What time of day?

[Marc]

Early in the season, if I am successful, it is generally early in the morning soon after fly-down.  Either by getting between the hens and the toms, or by irritating a dominant hen to come in for a look.

Those hens generally will be with the toms all day at this point, and later morning success seems to depend on being in the right place at the right time, as opposed to calling...  And in fact, often it seems to me that those hens will purposely avoid you if you are calling, cause they do NOT want the competition of another hen...

Yep, maybe the hens go to the toms initially, but once together, it seems to me that the hens are fully in charge of what direction they go.

As the season progresses, the majority of birds are killed somewhere between 10 Am to 1 pm...  There is that moment when the hens leave those toms, and they are fired up...  Often, they will gobble on their own after the hens leave...  That is what I consider my golden opportunity, and this is when I feel that less is more as far as calling.

Then, there is a couple days in the season when the hens completely leave the toms, and they are lookin' for love right off the roost...  No hens to go to, and a desperate tom can make for a nice hunt right quick.

[BB30]

10-2 for me. I love early mornings watching and listening to everything wake up but if I could only hunt for a certain 4 hour slot and had to pick it would be 10-2.

[maytom]

Saved this chart from a old Turkey & Turkey Hunting magazine years ago. I guess the same time frame still applies now.

[g8rvet]

Maybe I need to work on my calling to birds on the limb, maybe I don't crowd them enough, but for sure, 8:30-11 is my large majority of birds (better than 50% for sure).  I have had more than a few on the roost that never left me, but did not work there way to me until an hour or so after hitting the ground-last year I was less than 150 yards from him and did not kill him until 1:15 had elapsed from when I thought he hit the ground. Oddly enough, my first bird in the spring was a classic off the roost, straight in to the gun.  We took pics (long before digital) in the swamp and it looked like I had killed him at night! 

[catman529]

Last year killed all my birds in the afternoon, mostly close to sunset. Usually kill them in the mid day or mid morning.


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[TURKEYWHACKER]

Mid to late morning for me.

[Gooserbat]

Mid to late mornings. Of a truth I've killed my share at any given time of day but after 9:00 is likely the most merry.

[C.Kimzey95]

Probably gonna go with noon-afternoon. All three I killed last year were right after 3 o clock. Put my buddy on one at around 8am and another one on a different around 7pm. That's the latest I've ever seen one killed. But it seems as if my success has typically been mid day to afternoon.


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[Cut N Run]

Definitely mid-morning is when I've had the most success hunting gobblers.  I've killed quite a few right off the roost, but the majority of mine come between 8:30 and Noon.  I hunt a lot of smaller properties where gobblers roost nearby, yet not on the land I have permission to hunt. I often have to wait on them to come to my calls where I can hunt. 

Even though turkey hunting after noon is legal here in NC, I have never killed a turkey in the afternoon.  I don't make much effort to hunt afternoons these days either because I don't have confidence in it.  My work also seldom allows me full days off to hunt.  I have hunted afternoons at the same property at the same time where buddies of mine have killed gobblers, though all I ever see are jakes and hens.  Go figure.

Jim

[greencop01]

   Mid - Late Morning I like calling them in hearing them gobbling. Never had much luck off the roost.

[AndyH]

Lately most of mine have been within a couple hours of fly down

[WisTurk]

Mine tend to be mostly early morning or early afternoon.  I've gotten a couple in the mid-late morning, but have never got one late in the day.

[callmakerman]

I've killed a number of birds in the past right off the roost but in the last 10 years I've had better luck between 9-12. In NY we can only hunt till noon and I'll use every bit of it if I need to.

[Gobble!]

Of your options, 9-12

[chcltlabz]

Most of my birds have come between 9 and noon, but we've only been able to hunt afternoons here a couple years, and even then, only the last 2 weeks of the season.

I'll say this, if I get a bird to answer (not just gobble, but fire right back) twice after about 930, he's gonna die 75% of the time if I don't screw it up.  I'd say its more like 10% of the time right off the limb.

Too many variables with roost hunts.  Does the bird have hens, is he interested in working, and don't forget its much harder to get in close to a bird sitting 50 feet up on a tree with visibility to everything walking around on the ground.  I can get much closer when he's on the ground.