Semi-live Illinois 2019 Turkey hunting thread

[TheBenHoyle]

Guys, I've got a serious case of the fidgets. In just about 40 hours I'll be out under a tree somewhere waiting for old tom to meet my new shotgun. I have a tag for this weekend and I am hoping for success on Saturday, because I will have some trouble getting out for any type of hunt on Easter Sunday. I also have a tag for the following weekend, but I'd really like to fill both tags. I'll try to get some pictures and write up my adventures these next two weekends. Gobble Gobble.

 

[Estimator86]

What part of Illinois?

 

[TheGreek]

Good luck man. I’ll be on public land in west central Illinois Saturday and Sunday trying to bag a Tom.

 

[Clzandstra79]

Good luck, I’ll be in Schuyler county next weekend hoping to shoot one in the face

 

[Pucky Freak]

Good luck everyone - I've hunted Henderson and surrounding counties, but this year will be in central IA trying to punch another turkey tag starting Wednesday

hunt #1

 

[TheBenHoyle]

This weekend I have a tag for Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Will County just south of Joliet. I've had success there in the past but last year was a big bust for me in terms of turkeys so I am especially keyed up this year. Next weekend I'll be hunting in Stephenson County about 2 miles away from Wisconsin. I'll be hunting in the same spot I got my deer last fall and there are a bunch of turkeys in the neighborhood, so I have a pretty good feeling about that hunt. But I sure would like to fill both tags.

Good luck to all of you this weekend.

 

[Clzandstra79]

This weekend I have a tag for Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Will County just south of Joliet. I've had success there in the past but last year was a big bust for me in terms of turkeys so I am especially keyed up this year. Next weekend I'll be hunting in Stephenson County about 2 miles away from Wisconsin. I'll be hunting in the same spot I got my deer last fall and there are a bunch of turkeys in the neighborhood, so I have a pretty good feeling about that hunt. But I sure would like to fill both tags.

Good luck to all of you this weekend.

I drove by there a lot and see quite a few turkeys. I’ve never thought of hunting that area but I love fishingnthe river over there. Good luck!

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Midewin is HUGE. But they only offer 8 turkey tags per season. So the turkeys aren't terribly pressured. But there is so much country and the turkeys know what areas are off limits to hunting...

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Well, I went out this morning. I'm back home. I'm clean, my hunting clothes are clean (in the wash) but there was no bird to clean. Here's the story.

As I stated above, Midewin is huge and they make you hun the East side of the property on even days and the west side on odd days. On the east side there are 11 units and they are all roughly 1 square mile. There are only a couple places to park so you are most likely going to have to take a bike or plan on walking a long way.

I had my bike and I got there as early as possible (4 am) so I could get back to my spot well before sunrise. I met a guy signing in who was taking his boys out for their first turkey hunt. We talked a little about where we were headed and I wished them luck. They were gone by the time I came back to my car, but I hope they pulled at least one turkey out between their 3 tags.

I had a 3+ mile bike ride back into my spot and apart from tripping over a branch hidden in the grass when I got off my bike, which cause a slow-motion fall to the ground ending up with my left hand and knee in a mud puddle, the trip in was un-eventful.

I skirted the far side of a field that had been soybeans last year and got set up near the corner of the back 10 acres of the field that is kind of screened off by a line of mature trees about 20 yards thick. I was on the side that stuck out in the field and I set up my decoys along the field edge that backs up to a creek. I always try to put my decoys on the edge, because they look so fake out in a bare field. I want to have some vegetation under them,

As the sun was rising, I sat calling a little and I hear gobbles (probably 3-4 birds) off to the best between 1/4 and 1/2 mile. I was thinking about making a move, but I figured I could wait to see if anything was roosted near me. And then I heard the most fake sounding gobble ever. It was right over my left should and it sounded like it was about 20 yards away. I have a gobble call and I have never taken it out because it sounds so fake. And this gobble call sounded even worse.

I immediately think that there must be another hunter how came in across the field and set up on the other side of the row of trees that screens off this part of the field. Then I hear a little bit of clucking that sounds real, but I am mostly focused on the gobbles I hear off to the east. Right about sunset, I hear wings flapping right behind me over my left shoulder. I assume it is a hen from the clucking I had heard. about 20 minutes later I hear BOOM.

I sneak through the screen of trees behind me and look out into the bigger portion of the field and about 150 yards south of me is a hunter picking a tom up off the ground next to his full strut decoy.

It was way to windy for me to be hearing him making any calls. So that leads me to the conclusion, that I had set up within 20 yards of that tom (who must have been terrible at Gobbling). My calling probably woke him up and when he saw that full strut tom decoy, he flew down and headed right for him. Perhaps if I had my Jake decoy out in the field he would have come my way first, although we will never know.

With that all said and done, I started considering moving east to try to set up on on of those toms, but BOOM. There must have been another hunter who had set up to the east and he got one of those toms on the ground. By 7:30 a.m. I had heard my last gobble for the day. Although it was so windy there might have been more calls I just couldn't hear them.

I did a little hiking or still hunting hoping I would see some toms out in the fields that I could try to stalk, but I think with the wind they were sticking to the trees.

I'll be going out for a couple hours tomorrow. There are only 8 tags, so hopefully that means there are only 6 hunters still trying to get a turkey.

 

[Pucky Freak]

Nice that you got into some birds. Sounds like a pretty frustrating day, and just bad luck more than anything. I hate it when I pick spot A over spot B, and then someone else comes along and kills an animal at the spot I passed over. Hope things tilt in your favor tomorrow.

 

[TheGreek]

Hope you had better luck today. I struck out yesterday on public in West Central Illinois. Heard a few gobbles at first light but they shutdown by 7am and didn’t hear a bird after 8am. Logged a few miles walking around but no luck. By mid morning it basically turned into scouting for deer hunting this fall. Skipped today to go home and spend Easter with the fam. Will be back at it this next weekend on a different piece of public in southern Illinois.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Thanks guys. It was frustrating, but I too got a chance to do some scouting for future hunts. I did find a nice little spot that I would definitely go back to in a different zone.

As for Easter Sunday, I did go out for a couple hours. I have a spot that has been full of turkeys for me in the past and I knew if I didn't check it out I would wonder about it all day. SO I pretty much had to go out.

I got down there super early and in to my place. It was a beautiful morning and I don't regret getting out, but I didn't here a single gobble or cluck. There is a gas line cut that bisects the woods I was hunting and in the last few years that has gotten overgrown with Honeysuckle, multiflora rose and raspberry. Well once the son came up I could see that the gas line cut had been cleared, recently. I'm thinking that it happened in the last week or so and considering that there is about 10 square miles they could move into, the birds are out of the area.

But I did have a nice time, hiking and scouting the area. I even got into a staring contest with a deer that wanted to see what I was. I stood absolutely still next to the edge of the forest and this deer kept coming directly at me. It stopped at about 60 yards away and just looked and looked at me. Finally it ran away but I don't think it knew what it was running from. The wind was in my favor.

But my turkey season is not over. I have a tag for next weekend in the county I grew up in. I'll be about 2 miles south of the stateliness with Wisconsin in an area that is very full of turkeys. From reports I've gotten from my friend, it sounds like those turkeys will just be starting their hot and heavy action. SO I have high hopes. I'm also hoping to find some shed antlers and maybe morels. Although right now they are calling for rain on both Saturday and Sunday.

I'll be back with an update.

 

[Pucky Freak]

Good luck and let us know how your next hunt goes

 

[Clzandstra79]

One of my buddies went out this morning, missed one at 7 yards as it was tearing his decoy up

 

[TheBenHoyle]

I talked to my guy about getting in to my spot this weekend, so I have that lined up. He lives in the area and said he's been seeing the toms out strutting. Might be rainy Saturday but I'll be out there regardless.

 

[Clzandstra79]

Had a little luck this morning, nothing spectacular but he’ll eat. Called in 2. I got one, my buddy missed the other

 

[TheGreek]

Congrats man! I got lucky too this morning on public land in southern Illinois. My first turkey in 4 years and my first in Illinois.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

great job guys. I'm glad some people are out there getting the job done. I was out in my spot about an hour before sunrise this morning in hopes that I could get a gobbler on the ground before the snow started. It was supposed to role in around 8 a.m. and I figured I should make the most of a couple hours of morning since it was the second to last day I can hunt turkeys this spring.

Well I heard a couple of gobbles but they were a bit further west than I had hoped. I ended up moving to another spot and then a third spot, but I never heard another cluck or gobble after the sun rose.

At about 8, the rain started and I headed back to the truck. In the two hours it took me to drive home, the rain had turned to snow and it has been snowing all day. It should stop snowing about 10pm and I am planning on going out again in the morning. However I don't have high hopes. I have no idea how today's weather affected the birds, I am hoping that they will be posted a little closer to where I'll set up in the morning, but who knows. It is disappointing that bad weather comes in a screws up the few hunting opportunities that you get sometimes, but I guess that's how it goes.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Well here's the wrap up. Today was my last day for the Spring turkey season. I went back to the same spot as yesterday, of course there was 4 inches of freshly fallen snow, but hey that late April in Northern Illinois...

Based on where I had heard the turkeys on Saturday, I moved my set up the the northern edge of the woods I could hunt in hopes that I could bring them the 150ish yards across the picked corn field.

Sadly, I didn't get to bed as early as I had wanted so I cheated the alarm a little so I wouldn't be driving two hours on no sleep. So I walked in pretty close to legal shooting light. I was hearing them gobble and felt pretty good about my plan.

Right up until the moment that 4 previously unheard toms flew down from a tree about 30 yards west of me. They had seen me walk in and sat silently as I set up my decoys and got into my hiding spot. Finally they busted loose and flew west onto property I couldn't hunt. Further they joined up with the turkeys that were west and north of me and headed them off before they could get to me.

I sat it out until about noon even though they went silent around 8. It was a long hard sit thinking about how I had messed up my own hunt and I wouldn't get another chance at a turkey for a long time.

Sometimes hunting really sucks guys. But I think I'm just dumb enough to keep at it. Thanks for following along. I hope you're all having a better time with the turkeys than I did.

 

[Pucky Freak]

The highs are what keep me returning to the woods year after year. There's nothing in the world quite like putting together a hunt plan and having it work out perfectly. But along with that are the screw ups and missed opportunities that I replay in my mind about 5000 times until the next season, especially if it was an unfilled tag. I think that makes the satisfaction of getting a hard earned bird the next year that much sweeter.

I've hunted 4 days of IA 4th season so far and had a few miscues, but have still got some days to hunt. This morning my first spot was underwater (we got rain instead of snow), so I made my way over to spot #2 just at legal shooting. I could hear about a half dozen gobblers from the roost and was feeling pretty good. None were on public, so I sneaked around the fields trying to spy a quiet tom. I saw one hen making it's way towards a distant gobbler but that was about it.

I hung it up at 7:15 so I could get back for church. On the way out I heard two gobblers start thundering just 30 yards away on the other side of a thick hedge. I figured I could try to intercept them on either end of the hedge, or else try to spy them through the brush. I opted for the latter but it was too thick and I couldn't see a thing. I walked back around the edge, but I was too late and saw and heard nothing. I thought about calling, but opted not to, in favor of setting up my decoys in this spot tomorrow for a better opportunity. I REALLY regret not calling. Oh, well.

Once my truck was all packed up I was just about to put it in drive, this longbeard struts himself out in the access road about 150 yards up. I put some rounds back in my gun and moved the second he stepped into the timber. I thought - I can either run and risk spooking him, or walk fast and risk him disappearing into the brush. Again I picked the latter and had the same outcome - nothing to be seen or heard. I forgot my call this time so calling wasn't an option. A second turkey that was with him (that wasn't on the road) saw me and ran off.