^^^ this. Tactics aside, this right here is the secret to killing your limit. Turkeys & time; just so happens that a lot of these folks also employ good tactics, but ... Even if you suck, if your land has a bunch of turkeys & you've got time (esp to pattern them), then you can sit in one spot, never make a single call, and kill birds. A friend of mine was just telling me about a guy that saw gobblers every day crossing through a gap in a pasture into another field @ 4pm every day; he killed his limit at this gap. Furthermore, my brother (who happens to be a pretty good, seasoned turkey hunter) killed 4 last year by a) building shooting houses & b) situating them on "known" hot spots. He had all the time in the world last season, and went & sat in those houses & didn't ever even issue a call. Gobblers walked right in front of him, and he killed them.
Not dissing anyones tactics but the true "hunters" I know wouldn't sit in a blind, kill one without calling, bait or sit a chufa patch. There is a difference between a turkey hunter and a turkey killer. I prefer to be a turkey hunter and have passed on turkeys I didn't think were "fair" kills, sneaking up on one in a road accidentally, slipping or sitting a chufa patch, having one run over me running away from an approaching vehicle. You couldn't pay me to turkey hunt if I had to sit in a shooting house and wait for them to walk by. That is what I dislike about deer hunting. Again simply MHO
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.
