AB Turkey Opener - Who's Out
 

Who's all out for the opener? I have to wait for the first guy to be done, then on my way... Fingers crossed he is successful early lol
Good luck and post your pics

A couple of my buddies are out hunting today. They are saying 6" of fresh snow and no bird sightings so far

Turkey Hunting
 

Hey guys, I am a pheasant hunter with an amazing Chocolate Lab Retriever. I have never hunted Turkeys before. Would you mind giving me a little insight into this. I live in Calgary and I have heard about turkeys down around the porcupine hills? I would appreciate any info you can provide. Thanks

Turkey
 

In AB it is on Draw... took me 10 years to get the draw. Realistically it is a once in a lifetime draw with the number of people applying for it....lol
This will be my first time going after them,,,, so hope to be able to provide some positive updates shortly ....

I’m headed down there tomorrow. Looking forward to it!

Do you have a spot lined up or just going to try and find some?
I didn’t hear from the landowner yet, so guessing the other guy wasn’t successful today...
Good luck

Turkeys are more like hunting Whitetails, scouting pays off and no dogs are needed for these Toms

I’ve talked to a couple of landowners for access as well as a couple of crown spots from a buddy that usually produced birds over the past few years he says. Should interesting, good luck to everyone on their Gobblers!

Seen 2 dead Alberta Tukey's on Facebook today

Saw this guy about a week ago with hens and another Tom keeping his distance....was actually a really nice mature bird...made our day seeing them and watching him strut around.

Hey....that looks like my backyard lol

First it is a draw and your lab no matter how good will ruin any turkey hunt. The hunt is all about sound not smell. Look at a few Utube video's and you will get the point of how to hunt turkey.

Been a tough go boys, snow, rain etc. Birds have been hard to find. Usual spots not producing like previous years. Been going hard since opening day, covered a lot of miles. Seen pretty much everything else. Hopefully persistence pays off.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...abc2937857.jpg


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How's everyone doing season has been open almost a week now was hoping to get my Draw for next Spring I'm guessing the Snow has silenced the birds.

I’ve been out both weekends so far with not much luck. Going to try a different area this weekend. I hope the rain & snow forecast doesn’t keep them hunkered down too much.

How is everyone doing haven’t heard many reports of harvests.

Yeah that looks like Alberta Turkey hunting to the T I can remember similar weather.....

I have seen pictures of 4 different harvests so far.

And another one...only 1 bird came in

Tagged out
 

Attachment 155208I finally managed to tag out on Monday morning. I was down south for a few days hunting at the beginning of the month & then from wed (15th) until the 20th hunting for them through the miserable weather that they had over the long weekend. Snow &/or rain. But now I get it, they’re an incredible animal to hunt. Being my first time turkey hunting, I’m sure I made mistakes with calling or setup but it all came together on Monday morning for a 14yds shot on a 2 year old bird with an 8 3/4” beard. His 5 hens were about 3-4 yds away from my blind. Now I’m hooked, probably have to go to B.C next year because I can’t wait another 10 to possibly 15 years to do it again.

And a beard pic

Congrats! Yeah it’s definitely a hunt that gets you hooked pretty quick!

DR


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Right on soiler! Congrats on the bird and your new addiction.


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10-15 years?? At 20,000+ people applying and 125 tags a year, I've got some bad news for you....

Without changes to AB draw system its not even a once in a lifetime draw. Its a once-in-three lifetime's draw.....

I was a priority 10 when it was “awarded”. Granted I was one of the lucky 28% of the 10’s.... hopefully with some luck, I’ll get a chance at another Alberta bird. I’d say it’s not the draw system (in regards to the turkey hunt at least) I’d say it’s more fair than other places. And how do they fairly change the system without screwing over the hunters with priorities up near 8 or 9 ?
I don’t profess to know a lot about these birds but do We need to help increase these birds numbers and their range with a little help and hopefully increase our chances at pulling a tag. Or is it the biologists/management plan being to cautious with the numbers of tags released? Some landowners I talked to showed me pictures from April, of flocks over 50 birds. Some areas were teeming with them.

Well, under the current system it should be around 160 years or so till you draw. I guess that's 'fair' haha. Maybe if you're lucky some people will die before then and you can enjoy a hunt at 190 years old??

Its the draw system. While it may seem 'fair' right now, the build up of priority has caused some draws to be practically zero chance of ever drawing in 2 lifetimes. While the priority system works for some cases, a tweak is needed at some point with some randomness, that's painfully obvious and has been talked about for years unfortunately. Several ways to keep a balance of priority/preference and also insert randomness as well.

Either way, sure a lot of options out there for turkeys OTC (I live in the Kootenays now and see them nearly daily lol) in a lot of spots which makes it a bit of a moot point, but tell me how a 14 year old kid would ever expect to draw turkey in Alberta if they started applying this year.....

Draw
 

So in a draw like this one, in order to be fair to all who apply, they could change it to a lottery, but still collect priority points.
So the 14 year old kids name goes in once. The guy with 10 years priority goes in 10 times. This way you are rewarding the person with priority, but still giving the 14 year old kid a chance, if he is not successful next year his draw priority is 2. This way everyone is both gaining a priority point, but, still have a chance to draw.

Ding ding ding!

Yep. My point is there are several ways to make it 'fair' but right now its a broken system. A lot just don't realize how broken it is....

Draw
 

Exactly.
New hunters have to have opportunity as well, or there will be no incentive for them to apply for draws, and hunt.

Was able to fold my AB Turkey tag yesterday.... not the Big Tom everyone hopes for, but was not about to pass up a great opportunity. Couldn’t be happier. Thanks to amazing land owners and friends... — with Jonn Wagner at Alberta.