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What time of day do you kill the most turkeys?

philsanchez76

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I've seen this discussed for deer quite a bit but never for turkeys. Watching @catman529 latest best of turkey video I saw him take turkeys at various different times of the day. Percentage wise, what times of the day do you shoot the most of your long beards? Here are my percentages:

First light to 9 am= 50%

10am to 1 pm = 50%

2pm to dark = 0%


how bout y'all?
 
About an even split between first thing after fly down and mid morning. My first turkey did come late in the afternoon though, around 5:00ish I think. Never killed one early afternoon but that's also when I'm generally taking a break if I am hunting all day.
 
I've never crunched the numbers but I'm curious to see when the most of my birds were killed. It's kind of all over the map, but favors the morning I think.
 
I kill 100% of my birds between sunup and sundown.

More seriously it looks like a bell curve centered around 9a.
Same here, except
my bell curve is centered more around 10:30 am (central time).

I suspect most are going to say they kill most early.
But I believe that's mostly because most hunters give up too early, and are sitting in their trucks or on their way back to camp before the typical best time (mid-to-late morning) arrives for taking an older longbeard.

I do not think afternoon hunting is as productive as morning hunting, but in part because I and most hunters hunt less in the afternoon. At times, afternoons can be better. I have killed quite a few in the "early" afternoon, like between 12N and 1:00 pm.

After @ 1pm, I typically spend the afternoons more as a reconnaissance mission in preparation for where I start out the next morning.
 
I kill all my turkeys 10a-2p. That's just when I go but, before that I rarely killed one very early. People I know who use some call named yeller yelper always kill early in the morning. I need to find out who makes that call. It's effective and they won't tell me where to buy one.
 
Never crunched the numbers. Just running last years numbers... 40-40-20. Most probably are the first 2/3 of the day. My last 1/3 is setting up on a travel corridor and catching them headed back towards the roost.
 
Between 10 and 3 has proven deadly for me over the years. I choose to hunt some of the most popular "gates". By 10, the morning googan parade has left the mountain, leaving some of my best spots wide open.
 
For me it's around 75% before 7am. Partly because I have too much other stuff going on and rarely hunt past 9 and mostly because I have learned where they want to be. I consider myself at least an adequate caller but knowing where they want to be is huge for my success. The past three years has been real tough hunting like this with the massive decline in numbers in my area but it seems like they are picking up a little at least.
 
When I was younger and could hear like no other, it "seemed" I killed more right after fly down, just in the first hour or so. I also killed more throughout the day, some late afternoon, as I did not have a family or other competing interests for my time. I suspect I was more aggressive and more careless as well, which resulted in me bumping them or killing them right off the bat. I had more birds to hunt back then as well, so if I bumped one, I could usually hear another gobbling off in the distance to go after. Now that I am older, and cannot hear as good in my left ear (closest to the gun barrel), with fewer birds to pursue, I'm more cautious and conservative than years ago. I definitely kill as many, or more mid to late morning, as I do in the first hour. Many times after they have left their hens, separated from the flock, or just settled down enough to call them to the gun. 99% woods setting for my hunting.
 
Between 10 and 3 has proven deadly for me over the years. I choose to hunt some of the most popular "gates". By 10, the morning googan parade has left the mountain, leaving some of my best spots wide open.
Good call! I think I will focus on this time frame this year. On public land that early morning time frame I am always fighting other hunters for spots and everybody is trying to out call the next guy. I think this is the ticket.
 
For me it's around 75% before 7am. Partly because I have too much other stuff going on and rarely hunt past 9 and mostly because I have learned where they want to be. I consider myself at least an adequate caller but knowing where they want to be is huge for my success. The past three years has been real tough hunting like this with the massive decline in numbers in my area but it seems like they are picking up a little at least.
Pretty much the same for me on all aspects. I mentioned all but one of mine were before 9am, but probably 75% were before 7am. Sure hope your right about the numbers creeping upward. Sure has been bad in our area the last few years.
 


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