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! Anyone who has ever spent a stunning Nebraska spring morning with their back leaning against the base of a mature hardwood tree or sitting in a camouflaged blind, using a call and decoys to lure a …
Read More »Late-Winter Scouting for Spring Turkeys in Nebraska
Don’t kid yourself, we are still in the icy, frigid 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 …
Read More »Turkey Down
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 …
Read More »Busy Spring
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 …
Read More »Mingling
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 …
Read More »Spring Wild Turkey Hunting: Addiction, Obsession, Passion
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! Anyone who has ever spent a gorgeous Nebraska spring morning with their back leaning against the base of a mature hardwood tree or sitting in a camouflaged blind, using a call and decoys to lure a …
Read More »Winter Scouting for Spring Turkeys in Nebraska
Don’t kid yourself, we are still in the icy, frigid 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 …
Read More »Spring Passed
The last day I walk off the ice every winter is a bad day. I hate that day. Oh sure, I am on the water or in the field somewhere in Nebraska twelve months of the year, but I really love ice-fishing. So I kind of ease into spring. You know what it is like in early spring. . . well, more like winter many days. Sure, we will get a day or two of beautiful, warm, sunny weather, but …
Read More »Prime Time?
It is still spring and the turkeys are still gobbling. Yes, I will get back on the water, soon, but please indulge me while I blog about spring turkey hunting again. . . . After writing my blog last week about The Casual Turkey Hunter, I got to thinking. I have seen a number of mature toms killed in the spring. Several of those I have pulled the trigger on myself, and a bunch more I have gotten an “assist”. …
Read More »Late Season Turkey Tips: Gettin’ That Gobbler
We are in the latter part of the season for spring wild turkey hunting in Nebraska. Using a baseball analogy, it is the bottom of the 9th inning, your team is behind, the bases are loaded, there two outs and you are up to bat! I don’t think there is any doubt about it, spring wild turkey hunting late in the season is challenging. However, there are still plenty of gobbles to be heard and birds to be worked plus …
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