Old School/ New School/ Or your own School/ Thoughts on Turkey Hunting

[DeerWhisperer]

All,

I have been a member for several years now and really enjoy all the informative posts. I myself do not post that much but I have learned a lot over the years from those who do. This is a great and informative site.

I do not want to start another debate on the use of decoys and/or other legal forms of taking a turkey. These are just my thoughts in general as I have grown older and my hunting tactics and thoughts have changed.

When I started out some 25 years ago, I would have definitely fallen into the old school category. I saved and bought a Mossberg 535 camo pump. I had one box call and one slate call and no decoys. Back then I hunted primarily public land so most of what I hunted was wooded timber and lots of other folks. Like most, I loved the thrill and chase of locating a bird and attempting to call him into gun range. It was both thrilling and challenging as I was new to all this stuff. Back then there were really no such things as decoys, you had to learn to think and act like a turkey and if you were lucky you knew someone that was willing to mentor you or if you were really lucky they would take you hunting. I remember making so many mistakes it was comical. I still make mistakes every season, but you know what , you learn and apply on the next trip.


I followed this approach for several years before moving to Middle Tennessee, I continued this approach as long as my land access allowed.

Over the past several years my land availability has changed. I have gone from several hundred acres of hard woods with limited fields to primarily fields with limited hardwoods My area and leases have changed. This in conjunction with gaining a wife that thoroughly enjoys to turkey hunts has changed the way I hunt. I tried the run and gun technique with her for two years. This proved to be very frustrating. I would see the turkey, she could not. She would move, turkey would run off, encounters with snakes, etc: I just about burnt her out on the sport before she got her first turkey. Turkey hunting should be fun and we should use any legal means to introduce our sport and love of of the outdoors to others.

So, as a compromise, I suggested hunting from a blind. This offered her the concealment needed as well as provided her a chance to move around without detection. Also, to be honest, we had some very good conversations in the blind. This tactic also lead me to try the use of decoys. Calling in a gobbler in a wooded timber is one thing, but you know I have found it is much harder to do so in the middle of a 20 acre pasture. If the Tom did not see the hen that was making the noise, he had non interest in walking across that field. So, I have adapted and made some changes. I am also an avid duck hunter and I equate the use of turkey decoys to the duck hunting. You can be the best duck caller in the world but if the ducks are working and do not all the ducks making that noise, chances are they will head somewhere else. Is it cheating, I don't think so. Just my opinion.

I do not have the time available as I once did, so I want to increase the odds in my favor as much as possible. I have actually learned to enjoy this method quite well. My wife and several adults and children have taken their first birds this way. So, coming from a "old school" method, I have changed but I still love to hunt. We follow all the rules and take only ethical shots. It has proven very rewarding for us. For me it all came down to making some sacrifices to allow my wife the opportunity to share in the hunt and also a change in our land availability.

However, I will say if given the opportunity, I still love the thrill of playing chess with a long beard in the timber, it is rewarding and challenging. I love it and I still do that if the situation allow me to do so.

I guess the main thing is for each us to enjoy our own form of turkey hunting. This could be old school, new school, or your own school. If you want to use decoys, make a spot and stalk, hunt from a blind, then do so. Just be legal and be safe. As we all mature our tactics and methods change. I am sure that there will come a point in my life I may be limited to sitting in a blind and hunting turkeys over a decoy, but you know what I am fine with that. If that is what I have to do to be outside and its legal thats probably what I will be doing.

As long as we are all safe and ethical hunters and have fun and enjoy God's creation that should be all that matters. So let's all enjoy the upcoming season. Be Safe, Hunt Ethical and Have Fun. Pray for each others safety and enjoyment If given the opportunity take someone that has never been before, it may change their life.

Sorry for the long post.

 

[hbg1]

Excellent post

 

[huvrman]

Concur. Great post. We all have preferences, and over time these may or may not change.

 

[PalsPal]

Mic drop!

Thank you for taking the time to articulate the sentiments of most lurkers of this forum.

 

[DoubleRidge]

Great read....thanks for sharing

 

[cowhunter71]

My thoughts on Turkey Hunting are real simple. If you did not sit down against a tree and call the Turkey you just killed down your shotgun barrel, to within 40 yards, I personally don't want to hear about it, and will walk away from you if you attempt to tell me about it. No decoys, tents, crawling, fanning, sniping, or any other horsesh#t tactics, and I don't care if you are 6 yrs old or 60.

 

[Jon]

Well said.

 

[TheLBLman]

My thoughts on Turkey Hunting are real simple. If you did not sit down against a tree and call the Turkey you just killed down your shotgun barrel, to within 40 yards, I personally don't want to hear about it, and will walk away from you if you attempt to tell me about it. No decoys, tents, crawling, fanning, sniping, or any other horsesh#t tactics, and I don't care if you are 6 yrs old or 60.

I fully understand your perspective.
The way you turkey hunt, is my favorite way to turkey hunt.

But would you quit turkey hunting if your hunting was limited to say a 20-acre parcel of land?

I know, we can say ANYONE is free to just go hunt the same vast public forest you hunt, but most don't live on its edge like you. Most of TN's resident turkey hunters are doing most their turkey hunting on private property, and it's typically only a small acreage they can hunt.

To be clear, I'm not endorsing fanning, sniping or any other horseshit tactics (via my opinion), but when someone has a very limited acreage to hunt, it's pretty easy to just run the birds off the property via more "traditional" turkey-hunting methods.

Like you, Setterman, and many others, my preferred way of turkey hunting is much like yours, and I do it often. But if I limited my turkey hunting strictly to these "traditional" methods", I would not be able to turkey hunt half as much as I do, simply because I can't effectively hunt that way on some of the private properties I have to hunt.

To me, it often makes more sense to sometimes use a pop-up blind, staying stationary on the 20 acres, rather than walking around it, just running off the birds to areas I can't hunt.

I also admit I've come to enjoy being in a pop-up blind during a pouring rain. Also, like many other "traditional" turkey hunters who start their morning from a "listening" point, sometimes sitting right there for hours before "running" somewhere else, I've come to like placing a pop-up blind at a good "listening" point. This has nothing to do with inabilities, but everything to do with just preferring being able to sit in more comfort.

Sometimes, particularly when I'm taking someone else with me, I will use a sitting hen decoy. But that decoy is placed not to attract a distant bird, but more to get a gobblers attention AFTER he's under 35 yds in range. This is more for the purpose of facilitating a clean kill by a less experienced hunter than anything to do with "decoying" in a distant turkey.

Otherwise, I've found decoys as much or more liability as asset. I do oppose "fanning", and full-strut gobbler decoys (particularly on public lands) but more because of safety concerns, than any concern of their assumed effectiveness.

Put it this way, most turkey hunters in TN are in fact doing most their turkey hunting on small private parcels. If they were required to hunt only "your" way, you would find a lot bigger crowds on all our large-acreage public lands, and bigger crowds there would equate to more turkeys killed there by all the googans, as even a blind pig runs across a few acorns.

That would do more harm to your personal hunting than all the decoy use on private properties where you don't hunt, as most hunters killing birds using decoys, are doing so mainly on small private properties? What if a lot more of them suddenly shifted to do more of their hunting right in your backyard, albeit doing that hunting via the same methods you utilize?

In the meantime, if we don't bring on board more new young hunters, there may come a time when zero turkey hunting is allowed on our vast public lands. From a biological & wildlife management standpoint, it is really not necessary to allow turkey hunting, and when a huge majority of "users" don't want to share the public areas with those scary hunters, it will be legally disallowed, right where you currently hunt, just like it has on the bordering Smokey Mountain National Park.

Part of what I'm saying is we should convince others that turkey hunting is more enjoyable, a more satisfying journey, when we are able and choose to do it via the more "traditional" method, often referred to as "run & gun". We're not always "able", and a day will come for all of us, too, when we will either give up turkey hunting entirely, or we will choose to alter our methods.

My idea is to encourage younger folks (and other novices) to enjoy going turkey hunting, realizing most their opportunities will be wherever there are turkeys most convenient to their homes. For most, these opportunities will be on small private parcels, where traditional turkey hunting may not work so well. Meanwhile, we can preach the greater sport of traditional turkey hunting.

As my Mother often said, we can catch more flies with sugar, than with vinegar.

 

[TheLBLman]

This seems like a good thread to ponder another issue:

Urban Turkey Hunting

Already, most of TN's turkey hunters do more of their collective turkey hunting on relatively small private properties (small acreage, compared to most "public" hunting areas).

But in many TN counties, turkeys seem to be thriving as well or better in more "urban" areas, where property ownership acreage is even smaller than in much the rest of these same counties.

Not talking about "downtown" anywhere, but rather those areas that tend to be near the "city limits" (both small towns & larger cities). These areas tend to be dotted with typical housing subdivisions (each home having 1/2 to 1 1/2 acres), but separated by small acreages, typically home after home, each having 2 to 20 acres with their homes.

The majority of these homeowners (or landowners) do not turkey hunt.
But many will allow others to hunt their property, "archery only".

So here's the question to all us "traditional" turkey hunters, who have most enjoyed "run & gun" style turkey hunting on turkey lands containing thousands of acres of contiguous property we can turkey hunt:

Is it as "ethical" for a guy to sit in a pop-up blind with archery equipment,
as it is for any of us to "run & gun" over thousands of acres?

In fact, I know an avid turkey hunter who does 100% of his turkey hunting with a regular bow, and not just on small properties, but public lands, limiting out annually in multiple states! If he had his way, shotguns would be made illegal, because to him, they are a "crutch", and it's just too easy to kill turkeys the way the "traditional" turkey hunters do it with a shotgun.

Anyway, a growing number of people are finding they have the opportunity to frequently turkey hunt in either their own backyards or a neighbor's backyard, but their hunting acreage may be only a couple acres, AND "archery only".

Whether you think you would ever personally do this, or not, may be "beside the point".
As the point is, their doing this frequently does reduce how often they turkey hunting on public lands, in addition to that "convenience" providing them a lot of hunting "opportunity".

I just look at this somewhat like a different kind of fishing.
If I have to fish in a different way to get to fish, still maybe better than not getting to fish at all?

I might prefer to go fish for big tarpon in the ocean, but it's much more convenient, much more opportunity, to go catch some bass or bream in a convenient lake or the neighborhood pond. And it's a heck of a lot more convenient to introduce someone to either fishing or hunting, when it's convenient for both you and them.

"Easy" and/or "Convenient" isn't all bad.
Sometimes it's all there is.

 

[cbhunter]

My thoughts on Turkey Hunting are real simple. If you did not sit down against a tree and call the Turkey you just killed down your shotgun barrel, to within 40 yards, I personally don't want to hear about it, and will walk away from you if you attempt to tell me about it. No decoys, tents, crawling, fanning, sniping, or any other horsesh#t tactics, and I don't care if you are 6 yrs old or 60.

Then walk away and don't comment again! You did exactly what you claim you wouldn't do by reading his post.

I respect your beliefs and however you hunt. You're just an internet badazz (in your eyes, not mine) and nothing more.

 

[cowhunter71]

I fully understand your perspective.
The way you turkey hunt, is my favorite way to turkey hunt.

But would you quit turkey hunting if your hunting was limited to say a 20-acre parcel of land?

I know, we can say ANYONE is free to just go hunt the same vast public forest you hunt, but most don't live on its edge like you. Most of TN's resident turkey hunters are doing most their turkey hunting on private property, and it's typically only a small acreage they can hunt.

To be clear, I'm not endorsing fanning, sniping or any other horseshit tactics (via my opinion), but when someone has a very limited acreage to hunt, it's pretty easy to just run the birds off the property via more "traditional" turkey-hunting methods.

Like you, Setterman, and many others, my preferred way of turkey hunting is much like yours, and I do it often. But if I limited my turkey hunting strictly to these "traditional" methods", I would not be able to turkey hunt half as much as I do, simply because I can't effectively hunt that way on some of the private properties I have to hunt.

To me, it often makes more sense to sometimes use a pop-up blind, staying stationary on the 20 acres, rather than walking around it, just running off the birds to areas I can't hunt.

I also admit I've come to enjoy being in a pop-up blind during a pouring rain. Also, like many other "traditional" turkey hunters who start their morning from a "listening" point, sometimes sitting right there for hours before "running" somewhere else, I've come to like placing a pop-up blind at a good "listening" point. This has nothing to do with inabilities, but everything to do with just preferring being able to sit in more comfort.

Sometimes, particularly when I'm taking someone else with me, I will use a sitting hen decoy. But that decoy is placed not to attract a distant bird, but more to get a gobblers attention AFTER he's under 35 yds in range. This is more for the purpose of facilitating a clean kill by a less experienced hunter than anything to do with "decoying" in a distant turkey.

Otherwise, I've found decoys as much or more liability as asset. I do oppose "fanning", and full-strut gobbler decoys (particularly on public lands) but more because of safety concerns, than any concern of their assumed effectiveness.

Put it this way, most turkey hunters in TN are in fact doing most their turkey hunting on small private parcels. If they were required to hunt only "your" way, you would find a lot bigger crowds on all our large-acreage public lands, and bigger crowds there would equate to more turkeys killed there by all the googans, as even a blind pig runs across a few acorns.

That would do more harm to your personal hunting than all the decoy use on private properties where you don't hunt, as most hunters killing birds using decoys, are doing so mainly on small private properties? What if a lot more of them suddenly shifted to do more of their hunting right in your backyard, albeit doing that hunting via the same methods you utilize?

In the meantime, if we don't bring on board more new young hunters, there may come a time when zero turkey hunting is allowed on our vast public lands. From a biological & wildlife management standpoint, it is really not necessary to allow turkey hunting, and when a huge majority of "users" don't want to share the public areas with those scary hunters, it will be legally disallowed, right where you currently hunt, just like it has on the bordering Smokey Mountain National Park.

Part of what I'm saying is we should convince others that turkey hunting is more enjoyable, a more satisfying journey, when we are able and choose to do it via the more "traditional" method, often referred to as "run & gun". We're not always "able", and a day will come for all of us, too, when we will either give up turkey hunting entirely, or we will choose to alter our methods.

My idea is to encourage younger folks (and other novices) to enjoy going turkey hunting, realizing most their opportunities will be wherever there are turkeys most convenient to their homes. For most, these opportunities will be on small private parcels, where traditional turkey hunting may not work so well. Meanwhile, we can preach the greater sport of traditional turkey hunting.

As my Mother often said, we can catch more flies with sugar, than with vinegar.

Don't give a rats a## about either your, or anyone else's private land problems. Public Ground will ALWAYS have a least a few Turkeys for me, and those like me, to hunt. Close South Cherokee and I would still continue to hunt Turkeys in those Mountains.

 

[TDW05]

Don't give a rats a## about either your, or anyone else's private land problems. Public Ground will ALWAYS have a least a few Turkeys for me, and those like me, to hunt. Close South Cherokee and I would still continue to hunt Turkeys in those Mountains.

Your always flapping your gums thinking your someone. Your a pretty humble guy huh?

 

[Newt]

I love this time of year

 

[PickettSFHunter]

I'll be honest, if I just had 20 acres to turkey hunt, I would probably quit. Nothing exciting about deer hunting turkeys to me personally. Thankfully we have a lot of public land in this country that should prevent that from happening, although I do say that public hunting will be forced to become more and more restrictive in the future due to overharvest/overcrowding.

 

[Shanman]

I love this time of year

Gives me a headache and makes me want to start drinking again. Now I know why Knight and Hales Fighting Purr worked so good when it came out.....can't help but to take a look.

 

[PalsPal]

I love this time of year

Lol. Yep. It's like a car wreck. I just can't help myself and keep coming back.

 

[TheLBLman]

I'll be honest, if I just had 20 acres to turkey hunt, I would probably quit.

That said, just understand that TN's "average" turkey hunter may be hunting on only 20 acres, regardless how we feel of his situation, and/or his ability to instead go roam the same public hunting areas as do you. The selfish part of me would like for him to stay happy, setting in his tent, watching his decoys (considering public land is already crowded).

Me, I'd probably enjoy hunting in a tent on 2 acres, even with a stick & string, if that was the best option I had. For some, at least much of the time, that seems to be the case.

 

[Dennis]

My thoughts on Turkey Hunting are real simple. If you did not sit down against a tree and call the Turkey you just killed down your shotgun barrel, to within 40 yards, I personally don't want to hear about it, and will walk away from you if you attempt to tell me about it. No decoys, tents, crawling, fanning, sniping, or any other horsesh#t tactics, and I don't care if you are 6 yrs old or 60.

What about last year when I called one to 5 yards while pretending to be an air conditioner?

 

[PossumSlayer]

What about last year when I called one to 5 yards while pretending to be an air conditioner? View attachment 70927

Carrier?

 

[poorhunter]

That said, just understand that TN's "average" turkey hunter may be hunting on only 20 acres, regardless how we feel of his situation, and/or his ability to instead go roam the same public hunting areas as do you. The selfish part of me would like for him to stay happy, setting in his tent, watching his decoys (considering public land is already crowded).

Me, I'd probably enjoy hunting in a tent on 2 acres, even with a stick & string, if that was the best option I had. For some, at least much of the time, that seems to be the case.

What happened with all those turkeys in the past before decoys that are now killed because of decoys on all these 20 acres parcels? While I definitely want to kill turkeys and deer, killing is not the only priority. It seems like now it's more about the kill than the process or the chase. Also, if decoys don't work then why would someone with 20 acres bother using one? Or do they only work on 20 acre parcels. I'm NOT being a smart alec...but either they do work or they don't. We can't say that they are ineffective and then say that decoys are the only way a certain segment of hunters can kill turkeys.