Don't forget your plate carrier and a reload

I immediately thought "white van" as well. Hes not very friendly!!!!

I've never had the pleasure of meeting him.

I think it was a blue van, can't remember exactly. Maybe white

All these stories make me appreciate not having to hunt public land although I was thinking about trying the Tuskegee National Forest because it’s close by. Maybe I’ll pass.

I've been hunting forest land since 1990. Been a few times where I ran I to someone not that many.
My thing is folks riding roads stopping and calling after they slam doors talking before sending some calls out. Been a many times I've had they folks send a gobbler running to other way.
My biggest problem I have is the number of folks who don't know how to run a owl call, crow call.
I left the woods once looking for a guy who had no idea what he was doing other than shutting them up. I was going to break that call.

Lmao, so friggin true. Those turkeys know exactly what's going on when they hear that gravel pop, door slam, and then some ole boy getting his "hooo-wah!" on. It's downright embarrassing some of those people call themselves hunters. And the woods is slam full them. Hell, I hate the way my own owl call sounds, but some of these folks are just painful to listen to.

I hunted a couple different public land spots here in Tennessee all last season. Probably put in 25 days total between the two , mostly weekdays. Only had 2 encounters where someone tried to park near me and hunt the same birds I was on. One backed out when he saw me but tried to circle around on the next ridge. I walked straight to the turkey and ran him off and killed him a couple weeks later. (At least I think it was the same bird based on his distinct gobble) The other guy drove up on me about 45 minutes before daylight and asked where I was going. We were already within 300 yards of the property line so I told him I was gonna sit there and listen and go whichever direction the first bird gobbled. He looked at me like I had two heads and just sat there staring straight ahead for the next few seconds then backed out and left. I think he thought I was being unreasonable. He beat me to that spot the following 2 mornings and I just backed out and went elsewhere. Other than that I had very few encounters with other hunters. I imagine I'd have a lot more issues if I didn't have the luxury of hunting weekdays and leaving the weekends alone.

Saw my first NY tags today near some public hunting ground. Out of staters are getting fired up early

What about open gates? If I drive down a road and someone is pulled off at mile 1 of a 4 miles road can I just drive a mile farther and start hunting or has that whole road system now belong to The 1st truck inside a gate?

Golden rule. Give the person as much room as you'd want. It's not complicated. If it's public chances are they are terrible at hunting anyway and you don't want to be near them.