HuntingNet.com Forums - View Single Post - How many male turkeys? How many antlered deer?
Old 04-23-2008 | 01:05 PM
  #18  
quiksilver's Avatar
quiksilver
Giant Nontypical
 
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 5,716
Likes: 0
Default RE: How many male turkeys? How many antlered deer?

Jeff: a few things you're not considering...
[ol][*]Commercially-produced blinds and "blind hunting" is a relatively new mode of bowhunting turkeys. Sure, there were guys out there building man-made/natural blinds since the dawn of time - but as far as the average joe being able to bowhunt turkeys with any degree of success- he wouldn't have wasted his time... But now that he can buy a doghouse blind at Walmart for $75 - it's actually feasible, and people are doing it routinely. These are guys who have been bowhunting deer for 20-30 years - and killing turkeys in the spring really hasn't become a realistic idea until very recently. Hell, I don't even think you could buy a turkeydecoy in 1990. LOL Try it with no blind and no decoy.Good luck with that.[*]Location. On just about any respectably-sized woodlot, there's a place where any schmuck with half a brain can hang a stand and kill a buck. However, not all landmasses have the perfect strut-zone, readily-equipped with a nice, flat clover/chufa field that borders a poletimber roosting area. So, for every 30-40 decent deer stand sites, there might be one really perfect ambush site for a would-be turkey bowhunter.So most guys just don't have access to the "ideal" location - even if they do have all the goods (bow, blind, dekes, calls, property)[*]Vacation Time. Most guys are lucky if they get a week or two to burn in any given year. I'd reckon that most of the guys here would take most/all of their vacation time in the fall, if they were forced to choose. That means that a VERY low percentage of their availablehunting time is spent on bowhunting turkeys. [/ol]
So these factors all translate into an abyssmally low success rate for "turkey bowhunters." However, I don't think that the low success rate mean that it's insurmountably difficult. As a matter of fact, if you have a good place to put a blind up - it's quite easy. Just put the time in, and sooner or later - a tom is bound to present a shot.

Truth is, not everybody has the time, the blind or the location. If you have all 3, and a decent caller - even a child can do it.
quiksilver is offline  
Reply