about to look and should locate them.
Now you asked about evening gobbling. I typically start locating by morning roosts. That'd be more productive earliest on imo.
Birds are already gobbling some around my house in southern Ohio, but not on a regular basis
Took a walk Sunday in Kentucky. They gobbled at my first owl hoot. And didn't do it again.
They don't necessarily have a time frame to gobble, you may hear one or more gobbles in Nov , Dec, Jan ... more so in early fall and spring ...
They were gobbling this morning while I was out predator hunting. 20 degrees out this morning up here in Maine. Had 3 hammering pretty decent, then they would shock gobble to my FoxPro.
I was deer hunting the week after christmas and heard turkeys gobble at thunder. It just depends if they hear a sound that tickles their fancy i think.
Haven't heard any yet. I have them all over the place at work and saw a flock of about 20+ birds with 8-10 stutters so I'd imagine they should be gobbling by now or very soon where I am in PA.
All year long.
Quote from: Spitten and drummen on February 18, 2024, 10:48:15 AM
All year long.
This!!! But to answer your question, most DNR's will time their season openers when about 75% of the hens have been bred. With that being said, back up 3 to 4 weeks and you should be hearing the gobblers sounding off some.
The one point I would make regarding your question about evening locating back your way is that (in my limited experience there) Eastern gobblers are much less likely to respond to evening locator tactics than they are in the morning. Although it doesn't hurt to try locating birds in the evening, you should try, if possible, to do your locating at first light in the morning. More specifically, you should concentrate your efforts in those "low-light" time periods of dawn and dusk when the gobblers are on the roost. The safety of being up in a tree seems to make gobblers more willing to sound off.
Also, if you are unable to get out in the morning, you should not assume in your evening locating that not getting a response means there are no gobblers in that location. There could very well be gobblers around that are just not inclined to gobble in the evening...but would readily sound off in the morning. :icon_thumright:
Quote from: GobbleNut on February 18, 2024, 06:03:47 PM
The one point I would make regarding your question about evening locating back your way is that (in my limited experience there) Eastern gobblers are much less likely to respond to evening locator tactics than they are in the morning. Although it doesn't hurt to try locating birds in the evening, you should try, if possible, to do your locating at first light in the morning. More specifically, you should concentrate your efforts in those "low-light" time periods of dawn and dusk when the gobblers are on the roost. The safety of being up in a tree seems to make gobblers more willing to sound off.
Also, if you are unable to get out in the morning, you should not assume in your evening locating that not getting a response means there are no gobblers in that location. There could very well be gobblers around that are just not inclined to gobble in the evening...but would readily sound off in the morning. :icon_thumright:
I totally agree with the fact that Eastern gobblers are much less likely to gobble in the evening when compared to western birds which have often gobbled to locator calls well after dark in my experience.
Also agree that I've got birds to gobble many times from the very area that I had prospected the evening before without hearing a peep.
If at all possible, be in the woods before flydown for your best chance at locating birds.
I'm in Northern Indiana and was bow hunting in December and heard over 20 gobbles and hens were very vocal as well. It was a warm day for the time of year but I heard more turkey talk than many days in the spring. Had two Toms very close just couldn't get a shot. It sure got me fired up for the spring.
If you work every morning your evening may be the best you have to hear a turkey. I get that.
If you have a couple mornings off work, your time and gas money would be much better served being in the woods, or near the woods, before the song birds start to tweet. That's usually about 12 minutes before the normal turkey will gobble.LOL...
I hunt eastern birds, VA and WV regularly. I agree 100% with what has already been said about evening gobbling action. I don't even waste my time.
This time of day I hear a lot of birds around 10 in the morning after it starts to warm up. Yesterday I heard hens calling and gobblers answering them at 10:00 oclock.