Best Time To Take A Bird?

[freedomrules3]

ok i love going out early before sunup simply because of the rush of the birds gobbling on the roost, sorta keeps your hopes alive.

problem is , of the 6 i have taken, i have never got one earlier than say 9:30 ish or later.most were taken between 10:30 and noon cutoff time here. i figure that they are generally pretty busy right off the roost and by this time they are in search for more nooky mode lol. this makes them more vulnerable imo. I find that most hunters expect things to happen before 9 because as the season goes by they generally are gone by 9 or 10.

when have most everyone taken most of their birds? later in the morning after 10 or right off the bat?

[dbowers]

I have always had my best luck at that 7-8 am area. But then again that just seemed the time that the birds in my area moved through?

[BillCartwright]

Kills off the roost are far and in between for most including me.

If I had to guess, most birds I kill or call in are between 8:30 and 11. Next would be 1-2:30. I don't do much hunting after 4:30-5pm might kill a ton of birds if I did, but I don't.

[txm]

Over the years I have killed 43 turkeys, one Merriam, six.Easterns and thirty six Rios.
The Merriam was killed at 10 a.m. and all of the Easterns were killed between 8 and 10 a.m.
The Rios was killed as follows.
20 between 6:30 and 8:30 a.m.
10 between 9 a.m. and 12 noon
6 between 4 and 6:30 p.m.
I have killed the early ones due to managing them on various ranches and knowing within 30 to 100 yards of where they would be roosting.
I can then call and get them before they join the hens and start the day or know where the will go after joining the hens.
The six killed late was because I knew there travel rout to roosting areas and could wait for them at 200 to 300 yards from the roosting area.
The Easterns and the Merriam were killed later because I didn’t know the roosting area and had to move on them after they were on the ground and with hens.