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I'm travelling to the Sault St. Marie area to do my first Ontario turkey hunt, and I was wondering if anyone has any tips or advice for hunting turkeys in the northern WMU's? I've hunted turkeys in Manitoba before, but the environment is a bit different here in Ontario. I'm kinda going in blind and not even sure if I'll be able to find any birds at all, but worth a try!
Are you hunting on private property?
Not much crown land where the turkey's are in WMU36.
St. Joseph Island WMU45 is where the turkey's originally were released.
Some have flown to the main land but this is mostly private farm land.
Hunting on private land, but I'm not too sure if there's birds on the farm. Its a friends farm that me or my girlfriend have not been to before
Can you give a general location?Quote:
Originally Posted by millingabout
East of the Sault, and more north of Bruce Mines area
man i cant give you any advice. these birds are literally making a fool out of me LOL.
its like they are literally playing games with me.
sat in a spot today for 4 hours. didnt see a damn thing. my dad walked up on 4 of them couldnt get a shot on a male so he let them pass.
4 hours later i decide im gunna go for a walk. walk down the tree line to a couple other pockets nothing. coming back and isnt there a tom sitting right infront of my spot. i tried to get closer and got busted. so the next 3 hours nothing again.
about to leave. help my dad get his stuff from the back field. go back to the truck. and i see 5 birds sitting in my spot again. WTF.
load my gun try and go through the tree line slowly. by the time i get there they moved to the next pocket. try to slowly creep up to get a decent spot,
finally reach the next pocket.
they moved again to the next pocket, they i get on the corner, and they are in the middle of the field all of a sudden 70 yards out going to the neighbors.
that was my day. LOL.
i guess i cant complain, at least im seeing birds.
I know the area very well. :thumbup: I sent you a PMQuote:
Originally Posted by millingabout
We got back from our hunt last week, and I thought I'd give a recap of what we learned.
First of all, it seemed like any birds we found were in the bush. That was a big surprise as I expected to scout farmers fields in the area and see birds in fields. We found most of the birds just by luck as they were crossing the road in areas of bush. Our first night there we went to look for roosted birds, and sure enough we found a tom roosted next to the road on crown land. The next morning we set up ~150m away in the bush in the largest open spot we could find and sure enough we called him into within 10yrds of us but just on the wrong side and couldn't get a shot. He came in gobbling, strutting and drumming which was very cool to experience.
Next few days we did a lot of driving and hiking down roads hoping to strike up a bird with no luck. No responses ever from my crow call. Maybe the birds are just used to crows and don't shock gobble to them? We also had no luck in roosting birds at night, other than the one we stumbled upon the first day. I need to figure out how to find roosted birds for next year.
On the last day of the trip, we were set up in a field in the morning, and heard some gobbles in the field next to us up on a ridge as the sun was coming up. We decided to go towards the calls rather than sit and hope the bird comes to us. Good thing, because as we go to the base of this ridge, the tom answered my hen calls and started coming down the hill FAST. We had to quickly get hidden, and 5 mins later we had a gorgeous tom on the ground! It was a fantastic trip and this was my first Ontario turkey, I cant wait to go again next year already!
Well done, & congrats for you first Ontario turkey. You're hooked now!
Good job, sure is tough travelling to a new area and figuring it out. I shot my first Turkey on St-Jos on buddy’s property.