Tag Archives: spring turkey hunting

Noted turkey hunter and outdoor writer Tom Kelly once wrote, “I do not hunt turkeys because I want to. I hunt them because I have to. I would, really, rather not. But I am helpless in the grip of my compulsion.” I completely agree! And the grip of my compulsion begins on March 25 with the opening of the spring archery wild turkey hunting season here in Nebraska. You know, some hunters describe spring wild turkey hunting as a cross …

Don’t kid yourself, we are still in the chilly grips of winter. However, the length of daylight is increasing. Deer have begun shedding their antlers. Some sandhill cranes have arrived already along the Platte River in south-central Nebraska. It is calving season on ranches in the Nebraska Sandhills. These are all indicators that spring is just around the bend. For those of us who spring wild turkey hunt, our thoughts are drifting to the woods where we stake our blinds …

I was flipping through my turkey hunting scrapbook this spring when I realized this is the 40th year I have been chasing spring toms in Nebraska!  Some of you will say that means I am old.  Whatever, whippersnappers!  Let me reminisce a bit. . . . I am the second generation of spring turkey hunters in Nebraska.  That would be the second generation of turkey hunters since seasons were established and turkeys were re-introduced and recovered in the state.  My …

Yes, I have been spending a lot of time with turkeys this spring, literal, feathered turkeys.  I do every spring. Have not had a chance to blog about it yet.  There have been other items that have been a higher priority and have warranted previous blog posts.  Today it is time to tell a story. . . . If you have read my thoughts on spring turkey hunting before, you know that I consider the key to success to be …

Have a couple of thoughts to share with you for this weekend.  First of all, look at the calendar.  Yes, I know what today is. But, did you know that Yoda was a fisherman?  Obviously he was, he lived in a swamp. Here he can be seen handling a rod! Of course he was an excellent angler.  No, it was not because of some Jedi mind trick.  He simply fished with confidence! For you Star Wars “nerds”, I hear a …

The story of this weekend adventure actually started a year ago.  Late spring 2022 my wife and my cousin’s wife decided that they had never been to see the prairie grouse dance.  Each spring prairie chickens and sharptail grouse have a mating display where the males “dance” to attract females.  It is a spectacle.  I had seen prairie grouse performing their spring mating rituals in many of my travels and adventures in Nebraska, but I told the girls to make …

Will you look at that?!  The calendar already says it is mid-April.  Those of you who know me, know that my constant obsession with all things fish and fishing is about to be replaced with an obsession with big beautiful birds that go “GOBBLE-OBBLE-OBBLE”. Saw this photo on the interwebs and believe this will be my goal for this spring turkey season: Pretty sure that tom actually was tripping over his beard! Oh, I suppose some of you doubters out …

Nebraska’s spring turkey season has been open for several weeks now.  Oh yes, I have been out, have had success.  In fact, I punched a tag back a few weeks, but have been busy blogging about other “stuff”.  Time to change that. I have always said that the key to successful spring turkey hunting is scouting, scouting and more scouting.  If you can hunt and scout the same areas over time, over several seasons, you will accumulate a wealth of …

Every year about this time I get the feeling that everything is happening way too fast!  I look for ways to slow down the clock, the calendar, and make spring last as long as possible.  For a couple of years during the stupid pandemic, it was a slower pace because of this restriction or that closure.  This year it has been back to full bore!  Love it! I really do not have a long blog post today, nor a lot …

It is time for my annual distraction from fishing.  That will be reflected here in my blog.  I pretty much am all fish and fishing, all the time, except when the turkeys are gobbling.  In just this past week, it has seemed to me that all of a sudden there are big, strutting, gobbling turkeys in many of the places where I expect them to be.  Even in the middle of the sandhills! I love spring turkey season for the …