WMA Roller coaster

[Urban_Hunter]

Absolutely shocked by the amount of people and how they conduct themselves. Someone beat me to my spot surprisingly so I went to a different spot. Daylight, birds still roosted, two fools come beebopping through the middle of the field right past my decoys. Hens all around me alarm calling in the trees. They get about 100 yards past us, shoot one undoubtedly on the limb, then bee bop right back through the field. I grabbed our stuff and followed them out, where they crossed at least two more fields the same way, right down the middle. Get back to the boat and look at my original spot, there's 4 boats down the bank about 100 yards apart. People just on top of each other with no respect for the first guy in. I stash the decoys for the day and Run a ways to another spot where I feel like odds are low but so should be the pressure. Find one on private pretty deep and get his hen fired up and coming, and she does but he stays put with some jakes. She goes right by us at 10 yards. Then I notice another hen and I get to mimicking her and here she comes… but he stays. Watched him for 30-45 mins and finally decided to call again, obnoxious call gets him to gobble and I hear ANOTHER hen he had penned up. She comes right to me, this time finally with ol Tom in tow. Strutting, spitting, drumming, the whole show. 10 yards and the .410 let loose. About loose it I was so excited, as was she. Couple jakes came by inspecting and let them go. Get the stuff to walk out and there's two guys posted up chasing after the jakes and another two guys watching them while laying prone in the smack middle of a 50 acre field. I'm guessing they heard the couple gobbles and came running. Get back to the boat and there's two new boats at the original spot. I half think what little turkeys there are will get annihilated, but also think they'll be pushed permanently back to private by lunch time. First Tom ever for my girl, real excited, but also overall disappointed with the traffic and their conduct. There's plenty of room, it just seems like if a bird starts talking and you don't have him in the dirt in 15 mins you're going to have an army on top of you.

Sorry for the long winded rant. Had a blast making memories with my girl

 

[poorhunter]

Well done young lady!!

Just the reason I'm grateful to not have to hunt public land. Back when I started turkey hunting there weren't many guys at all, and outside of opening day hardly saw anyone. This was on The Hoosier National Forest in the early 90's.

 

[deerfever]

Congratulations to the young lady, that is a great Tom! I hate you and your girl had to go through that as respect is a thing of the past on public. I sure am glad you guys made it happen !

 

[Apostolic Outdoors]

Congrats! Glad it worked out for y'all!!

 

[JeepKuntry]

We had a guy drive down a logging road on a WMA this morning. I threw a hand up but no bird. 10 years ago I would have been ready to throw down on that stupidity!

 

[Hduke86]

Heck yea and I'm glad she got one down. I just posted something similar to this a while back that on public land I want to Tom to gobbler once so I tell which direction and then not gobble again until he's within range cause it's a calling card for stupid folks to come running.

 

[losthunter]

We had a guy drive down a logging road on a WMA this morning. I threw a hand up but no bird. 10 years ago I would have been ready to throw down on that stupidity!

Same here. I was just dumbfounded. Drive right past me and the sign that clearly says. NO VEHICLES BEYOND THIS POINT.

 

[BPhunter]

Absolutely shocked by the amount of people and how they conduct themselves. Someone beat me to my spot surprisingly so I went to a different spot. Daylight, birds still roosted, two fools come beebopping through the middle of the field right past my decoys. Hens all around me alarm calling in the trees. They get about 100 yards past us, shoot one undoubtedly on the limb, then bee bop right back through the field. I grabbed our stuff and followed them out, where they crossed at least two more fields the same way, right down the middle. Get back to the boat and look at my original spot, there's 4 boats down the bank about 100 yards apart. People just on top of each other with no respect for the first guy in. I stash the decoys for the day and Run a ways to another spot where I feel like odds are low but so should be the pressure. Find one on private pretty deep and get his hen fired up and coming, and she does but he stays put with some jakes. She goes right by us at 10 yards. Then I notice another hen and I get to mimicking her and here she comes… but he stays. Watched him for 30-45 mins and finally decided to call again, obnoxious call gets him to gobble and I hear ANOTHER hen he had penned up. She comes right to me, this time finally with ol Tom in tow. Strutting, spitting, drumming, the whole show. 10 yards and the .410 let loose. About loose it I was so excited, as was she. Couple jakes came by inspecting and let them go. Get the stuff to walk out and there's two guys posted up chasing after the jakes and another two guys watching them while laying prone in the smack middle of a 50 acre field. I'm guessing they heard the couple gobbles and came running. Get back to the boat and there's two new boats at the original spot. I half think what little turkeys there are will get annihilated, but also think they'll be pushed permanently back to private by lunch time. First Tom ever for my girl, real excited, but also overall disappointed with the traffic and their conduct. There's plenty of room, it just seems like if a bird starts talking and you don't have him in the dirt in 15 mins you're going to have an army on top of you.

Sorry for the long winded rant. Had a blast making memories with my girl

Eastern USA is pretty crowded I guess. Small parcels get overrun to often. Sorry you had such a crap day. No need to be sorry about anything. Hope you have a better week.

 

[DoubleRidge]

Congratulations! Awesome memories! Nice Bird!

 

[Bone Collector]

Congrats!

 

[Crappieaddict]

Congrats!

 

[Bgoodman30]

Congrats on the bird young lady! But wow that is a cluster.. This is why I never hunt fields on public.. I went to public today just to see what I heard and was pleasantly suprised to get a spot to myself. Heard a guy stop by my truck but no one came in on me.. Heard 7 shots and 1 gobble and high tailed it to the baseball fields..

 

[Gravey]

Congrats! Idiots like that is what would probably end my turkey hunting if I didn't have private land to go to.

 

[killingtime 41]

To many people in Tn anymore. Last 4 years have been madness. Now even out in Country it's getting crowded. They're just hunting the way they did in the shnit hole state they came from with no respect for anyone. Not that we were shy of disrespectful idiots before they came. Just not to the degree is has gotten. Awesome you got a bird though.

 

[Acorn]

Nice bird, Congratulations to the young lady!

 

[Uncle Jesse]

Sounds like my morning. There was so many people that I just set up in a spot and deer hunted them. There was no gobbling after fly down anyway

 

[woodsman04]

Congratulations. That's tough but made it worth it.

Public land in some areas just isn't worth it anymore. I hope the fad fades in about 5-10 more years.

 

[crawford3546]

Congratulations. That's tough but made it worth it.

Public land in some areas just isn't worth it anymore. I hope the fad fades in about 5-10 more years.

I hope it doesn't take that long, we had Georgia and North Carolina running up and down river yesterday.

 

[Planking]

I got a heavy dose of unreal behavior from "hunters" this past deer season from the road at night. I still can't believe what has happened to hunting in my area. Glad she got her one. That is awesome!!

 

[CHRIS WILSON]

Congrats to the young lady!

Yeah, opening day on public land in middle TN can be an interesting experience. The first spot I planned on for opening morning had four vehicles there before 0500. I quickly changed my plans and went to a different area on the South side of the county. Luckily, didn't see many trucks going in. Didn't hear much until about 0845 when I got on a really vocal bird. Had him coming in hot and heavy to the oak flat I was on. He probably got within about 70 yards or so of my position when he just shut up. Thought maybe he'd just gone silent on me but after about 10 minutes, I hear a guy go off with a crow call down in the direction I last heard him gobble. Long story short, had a fella park about 50 yards down from my vehicle and attempt to move in on the same bird. Such is life hunting on public land

 

[thirdwilliam]

Congrats to you both. It will only get worse I am afraid.

 

[EastTNHunter]

Congrats to you and your girl on the bird. What shotgun is that?

Unfortunately that is the way that public land hunting goes, and that's just about all that I have to hunt. Sloppy schmucks can really put a damper on things, but it's all part of it