Ifly

Very true Turk..and to me the most aggravating part of hunting public land..having to deal with the unknown of other hunters. I have been hunting public land for many yrs...40 something...and last yr. was the first yr. I have been cut off by other hunters while working gobblers..happened 4 times. I hunt only public land and have tried hard to get away from crowd, but bad health has limited me and that is the reason for being cut off. It's really hard to blame anyone for doing it because it's so easy to happen and that's the aggravating part. I hear a gobbler and then hear the hens..or is it a hunter working the bird..how should I approach, it's hard to tell the difference between real hens and someone calling...both can sound good or bad. I would venture to say most don't really care..they hear a gobbler and charge in. I backed off on birds about 3 times last season because I knew someone else was working the bird. I knew because the calling was way to much and way too much cackling. I also could tell one was using a Primos sounding slate rolling off the cackles. One bird I knew two were working as a team with mouth calls..that bird ended up having 1-5/8" spurs..Osceola. My point is I could have charged in and almost did and that is the frustrating part..not really being 100% sure and not wanting to back off on a hot gobbler. I backed off once thinking someone was working the bird and later went back in the area and he was still gobbling with no hen sounds this time and I called him in and killed it. Anyway I often think to myself while hunting public land how nice it must be to not have to worry every time you hear a gobbler about who else hears it..etc.