# For those of you that have never killed a turkey....



## Arrow3 (Feb 4, 2005)

...What do you think your doing wrong??  Tell us what your doing and we'll see if we can help...

Jim Thompson, this is your year!!!


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## Hoss (Feb 4, 2005)

I'm not hunting.

Hoss


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## QuakerBoy (Feb 4, 2005)

I really think my biggest problem is I'm hunting an area that is hunted real hard.  and not doing enogh scouting.


The 2 chances I had....I had birds gobbling late morning.  Both times they would gobble....I'd give a few yelps...they would gobble again..then I'd wait for em to gobble again...give a few more yelps.  Every now and then I would not yelp back to em.  Had one hang up at 60 yards so I just sat and waited him out.  he eventually turned and walked away.

the other time...same situation but I never saw the bird...and he ended up walking out the ridge below me past where I was.  still gobbling every time I hit my call, but passed me...never came up to where I was....kept walking away still gobbling


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## Arrow3 (Feb 4, 2005)

rpaul11 said:
			
		

> I really think my biggest problem is I'm hunting an area that is hunted real hard.  and not doing enogh scouting.
> 
> 
> The 2 chances I had....I had birds gobbling late morning.  Both times they would gobble....I'd give a few yelps...they would gobble again..then I'd wait for em to gobble again...give a few more yelps.  Every now and then I would not yelp back to em.  Had one hang up at 60 yards so I just sat and waited him out.  he eventually turned and walked away.
> ...



Something is making the birds hang up on you ....I would try a couple different things....I would make sure my decoys were in good sight of where you think the gobbler will come...Have you ever tried a fighting purr or gobble at them??? Sometimes stubborn gobblers will fall for both of these fast...

On the birds that gobble but walk away, reset up on him...Go completly around him and change calls...This has worked for me on several occations...


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## QuakerBoy (Feb 4, 2005)

I don't have a gobble call.  I was worried that the bird was so close he'd see me.  How the heck can ya purr consistently with the diaphragm


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## Arrow3 (Feb 4, 2005)

Get a gobble shaker...As far as the purring goes...They make all kinds of slates now that strap on your leg....You can make a fighting purr with hardly any movement...

You have nothing to lose...If he wont come in you might as well try...If he sees you , then he sees you ...


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## coon dawg (Feb 4, 2005)

*when I first started turkey huntin'..........*

my biggest mistake was setting up in the wrong place..............hands down.........but I never made the same mistake twice.


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## Arrow3 (Feb 4, 2005)

coon dawg said:
			
		

> my biggest mistake was setting up in the wrong place..............hands down.........but I never made the same mistake twice.



John,

I believe that the setup is 90%...Calling is no where near as important....I think this is where most turkey hunters mess up...Lord knows Ive done it tons of times...


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## Randy (Feb 4, 2005)

rpaul,
Come spend one weekend wiht me and I'll have you trained!


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## Arrow Flinger (Feb 4, 2005)

My biggest mistake to this day is not having enough patience. I can not even remember the times I have bumped a bird that I would have had a chance at killing if I had just had a little more patience.


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## GeauxLSU (Feb 4, 2005)

Arrow3 said:
			
		

> ...What do you think your doing wrong??  Tell us what your doing and we'll see if we can help...


I think I've figured it out.  I have absolutely NO IDEA what I'm doing.  Can you help?   
Hunt/fish safely,
Phil


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## Meriwether Mike (Feb 4, 2005)

Whats the proper way to set up on a bird? I now you want to be at the same level as he is if you are in a hilly area. Give us some tips.


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## Arrow3 (Feb 4, 2005)

As funny as it seams, turkeys would rather come up hill then down hill...Theres always exceptions to the rule but for the most part it will hold true...I like to go scout one week before season and listen to birds gobble...I will sneek in as close as I can and just listen....They will gobble and tell on themselves to where their going....When I hunt that particular bird I like to be close to where I know he wants to go...That way if he gobbles in teh area I will be one step ahead of him...No matter how good you call, you can't call him to where he doesnt want to go...If your in one of his "safe" zones then he will come to you easier...Theres no telling how many gobblers ive "patterned" like deer...If he does the same thing more then once with me, then the third time Im there waiting on him...He might not do the same thing that day...but he will again...Especially around fields...Hope this helps...


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## Jody Hawk (Feb 4, 2005)

Arrow Flinger said:
			
		

> My biggest mistake to this day is not having enough patience.



Tim, 
Boy has that ever gotten me !!!!!!!! I remember about four years ago I was set up blind calling one evening at B.F.Grant WMA. After about two hours my butt was getting numb so I got up to leave. I hadn't walked twenty steps when me and a longbeard almost ran in to one another. He was coming in to my set up and if I'd have stayed put five more minutes I would have had him !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Mark another one down for tom turkey and zero for me.


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## Randy (Feb 4, 2005)

This is almost impossible unless you/we get specifics.  Wide open questions like "what is the proper way to set up on a bird" is impossible to answer.  We have to know what the situation is.  I would love to help these guys out but how can we unless the situation is given some specifics.  Generally up hill is right but what if there is a fence between you and him up hill?

I think you guys just need to let me tag along adn maybe I could help?


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## Ga-Spur (Feb 4, 2005)

I always think that there is a boss gobbler around or maybe just been killed when a gobbler walks off gobbling. I have not experienced that recently. The boss gobbler does the breeding for as long as he is "boss" or maybe that is what makes him boss.


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## QuakerBoy (Feb 4, 2005)

Randy said:
			
		

> rpaul,
> Come spend one weekend wiht me and I'll have you trained!



I'm what ya might call Untrainable  

Thanks for the offer Randy....we'll see how things go.


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## Loafy (Feb 4, 2005)

My biggest problem is a lack of Turkeys!


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## Limbshaker (Feb 4, 2005)

Patience....Patience....Patience........of which I have none
Not knowing what in the world I was doing, and was afraid to ask.
I'll have to say I am    not     what you consider a GOOD Turkey Hunter....but I am proud to see experienced guys take the time out to try to help a total stranger.
My hat is off to all you fellows>
HHH


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## Jim Thompson (Feb 4, 2005)

My biggest problem is when they quit gobbling I get bored and go home.

That and the fact that when I do shoot AT a bird that is all I do

Jim


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## Limbshaker (Feb 4, 2005)

Jim, did you get my pm/email about the avatar pic?
HHH


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## Jim Thompson (Feb 4, 2005)

I did and sent it back to you resized.  If you need me to load it pm me.

Jim


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## Limbshaker (Feb 4, 2005)

Thank you sir....
.HHH


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## Limbshaker (Feb 4, 2005)

You are a gentleman and a scholar....can't say much about your feet though.
HHH


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## StinkyPete (Feb 5, 2005)

*Well*

I don't see any turkeys....................... or atleast legel ones.


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## Jim Thompson (Feb 5, 2005)

StinkyPete said:
			
		

> I don't see any turkeys....................... or atleast legel ones.



Young Stinky...I can help you hear and see them all season long...but if you plan on killing one I would suggest another member to take you along

Randy, Arrow3, Dawn2Dusk, Limbhanger, GobblingLawyer...etc

Jim


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## dbodkin (Feb 5, 2005)

As they say.. "Ya gotta Play to Win"

I know exactly why I've never got a turkey... Never been turkey hunting.. That may change...


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## HT2 (Feb 5, 2005)

*Turkey.......*

The biggest Turkey I've ever taken was a "19 pounder" out of the frozen food section in the grocery store!!!!!!!!!


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## stumpshooter (Feb 5, 2005)

Hopefully this year will be as easy as last year. I woke up and walked up the hill behind my Dads and gave a few "who cooks for who" calls and you shoulda heard all the replys. So I sat up and started yelpin and some hen across the valley tried to out play me but I won in the long run as 2 gobblers came up the hill too me where I had set up 2 hens in the clover field. A little closer and blame he was down. Then at about 7:30 I made my way back down to the house for some biscuits and gravy!


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## GeauxLSU (Feb 6, 2005)

*Let me see if I can describe a perfect spring morning...*

Websters:
Perfect Spring Morning: - 





			
				stumpshooter said:
			
		

> I woke up and walked up the hill behind my Dads and gave a few "who cooks for who" calls and you shoulda heard all the replys. So I sat up and started yelpin and some hen across the valley tried to out play me but I won in the long run as 2 gobblers came up the hill too me where I had set up 2 hens in the clover field. A little closer and blame he was down. Then at about 7:30 I made my way back down to the house for some biscuits and gravy!


Hunt/fish safely,
Phil


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## Timberman (Feb 6, 2005)

> Whats the proper way to set up on a bird?



Like Randy, it is too wide open a question to answer. To help you answer the question for yourself, remember:

You must spatially know where everything is in relation to you and the turkey you are after. Timber types, elevations, fences, roads, everything. Know where they roost, know where they feed, know where his lek is. Then know that a turkey travels through the woods as a man would. Apply that to the first part of the paragraph and bingo, dead turkey. Not everytime because of other variables but enough to get you a limit.  


Woodsmanship and setup kill 99% of the turkeys.
As far as calling goes, the rythym is what gets them.


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## short stop (Feb 6, 2005)

my favorite way to smoke the bird --is to go hunt and listen to the birds --if you dont kill tom fool on day 1 oh well -listen to where he was at , more than likely   if he gobbled a bunch of times in the same area its his strut zone and its safe for him to be there ---beat him to it the next mornin or aftrernoon with very little calling public or private land and he'll be  strutin on the tailgate    with a little patience and hard work .  SS


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## Gadget (Feb 7, 2005)

coon dawg said:
			
		

> my biggest mistake was setting up in the wrong place..............hands down.........but I never made the same mistake twice.


Heck, I don't know a turkey hunter that has ever NOT made this mistake more than twice.

If you knew exactly where to setup all you would have to do is setup in front of em and wait for them to come by, wouldn't even have to make a call, easy right!


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## Cobb Vista Club (Mar 8, 2015)

Cool thread from 10 seasons ago -who has a different approach now after all these years?


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## Gaswamp (Mar 9, 2015)

I'm still trying to kill one


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## hoytman308 (Mar 9, 2015)

Randy said:


> This is almost impossible unless you/we get specifics.  Wide open questions like "what is the proper way to set up on a bird" is impossible to answer.  We have to know what the situation is.  I would love to help these guys out but how can we unless the situation is given some specifics.  Generally up hill is right but what if there is a fence between you and him up hill?
> 
> I think you guys just need to let me tag along adn maybe I could help?



When some one is beginning you have to have an idea/ general scenario.   Everything in life has specifics but like some of the other guys have said a turkey WILL go where ever he wants.  Fences don't make turkeys stop their life.  If he wants to cross that fence or creek he will. Sometimes it makes him stop but I have called them across deep creeks and through fences.  So what you are saying about needing specifics doesn't really matter because turkeys every where do a lot of the same things a lot of times.  Like Will Primos said "you have to take the birds temperature to know what you can get away with". Another words if the bird hammers everytime you call and cuts you off when you call more than likely he is hot but then again he may not come in everytime.  Experience in this sport is most viable because this sport is so vocal.  Too much/ too little can help or hurt you.


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## M Sharpe (Mar 9, 2015)

Gaswamp said:


> I'm still trying to kill one



Joe, maybe you need to bookmark this specific 10 year old thread and read and re-read every piece of advice given. Course some of it is probably old and outdated...you know how those turkeys seem to keep picking up the latest fad. Heck, they might even start crawling behind human cut outs or something like that. Course there have been days that I thought they  must be sitting in blinds somewhere!!


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## GAhunter6288 (Mar 9, 2015)

*Need help!!!!!!!*

I think the easiest way for me to answer what i  think im doing wrong is that im not putting myself where the turkeys are. Im a novice turkey hunter so i dont have alot of knowledge. I dont know how to scout for turkeys or how to find them. The best i do is go to places ive seen them during deer season and hope for the best.


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## pstrahin (Mar 9, 2015)

I have never killed a wild turkey, but that is because I have never hunted for them.  I have a 19 year old son that wants to give it a try, so this spring, at the age of 50, I will give it my first attempt.  There is a friend of a friend that is supposed to be a good caller that is going to go with us.


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## Bucky T (Mar 9, 2015)

GAhunter6288 said:


> I think the easiest way for me to answer what i  think im doing wrong is that im not putting myself where the turkeys are. Im a novice turkey hunter so i dont have alot of knowledge. I dont know how to scout for turkeys or how to find them. The best i do is go to places ive seen them during deer season and hope for the best.



How do you scout for deer?

Turkeys leave tracks, scat, and evidence of feeding just like deer do.  Start your scouting in February.  Lot of times, if you see turkeys in places you see them in the fall, they won't be there in the spring.  They start moving into the areas they prefer in the spring around February.

Water in the area is also a plus.  And as I'm sure you've already read, birds are starting to gobble good right now.  If you find fresh sign, come back later on first thing in the morning or late in the evening (they gobble better in the mornings) and listen.  Lot of times you don't have to entice them with a owl hoot or crow call, they'll gobble on their own.  If it's quiet, hit your crow call or hoot and try to shock one up.  If you locate them on the roost, now you know where to hunt when the season opens.

Good Luck


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## Brad (Mar 9, 2015)

I couldn't kill turkeys worth a flip until I got six's keys to success and Msharpe  string.  Now it's almost unfair.


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## Bambi (Mar 19, 2015)

Probably everything. Took me 3 years to kill a duck from trial and error. Expecting the same with turkey. Ain't gonna be a cake walk.


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## hoytslanger87 (Mar 19, 2015)

The mistake I made the most when I first started was moving in to aggressive on a gobbler. If I struck him early I would try and get to close and bump them out. When I was younger I would feel lost if I didn't hear a gobble at day break. Patience is a virtue and good turkey hunters have a lot of it.


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## goblr77 (Mar 19, 2015)

hoytslanger87 said:


> The mistake I made the most when I first started was moving in to aggressive on a gobbler. If I struck him early I would try and get to close and bump them out. When I was younger I would feel lost if I didn't hear a gobble at day break. Patience is a virtue and good turkey hunters have a lot of it.



Good post.


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## weneroux (Mar 20, 2015)

This will be my first turkey season and I am going to set up on WMA land that has been cut, but has 10 year growth on it. Dirt road is wide, so hoping to catch one in transit.


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## Mikec84 (Mar 20, 2015)

A huge part of it is the set up. Your set up will make or break your hunt. Your calling skills will depend on your set up as well but the worst your set is the better you need to be with a call and even then your at mercy of the situation and the mood of the Tom. You can be the best caller in the world but if your set up wrong or the Tom has hens with him or whatever else may be the case with the stubborn ole bird it's gonna be harder to entice him to come to you. So the most important thing you can do is scout carefully and find them. Listen to them fire off in the morning, listen to which direction they're going. You can do two things now. Come back late afternoon and set up close to his roost and wait him out till dark. If that doesn't pan out, then set up the next morning on that route he took the morning before. Try to get about 100yrds from his roost about 30-60mins before the first sign light if you can and if you can get in there absolutely quite then maybe get a little closer. Oh, and when everyone gets out of the woods at 9:00 or 10:00am. You STAY! Most of my birds have been killed late afternoon when they're out looking for another hen to breed. You need to be that hen that he can't resist. There's a million different situations that call for different strategies but stick to the basics and don't over think it. The more time you put in the woods the more situations you'll have answers for.


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## kevincox (Mar 21, 2015)

Lack of patience and time is my biggest obstacle. The turkeys are not worried about the time but I am on 90 percent of my hunts these days


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## kiltman (Mar 22, 2015)

I have scouted out some areas to hunt but since they are all on public land, the birds get education quick.  I know they're there, I see the tracks, Im just not at the right spot at the right time.


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## Gaswamp (Mar 5, 2017)

M Sharpe said:


> Joe, maybe you need to bookmark this specific 10 year old thread and read and re-read every piece of advice given. Course some of it is probably old and outdated...you know how those turkeys seem to keep picking up the latest fad. Heck, they might even start crawling behind human cut outs or something like that. Course there have been days that I thought they  must be sitting in blinds somewhere!!



we gonna do it this year


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## Havana Dude (Mar 5, 2017)

I have access to almost 3500 acres of prime turkey property. First time in my life I have ever had a place big enough to "chase" a bird. I have never spring turkey hunted in my life. I'd have no clue what to do, and I'm the type personality that i have no desire to have someone call one in for me to shoot. To me, that would be like hanging someone else's deer mounts in my house. I don't have any patience anyways.


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## Jack Ryan (Mar 5, 2017)

Turkey hunting flow chart.

1. Find turkeys. If their is no turkeys, everything else is a waste of time. If you are not seeing turkeys, if you are not hearing turkeys, if you are not finding turkey feathers or bones from coyote kills,  if no one else is killing turkeys where you hunt.

You need a new spot.

2. If you are in an area WITH turkeys and you are not seeing and not hearing turkeys. You are too noisy, you move too much, you get there too late, to leave too early and you don't hunt often enough. Everything beyond this you are wasting your time. You can't buy a sit still pill at Walmart.

If none of the above is the case...

3. If you hear them and you never see them, you aren't calling enough. Even if your calling sucks, more calling is how you get better. Imitate the REAL TURKEY you hear in the woods, once you start hearing them. Practice THAT all the time. Learn their cadence and mixture of sounds. EVERY turkey sounds a little different and behaves a little different. You don't have to sound like the same 3 minute tape played over and over. Screwing up one attempted call is not the end of the hunt. Listen to live turkeys every chance  you get, they start and stop and switch in the middle of vocalizations all the time. 

Just call. (and be ready to shoot)

4. If you have turkeys come, you hear them, you see them they just run from you when they see you like the boogy man. Your camo sucks, you don't sit still, your dekes set up sucks it should be drawing their eyes off YOU, someone with you is not sitting still, you are not sitting still.

STOP CALLING when you see them and get ready to shoot. Until you've got to this point you've wasted every penny and every minute you've spent at walmart buying junky crap like a dumb bus stop sucker. You SHOULD have been hunting and learning all the above.

I've hunted with old timers who kill a turkey every year with a slug barrel and their rabbit loads while they sit in a lawn chair with a blanket over them.

You kill turkeys by going hunting. If you go to Walmart to improve your turkey success, then just stop at the frozen food section.


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## Jack Ryan (Mar 5, 2017)

HT2 said:


> The biggest Turkey I've ever taken was a "19 pounder" out of the frozen food section in the grocery store!!!!!!!!!



True story...


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## ryanwhit (Mar 5, 2017)

These old threads are a trip!  So many who have been banned or no longer post.

When this thread was first posted I had not started turkey hunting yet.


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## DRBugman85 (Mar 6, 2017)

I for one know from experience that had it not been for my Grand father taking me as a young boy turkey hunting I would have had a tuff time killing my first Gobbler,and today I still use what he did as a Turkey hunter.Learn as much as you can about these birds from spending time in the woods,I listen, I watch and I read about anything to do with the Wild turkeys. Learn the language of the hens and be where the birds want to go. Patience has killed more Gobblers than any call. I used and it still works for me today.It's the hunting not the killing that makes me go back every season and time spent in the wood pays off still to this day.As I get older I just love to hear the gobbling and killing comes 2nd.The youth of today is the future of hunting and the WMA'S beine close to the Youth for youth weekend is a stupid  policy IMO.


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## Bubba_1122 (Mar 6, 2017)

DRBugman85 said:


> Learn the language of the hens and be where the birds want to go. Patience has killed more Gobblers than any call. I used and it still works for me today.It's the hunting not the killing that makes me go back every season and time spent in the wood pays off still to this day.As I get older I just love to hear the gobbling and killing comes 2nd.



Couldn't have said it better. 

I hunted several years without killing a bird. Out there just trying to learn what to do (and mostly learning what not to do). Were day's that I'd screw up a hunt and get in my truck thinking "What am I doing out here? I need to go fishing instead of this foolishness."

When I learned these lessons it was a changing point. For me, it became less about the killing and more about the competition between me and the bird. Patience became a key ingredient. Calling became less "in your face" with less quantity of calling and much more subtle calling (typically just sweet talking). 

I love having a bird in front of me and just watching how it behaves (hen,jake, or gobbler - doesn't matter). 

The competition between me and the bird is what fires me up about turkey hunting. They're just so wary. 

Only 19 days.


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## erhunter (Mar 6, 2017)

Jack Ryan said:


> Turkey hunting flow chart.
> 
> 1. Find turkeys. If their is no turkeys, everything else is a waste of time. If you are not seeing turkeys, if you are not hearing turkeys, if you are not finding turkey feathers or bones from coyote kills,  if no one else is killing turkeys where you hunt.
> 
> ...



I have to say this is some of the best advice I've read yet.  Not discouraging but honest.  One dillema I have is:  I found an appealing location but it's about .5 miles from nearest forest service road.   Id like to get in there early and listen but I don't want to spook em off the limb. Any advice?


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## ratman (Mar 6, 2017)

NO TURKEY IN THIS MY 9TH SEASON . WHEN IM LOCATE MR TOM I GO INTO PANICK MODE DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO. HAVE WATCHED DVD"S LISTEN TO CD . HAVE BLOWN SEVERAL CHANCE"S . BUT COME TIME  IWILL BE RIGHT BACK OUT THERE I LOVE IT.


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## Jack Ryan (Mar 6, 2017)

erhunter said:


> I have to say this is some of the best advice I've read yet.  Not discouraging but honest.  One dillema I have is:  I found an appealing location but it's about .5 miles from nearest forest service road.   Id like to get in there early and listen but I don't want to spook em off the limb. Any advice?



Go to bed early. Put a light on a timer where you can't reach it from bed.

Other than that, go on and go hunt when ever you get up. They don't disappear just because the sun comes up. I absolutely hate to get up early. That's been the worst feature of the house I live in now. My bedroom is on the north side of the house on the north side of a hill with a mature forest to the south side of the house. The sun doesn't hit any thing I can see out my bedroom window until 9:00 most of the time.

I just get up when I get up and go when I get up but I'm retired. If I don't kill one today, I'll kill him tomorrow or when ever.

If you have to go to work every Monday, you have to make the most of the time you've got. Get up an hour before every one else and let ME chase them to YOU when I walk in. Be quiet, don't use a light with in a 100 yards of your roost tree. Use a GPS and know the area and the path so you don't screw it up walking in. Everything you carry past a gun and shells is an opportunity to screw it up. If you are going to bring it, make sure it's worth carrying.

If you can still see stars in the sky, those turkeys are dead asleep, not a care in the world.


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## erhunter (Mar 6, 2017)

Jack Ryan said:


> Go to bed early. Put a light on a timer where you can't reach it from bed.
> 
> Other than that, go on and go hunt when ever you get up. They don't disappear just because the sun comes up. I absolutely hate to get up early. That's been the worst feature of the house I live in now. My bedroom is on the north side of the house on the north side of a hill with a mature forest to the south side of the house. The sun doesn't hit any thing I can see out my bedroom window until 9:00 most of the time.
> 
> ...


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## Jack Ryan (Mar 6, 2017)

erhunter said:


> If you had to choose 20 hunts per season with sleep and feeling refreshed or 40 hunts per season  dog tired?  Which would you choose?



Meh, I don't know. I'd just go every chance I had, either or. Make the best of what you've got. If I had to go to work rather than hunt just to "buy it", I'd do with out.

I'm a big believer in "hunt where you live". You can hunt it more and learn it better. I don't lease or go on big far away hunts to the "super hunting places". Even retired I have days I decide to just not go. I don't see any point in spending a months pay to hunt somewhere else until I've hunted every single opportunity to hunt that I can see from my own porch.

I would drive a little just to go hunt with my friends or family but that's more socializing than hunting. I've driven to a friends house, been set up in his best tree he's been talking about all year, seen a huge buck, and then never even mention it. I just didn't want to kill a deer I KNOW HE has put a lot of hours in to getting figured out though I know he'd have been happy about it. Just couldn't ruin it for 'em.

I've hunted dog tired LOTS OF YEARS working nights and showering and packing up to go hunt all day after work. Sleeping half the day sitting in a tree stand or laying out on the ground when the sun get's up and start hitting ya. I KNOW you know what I mean.

Many many many times I've woke up to the sounds the animals make and killed the crap out of them. In my world, taking a little nap ain't all that bad. I'm still hunting even in my sleep.

Turkey hunting isn't all that different from deer hunting in a lot of ways. You HAVE to know where they are at and it helps a whole heck of a lot if you are already where they want to go rather than trying to make them do something different than they have ever done in the whole rest of their life.

Learning to find birds and roost them prior to hunting, I think, is ten times more important and useful than being a champion caller. I can make a call out of a beer can I found on the ground and a striker from an ink pen or stick off the ground and it will get a turkey coming your way if they already have any inclination at all to consider it. Calling is just a suggestion to birds when I do it at least, not an order. I'm deaf enough to need the words turned on caption to watch the news. If I can call a bird ANY ONE can do that.

Knowing there are birds to call, EVERY ONE needs to know that better than they already do.


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## Atlanta Dawg (Mar 6, 2017)

Patience, Not Over Calling, Sitting Still, Patience-Wait for them to get into range........sit still !!  And above all:

"Don't Take This Turkey Hunting Thing Too Seriously" !

If you have an ATV-ride slowly around the property-odds are good you will come up on a gobbler within range----they are weird !


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## erhunter (Mar 6, 2017)

Alright another question.  If you had to choose between roosting them in the evening or getting in really early and seeing where they go after fly down, which would you do?


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## Atlanta Dawg (Mar 6, 2017)

erhunter said:


> Alright another question.  If you had to choose between roosting them in the evening or getting in really early and seeing where they go after fly down, which would you do?



Roost them in the evening.   Get there very early - while dark---way before daylight and very quietly so as to not spook them off the roost with no light and no noise.

Sit still and out of sight, don't move and don't call.

Often they will gobble and cluck while still on the roost-wait for the fly down......be still----sit quietly and motionless......they may not fly down for 30 or more minutes after it begins to get light !


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## Jack Ryan (Mar 6, 2017)

erhunter said:


> Alright another question.  If you had to choose between roosting them in the evening or getting in really early and seeing where they go after fly down, which would you do?


Roost 'em.

If it's windy, cloudy, rainy, cold they'll stay on the roost longer. Heck if it's all of those they may not fly down until 9 or after if there's no one around to bother them.

But heck you can roost birds several days or more ahead of a hunt if they are some where with only light hunting pressure and still be pretty sure they'll be there. Roosting birds should be a big part of the preseason, "know where they are".


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## erhunter (Mar 6, 2017)

Last question...for now...hunting public land there are not those beautiful green pasture strut zones like you see on TV, so to the big public land hunters here where do people kill their turkeys on public land?  Do you get to see em strut ?In the roads?  In the hardwoods?  On ridges or on bottoms? At edges?  So much of my turkey hunting has not looked a thing like TV, and at times it's discouraging.  
Alright that was like 6 questions


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## Jack Ryan (Mar 7, 2017)

erhunter said:


> Last question...for now...hunting public land there are not those beautiful green pasture strut zones like you see on TV, so to the big public land hunters here where do people kill their turkeys on public land?  Do you get to see em strut ?In the roads?  In the hardwoods?  On ridges or on bottoms? At edges?  So much of my turkey hunting has not looked a thing like TV, and at times it's discouraging.
> Alright that was like 6 questions



BTDT, I used to say my hunting looked more like a jungle by the time the season was in than those cow pastures and golf courses they hunt on TV.

If vegitation is high enough to shadow the ground and make it dark, seems I have my best luck in pine forest type areas. Plus about ALL the turkey roosts I've found on public land here in Hoosier National Forest have all been roosted in tall pines and Cedar trees.

Just sitting here thinking about it, only real dedicated strutting activity I've seen has been on top of a ridge or in a flat valley between. Any time I recall on the side of a hill they were just traveling up or down. 

I know that "famous" call instructing tape says it is easier to call birds up hill to you than it is down hill. I can't verify that with my experiences. If it were true wouldn't all the birds eventually get trapped at the top of all the hills?

I've had birds fly in to roost trees any where on the hill from the valley to the sides or on the top. I think that's more about the type of tree they like than the location of it. Last fall I picked a particular deer stand position just because it was near enough to a turkey roost tree I got to hear them fly in to land on the roost every night and wake up every morning and every morning they were NOT MOLESTED in any way and just a normal turkey day, they repeated the exact same behavior. Wake up, cluck a while until everyone was awake and clucking. All fly down at once and have a big hen peck clucking session and then walk constantly clucking down hill to the south and then south east up the valley at the break right at the bottom of the hill and follow it east on the floor of the valley until I couldn't hear them any more. Day after day, same thing.

That bottom area they walked through was high mature mixed hard wood and pines from the roost tree through the valley with a few open weedy briars the DNR mows about every 3-4 years. All less than 1/4 acre patch and they were grown up with high dried weeds at the time in October.


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