Your weakest link

[megalomaniac]

What's your weakest link when it comes to being a successful turkey hunter?

For many, it may be calling skills. Others, it may be woodsmanship savvy. Still others, physical limitations or sensory limitations (hearing). Some it may be lack of dedication or patience. Lack of finances or time away from family certainly can play a role.

Getting really in depth...a full understanding of turkey behavior and biology may limit your effectiveness.

For me personally, it's the ability to successfully locate birds on unfamiliar ground. I know what good turkey habitat looks like on aerial photos. I know how to scout from roads, find tracks from the truck from dirt roads, find sign on the woods, etc... but it seems about 1 out of 10 unfamiliar places I pick to hunt actually have any birds to hunt. I'm doing something wrong. And it's not for lack of effort or being lazy.

If any of you guys can help me out with this (pm is fine if you don't want to give secrets out on a public forum), I really need to improve my game in this area.

 

[AT Hiker]

It's because 1 out of 10 "Turkey looking places" have birds in them. You ain't doing nuthin wrong.

 

[TnKen]

Patience. If I'm not hearing a lot of gobblin, it's hard to stay even when I know they are around.

 

[Buzzard Breath]

Mine's similar to TnKen. I can't tell you how many times I've worked a bird, then stood up after waiting it out only to spook it as it was slowly coming in.

 

[Urban_Hunter]

I feel like my weakest link is having a decent place to go. I only have a couple small private places and they don't hold turkeys. They may be there, but if they're not, you wasted a two hour trip for nothing. I love THP videos, but it seems like public land is hunted harder than ever now and those birds quickly transition to private.

I used to have a GREAT farm to hunt, but it's long gone now. I proudly carry a decoy because it greatly improves my near zero probability of getting a bird. I only get maybe 2 or 3 birds to give any meaningful response to my calls, so if I can entice them, I will with no shame.

I'm excited for this season, but try to keep my expectations in check, because I take a 9 year old on my hip and make the most out of what I have.

 

[Acorn]

Patience is hard if you like to run and gun!

 

[AT Hiker]

Mine is 100% patience. However, I'm ok with it. Once I'm not having fun I'll get up and do something different, life is too short to be bored.
One thing I've started doing is bringing a aero press coffee maker with me, along with a jet boil. Brewing up a quality cup of coffee does make sitting there nature watching fun…I've heard a few gobbles that I otherwise wouldnt doing this too.

 

[Roost 1]

I have some hearing loss… I can still hear gobbles but have a hard time telling the direction if they are not close.
2nd hardest thing Is trying to get one to give away his location when he doesn't want to…
I've always said this is one way the really good turkey hunters separate themselves from the rest. Harold and David are the best I've ever been around.
Once they make him gobble no matter time of day, he is usually dead soon.

 

[younggun308]

I've been all too willing to hunt places where there are no birds. Oh, that's not to say there weren't birds on a given property—there were—but patterns can and do change over the course of a season. When you can no longer come across so much as a track, it's time to move on.

 

[philsanchez76]

My problem is I don't know when to stick it out and keep being patient vs cut bait and find some where's else. Seems erring on the side of being too patient kills more birds than the opposite

 

[ADR]

Time!
Having a wife and two young kids I don't want to be totally selfish and spend the entire day out in the woods with her wrangling the kids alone. I know one day my son will be old enough to go along with me but he's still a few years from there. Before kids I was much more of a killer when I had time.

 

[AT Hiker]

I have some hearing loss… I can still hear gobbles but have a hard time telling the direction if they are not close.
2nd hardest thing Is trying to get one to give away his location when he doesn't want to…
I've always said this is one way the really good turkey hunters separate themselves from the rest. Harold and David are the best I've ever been around.
Once they make him gobble no matter time of day, he is usually dead soon.

Can you hear them drum ?

 

[Chief44]

My weakest link would no doubt be my hearing. I can hear birds gobble but as someone mentioned above, if they are very far away I have trouble figuring out the direction. I also can't hear turkeys walking in the leaves, so when they get close but still out of sight, I have no idea they are there unless they gobble. That has caused me to bust more birds than anything. I really like hunting by myself, but when someone else is with me and they can hear birds walking or scratching in the leaves, it helps a great deal. My second would be patience. However, the older I get the more patience I seem to have.

 

[Rakkin6]

Hearing for me, I have lost a lot of my hearing. I can hear them gobble but have a lot of trouble with direction. And I have found myself thinking they were farther away than they were and getting in to tight and.gettimg busted.

 

[Plateau Hunter]

All of the above…lol

 

[JAY B]

patience

 

[AT Hiker]

I cannot tell you how many times I've been hunting with people and we spend 10 minutes arguing about which direction the gobble came from.
Just this past fall I experienced it elk hunting. I was 100% confident in the direction but my buddy was certain it came from the other direction.
I was correct but Im constantly amazed how much hearing differences people have.

I've been blessed with good vision and hearing but now that I'm in my 40's it's starting to deteriorate some. The only assumption is selective hearing, it's getting better and better.

 

[Roost 1]

Can you hear them drum ?

Absolutely from a long ways…. My hearing loss in in the high frequency… too many gun blasts so they tell me

 

[spoon]

Mine is 100% deaf in my right ear (ear infection) and lot of damage from 70's rock & roll era. Can't tell the direction of sounds.

Every year I call them into range just don't want to move to spook them cause I guess wrong on the sound

 

[AT Hiker]

Absolutely from a long ways…. My hearing loss in in the high frequency… too many gun blasts so they tell me

My late grandfather had hearing loss from the Army, he had trouble hearing them gobble and I'm pretty certain he had trouble hearing them drum sometimes but not near the problems of hearing them gobble in the distance.