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Post by Ahawkeye on Feb 14, 2021 23:27:06 GMT -5
Ok so I hunt the same area every year, some years ar good some not so good. I don't put a lot of pressure on myself to kill a bird. I prefer to walk in totally clueless to where the birds are and go find them by chasing gobbles. I'm not asking the best way to kill one because i feel the best way to do that is to put one to bed but do you prefer to put one to bed or go in blind? If I plan to hunt a new area i tend to hunt/scout it during daylight then I might find a place to be in the morning. So how do YOU like to hunt turkeys? Knowing everything you can about the area and roosts, putting them to bed or going in with a loose plan and letting the days events decide your path to take?
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Post by esshup on Feb 15, 2021 1:44:43 GMT -5
I may be the oddball here. I hunt them like I do deer. Pattern their movements and go throw up a blind and wait. Birds will have specific areas that they like to use to eat, or other areas that they like to use to strut.
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Post by span870 on Feb 15, 2021 7:01:45 GMT -5
Ok so I hunt the same area every year, some years ar good some not so good. I don't put a lot of pressure on myself to kill a bird. I prefer to walk in totally clueless to where the birds are and go find them by chasing gobbles. I'm not asking the best way to kill one because i feel the best way to do that is to put one to bed but do you prefer to put one to bed or go in blind? If I plan to hunt a new area i tend to hunt/scout it during daylight then I might find a place to be in the morning. So how do YOU like to hunt turkeys? Knowing everything you can about the area and roosts, putting them to bed or going in with a loose plan and letting the days events decide your path to take? I'll ruffle some feathers on this one but here goes. I don't hunt fields. Don't like it. It's boring. It's like deer hunting. Waiting and hoping. Put a decoy out and maybe that turkey will come in. Throw a bunch of decoys out and the decoys call the turkey in, not the hunter. Decoys, don't use them personally. Maybe in all the birds I've killed, one may have came in a little extra from the decoy then he would have without but by the time he popped over the hill he was all but in range. Putting birds to bed. Killed a lot of birds myself and probably called in more than I killed for other people. Grand total of zero were put to bed the night before. Just never had any luck with it. Every one I did, flew down the other direction. Bad luck, idk but just never worked out for me. Calling. The more raspy and more aggressive, the better. I want them gobbling all the way in until I put the pressure on the trigger. If the bird stops gobbling on the way in, I'll bail after about ten minutes of silence and go find one that'll gobble. Walked away from many and hour later that bird gobbled at the spot I left. I'm not a three yelp every hour hunter. Hunt strictly big woods public land anymore and it takes a lot of walking and calling to find that right bird. Don't put much effort into mornings. I'll be out there but really start hunting about noon. Maybe 10% of birds I've ever killed were pre 2pm. The latest was 7:30 and have 9 longbeards together come down the logging trail gobbling every step. No idea why they all were together at that point in the year but between me and the ONE hen they were following, the most God awful racket of gobbling you ever heard in the woods. If you can get one to answer you after 2pm, mind you not a shock call but a hen call, well that bird wants to die. If I can get one to answer me that late and will gobble a second time immediately, I'd guess close to 90% of those birds died that day. I'm way more aggressive than most and call WAY more than most but it's what works for me. I have a buddy makes me custom mouth calls and my only request to him is as raspy as possible. Most areas I hunt blind and walk and call. Last year I found a piece of HNF that is 23 acres and decided that's where I was going to kill a bird. Took four hunts to finally find one that wanted to play. Probably the absolute farthest I've ever called one in. You could barely hear it was a gobble when he answered the first time. Took him 45 minutes to get where he got to but he didn't shut up the whole way in. I really doubt he would have came all that way to the yelp 3 times every hour hunter. Aggressive yelps and cutting got him fired up enough to want to make the distance up he did. |
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Post by oldhoyt on Feb 15, 2021 7:17:41 GMT -5
The spots I have to hunt are not that big. I can get to a listening spot pre-dawn and make a move once they start gobbling.
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Post by MuzzleLoader on Feb 15, 2021 7:40:01 GMT -5
Find out where they want to be and stay put. Turkey are a lot more call shy than several years ago. People go out before the season to call them in. Educating them.
I have found birds come in silent after fly down.
You get up to run and gun your just spooking birds.
Find where the hens wanna be and the toms will come.
Call sparingly, hunters call way to much.
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Post by sculver7 on Feb 15, 2021 8:52:57 GMT -5
Turkeys are so finnicky in that what they do one day, they will do the opposite the next. I've had it where on one hunt, I had 12 toms running around like crazy, gobbling there heads off within 300 yards of me. The next day, same set up, same 12 toms within 300 yards of me, but absolute silence. The next day, same spot, one lone hen with no gobbling and no tom sitings. The turkeys that I have killed have been killed because I set up in a spot that I knew was high traffic and had high visibilty and i was patient. I've had kills 3 minutes after I sat against the tree, kills that took me 3 hours of sitting against a tree, and a few years taht I haven't killed a bird. I've tried run and gun hunting and while it's fun, it typically does not result in many birds killed for me. Beig loose and having no plan has often worked out a lot better than what I think is a bulletproof plan in my experience. There is no wrong or right way to hunt these goofy birds, just have fun doing it!
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Post by featherduster on Feb 15, 2021 9:20:42 GMT -5
I pattern them, set up a Double Bull blind the afternoon before then get in it way before daylight the next day then I wait and wait and wait.
I take a lot of food, snacks and a good book.
I call very softly and sparingly and I use decoy(s) that I like to kind of hide them from plain view so they got to come in closer for a better look.
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Post by span870 on Feb 15, 2021 10:04:07 GMT -5
Find out where they want to be and stay put. Turkey are a lot more call shy than several years ago. People go out before the season to call them in. Educating them. I have found birds come in silent after fly down. You get up to run and gun your just spooking birds. Find where the hens wanna be and the toms will come. Call sparingly, hunters call way to much. I'll agree to disagree with you on this one. Turkeys aren't smart animals. They are just scared of everything. I doubt they put two and two together when coming into a call and get spooked that calls and hunters go together. I'd imagine if they had an ounce of reasoning they'd think they were going to a hen and a hunter was there. I'd be more inclined to attribute the "difficulty" calling one in to the amount of turkeys around now as opposed to years ago. Turkeys gobbled more on the ground 20-30 years ago because they had to work to find a hen. These days turkey numbers are through the roof and most just roost really close to the hens and hens fly right to them. Run and gun doesn't spook birds. Pressuring birds spooks them. I'll move and call until I get a bird to answer numerous times then set up on that bird. If he shuts up, I'm backing away and finding another. I'll come back the next day and try again with the same bird. Eventually he's coming. Most of the time I'll leave them until about 2. If he gobbles then, he's coming in. You just have to be smart about it. I'll agree the bumbling around trying to set up too close will get you busted every time. |
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Post by freedomhunter on Feb 15, 2021 18:47:59 GMT -5
I've killed them every way and enjoy it all. Patience is what kills turkeys, and scouting from afar. You shock gobble them or set up too close they get nervous and tight-lipped. Really the quickest learning curve comes from getting a good teacher with experience.
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Post by genesis273 on Feb 16, 2021 9:01:01 GMT -5
I usually start my opening morning hunt against the same tree every year. I've killed three birds there. Only one of those on opening day. It sits almost dead center of the 500+ acres of land I'm blessed to hunt.
I will get in early, set out a decoy or two and drink some coffee as I anxiously await the first gobbles. After fly down, if I hadn't seen much of do not get a bird to converse with me, I pack up, leave some things at the base of the tree and it's run and gun time for me.
As far as preseason prep, I do set up cameras in a couple places I know the birds like to frequent. This is basically so I can get a "head count" on what the population is.
I do sit on the landowners back porch a couple mornings ahead of opening day to listen for birds and try and hear where they're roosting. I've put birds to bed before but, I hadn't always found much luck with that.
Irregardless, my opening morning tree is where I always like to start my season off. The rest of the season, well, it is determined by what I see/hear those long bearded gobbling fools doing.
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Post by Ahawkeye on Feb 16, 2021 20:09:31 GMT -5
I usually start my opening morning hunt against the same tree every year. I've killed three birds there. Only one of those on opening day. It sits almost dead center of the 500+ acres of land I'm blessed to hunt. I will get in early, set out a decoy or two and drink some coffee as I anxiously await the first gobbles. After fly down, if I hadn't seen much of do not get a bird to converse with me, I pack up, leave some things at the base of the tree and it's run and gun time for me. As far as preseason prep, I do set up cameras in a couple places I know the birds like to frequent. This is basically so I can get a "head count" on what the population is. I do sit on the landowners back porch a couple mornings ahead of opening day to listen for birds and try and hear where they're roosting. I've put birds to bed before but, I hadn't always found much luck with that. Irregardless, my opening morning tree is where I always like to start my season off. The rest of the season, well, it is determined by what I see/hear those long bearded gobbling fools doing. That sounds like a fun time! |
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Post by HillBillyJeff on Feb 17, 2021 17:31:36 GMT -5
I have been told you can't hunt turkeys like you hunt deer. I have ten tails in 12 years of hunting with only one year not seeing a bird. Blown some shots. I don't call and I've used a deke twice (Gander mountain going out of business sale with three gift cards), and I have never shot out of a popup type blind.
I run my trail cameras and I do a crap ton of scouting. I pattern them. Just like I do deer and squirrel. I only hunt my own farm and there really isn't enough forest to bust em up and call em back in or to chase gobbles.
I have one inside corner (woods on south and east side of the field) that really draws in all game. Even with that, I can see while hunting there if the birds are doing things differently. Last season neighbors on two sides spooked all the birds into the field north of my hay field. I crawled under a pine north of them with a fence to the east and south of them and a road to the west. Be able to adjust to situations.
In the evening I've seen them kitty corner a field and cross a ditch in the same spot several days in a row. Move.
I've hunted in a brushy/tree filled ditch where I was eye level to the field.
Also had some chance encounters. I stepped out in the field to go to my spot and saw a hen coming to me, tom following. Slipped back in a few trees, picked out my spot and waited. She brought the boy right to the spot I had picked out to shoot through.
First couple birds I shot I was set up under my tree stand for deer hunting.
Both times I have hunted with a deke it has gotten me birds. First time three toms were going the wrong way, saw my deke and turned right to me. Second time, they didn't come to me, but angled close enough on the trip to their roost to give me a shot. Jake tail helps.
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Post by HillBillyJeff on Feb 17, 2021 17:32:39 GMT -5
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