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David Blanton killed this Iowa gobbler in a cut cornfield. It gobbled about an hour before it slipped into the field, unannounced. Photo courtesy of David Blanton.

While many have pivoted from turkey hunting to deer-season prep and summer activities, those of us with turkey tags left are in for some fantastic hunting, based on the most recent reports from across the entire Northern U.S. The action is hot, folks.

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For example, Realtree.com editor Will Brantley found fast success in the northern part of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula while chasing gobblers with Chris and Casey Keefer and some buddies from Winchester Ammunition.

“Everyone was into the birds,” Brantley said. “I stumbled upon three gobblers only minutes into the first afternoon. We challenged them with a jake decoy. In they came, and I dropped mine in a freshly plowed field. The area’s foliage progression seemed a little behind, with redbuds blooming and only a few dogwoods popping out. I saw lots of stutters in fields with hens, which told me that the turkeys are probably in peak breeding mode. I'm guessing the hunting will get even better in late May once the hens are nesting and the gobblers are roaming around.”

Realtree’s David Blanton recently killed an Iowa bird and said the gobbling activity during his hunt was sporadic. “I killed a bird at 1:30 pm in a cut corn field,” he said. “The birds had gobbled good on the limb but were silent after fly-down. I went back out around 11 a.m. and called very sparingly. A tom gobbled one time an hour before he came in silently to my jake decoy.”

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Montana’s turkey action is on fire, according to Levi Johnson of Doggin’ With Levi. He said, “Birds are working decoys and coming to the calls.” Johnson recently took a bird over a decoy spread consisting of an aggressive jake and two hens.

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Will Brantley traveled north from Kentucky to Michigan and anchored this big gobbler on the first afternoon of his hunt. Photo courtesy of BeAlive Inc.

On South Dakota’s prairies, Melissa Bachman of Winchester Deadly Passion said that while she and her husband, Ben, have seen lone toms out wandering around, the bumper crop of aggressive jakes is regularly ganging up on them. She also said that they’ve seen numerous toms strutting in alfalfa fields over the last several days. If you’re in an area with many aggressive jakes, sticking with submissive hen decoys could be the ticket to pulling in a mature gobbler that isn’t feisty enough to attack a jake decoy.

Things started slow in the Northeast, but the NWTF’s Carter Heath said that the turkey action is rising. “There are fewer mouthy 2-year-old toms across the northern New England and New York corridor than usual, according to anecdotal information from fellow hunters,” he said. “This is likely due to the cold and wet spring of 2023.

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“That being said,” Heath continued, “there are still some great birds around, and now that Mother’s Day is behind us, the gobblers seem to be breaking out of the earlier ‘funk’ many hunters had reported. I’ve heard several reports of henned-up gobblers, and I have seen it firsthand in several locations, too.

“I’ve been having success with wingbone hen yelps followed by some slow gobbler yelps on the mouth call. We had 10 consecutive rainy days in the region, so a good dose of spring sunshine should get them fired up.”

Finally, Wyoming birds are henned-up pretty tight. “They’re gobbling a fair amount in the mornings and evenings,” veteran hunter Brad Harris said. “I pulled one gobbler in midday in three days of hunting. It’s pretty tough right now. I had good success early and late with tight positioning to the roost. Crow calls and coyote howlers have been working well as locators. A loud, crisp box call has done well. These trends are pretty typical for Merriam’s turkeys at this point of the season.”