Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk ALTurkey Talk -- Beards and Spurs Morning hunting gobblers

Does anyone hunt strictly in the (for lack of words) traditional manner when turkey hunting ?

By traditional only, I mean that you 1) stand at a good listening location in the dark 2) listen for gobblers to shock gobble at barred owl hoots, or owl hoot/crow call and elicit a gobble 3) slip into the gobbler's range 4) call to him on the roost and hopefully toll him to within 25 yards 4) stop hunting after you (either) kill him or he gets with hens, etc., and return there the next morning.

What is your preferred hunting style...calling a gobbler off his roost, or all day hunting, afternoon hunting ?

Oatsj does,that's the only way

I am traditional, I hunt all day or until I kill something by using any legal means possible.

I don't know any other ways to hunt.

agreed

straight off the roost has been one of the least effective tactics for me over forty years of chasing em.....but I still do it every chance!!

troy

I hunt many ways depending on the situation, Fred is right, the old fashioned way (w/o decoys) is the least productive but the most rewarding.

Agreed. Also, not being able to chase them all day lowers the chances even more. Most of my hunting, outside of taking a few vacation days, is done a couple hours before work. If I don't get him off the roost I usually have to leave for work and can't stay with him.

Mission, that's the way I approach it every morning, unless I heard him gobble on the roost the afternoon before and already know where he is.

But what do you do if you don't hear one? I'm still gonna hunt until I have to quit. I haven't heard one all week, so I've made it home by 8:30 each day. If I didn't have stuff to do, I'd still be out there.

But even this morning, I listened in 4 different spots before abandoning the truck and going for a little walk. Made one setup and did some blind calling and had a jake to come in. He didn't gobble, but was sure looking for the hen.

I much prefer the method you mentioned, but when it doesn't happen and the option is to quit hunting or try something else, I'll try something else.

I hunt them in the mornings mostly;as long as they are gobbling I'll stay with them;I've killed a good many in the evenings but just don't go much because of kids and work.I've never used a decoy and probably never will and I shoot Lead #5's;I'd say I'm pretty traditional.

I had my best success in the early mornings, and the least luck in the mid-morning to afternoon hunts. (weird) I had some of my best and exciting hunts in the afternoon (2:30-3:30). It's fun to catch an old gobbler alone and make him gobble. They put on quite a good show. I still prefer and mainly enjoy calling gobblers off the roost if I can. (I agree with all day hunting being sooo much fun.)

To me, early morning hunting means watching the sunrise, listening to the birds, hearing barred owls hooting, seeing wild violets and dogwoods in bloom, having deer walk up to me, hearing that first gobble and trotting to a set-up...etc. It is a wonderful feeling. In my view, deer hunting doesn't come close to the excitement of a strutting, drumming, gobbler crunching the leaves as he walks in with that blue and white head shining in the darker woods. I was taught turkey hunting by my dad, and he was a traditionalist turkey hunter who started in the early 1950's.

I can't turkey hunt anymore...but I had a lot of fun in the past. I called off the roost and killed nearly 100 gobblers in the hill country. I killed less than 10 in the evenings on river bottom country...but thy were among the biggest. My last turkey hunt was in 2000. I killed a 23 1/4 lb. gobbler with my model '97 Winchester...w/one #6 low brass load.

I rate turkey hunting (preferably but not inclusive to, the early mornings)as the best hunting there is. I miss turkey hunting more than you could ever imagine.

That's heartbreaking mission. I dread the day I can't make it anymore.

I hunt just as you described. I don't have the inclination or desire sit all day and "deer hunt" a turkey. I crave and thrive on the interaction. I've never killed a bird in the afternoon mainly because I don't have the time to hunt during that time. I can and do hunt just about every morning though.

Unless I sleep in!

Dr. B

Same here, however I have gone in afternoons when there is nothing else to do and have killed a few then! 90% of my birds came within an hour of flydown.

I enjoy the feeling of belly crawling up to a field and putting the sneak on one as much as calling one in. I love that look they have in the eye right before you touch that trigger off.

totally agree

Hey Mission, would you mind sharing with the group what your disability is? and where you live? If not, I certainly understand. (I feel there are a lot of folks on aldeer that would love to set you up on a hunt!)

I am pretty traditional. I use a Box Call almost exclusively. Sometimes I use my voice. I carry a old single shot 2 3/4" 12 gauge. I do not use a decoy. I hunt mornings while they gobble. I move to strut zones during the mid-morning. I run and gun on foot during the day. And I blind call near roost sites in the afternoon.

Morning is exciting. Mid-day is most productive. For public land, my best success in the Tuskegee National Forest is in the afternoons. I had rather turkey hunt than deer hunt.

No problem. I have progressive/severe degenerative Lumbar and Cervical disc disease (LDDD/CDDD), peroneal nerve palsy, osteoarthritis.

I really appreciate the very kind offer, Just4Now, but doc ordered me to avoid any hunting. He's afraid of paralysis via injury to spinal nerves...which he says is very likely. I almost died in 2003 from neck vertebrae severing the nerves between C-2 & C-3. 4 doctors said I escaped death (total paralysis/or life support) by 1 month. They fused 6/7 neck vertebrae. My lower back vertebrae are too degenerated to repair...surgery is not an option. Also, I sustained a gunshot wound which broke my femur in my left leg during civilian/military (20th Special Forces)survival training in '83. I use a cane and a wheelchair...but I can still hobble along.

I would love to go turkey hunting with y'all...and I really mean that ! God Bless you for thinking of me. Go out and have fun calling up those gobblers...and make some good memories ! I'll be pulling for you and all.