ORIGINAL: TEmbry
ORIGINAL: SwampCollie
I wish you all the luck in the world trying aggressive tactics while bow hunting out of a double bull blind.... either you'll end up like a Looney Tunes episode trying to sneak around in your still popped up blind, or you'll spend your entire morning putting your blind up... breaking it back down again... moving 100 yards.... repeating again....
Maybe Im misunderstanding, so let me ask some questions?
What do you consider aggresive? Someone squaking their head off every 5 minutes sounding like a buzzard dying, or someone who moves in on a gobbling bird (within 200 yards) and chooses to call, as needed, more often than the before stated no sooner than 30 minutes...
What most folks consider aggressive hunting is not making a move on a bird, but just simply prospecting. Being up and mobile rather than stationary and sneaky. Lots of people hit and run differnt spots trying to strike a hot bird.... that works if you have a lot of birds and little time (Kyle's situation)... but if you have a set 1000 acres to hunt over the course of 6 weeks.... you just can't hunt like that and expect the hunting to stay decent... it would be like doing man drives everyday of the deer season on your property.
I consider myself a semi-aggressive turkey hunter. I go to predetermined spots that I know turkeys will be close by. If i have a bird roosted, I will move in close and setup before daylight, if not, I wait and listen. Once a bird sounds off, I head his direction, or to where I could cut him off from where I think he might go. I almost always try and setup within 200 yards, close as I can without bumping him, which for me, terrain usually dictates. Call to him softly on the limb, fly down cackle and wing flap if hes responded. From there it is purely situational. I may get up and move in 30 minutes, I may wait until 11 am if Im confident he was interested and will make his rounds later. I may move off immediately to a different bird If I dont like the setup. What would this be considered under your definitions?
Normal. But thats hard to do with a pop-up blind, bow, decoys etc in my expereince. If you have made a call to that bird, its not as easy as calling a time out.... I've shot quite a few longbeards that came in on the run hot trying to cut off the bird that was responding to the call... first come first serve you know...
But as I learned from duck hunting... if there is a five minute window that you DON'T want the bird(s) to show up.... thats when they will be there... been caught with my waders down and my gun in my hands with my shotgun back in the blind more than once getting rid of morning Mt. Dew. Same goes for trying to move on turkeys.... I only try and move if I know a bird is hung up. Situation dictates. Once a bird is gobbling and you are in the game with him, I'm of the less is more school of thought, but I won't hesitate to move if I feel it necessary... but I'm not hasty either.
A weapon can infact change your calling style... because it changes your hunting style. I don't hunt with a gun out of groundblind..... why bother with it?
Thats actually exactly what I was referring to, apples to apples oranges to oranges. What changes if someone chooses to bowhunt from a blind compared to gun hunting from the blind? What changes when someone chooses to gun hunt from the groundwith no blindcompared to bowhunting on the ground with no blind? If your answer is anything different than "there is no change in calling tactics", please provide an explanation. Im honestly curious on how someone could think this.
Simple. Think about when a turkey (a real hen) gets aggressive... the only hens I have ever heard yelping there heads off, and cutting excitingly (that weren't fighting amongest themselves like old women playing bridge) were usually in a full tilt run on the way to the gobbler. If you are trying to close with a bird and moving in on him, then you can get away with that sort of calling. A tom knows how far away you are. Their locational/directional hearing is flat out of this world. He knows if you are coming or going. How are you going to move on a bird in a ground blind? You need the bird to come to you.... so you need to be a bit more reserved (generally) with your calling... again, there are always exceptions... always.
The hunting style changes, which in turn dictates calling style, the weapon your holding in hand has little to do with this IMO.
That depends on a few things. I think we are probably agreeing it would make a good sandwich, even if I say tomayto and you say tomahtoe. Know what I mean?
Also.... effective range is certainly NOT a wash.... I personally limit myself to 25 yards with a bow.
With the gun, I like to wait until they are inside of 35 yards.....
So in your instance, you have a 10 yard advantage over your chosen ranges? Do you truly feel that it helps THAT much? In my case, because I always have a decoy 99% of the time, I would just set the decoys in 10 yards closer than I would gun hunting. Problem solved.
As you turkey hunt more and more, you will quickly learn that having a decoy, and moving it ten yards closer, is rarely if ever a problem solver. Infact quite often, a decoy is more prone to make a smart bird hang up... or heck.. I've seen them come out at thirty yards...
run to sixty yards.... and then go in to full strutt.... expecting the hen to come to them.... Honestly, I've done better putting the decoys further away from me and trying to orient myself between the gobbler and the decoys....imagine a bird coming in from the left... I'll put the decoys thirty to forty yards to my right and if he stops at 60..... then he is really only at 20.... hopefully you see where I'm coming from. And even then, were I so inclined (and i used to be) with a shotgun if he stopped at 60 and put his head up... it would be lights out. The first Rio I ever killed I rolled deader than innocence.. I've never seen a bird really not flap at all... I ranged him (laser) at 56 yards. That was the spring of 2003.
why.... well.... thats the reason I turkey hunt... if you know what I mean, then you'll get it...
An animal with eyesight like a turkey can see an arrow coming.... and they will come unglued on you.... a little tiny move by a turkey at the shot is enough to totally throw you off.... I've missed my share of turkeys but (touch wood) I've never crippled one up.... and I'd like to keep it that way.
Trust me dude, I get what you mean. I like gettin em close just as much as the next guy. My personal range limits, for now atleast, are 30 with bow and 35-40 with gun. To me, I turkey hunt because I enjoy calling them in. Passive or agressively, doesn't matter Ive done both and enjoy both. It is all in the calling the bird in to me, ambushing a bird wouldn't provide me near the excitement, not that I wouldn't do it if I had a bird patterned. Knock on wood, Ive never crippled a bird either, though I have missed once due to miss judging the yardage...but now I have a rangefinder
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You said 9 states, which I am sooo jealous ofbtw
,how many have you tagged in? Just curious, no malice intended. Going on a 3-4 day trip out of state to new land sure can add a twist to a hunt. I love the whole scenario of camping and turkey hunting, with no one but a friend or dad. I hope to reach those numbers over the next 3-4 years. Ive only hunted 3 states so far, tagged in two.
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I've tagged in all nine, though two of those states (NC and Fla.) it took two trips to do so.... two years of trying in NC and just two separate trips the same year in Fla. Granted, my homestate of VA where I cut my teeth turkey hunting.... it took me ten springs.... school of hard knocks. When it comes to patterning birds, as you turkey hunt more and more, I think you'll get more and more enjoyment out of it. I wouldn't hunt turkeys if they didnt' gobble, but you can in the right situation, show up on a piece of property you have never been on before and with nothing but a general outline of the property lines kill a turkey the same morning you arrive. I've done it on more than one occasion. But to truely understand a KNOW a bird, and pursue him all spring, or even over the course of a couple of springs, and have him respond, and show, and give you the slip, and have close calls.... that is the best of both worlds.