Getting Frisky in Mississippi

**Rhino** · 03-03-2008, 01:45 PM

I hit the woods early Friday afternoon to pull and move my 3 trail cameras. I bumped 2 male turkeys going to one spot to set up but with them high tailing it out of there I couldn't tell for sure if they were mature gobblers or jakes. I interrupted a mature gobbler in full strut along with his 2 running buddies that were courting about 6 hens at last spot where I set up a camera. After re-setting and checking CF cards I finally managed to set up on a spot the birds liked. Here's a couple of pictures of a gobbler strutting his stuff.

It took 9 camera sets trying to set up where the birds wanted to be. I had a total of 31 turkey pics at this spot.

I wasn't far away from there at the crack of dawn Saturday morning. 3 gobblers sounded off relatively close to that spot but the real encouraging news was all total I heard 10 birds gobbling on the roost all around me.

One was a little too close for comfort so I eased out of there to try to pinpoint the location of birds that were further away. I managed to get some of those distant bird's locations pinpointed but they quit gobbling shortly after touching down.

I checked a different area Sunday morning. The weather was not in my favor for hearing birds on the roost mainly due to the wind. I did hear 2 birds but they only gobbled a total of 5 times.

Unless I'm surprised between now and March 14th, I'll be sitting in the general area where these pics were taken at the crack of dawn on March 15th.

**Ambuscher** · 03-03-2008, 03:40 PM

Man, would you look at that rope.

**hoosierhunter47** · 03-03-2008, 05:15 PM

march 15....wow!!!....try waitin till april 22!!

**The Kid** · 03-03-2008, 05:50 PM

heck i have to wait till may,, we still have tons of snow here in michigan, good luck chasing that biggen!!!!

**CamoGuy** · 03-03-2008, 07:32 PM

Originally Posted by hoosierhunter47

march 15....wow!!!....try waitin till april 22!!

We got ya beat. It is April 28 here in WV.

If not for the mosquitos you could hunt in shorts and a t-shirt here. Several mornings last season it was 60+ degrees by 9:30AM and the birds just shut-up.

Rhino, that one bird is a boss tom, gotta be a 11"+ beard on that hog. Good luck, it looks like you already have your opening morning spot picked out for yourself.

**Rhino** · 03-03-2008, 08:51 PM

Originally Posted by CamoGuy

Rhino, that one bird is a boss tom, gotta be a 11"+ beard on that hog. Good luck, it looks like you already have your opening morning spot picked out for yourself.

He sure looks like a goodun.

Should make for a entertaining beginning to my season. I'll be working on pegging some of those other bird's locations down along with their preferred movement patterns coming off the roost before our opener.

BTW...I posted a few more pics in the photography & video forum.

**CamoGuy** · 03-03-2008, 10:18 PM

BTW, if you need any help just gimmee a yell, I would be glad to come down and help you thin the flock

**toddyboman** · 03-04-2008, 09:53 AM

sounds like you have got a great jump on those birds already....good luck

**rebelyelp** · 03-04-2008, 10:56 AM

yep todd, it's comin.... and fast... hopefully this cool snap slowed them down just a hair, they were hammerin on it the past 2 weeks

**rhine16** · 03-04-2008, 03:23 PM

Awesome pics. I dunno if they're gobbling up here yet or not. I would think so. Havent been out early yet. Only 11 more days though! Best of luck to you Al!

**beagleboy** · 03-04-2008, 07:17 PM

Awesome pic. Good luck March 15. Here in NY, we can't chase gobblers till May 1st

**PA_Spike_King** · 03-04-2008, 08:40 PM

Thank You, thank you,thank you Rhino for posting those.

**Rhino** · 03-04-2008, 10:23 PM

I was hoping to catch the right pics to start getting some turkey hunters fired up for spring. It's right around the corner.

**huntn4bucks** · 03-05-2008, 09:31 AM

Excellent!!! Our regular season also opens on March 15th but we have two youth days coming up on March 8th & 9th. It's suppose to be pretty cool Saturday morning (21 degrees) but hopefully my 7 year old nephew can tough it out. He killed his first duck this year so maybe we can connect on a nice gobbler too.