Not decoys but…..

[Chickenrig]

Hunting apps
Everyone is bashing someone for using decoys but how many of ya'll are using them at home before the hunt and walking around the woods at 5:00am heading for that pin you dropped last week? Dropping pins on points and saddles that you would not know existed if it wasn't for those apps unledd you found them by good old woodsmanship!! I am sure we all use some sort of crutch/tech nowadays.

 

[deerhunter10]

Have zero apps. Will say this I've never see a long beard run across a field because you have onX.

 

[megalomaniac]

I spend 100s of hours studying maps, property lines, and satellite imagery.

THEN I put boots on the ground before season to see if they are actually what looks like good habitat to me.

But that is my greatest weakness. 95% of the spots I pick out as being perfect end up being a total blank with no birds, even if the habitat looks good (to me). I still haven't figured out how to translate online maps to real, actual turkeys.

It's getting frustrating to the point where I'm about to start picking out the worst looking spots on imagery and checking those... im that bad apparently.

I just wish I had a fanbase to send me pins of where gobblers were so I didn't have to find them myself.

I will say I'm better than average when it comes to spotting and identifying actual sign (tracks, scratching, poop, stray feathers, kill sites, etc) and how old it is. I've killed several gobblers down here just by cutting a fresh track, heading the way he was walking, then striking and calling him in.

My other weakness is I tend to hit spots that I've killed birds before in years past assuming they should still be good. Ends up being a waste of time mostly. I've never killed a bird on public down here where I've killed one in years before. Until I figure out what I'm doing wrong, it just seems like turkeys are where you find them.

 

[Setterman]

I routinely use aerial photos to better understand the areas I hunt. I'm not hunting a 100 acre wood lot. Rather a contiguous wooded and mountainous region that could be 10,000 acres or more. With that said, I generally hunt the same chunks of land. However there's an unlimited number of hidden benches, bowls, flats, hollows, drains, saddles etc that can't be found unless you're on the ground and even then they sneak up on you

I'm failing to see the point in the original post. Are you suggesting that using aerial photos is the same as decoys? I'm so confused.

 

[deerfever]

I am very confused, how is using an app to show boundary lines and land features remotely close to using a decoy? I am getting so old I use the app so I don't get lost! Lol, I put boots on the ground to find turkeys but those apps are handy to know exactly by where you are at all times.

 

[redblood]

No opinion. Use no apps- i know where my boundaries are

 

[Hymie3]

I use onX mainly for property lines and to mark spots I find while walking or scouting. Why wouldn't you do that? No crutch and I don't depend on it much. Just a tool. Has nothing to do with using a decoy or not. Different topic entirely to me. OnX can't find or attract a bird to you last time I checked.

However, If a man wants to use a decoy, so what. I don't but if a man wants to that's his business. Personally, when I started Turkey hunting they hurt me more than help by far. Everyone's feelings aside, in my opinion being able to take a gobbler with just a call and a weapon is way more satisfying and challenging.
The guys who reap, we'll that's a different story. That utterly disgusts me.

 

[woodsman04]

I've used WMA maps or the US Forest Service maps way before technology has it on your phone.

I would still prefer them, because they don't drain phone battery.

 

[woodsman04]

I also won't get onX because of the you tube crowd. I tend to try and do opposite of any advertising

 

[REN]

Man we are grasping at straws now lol.

I relied heavily on maps and satellite photos when I went to Nevada to turkey hunt last year. Had no choice seeing it was 1000 miles away from me.

Maps are not what killed the bird though. The 12 miles hiking from 6k to 9k feet elevation a day did.

 

[ZachMarkus]

I hunt all over the country so I use OnX a lot for scouting and property lines. Would have been lost in the mountains out west without it last year 2,200 miles from home in new territory.

 

[Chickenrig]

I routinely use aerial photos to better understand the areas I hunt. I'm not hunting a 100 acre wood lot. Rather a contiguous wooded and mountainous region that could be 10,000 acres or more. With that said, I generally hunt the same chunks of land. However there's an unlimited number of hidden benches, bowls, flats, hollows, drains, saddles etc that can't be found unless you're on the ground and even then they sneak up on you

I'm failing to see the point in the original post. Are you suggesting that using aerial photos is the same as decoys?

Trust me , in no ways of words am i saying not to use what is a available to you be it decoys or online tech . It just seems that nowadays with apps and handhelp gps that hunters are going further and more before hunt intel than back in the day before. A mile used to be a long way now its 3,4,5,6 . So i reckon what i am saying is that if its legal and safe then so be it use it . I am a flatlander and in no way could i imagine hunting in ya'lls mountains. I have trouble walking to the mailbox .
Again no disrepect

 

[timberjack86]

Hunting apps
Everyone is bashing someone for using decoys but how many of ya'll are using them at home before the hunt and walking around the woods at 5:00am heading for that pin you dropped last week? Dropping pins on points and saddles that you would not know existed if it wasn't for those apps unledd you found them by good old woodsmanship!! I am sure we all use some sort of crutch/tech nowadays.

Really? Can you imagine hunting a piece of ground like the Cherokee national forest without some sort of navigation? You could spend the whole season just looking for decent ground to hunt. Especially someone new to the area, and just because it looks good on a computer screen don't mean there's animals even close to a good looking saddle. I can't count the times I've hiked into a pin I've dropped and it be so thick you can't see 30 yards or no animal sign whatsoever. Nothing replaces boots on the ground hunting the mountains. Try again.

 

[JN]

Yeah I have been using paper maps and a compass way before I had onX. OnX just makes it easier and now I don't have to carry paper maps. OnX may help you get to a spot but doesn't help you call the bird in.

 

[Bone Collector]

I'm failing to see the point in the original post. Are you suggesting that using aerial photos is the same as decoys? I'm so confused.

I am wondering the same thing. I think everyone who hunts has a cell phone or computer. With the mapping technology, you'd be insane to go get a paper map or just wonder aimlessly into the woods. I use maps all the time and like Mega said, I go in and see if what I think is good is actually good.

Technology is here to stay until its not... Decoys are a whole different topic.

 

[30-06 type of guy]

I also won't get onX because of the you tube crowd. I tend to try and do opposite of any advertising