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Any gobbling yet?

813 Views 9 Replies 8 Participants Last post by  68526
The early Utah hunt is only 2 weeks away now! Anyone heard any gobblers getting fired up yet? Anyone seen any strutters?

I've only seen hens and jakes myself here in Central UT and no talking or strutting just yet.
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yep. The toms aren’t with any hens right now, but a car horn sure gets them excited. 3/24/2023
Snow Tree Twig Freezing Sky
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That much snow on the ground with a strutting tom just looks weird to me. That said, I usually don't start looking until mid April. Spring runoff should be interesting this year.
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Spring runoff should be interesting this year.
Ya, possibly the entire river bottoms and drainages could have lots more water than usual.

I think the birds will be where you normally see them in your "secret spot", just lower elevations. The wife sent me a pic of hen at her work, outside her window, yelping her head off. This is at the Cannon Building just a off N. Temple a couple blocks from the DWR office. YA!! this winter (snow levels) has placed wildlife in poor places.
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Ya, possibly the entire river bottoms and drainages could have lots more water than usual.
Truthfully I was out scouting about a week ago. Wanted to see if the runoff had started yet, and if they were wintering in this one area or not. Negative on both. Then this latest round of weather blew in. Probaly not going to get out again until next weekend. This year I'm going to try and monitor the runoff every weekend if i can in my usual turkey area. Where I've been camping my family in the past was usually next to a river, one camp we used the year before last had a river on one side, and a tributary on the other; and that campsite completely washed out last year. (one reason we camped elsewhere)

This is the excuse i'm using with my wife to get out earlier this year.. "gotta make sure it's safe for you guys." Im wondering if that river is going to come up to the road this year in some places or not. It might wash out this year.
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I might have to fire up the UTV and go for a drive. One area where I have shot birds, (just above the mountain valley elevations) has a good number of birds. I'm curious to see how the flock managed the winter.

We built a ground blind with logs and branches years back, and have taken 3 mature Toms from it with the stick flippers. I prefer archery over a shotgun when hunting turkeys. One year we had 2 toms working the set. My nephew put the hammer on one tom just outside the decoys, the other tom saw him flipping around on the ground, came over to "kick his a$$ more" and I flung an arrow and watched him flip around like his buddy. :ROFLMAO:
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I watched one this morning trying to seduce some hens, getting rejected.
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I might have to fire up the UTV and go for a drive. One area where I have shot birds, (just above the mountain valley elevations) has a good number of birds. I'm curious to see how the flock managed the winter.

We built a ground blind with logs and branches years back, and have taken 3 mature Toms from it with the stick flippers. I prefer archery over a shotgun when hunting turkeys. One year we had 2 toms working the set. My nephew put the hammer on one tom just outside the decoys, the other tom saw him flipping around on the ground, came over to "kick his a$$ more" and I flung an arrow and watched him flip around like his buddy. :ROFLMAO:
Turkeys are a Jekyll and Hyde animal. Sometimes they’re the smartest animal in the woods and other times, they’re about as dumb as a rock. Still fun to hunt though…even the dumb ones!
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Turkeys are a Jekyll and Hyde animal. Sometimes they’re the smartest animal in the woods and other times, they’re about as dumb as a rock. Still fun to hunt though…even the dumb ones!
Extremely wary, but not smart in a calculating way. They definitely learn (in a Pavlovian way) from experience but I think for the most part they are only reactive, not proactive. Like most animals though, throw in a healthy dose of testosterone and, well, you know, stupid takes over.
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