Crappy weather coming. How will this effect the turkey hunt?

[Remington788]

It is supposed to rain in the poconos starting around 2am Saturday and continuing all day. Temperature ranging from 43-47.

Is this good or bad for getting turkeys out of the trees?

[jlb0305]

What ive been told is it really depends on the amount of light. They may wake later based on brightness but it also should help you by keeping scent & sound down. But as I said this is just what I've been told because I asked the same question 2 weeks ago. I didn't end up going out that day so I can't confirm.

[eatmydust]

Turkey hunting on rainy days can be extra challenging. The rain helps to damp down noise but during Spring gobbler season you are reliant on sound to be successful. Calls don't carry as far in the rain and gobbles are more difficult to judge distance on. If a gobbler is coming in silently, there will be almost no sound to his travels and I rely as much on leaves crunching as gobbles to judge a turkey's distance if it is not in sight, depending on the terrain.

Turkeys will go about there usual routines on rainy days but they can be slower and more deliberate in their movements and during heavier downpours they wll often stop and just hunker down until the rain lightens up. On the positive side, hens are much more likely to stay on the nest and incubate eggs so that they won't get wet and cold, so you won't experience as many gobblers "henned up" or have a gobbler you're working called away by a hen turkey.

Rain is a mixed bag for Spring gobbler hunting, if you have the time off and the inclination to be in the woods, the turkeys will be out and about. I've hunted them in everything from flurries to the upper 80s, rain to sun and just about everything in between. In my experience, the thing that freaks turkeys out the most is high winds, it causes a lot of leaf movement and tree groaning and inhibits their ability to here potential predators approaching. Lastly, thank God turkeys do not have a well developed sense of smell, so you do not need to be concerned about them catching your scent, if they had keen noses, no one would ever be able to successfully harvest a wild turkey, IMO.

[eatmydust]

Just to add a little something else to the turkey hunting in "bad weather" thread, I went turkey hunting up in the Poconos yesterday, between Jim Thorpe and Blakeslee. The forecast was for sun , light winds and temps in the upper 80s to low 90s, not ideal turkey hunting weather, in my mind. I hadn't taken time to scout out my oft-hunted stretch of SGL141this Spring, and last Fall there was zero hard mast in the area I enjoy hunting most.

Trudging around in high temps, clad in long pants, long sleeved shirt and undershirt, boots, gloves and a hat is not ideal. Add in the incessant buzz and dive bombing of over active gnats and the addition of a no-seeum head net is necessary to succeed. Yesterday, May 17, 2017, I had set my alarm for 3 am, inorder to be able to do the morning routine and still make the 3 hour drive to the Poconos from my home in southern Chester Co. Well, the alarm went off at 3 am and I decided to roll back over and catch a few more ZZZ. I hadn't scouted and hadn't put any gobblers to bed and besides, full day hunting was now in place for the rest of the season. So, I slept in until 5:30 and de ided to leave at the end of morning rush hour to miss the worst of the traffic. There really is no rush to get into the turkey woods, IMO, unless you know exactly where turkeys are roosting.

Turkeys usually make several calls from their roosting trees but that sound only carries so far. I will often wait until mid-morning to get after the turkeys in the Fall because that gives them a chance to fly down and then get busy scratching through the leaf duff and leave a trail that helps to uncover their movements and help the hunter pinpoint the flock's location. In the Spring, gobblers will usually fly down, go to their nearest strutting area, where they have attracted hens before and then they can get "henned up" by the local hen population giving them their attention. The "henned up" phase of the day often happens from early to mid morning. After mating, the hens will wander off to feed and then go back to the nest to incubate her eggs. Being males in an amorous mood, gobblers will still be horny S.O.B.s even after having mated several hens. In mid-morning, after the real hens have wandered off and foresaken the gobblers for the day, the gobblers become susceptible to the dulcet tones of a hunter's calls. So, knowing that early-mid-morning can be a fruitless endeavor, I'll also wait to get into the Spring woods until mid-morning during the full day portion of Spring Gobbler Season.

So, back to yesterday's hunt. Having arrived in the woods of SGL141 at around 11 am, I started my usual routine of quietly stalking around the woods looking for any turkey sign, while stopping to make a yelp/cut and yelp every 50 to 100 yards, trolling for a response. This is my usual M.O. for turkey hunting both Spring and Fall, since I usually have to drive a fair distance to hunt the birds. So, yesterday after several hours of hiking, yelping, sitting, being dive bombed by gnats, sweating in full camo regalia, I had had just about enough fun in the area I was hunting and had decided to remove my gloves, long sleeve camo tee and the headnet perched on the back of my neck and shoulders, before hiking nearly straight up the mountain, back to my truck, parked a couple hundred yards above me.

As I pulled off my tee shirt and was folding it to tuck it in my backpack, I thought I heard a gobble, from up on the side of the mountain, that I had just been trolling along. So, I blew a quick yelp on my diaghram call and sure enough, a gobbler responded from probably about 150 to 200 yards away. This gobbler was hot and responded to every yelp I gave, it actually sounded like more than 1 gobbler responding. After about 5 minutes, I could hear the bird(s) making progress toward my location. Soon it was obvious that these birds were coming on a string and I quit calling and readied myself for a good shot from my perch against a pair of smallish trees along the path I had been walking.

The birds were now quiet and I was scanning the woods for movement, soon I saw a head pop out from behind a tree about 70ish yards away, and then saw a 2nd turkey come up behind the lead bird. The 1st bird was coming closer from left to right and now I could see 3 turkeys making their way cautiously toward me. Once the 1st bird came into range, I was tracking it with my sights on my shotgun , but couldn't find a beard on it, it must have been a jake that was all puffed up, hiding it's stub of a beard. So, I waited for the next bird to come into range/view and I clearly saw a decent beard on this one. As the bearded gobbler made it's way across my front from the left, I picked a space between 2 trees and decided that when he appeared between them, I was going to shoot him. Conveniently, he stepped in between my chosen trees and stopped to periscope and that's when I placed the red dot of the front sight on my Mossburg 835 right where the waddles meet the feathers and squeezed off my shot.

The 3 1/2" load of #4s busted that bird right where I aimed and he flopped only once or twice before lying still right where I shot him. Both of the other birds waited until I stood up to go fetch my turkey before they ran off. By the time I closed the 25 yards between me and my gobbler, he was still and dead as a doornail. I shot a couple of quick photos with my phone, then tagged the bird, put my orange hat on my head, unloaded my gun and grabbed my gun, backpack and 20 poundish turkey and started hiking up the mountain to my truck. I had to stop several times on my climb to suck wind and mop my brow, but I made it back to my truck and texted several of my friends to brag about my hunting prowess. Now you guys have been showered with a tale of my glorious, masterful predatory abilities. Are you not entertained?