would like to thank the people not

[hunter60]

notice I didn't say hunters.

1-for practicing your calling on birds before the season starts.

2-for walking into the woods for the first time on opening day with your owl call so you can get a bird to gobble. Thats been gobbling every morning for weeks on its own. So you can cut in front of the hunter thats all set up on the bird he's been scouting.

3-for the ones that shoot the birds off the roost in the dark.

4-that set up so close to a bird it flys down at their feet & they shoot it.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL THE REAL HUNTERS ON OPENING DAY!

[Handles]

I agree with #3, but what would you suggest for the others?

IMO 1. Turkey's don't get conditioned to calling.
2. How is a person supposed to know that someone else has scouted out "their" bird ahead of time and is all set up? I say that's tough luck.
4. If it happens that way good for you. If I get a trophy buck to come right to my stand I shouldn't shoot him because he came right in without much effort?

Just curious what your replys will be. Sounds like someone got "your" bird and now you are saying they aren't a good hunter. Sour Grapes?

[hunter60]

handles our season hasn't started yet. You don't think birds don't get call shy when they hear hen calls day after day & don't see a live hen.

[Handles]

No I don't.
I've also read the same thing from so called experts. Who knows I might be wrong, but I honestly think that the wild turkey is too dumb to "reason".
If they come into hen calls three days in a row and there are no hens do you think that on the fourth day they will think " I hear a hen, but I'm not going to check it out because there weren't any there yesteday."?
Turkey's are programmed for the hens to come to the tom, not the other way around. It is therefore unnatural for toms to come to hen calls, although they will based solely on a desire to breed. If a tom doesn't come to your calls I think it is purely because he doen't want to or already as enough hens around him to ocupy his time.
I think hunters often give to much credit to the turkeys brain. Instinctual and wary? Yes. Smart? No.

[Martin Cougar]

I tend to agree w/ Handles. I don't believe that calling to a gobbler preseason will condition the birds. As long as the bird isn't coming in and busting you or see a human - I don't think this is a problem.

As for the other points -

#2 - again, how would I know you are there. Or how do you know it's not you who came and tried to move in on my bird. Maybe I was scouting just as much as you but was there on the days you weren't

#3 agreed

#4 - if this happens and it's a long beard....I say job well done. You've done your homework and your hard work paid off.

[huntnma]

wow....looks like this one might get heated, lol....nah, we're all adults here, so i think we can discuss this without getting mad, lol....
1. i think calling before season is bad just for the fact that they might associate it with humans if you are seen, i am guilty of it, a cluck or a yelp here and there, but then the day comes when you're busted and the bird is on to us, i stopped doing it...
2.alot of hunters will scout an area, then in the a.m. , go to the gobble and set up....i scouted 2 months before and set up a blind in an area....the morning i went in, i heard a gobble , i ran to it, even though it wasnt where i had set up...set up on him, i wasnt, 30 yards from his roost, he flew down and i ran up behind a brush pile and got him....does this mean i am not a hunter? , i think it's makes me an even better/luckier hunter, that i can get that close to a roosted bird and not get busted and still take the bird....
3. totally agree
4.is included in #2......

sorry your hunt went so bad....it' just part of hunting public land....you'll get a bird and i hope it's one that is in the roost and it flys down right in front of you