Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk ALTurkey Talk -- Beards and Spurs seasoned turkey hunters

I am far from a seasoned hunter but have hunted a few seasons. I have done just about everything wrong that cod possibly be done. I think I've invented a few new ways to screw up a hunt and scare the bird. I have never hunted turkeys from a tent blind, I will say if that's what it takes for me to kill a gobbler, I will do it. Heck there's some times I've been so mad at them I would have run them down with the truck and watched them roll out the back I the rear view mirror.
For never even seeing a wild turkey before until 4 yrs ago I feel I have come a long ways and all I know about turkey hunting came from this place. My whole problem is my lack of patience. If I can ever overcome this, I think my chances at killing birds would greatly improve. My lack of patience costed me oppertunities on 2 birds for sure this year.

If it's legal in the State you're hunting and that's what you want to do, then yes. Why would it not be?

I hope the hookset don't hurt too much...

so following that mindset you see nothing wrong with slipping in on a roosted gobbler at first light and limbing his arse...all legal like too......

Haha. I'm not gonna what if's all night. If the way you like to hunt is legal, then who cares how you hunt?

It's amazing to me how folks will wonder why hunting numbers are down on one hand, then down a person for not being a hunter cause they don't like their legal hunting methods on the other. It must be all the government regulations. Lol

were really this bored that we arguing over how another man hunts???

Dear lord, so sensitive .

Not true, we hunt those easy turkeys where the skill required up the valley works on Toms down the valley. Now where Atoler hunts must be some tough sledding, what works up the road won't work down the road. Must be kinda like groundhog day when going to a different place .

I been told of a feller who's got some easy mtn turkeys over in NE bama

You've warped my initial intent. What I was getting at, is knowledge of the land you are on and the way the turkeys work on it, doesn't do you a much good, if that is your trick to killing birds. Patterning birds will kill them all day long, but it's not a skill. It's an investment of time.I know people in Alabama, and quite a few in the Midwest, who kill several birds every year, just from sitting on travel routes, strut zones, fields they walk, etc. those guys are like a fish out of water when they hunt a new place.

What I'm saying, has absolutely nothing to do with understanding how to work a bird in a particular terrain.

FYI, I've killed quite a few birds, on a mountain that's taller than any in Jackson county, on public land.....

I like the way you think.

A wise man once said "Get him on the ground and we can make up a story."

OK, you be the wheel man, let me out, I'll slip in and verify the ease of killing said turkeys.

X2 aint that the truth

I may be the most seasoned of all.
1-I've stepped in every stump hole on our place.
2-Gotten tangled up in most of the vines and greenbriar.
3-Slid off the bank of every branch on our place.
4-Waded a mile through a flooded bottom to get to a tame turkey.
5-Had a hen poop all over my cap.
6-Heard a gobbler gobble at a guy slamming a door at his house and cussing his wife.
7-Had a turkey make a remarkable recovery in the cab of a truck and beat me and 2 other guys half to death.
8-Been spurred by one that got infected and had to go get a shot.
9-Had one spook and couldn't figure out why, until we saw a Happy Birthday balloon blowing in the breeze behind us.
10-Watched 2 fight as close as 15 feet from me, and one of the birds came within inches of stumbling over my foot going to the other bird.
And on, and on, and on. Can't wait until next year, to become more seasoned.
11. Oh, and called up a peacock!!!

I sit in a blind sometimes.

I hunt a lot with my girls that are 8 and 9 and a blind is the only way to do it with their moving so much. Sometimes i sit in a blind alone. I hunt hardwood draws and steep ridges. There are virtually no flat spots and virtually no green fields or food plots.

My knees and ankles have so much hardware in them that running and gunning more than once a week would have me laid up for days.

Knees, ankles, and little girls aside I will sit in a ground blind a lot for the first part of a hunt and move around on the go after as well.

I do run and gun some now and killed a nice bird a few weeks ago on the run.

I aint trying to blow my own horn but most of the guys that are on this forum wouldn't be successful on my land. Each year I kill a couple birds and feel a tremendous sense of reward. I don't have many birds. and very small area to hunt (less than 60 acres for turkey). Being steep as hell with tall ridges the birds can spot you quickly and then you are done.

I have run and gunned here in the past with bow and been successful and I would love to see anyone on here do that I will lay down $100 and pay out 5 to 1 odds to anyone that matches my $100 I say you can't kill a bird run and gunning on this land with a bow.

A lot of the guys on here that do kill a bunch of birds have a lot of big land to hunt, food plots, green fields etc...and more power to them. I applaud their success. But the suggest that the guy that sits in a ground blind is any less a hunter than the guy that run and guns on his club in ideal managed turkey habitat is pathetic at best.

in terms of huntcraft and woodsmanship I would say I am twice the hunter as a lot of guys that kill more birds at their clubs and no where near the caliber of hunter as many guys on here that kill fewer birds than me every year.

Agree 100%! I don't think there is any problem with anyone sitting a blind and if I had any physical reason to sit one I probably would. Same with kids, even though I have been taking mine since she was 5 and she has never sat a blind. Yep we spooked birds occasionally.
Ran into a guy the other day, passionate turkey hunter who hunts with a bow for the last couple turkeys of the year. I asked him if he used a blind and he was of the same opinion. "When I kill one with a bow, you know there is nothing but air between me and him". If I ever kill one with a bow I will not be in a blind either.
You are right about the big tracts as well. Turkey hunting gets MUCH tougher the smaller the land base to hunt. I am usually lucky and blessed to be able to have room to find birds when I need to.

I would agree about sitting in a blind with a bow. I think shooting a bow from a lawn chair in a blind would not be fun. It would be a damn pain in the ass for more reasons than that too.

This is ALDeer, where "warping my initial intent" is a way of life.

Re: patterning, I see your point. However, I disagree with it. If patterning was so brain-dead simple & only took time, then we ought to see every single hunter on ALDeer tag out w/3 massive, wall-hanger buck each year, and limit out on 5 turkeys every single season. The "wild cards" in this are - we're pursuing a wild animal & every property is different. They're unpredictable, and what appears to be a pattern one day is something completely different the next, on SOME animals (not all).

I do agree, yes, it's an investment in time; game cameras have shortened this time for some hunters who can't afford to spend the time in the woods. But, you will never convince me that scouting, observation, and patterning are not skills that good hunters hone over time and acquire. Also, my definition of "patterning" goes well beyond discovering a travel route; it involves the tendencies of how the animal behaves, and so on. Your definition appears to be more narrow.

The bottom line I think we're all trying to get to here is -- what are the characteristics of a "seasoned turkey hunter" that regularly scores on birds, season over season? The OP mentioned some of this but also mentioned "tactics". The true answer is -- ALL OF THE ABOVE. It helps when (& I often PRAY FOR!) a bird/deer are "dumb & suicidal" and makes it easy on the hunter, and just wants to die.

But, to your point (that I think you're trying to make), when you're faced with a hard-headed deer/turkey that you have to work & use MORE skills than just ambushing them, there is a separation in skill between those hunters & other unsuccessful hunters that don't have those advanced skills. Many of us -- myself included -- leave those animals behind & try to find an "easier", work-able bird to hunt & kill. I for one don't have the time to invest on "hard" birds, being predominantly a weekend warrior. I admit it fully - I'm looking for the "easy kill", deer & turkey. If that means leaning on an observed "travel" pattern, so be it. If it means using a blind, I'm cool w/that too, even if I prefer normally to not use one. If it means using my box vs. my mouth call, which I prefer, b/c the "pattern" of the bird is to respond to my box over my mouth call, then hey, I'm cool with it. If it means no calling at all, alright. I'm flexible, and roll with it, based on the circumstances for that animal, at that point in time. Being adaptable, flexible & patient will transfer to every piece of dirt on earth.

I'd say where 90% of supposed Turkey hunters fall short is patience. 4 of the birds I or the kids killed this past spring gobbled 1-2 times when they hit the ground and that was it. As I recall for all 4 I could hear another bird or multiple birds gobbling in another part of the property. The reason I didn't move was because I knew we had moved in to our position silently, under the cover of darkness and were in a productive area. How did I know I was in a good area? Past experience, scouting, patterning, whatever you want to call it. Also had complete confidence I could call one in that wouldn't talk. I also have developed something called patience. I'll go Rambo Part II and come out of a mud bank on one with a pocket knife if I have to. Doesn't matter if you are hunting Turkeys, Deer or anything else. If you don't have that mindset your success will be limited. Playing that cat and mouse game in my opinion takes more skill than running around all over the property chasing one gobbling his head off.

I'm not talking about ambushing one from a shooting house, point taken there. However.... I completely disagree with the whole patterning is not the way you should hunt concept. That is foolish and your success vs. mine will show it. I learned that after about my 10th year in the woods. I've got 30+ years under my belt now.

Most of y'all would have got up and ran towards the gobbling birds and most of those that did would have walked away empty handed.

Hunting from a ground blind is not my thing. I've never done it... But I gotta ask those bashing it.... You Mad Bro?

Yep, agree 100%; see my post above yours.

thats not ethical, has to be a rimfire