Originally Posted by
traperbob
no my 16ga is pretty new i got it last year new single shot with a full fixed choke and the turkeys eather fly down over top of me and land in the field in frount of me and woek there way up and over to my right or just go the other way ive just never been able to get them to do this while im there hunting ive watchd them from the house do this and i know about where there going as long as it dont change from last year and last year i know there was atleast 2 there oh yea im in va our season dosent start till april
Well good... I can easily relate to VA... born and raised here.
Good on you for watching from afar. It seemed early on that you might have given in to temptation and gone to play with them a bit. Pretty sure way not to kill one is go fooling with them too early. Keep watching what they are doing and think about what they did last year. They have a way of following the same MOs as long as their food sources don't change and the hen's nesting cover stays good. Been plenty (almost too much) water this winter, so that won't be an issue unless theres a flood.
Rule of thumb for me in a field that can be seen from a roost tree.... decoys are generally a bad idea. They have plenty of time to survey the scene. Its a 75% no-go in my experience. If you can set yourself up above the birds (AND AVOID SKYLINING YOURSELF!!!) Then a decoy can be advantageous.