ORIGINAL: SwampCollie
ORIGINAL: Hobbes
I also like to "run and gun". If I don't have a bird roosted and don't hear any from the roost or a bird I've roosted doesn't cooperate after he flys down then I'll move to another area to find a bird that does want to gobble. I may come back to the area later to see if he's lost his hens or another bird has showed up, but I won't sit on my but for 4 hours without hearing a sound making the occasional yelp with the impression that is the only way to kill a limbhanger.
See... thats not really running and gunning. That is just moving to find a hot bird. Thats totally normal activity for turkey hunting. And true, you will run in to one every now and then.
Let me give my definition of run and gun hunting, just to clear up some of the bickering and what not. I don't honestly think I even really explained it any how.
Run and gun hunting is when you have a bird gobbling, and often when you have a bird responding to your calls... but rather than letting him come to you... you decide to go to him. You make the bird gobble... then you "run" to the bird, set up fast in a likely area somewhere between where you were and where he was... then you hopefully "gun" him.... hence run and gun. It more accurately immulates what really goes on in nature... but it is also risky because you run the chance of having a bird meet you in the middle. Part of turkey courtship is the tom strutting for the hen... and he has to have a place to strutt. He won't do it in the briars or the water... he prefers open woods, roads or fields. Makes sense. Toms usually have a spot they like to strutt in, and they are not hard to find.. writing is on the ground. If he is not in his strutting area, and has responded to your calls... you have to beat him there. Thats when your decoys... and your hustle (hence RUN) pays off.
What you and a few others are describing Hobbes is not what I consider run and gun hunting. All that is what I consider "prospecting"... just looking for one to sound off. There are in my opinion right and wrong ways of doing this.. and any time I acctually MAKE a turkey noise... I will stay where I'm at for at least 20 minutes... because birds will come in quiet. I have learned never to run that call unless I am ready for a bird to gobble 100 yards away and come charging to be in gun range in less than 30 seconds. I have been burned too many times just walking and calling randomly in semi-suspect areas.
Oh, ok. Then I lied... neither me nor my uncle run and gun. I thought the same things Hobbes thought was running and gunning. Next time I'll look up what something means instead of assuming the definition.
By the way, when I said "how do you know that you arespooking birds if you don't know that you are," I was just joking... not being serious. It just sounded funny the way you worded it.
