i'm just wondering how many of you guys hunt in the afternoon say from 3:30-4:00 oclock time till dark.
thats when i did most of my hunting this past spring had some awesome hunts but only had one kill in the afternoon anything you guys do different in the afternoon
i hunted them the only way i knew just like i would do in the morning
Hey Wes, I took a bird at 4:30 in the afternoon 2 years ago. I've never really thought about hunting past about 11 or 12 before then. I will hunt the evenings now! I look for the areas where they where roosted that morning and set up on them in a blind with decoys. I may only call alittle or call alot if the birds alone and fired up. We got my buddies bird that way at 6 or so in the evening.
thanks brad
i love hunting them in the afternoon
I love afternoon hunting. Way different from morning hunting, but i like it.
I have killed a lot of birds in the afternoon. I usually try and set up on a field edge, if I can near were some birds were roosting that morning. And just blind call. Most of the birds I have killed this way usually come in silent
I hunt the evenings a lot. I've probably killed half my birds then. I like to set up on their route to a roost and call just enough to tell when they're on their way. Easier to get in the roost area undetected before they get there. Less competition on public land also. Then I can sleep in in the morning, or have a better idea were to be the next morning.
shawn i think your missing out on a lot of excitement
If I haven't killed one by the afternoon then I'm still hunting. About the only thing I do different in the afternoons is I usually get a visual first then pursue him, mornings I usually hear him first then pursue him.
I hunt from the time they fly off the limb to the time they fly onto the limb. Killed my better bird this year about 30-45 minutes before dark. It takes some different tatics at times but it is fun.
I do a lot of late morning/early afternoon hunting. I've had a lot of success that time of day, the hens go off to lay an egg or set and the toms become much more shootable. Here's the aftermath of an afternoon hunt here in MI that I shot a good bird, the first with my own call.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYLTjQa4oHg&context=C22ff0ADOEgsToPDskI-CLA2XxJNiD0b4cthomg9
Quote from: Basser69 on December 07, 2011, 05:47:35 PM
I have killed a lot of birds in the afternoon. I usually try and set up on a field edge, if I can near were some birds were roosting that morning. And just blind call. Most of the birds I have killed this way usually come in silent
I do about the same thing. Turkeys spend the entire day on their feet walking around, if legal why not hunt all day. Every minute spent hunting them helps stacks the odds in your favor.
Would love to hunt all day, but the public land (Stat Parks) I hunt here in IL requires hunter to stop hunting at 1:00 PM.
Afternoon is a lot of fun. I like to set up on a field in the afternoon and head back to where I heard them that morning before dark. The best thing about the afternoon is that tom is probably going to be lonely..
Iowa is 1/2 hour before sunrise to sunset. If I got a tag, I got the gun. :z-guntootsmiley:
The majority of my birds have been taken before noon time. I do like evening hunts and usually by that time I have done way too much walking and I'm ready to just sit and get still till dark. I usually try to get in the area of a roost and pop a squat waiting to hopefully hear one gobble. If I can, I try to figure out the route they are gonna take to the roost and hurry and get between them. If by chance they do skirt around me, well at least I'm close enough to know exactly where they flew up but far enough away I can sneak out back to the golf cart.
Filled my last tag 15 mins before quitting time on the second to last day if my first season in NC.
Killed two of the last six that I can remember after 4 pm. Evening hunts are all about scouting and woodsmanship.
Quote from: 2ounce6s on December 07, 2011, 04:09:20 PM
I hunt all day here in SC. I ghost along ridge edges up river and creek bottoms just like in the morning trying to strike up a willing tom or else set up trying to catch a tom headed back to where he was roosted that morning or on recent hunts. I scale back calling a bit unless it's a real hot talkative tom.
X2
The last five gobblers I have taken have all been in the afternoon. Anywhere from 5 past noon up to 6:00pm. I love my afternoons!
Anywhere I hunt that allows it, I will be hunting the afternoons. I have had some great afternoon hunts. Majority of the time turkeys aren't as vocal, but when you do find a vocal one I would say my percentage of calling him in is pretty high. If I am hunting a new unfamiliar area I am more apt to slowly cover ground calling and scratching in the leaves like a feeding hen. But, if I know the area and am confident turkeys are around, I will set up near where I think a gobbler may roost and call very little. My hunting here in state has changed a little since I have young kids. I don't get to hunt as many evenings as I did in the past.
Pa. just started afternoon hunting in 2011 and then only the last two weeks of the season. It may take a while for us to figure it out. We have had a spring season in Pa. since the late 1960's but this afternoon hunting is brand new here! I did not get a chance to try it as I filled my tag the first week. Any other Pa. hunters here try the afternoon hunt?
Quote from: WildTigerTrout on December 30, 2011, 04:42:44 PM
Pa. just started afternoon hunting in 2011 and then only the last two weeks of the season. It may take a while for us to figure it out. We have had a spring season in Pa. since the late 1960's but this afternoon hunting is brand new here! I did not get a chance to try it as I filled my tag the first week. Any other Pa. hunters here try the afternoon hunt?
I grew up hunting Clinton, Union and Centre counties and fishing White Tail creek or one of the native trout streams in the afternoon. That was such a tradition that I can't imagine hunting turkeys all day there. Tough hunting in those mountains and we didn't have much for fields. So almost the entire game there would be scouting and knowing where they roost. If they come in quiet you'll have no idea until they are in your lap most of the places I hunted.
I would hunt an old tram road where it intersects with a stream (or a gut) that goes up hill. Good chance they'll be working their way down that tram road looking for a hen feeding on the first fresh sprouts of spring along that creek bed on their way up the ridge to roost. I always did that hunt backwards in the am but the reason I chose the spot where the tram road met the creeks or gut in the am was the same reason I would hunt those in the pm.
hunting PA and NY I never got to hunt the afternoons, we do a lot of glassing every evening from about 6pm til fly up watching the birds go to roost.
PA added afternoon the final two weeks of the season last year but I tagged on the second day and spent the rest of my season in NY.
I know ive left a ton of birds working right at the noon bell and would love to keep chasing them in the afternoon.
all good tactics
i have killed a few turkeys after lunch and right before fly up
every time it's happened very quickly and they gobble a lot . i think they are a little bit harder to get to gobble in the afternoon than in the morning but if he gobbles and not with a hen (my excuse) he will likely come in
I think I will try some afternoon hunts after reading some of your guys experiences sound like I was missing the boat!
Quote from: gob09 on January 06, 2012, 04:21:48 PM
i think they are a little bit harder to get to gobble in the afternoon than in the morning but if he gobbles and not with a hen (my excuse) he will likely come in
This was said earlier and I will concur based on my few seasons of being able to hunt in the afternoon.
From watching the birds (and I could be wrong) I think it is more natural for a hen to call in a gobbler in the evening. In the am the gobbler expects her to come in and she will find him if she's looking to breed. In the evening a few quiet hen clucks, purrs and leaf scratching will bring the gobbler in to roost near the hen expecting to meet up with her in the am.
you may be on to something, because the afternoon before i killed the last turkey of the season last year i was trying to call him in. i was sitting just inside the woods soft calling and scatching in the leaves he gobbled some but never seemed to move .
so i got tired of fooling with him and went to the truck i drove by the field. from the road i could see him walking toward where i had been sitting close to where he had been roosting went back the next morning and killed him at 6AM
6 of my last 10 have been killed after 4pm. I love hunting evenings.
Add me to the all day hunter list. I hunt them till I get it done or I run out of daylight. My tactics change throughout the day, but in short, my aggression slows and I slow down as the day goes. By late afternoon, I usually set up in a feeding area near a roost and blind call. When the birds are right, you can get the, fired up at any time. I have killed turkeys gobbling like crazy at all hours of the day.
Safe and Happy Hunting!
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have killed a pile of gobblers in the afternoon. actually most i harvested last year in 3 states came after 1pm. i always hunt am. and if i mess with one that doesnt work out i will be back in pm. i have learned the individual nature of many gobblers like this. this is where i learned what a "circuit rider" is.
I hunt a lot in the afternoon here in south Alabama.I call a lot less,and they usually come in quiet,or just drumming.You have to be on your toes,because they will slip up on you and bust you here in the afternoons.Took my best bird ever at 4.30pm two years ago,just drumming and slipping a few feet at a time.Took him 30 minutes to go 45 yards.
Quote from: WildTigerTrout on December 30, 2011, 04:42:44 PM
Pa. just started afternoon hunting in 2011 and then only the last two weeks of the season. It may take a while for us to figure it out. We have had a spring season in Pa. since the late 1960's but this afternoon hunting is brand new here! I did not get a chance to try it as I filled my tag the first week. Any other Pa. hunters here try the afternoon hunt?
I killed one at 4pm the third week ;D :newmascot:
I've usually worn myself put by the afternoon so Im pretty ready to take it
easy... I've always just felt like the beat place to do that AND give myself a chance to bag a bird is under a shade tree near a feeding area or where i think they'll head back to roost.
I've had quite a few successful hunts in the afternoon/evening. From my experience, if you locate a bird that's fired up in the afternoon, you have a really good chance to kill him. Like some guys already mentioned, if you get on a bird in the morning, but don't kill him, slip back in there in the afternoon. I hunted a bird two years ago opening morning. He gobbled at me numerous times, but he ended up moving away from me with several hens. I went back to that area about at about 1:30 that afternoon and he gobbled at my first series of yelps and then I heard drumming and he showed up in no time at all. I love hunting in the afternoon.
soldier here sir :OGturkeyhead:
My best method has been...
Sit in Gobbler Lounger
Call a little
Fall Asleep
Wake Up and shoot the Gobbler walking by
Of course it's only happened once, but it was exciting none the less. :drool:
This will be the first year that I have access to property that allows hunting after 1200. I plan to give the afternoon birds a try a time or two.
I always roost a turkey when I get the chance, so I guess I hunt in the evenings. I have killed about 10 gobblers in the evenings.
If I get off early or don't have anything to do on Saturday then I will go as soon as I can and get between where I think the turkeys are and where I think they will roost. I will then get comfy, build a natural blind and purr and cluck every once in a while. If he comes by I will shoot him, if not I generally here where he flies up and gobbles on the roost. then I am back there well before daylight with a git in a 3" magnum package! :fud: :newmascot:
i hate evening hunting for turkeys and deer alike but i cant kill em on the couch
I've killed a few in the evenings. I do like many have said, hang around roost spots soft calling and scratching. I've even had them fly up close without getting a shot. Left all my gun and vest and everything leaning up against the tree and slipped out silently, then came right back like a ghost in the am to kill one. My theory was I could always slip in more quietly carrying nothing at all.
It worked. Luckily I didn't sleep through my alarm and come back to find my stuff stolen :)
Last year they allowed afternoon hunting here in PA for the 1st time.
I went out a few times locally but didn't do any good. I went to my spot an hour away on another day that has alot of birds and settled in by blind near an areas where they roost. Did very little calling overall and had two toms come to me a little before 6pm. Killed the bigger of the two.
He was my 2nd bird for the spring.
I will hunt afternoons early in the season but find them less productive late in the season!