I've hunted turkeys here in Georgia for the past 14 seasons, I still consider myself a novice, and I've never had a season as tough as this one. I have one tract of land that is 100 acres that I share with two others and we only take one bird off this property per year, not one each but one bird total. I then have my primary lease which is about 900 acres of which I am one of two turkey hunters. Now many of you may think that his great and any other year I would agree but the 2014 season is different for both places. I've hunted both tracts going on 6 years and thought I knew where the birds were or wanted to be. I've had seasons in the past where I've been skunked however those are usually filled with gobbling birds and me messing up only to learn another life lesson. This year though it appears the birds are gone, and I'm hard pressed to hear a bird gobble.
Two weeks before season I went and listened on the hundred acres and heard 5 different birds giving it the what-not. The next week I was on the primary lease and in one area where pines drop into a hard wood bottom I heard 4 different birds and my buddy heard 3 birds on another area of the property on the same morning. Out of about a dozen hunts I've only had one where a bird was hot gobbling after every call I made and I was sure he would be riding home in a ford. Didn't happen. A hen got between us and toted him off. The other hunts consist of either no gobbling or just a couple gobbles followed by silence. While that in itself is discouraging I would usually go setup to where I know, to at least knew, the birds were going but they have appeared to change where they want to eat lunch. The usual places; hardwood bottoms, pine flats and food plots, that in years past would find a bird mid morning or afternoon isn't showing any sign nor producing a bird.
Our season ends on May 15th and due to work getting busy my weekday morning hunts are no more and my weekend obligations will make it difficult to squeeze in a day at the lease. Every hunt I get in between now and the 15th you can bet I'll hunt as hard as I have been. I'm thinking I'm either jinxed, a terrible turkey hunter or the birds have left the area. Thanks for letting me vent.