Hunting
What is your best public land hunting tactic for turkeys?
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DON'T CALL TOO MUCH. That is the key to geting birds. Try a hen decoy or two . Find the roosting place and set up with in 100yd with the hen(s) about 15yds from you. Cluck & pur with a slate call . get ready to shoot.
I hunt both public and private land. Public land birds are a bit more skittish most of the time, but if you say the right thing at the right time, they will come in just as quick as a fresh unbothered bird. How do you know what is the right thing to say? I don't know, but I have been lucky enough to guess once or twice.
I would rather not hunt at all than hunt turkey on public land. Too many idiots out there for an already dangerous sport.
Roost em' the night before, and wear out some boot leather. Look @ a map of the public land, and try to get as far from any parking access as possible, in a spot that looks good for birds of course. I've done it dozens of times, and the fact is, you will encounter other hunters, no matter what. Get there EARLY, and then at least you'll have some semblance of "dibs" on the spot you hunt. DO NOT USE JAKE OR GOBBLER DECOYS ON PUBLIC LAND!!! PERIOD!! There are idiots, as buckhunter pointed out.
Many hunters leave about 9 am after the early gobbling ends and the woods quiet down. That is when you should be there and hunt til shooting hours end. Gobblers are still there and many that ignored early calling will come to a call later in the day. Set up in a good spot and call about every 10 minutes. Just give 3 or 4 yelps and shut up to listen. Too many yelps and you might actually blot out an answering bird. No answer-then give it a series of 5 to 7 yelps stop and listen at least 10 minutes. After 30 min or an hour move to another place. Always sit very still 'cause lots of times a bird will come in silent and bust you. Instead of using a decoy that might attract another hunter set up in places where the bird will be in range when you see him. If you do use a deke avoid set ups where he can spot the decoy from long distance. He will usually hang up and try to call the decoy to him. One trick that has worked for me is to place a couple feeding hen dekes so that only their backs are visible in grass. When 'ol 3 beards couldn't get their attention he came right in and met a load of shot. You can see a pic of him in my profile.
so far I have only hunted public land and just bagged my first bird today. i kept moving around listening and calling with crow calls and sometimes a series of excited yelps. the yelps got the tom gobblin and the jakes came up behind me. I got a jake but just having idea of where turkeys would be helped me alot. Also I used google earth to get a picture of what the area would really look like so i could have a better chanc of baggin a bird.
avoid the weekends if poss. i know this is hard to do .scout the area in advance and dont call to much . sit in one place for at least an hour and call maybe twice. be very still and keep your eyes working lots of times birds will come in and you never know their coming . i use this tech if i here gobbling or not. ive had fair suc. on public land.
You should realy get your own private land, but only shoot at the turkey that you know no one else is looking at.
Of course we'd all love to hunt unmolested private land if we could. But, for some of us public land is our only option at the moment.
Ditto on avoiding weekends. I usually save up some vacation time and use it to hunt weekdays. Public land can be surprisingly calm and relaxing on a Wednesday morning.
Be flexible. Many times you find other hunters think exactly like you and the easy to get to spot right off the parking lot is the only spot nobody hunts. Everyone assumes everyone hunts there so they hike out to the far extents. Just recently I arrived early in the morning to find the parking lot empty. Yes! I then hiked about a 3/4 mile through the thickest prairie grass/thorns/briar patches to a lone grove of trees. As I started into the woods to my 'out of the way' place I saw a turkey...just standing there...not moving. WTF? Decoy? Yep, over to my left I saw a guy in full camo sitting under a tree. I gave him a friendly wave and humbly turned around and hiked back out. I felt like an idiot for walking up on this guy's hunt, but unfortunatly an all too common public land scenario.
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Roost em' the night before, and wear out some boot leather. Look @ a map of the public land, and try to get as far from any parking access as possible, in a spot that looks good for birds of course. I've done it dozens of times, and the fact is, you will encounter other hunters, no matter what. Get there EARLY, and then at least you'll have some semblance of "dibs" on the spot you hunt. DO NOT USE JAKE OR GOBBLER DECOYS ON PUBLIC LAND!!! PERIOD!! There are idiots, as buckhunter pointed out.
avoid the weekends if poss. i know this is hard to do .scout the area in advance and dont call to much . sit in one place for at least an hour and call maybe twice. be very still and keep your eyes working lots of times birds will come in and you never know their coming . i use this tech if i here gobbling or not. ive had fair suc. on public land.
DON'T CALL TOO MUCH. That is the key to geting birds. Try a hen decoy or two . Find the roosting place and set up with in 100yd with the hen(s) about 15yds from you. Cluck & pur with a slate call . get ready to shoot.
I hunt both public and private land. Public land birds are a bit more skittish most of the time, but if you say the right thing at the right time, they will come in just as quick as a fresh unbothered bird. How do you know what is the right thing to say? I don't know, but I have been lucky enough to guess once or twice.
I would rather not hunt at all than hunt turkey on public land. Too many idiots out there for an already dangerous sport.
Many hunters leave about 9 am after the early gobbling ends and the woods quiet down. That is when you should be there and hunt til shooting hours end. Gobblers are still there and many that ignored early calling will come to a call later in the day. Set up in a good spot and call about every 10 minutes. Just give 3 or 4 yelps and shut up to listen. Too many yelps and you might actually blot out an answering bird. No answer-then give it a series of 5 to 7 yelps stop and listen at least 10 minutes. After 30 min or an hour move to another place. Always sit very still 'cause lots of times a bird will come in silent and bust you. Instead of using a decoy that might attract another hunter set up in places where the bird will be in range when you see him. If you do use a deke avoid set ups where he can spot the decoy from long distance. He will usually hang up and try to call the decoy to him. One trick that has worked for me is to place a couple feeding hen dekes so that only their backs are visible in grass. When 'ol 3 beards couldn't get their attention he came right in and met a load of shot. You can see a pic of him in my profile.
so far I have only hunted public land and just bagged my first bird today. i kept moving around listening and calling with crow calls and sometimes a series of excited yelps. the yelps got the tom gobblin and the jakes came up behind me. I got a jake but just having idea of where turkeys would be helped me alot. Also I used google earth to get a picture of what the area would really look like so i could have a better chanc of baggin a bird.
You should realy get your own private land, but only shoot at the turkey that you know no one else is looking at.
Of course we'd all love to hunt unmolested private land if we could. But, for some of us public land is our only option at the moment.
Ditto on avoiding weekends. I usually save up some vacation time and use it to hunt weekdays. Public land can be surprisingly calm and relaxing on a Wednesday morning.
Be flexible. Many times you find other hunters think exactly like you and the easy to get to spot right off the parking lot is the only spot nobody hunts. Everyone assumes everyone hunts there so they hike out to the far extents. Just recently I arrived early in the morning to find the parking lot empty. Yes! I then hiked about a 3/4 mile through the thickest prairie grass/thorns/briar patches to a lone grove of trees. As I started into the woods to my 'out of the way' place I saw a turkey...just standing there...not moving. WTF? Decoy? Yep, over to my left I saw a guy in full camo sitting under a tree. I gave him a friendly wave and humbly turned around and hiked back out. I felt like an idiot for walking up on this guy's hunt, but unfortunatly an all too common public land scenario.
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