Turkey Hunting
Distance: The Working Comfort Zone — Pt 1
From Turkey and Turkey Hunting We all have a comfort zone for distance in bagging turkeys. I don’t want to talk about ethics, but just personal comfort. It would be a question that would just hard to glean anything meaningful if I just asked you “What is your comfort zone?” Everyone has a different way of looking at it. So here is how I want to frame the question so that we can get some workable data. First off, think about all the turkeys you have shot and the distance they were shot. This is not just about kills, but … More . . .
Some Days, It’s Like You Don’t Know Squat
From March, 2009 On the way back to the house, I didn’t know whether to write this up as a stunning success or a miserable failure. I guess any time the turkeys reveal something to you, it’s a victory. Back in early March, I had Angus out scouting the bottom end of Hootin’ Holler. It’s one of the larger hollows on our place and dominates the eastern half of the property. We named it so, because the owls frequently nest along the south side. It is also a place that our turkeys frequently use for roosts. Over the Winter, we … More . . .
Coming back to Camp/ On Locator Calling
This may be weird to y’all, but there is nothing that quite compares in my life to being away from camp for 2-3 months and then coming back in. I spend the whole winter fretting about the place. It’s weathered ice storms, tornado and so on, and it is always such a relief to see it. In the time away I’ve had to deal with the holidays and the stresses of life at the plant. I really get to missing the place. What’s more, there is a perfect time capsule of the end of deer season waiting for me, right … More . . .
Turkey Camp Reopens
The Hole in the End of the Stump Turkey Camp officially reopened yesterday for the 2010 KY Spring Gobbler Season. Good news: The lights, the phone, and the water came back on without a hitch. I also got a cell signal on the first try. There were no dead mice There were no signs of live mice Bad news: The back door blew off one of the barns, but that is no big deal. No Turkeys– at least they weren’t out with a banner to greet me. Tomorrow I’ll get down to the arduous task of sitting at my shooting … More . . .
Scouting for Turkeys — PT 2
Scat, feathers, dusting bowls, etc. are all icing on the cake for me. There are two signs that tell me there are turkeys around: tracks and scratches. I look in creek bottoms and along roads and tracks. If there are turkeys about, you’ll see tracks in the mud. If these are not forthcoming, I look for scratchings in the leaves. I’m not saying the others are useless, but . . . Scat and feathers: Turkeys leave them everywhere. They are a great bonus/ Dusting bowls: Around here, they don’t start dusting seriously until after season ends. For dusting, you need … More . . .
Scouting for Turkeys — PT I
First off, I’d go out to a place and walk it during daylight and check for sign: 1) Tracks and scratchings 1) Feathers 3) Scat As a rough rule of thumb, if you find turkey sign, you’ll be within earshot the next morning of some turkeys on the roost. If you have the time, hunt around in the surrounding woods. You may find a roost, with a large helping of feathers and scat around it. If you back off and wait until late-afternoon, you might catch them coming back to the roost. The next morning, go to the spot you … More . . .
TreeRooster’s Tale– The Annual Safety Post
From TreeRooster at Turkey And Turkey Hunting Forum In the spring of 2005, I had just finished a turkey hunt in Colorado with my friend James a couple days earlier. James headed to Kansas for another hunt and I was on the road to Black Hills of South Dakota. As I drove near a cell phone tower my phone beeped. It was a message from my wife. In an emotional and broken voice she said; “Gary call me, Fred shot James” James was hit with a Remington #5 Hevi-shot from approximately 40yds (shooters estimate). He was just getting up from … More . . .
Afternoon Turkey Hunting
There are some states that ban the hunting of turkeys in the afternoon. The feeling is that it puts too much stress on the birds. This leads folks to wonder if hunting turkeys in the afternoon is such a good thing. My feeling is that it probably makes no great difference. I would not be too worried about perturbing the turkeys through afternoon hunting. I am forever bumping turkeys, and it never seems to change their habits. We have an extended back yard. Here’s some pictures of it: Pooh Corner– the shamanic thoughtful spot In the evening, I can be … More . . .
Educating SuperCore
Supercore made it over to the house yesterday for some tutoring. Now mind you, I used to work for this guy when I taught at the local college, so I felt the need to do this right. Supercore brought a couple of candidate shotguns, but neither had the right stuff. Then he mentioned that he had a Mossberg 500 laying around home. That’s probably going to be the one. I’m going to meet back up with him over the weekend. I lent him a bunch of books, including Ray Eye’s Practical Turkey Hunting Strategies: How to Hunt Effectively Under Any … More . . .
Mistakes Made While Turkey Hunting.
There’s very little I feel I do right in turkey hunting. I don’t think I’m an expert on the birds, I’m not that good a caller. I know my own birds pretty well, but mostly they give me the slip and stand there laughing at me. Wherever I have the barrel pointed, the gobbler always seems to show up somewhere else and usually it is from a quarter where I will have a devil of a time getting turned around. I misjudge distances and time. I fall flat on my face when I’m trying to be sneaky. I miss easy … More . . .
Who’s a Turkey Expert?
From Turkey and Turkey Hunting I’ll stand up and raise my hand. I am a turkey hunting expert. There isn’t anyone alive who knows my turkeys better than I do. However, that only covers 200 acres of ground in the Trans-Bluegrass of Kentucky. Of course, even I occasionally leave a tag unfilled, and most days I get skunked, so I guess you can all just thank me for sharing and I’ll sit back down. Nevermind. Sorry. The point of it is, you might think I was an expert turkey hunter if you came out to my farm and we went … More . . .
How do I prepare to go hunt turkeys
From: Explain your hunt First off, let me remind y’all that I’m turkey hunter that hunts his own 200 acres. I can go out on my front porch in the morning and owl and have gobblers sounding off a full 360 degrees. When the alarm goes off, I usually take my bag of calls out onto the front porch and put them out on the table, and then go in the house and start getting ready. I put on the coffee, and grab the latest weather report. I suit up and then go out on the porch and try out … More . . .
Developments– Food Plots and Jagende Hutte II
We got to deer camp Friday night and did not even bother to open the doors. Instead, we immediately rolled out into the field to check on the food plots. I’d planted over Memorial Day weekend. In the interim, the farm has been soaked repeatedly. The results were fantastic! In two weeks, both the sunflower/milo/clover field and the wheat/clover field are germinated and growing. The other surprise we had was that as we drove past the one field, a dozen mourning dove flew out. In the other a dozen turkeys, all gobblers, ran off. There were serious deer tracks in … More . . .
Where do pressured turkeys go?
A fellow over on T&TH wanted to know how to mid-season scout pressured turkeys on public land. Here is my answer. I have 200 acres of private land to hunt. It is not like your public land problem. However, I might have some ideas for you. You’ve gotten good advice so far. I used to hunt private land adjoining Hocking Hills, a large state park complex in South Central Ohio. The farmer there told me after opening week, the turkeys all took to the sides of the roads and hid in the culverts. He was right. You can’t hunt right … More . . .
Late Morning Birds
I have gotten so that I hardly expect a bird to fly down to me off the roost anymore. That single idea has probably done more to improve me as a turkey hunter as anything else I’ve done in the past 10 years. A few years ago I thought I might be having trouble with my heart, and promised myself I’d stay away from the steep hills during turkey season. I promised myself I’d go to the doctor immediately after season was over. The pain in my chest turned out to be a dislocated rib. The pain in my left … More . . .
Watching the Curtain Come Down
I really did not set out this weekend to put emotional closure on the season. Turkey season for me has usually been a frustrating experience– no less due to the way it usually ended. Noon would come on the last Saturday, I’d get up and walk out and drive home, picking up something for Mother’s Day on the way. If that. Most years, early on, I get one half day a year to hunt turkey and then that would be it. I’d remember season had ended right about the time I was putting the lawnmower away. So it was a … More . . .
Last Tag Filled
“ I don’t suppose you want any of this?” I asked my friend. We were sitting in the middle of the pasture, enjoying the day. I was munching on some chopped chicken livers. “It’s really good stuff,” I added. “I always enjoy chopped chicken livers on Matzo crackers. They just kind of go together. I fell in love with the stuff when I was a kid, and I ate so much of it that my mom found a recipe. Pretty soon she had me making the stuff. It’s just chicken liver and egg and onion, but all mashed up together, … More . . .
Honey Holes
Okay. I’m ready to come out now and say what needed to be said about honey holes. To be honest with you, I didn’t coin the term Honey Hole. It was coined by Brian Warner at Heirloom Turkey Calls. One night we were exchanging posts, and I was noticing that I kept coming back to the same spots over and over again to hunt turkeys. He said there was no such thing as a honey hole. Until then I didn’t have an opinion one way or the other. I think there is. It’s like I tell KYHillChick: “You can understand … More . . .
I am a Turkey Hunting Troglodyte
I guess this contemporary versus traditional argument has been around a long while. I guess I didn’t notice it until recently when it came to turkey hunting. It could be that the turkey hunters I know are mostly illiterate and don’t own PC’s, so they don’t know they’re part of a camp. Somebody coined the term “Traditional Taliban” on here. “Old-Schoolers” is another term. I’m not going to use the terminology of one side to characterize another, but it seems we are locked in a never-ending tussle between traditional versus contemporary methods. I would like to submit myself as an … More . . .
Update from Turkey Camp.
Well, it was a good fresh start. It wasn’t going to last. I bagged that gob on Friday. Friday evening, my wife and sons showed up. We were treated to a bunch of hens and a mature gobbler out in the pasture just before sundown. The didn’t much mind us; their closest approach was 150 yards. The gobbler did not seem to have his heart in it– he strutted once, and then spent the rest of his time feeding. That was sort of how Saturday was. I took Angus back to the same spot as the day before. The same … More . . .
Double Beard with a Double Barrel
I was feeling a might heavy when I went out this morning. The birds have just not been cooperating lately. It’s coming to the end of the first week. I’d stayed home Monday and Tuesday due to rain. Wednesday the wind had gotten outrageous, and it was promising to blow big time again. The kids were coming for the weekend. Once they arrived, I’d be devoting my energies to calling in birds for them. Besides, the crunch is on. I’m a Pro-Staffer now. I have the reputations of a magazine and a call company to hold up. Try telling that … More . . .
A Fresh Start
I was feeling a might heavy when I went out this morning. The birds have just not been cooperating lately. It’s coming to the end of the first week. I’d stayed home Monday and Tuesday due to rain. Wednesday the wind had gotten outrageous, and it was promising to blow big time again. The kids were coming for the weekend. Once they arrived, I’d be devoting my energies to calling in birds for them. Besides, the crunch is on. I’m a Pro-Staffer now. I have the reputations of a magazine and a call company to hold up. Try telling that … More . . .
I Made it to Camp
I finally made it to Turkey Camp. It was 62F outside and 50F inside, so I turned on the attic fan, opened the windows and came out on the front porch. I was met with two hens out in the far pasture, so I grabbed the binos and started glassing. They’re coming and going out of the tree line. While I was waiting to see them again, I set up the laptop on the shooting bench, put up the string between the tin cans and tried to get a signal and here I am. The kids don’t show until tomorrow … More . . .
An Anonymous Acolyte and Mister Remmy
I received the following comment the other day regarding my “Bubba’d-up” Mossy: Anonymous said… Inspirational. That’s what your ministry has done for me. I too had a sticky-tape camo job on my Rem 870 home brew turkey gun. Since I am the President of the “Order of the Blue Snood” here in Washington State, I felt it was time to give ol’ Mister Remmy a makeover. A visit to the local Fred Meyer store and $28 bucks later I was spraying my way to the coolest do-it-yourself bubba gun I’ve ever done. (OK, it was only my second.) I will … More . . .
Yute Hunt 2009 — Angus Counts Coup
Angus and I went this morning for Day 2 of the KY Yute Season. Angus was armed with his 20 GA Mossberg bolt action. He was shooting Federal #4’s. We spent another morning like Saturday, with a bunch of half-hearted gobblers barely paying us any mind before fading off. Like Saturday, we packed up around 0900 and moved to another part of the farm, with the intention of looking for gobblers that might be starting to heat up. We tried a few spots, nothing paid off and the sun was getting high enough that a mid-morning nap seemed to be … More . . .
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