Benefits of a f-f-Frozen t-t-Turkey Hunt

[ICEMAN]

Low twenties in the morning and 39 degrees by the afternoon. Twas a cold couple of weekends Turkey Hunting so far this year. As I drove home, I realized the benefits of this cold spell.

*No bugs to inhale
*Not many guys out hunting
*Your campfire does not risk burning the forest down
*No bugs biting you as you try to sit motionless
*No soggy butt from sitting in the mush
*No ticks out yet
*No more skanky mayonaise on your balogney sandwich
*Beer stays cold at camp, no ice needed
*No slipping in the mud on that steep trail
*If you are lucky enough to bag your bird, cools quickly...
*Your gatorade stays cold in your backpack all day!
*Did I say no more bugs...?

Sorry if this seems a stretch, just trying to look at the bright side of it all...for me....

[M_ray]

No Bird Iceman? well sounds like the Beer was cold!

[ICEMAN]

Not Yet. Only heard gobblers during the youth hunt. Cold mama jama. Ice forming in the backpack means it's a coldy! Almost got a doggy this am, lip sqeaking wouldnt get him close enough, he busted us from maybe 70yards and barked at us for a half minute. My 10yr old daughters eyes got pretty big when I unslung my shotgun and started an occasional squeak trying to get him out in the open....

May wait until things warm up a bit, I am not used to this frozen bird hunting. (And we did focus on the food. South facing slopes, first light on the ridges facing east....found evidence of some feeding, but not a ton...)

[NWTFhunter]

Ice, sounds like you were doing everything right.  The weather is just holding down the breeding ! Its not just one location, its all over the state and Northern Id too.  Sunday they started to talk a little cause the sun was shining well at our spot, but would not work in.

[JBR]

Don't worry Iceman, we got skunked too.  Drove over to Lincoln Co Wed night, started hunting Thurs morning.  Had a small group of hens walking around and heard 2 gobblers for about 1-2 minutes, shortly after morning light, but after that, they just plain went Q-U-I-E-T.   Had access to several places that I'd scouted for several weekends in a row - and saw plenty of birds, but everything plain disappeared and holed up.   

We walked around, bumping 4 hens there, 1 here, but no jakes or toms.  Nothing responsed to shock calls or hen calls, oh yeah, except for that ONE jake....on private property that we DIDN'T have access to.    
He gobbled his head off!  We set up on the property we had access to and tried to lure him to us, but he was content to stay put and just tease us.   

After my buddy's Suburban broke down on Friday morning and had to be towed to a shop, our hunt was pretty much down the drain.  With the pending storm coming, we bagged out by Sat and headed West for home. 

Hoping to get one more pass to go out with my boys around the first week of May for a shot at seeing normal turkey activity and bagging some birds. 

[DeKuma]

We had the same results.  Cold and more cold.  Birds talked for a little while in the morning or after dark on the roost, but that was it.  Only had one coming in, but he never closed the gap close enough for a shot.  Did I mention it was COLD!

[tlbradford]

  :chuckle:I thought the same thing Ice...At least the ticks and mosquitos aren't out.  It wasn't much consolation.

[DeKuma]

Yeah no bugs, but even with my good winter gear on, my teeth were chattering after a while which would have run the birds off anyways!