Ifly

The reason I quit hunting them with a .22 rim-fire back when they were legal in Ga...early 70's I think..is because using it cost me to this day the biggest gobbler I've ever seen in the woods.
It was on Clark's Hill Reservoir, public land..back then I never saw another turkey hunter in the woods or on the road..and there was about 5 gobblers sounding off first thing that morning. I took off to wards the closest one, got hid good and started calling. I didn't get any reply from the one I thought was closest, but a couple more farther on continued to gobble. I called and waited for about 1/2hr and still no action from the one I sat up on so said to heck with this I'm going after one of the others still gobbling. I stood up and when I did a monster size gobbler about 25yds. from me started beating the bushes apart trying to get off the ground. He finally got up and almost tore the top out of a little dogwood doing so. All I could do was stand there and watch him leave as I cussed. I said then no more rifles of any kind.
However...like I posted earlier..it's a lot harder to kill one with a .22 rim-fire the way I hunted them..calling them into shotgun range and only shooting in the wingbutt..than it is calling into the same distance and shooting with shotgun.

Fullback24

I'm obviously missing something here......Mr. Hossfly, you claim turkeys to be pests......they must not be that big a pest to charge $950 for a hunt(which is a good price, comparatively speaking).......then your telling me that your pro-rifle for turkeys, but on your 50,000 acres, you restrict a paying hunter to shotgun or archery equipment only.....something ain't figuring up.........how bout a trade?? I'll sell my services and help rid you of your pests for $950....that's a deal, you couldn't get Orkin that cheap.

Nice looking land you have there, by the way.

whitetailman1982

Ok cods, if you are going to open your mouth get your stories strait. First of all he doesn't have 50000 acres to hunt on, I do. Second of all if you will notice that his site says 100% opportunity. If I were a bettin man, I would probably guess that means that he has an abundance of turkey. Knowing the mentality of turkey hunters, I wouldalsopresume that if a hunter wereto payto bow hunt a turkeyhe/she is good enough to take that particular animal.I would guess about 80% of the people that bow hunt are not good enough to do so. Those people that are not good enough to do so, should probably use a shotgun. I also noticed that his site said, "semi guided." Probably meaning that he points the client in the right direction, gives boundry instructions, and lets the hunter go on his/her own. What I see when I read "shotgun and archery only," is "I won't allow some idiot to shoot cross his/her boundry and hit another client."If the clienthas any sence at all most likely will not happen with a shotgun or bow. Now to your secondpoint. Turkeys are pests inmy part ofTexas. We do notoutfitt hunts on this ranch at this point. My job is to take ourquantity of deer and turnthem into quality. ThereforeI feed and manage the deer we have. I have 44 feeders on thisranch, total. About half of those feeders, the deer can't get to because of your little feathered friends. I know what your probably thinking, "move them." That would be a great idea, but where everI move the feeders, the turkeys move also. If I had my way, and finances I would pay your overeducated ass to come anililate the little pests. Obvioulsly, you are from an inferior state that is completely oblivious to the point of wild life management.

Fullback24

Yeah, your right, I'm from an inferior state, not from Texas.....it's obvious to me that you're a whitetail enthusiast and not a turkey hunter, which is fine....so the way you see turkeys and the way I do are different.....but we do agree on one thing, which has been the topic of dicussion for this thread, and that is "idiots" with rifles that will "shoot across his/her boundry and hit another client". It doesn't take alot of extra-education to figure out, the fact that it is dangerous, as you pointed out. And NO, I'm not fortunate enough to own 50000 acres, so I know nothing about what your trying to accomplish. The only way I do manage deer is shooting does, and have managed to take a few nice bucks, although they probably wouldn't be worthy of hanging their horns on your outhouse, since they only came out of VA, but I'm proud of them regardless. The $950 extermination fee is negotiable, btw.

whitetailman1982

As you said, we do have 2 points of enterest. Honestly, I don't see anything wrong with shooting turkeys with a rifle. If it is leagal, where ever you are hunting. I have killed plenty of them with a rifle and a shotgun, and neither of them do anything for me anymore. IfI were a turkey enthusiast, I would probably choose to hunt with a bow. Just because, I have done it somany timesthe other ways, that it is nota thrill to me anymore.However, I can see that other people have not had the chances that I have had. To me,it doesn't matter what some onekilles a"big gobbler" with, but the factthat they can call them up close enought to kill.I say big gobbler because, I don't know how it is up there, but here, Jakes in the spring, are the dumbest animal that walkes the face of the planet. I have called as many as 9 in at one time. None of which I shot. In my opinion, use what you use best. Some people use different weapons better than others, so there is no use of trying to force a opinion upon someone.

Ryan Campbell

Ok, lets cool our jets a bit here. No one is from an inferior state. Different states have different laws which lend to creating different attitudes and traditions about hunting and how it should be done.

Some states do not allow hunting any animal with a rifle, I believe Maryland and Illinois are this way. I'm given to understand that you may not hunt deer, or anything else, with a rifle in these states but that doesnt make it wrong for someone in TX, or Colorado or Oregon to do it if it's legal to do so there.

Hunting Turkeys with a rifle isn't wrong when you do it where it's legal and you know where you are hunting. It is simply a method that is legal in some areas and not in others. It is probably a method that is best done on private land large enough to shoot rifles on and not on public land or small tracts of land.

In a way it's kind of funny how hunters, most of them anyway, are generally rugged individualists that want no interferance from the government in their general life. However, a lot of them are quick to jump on the idea that something that they don't agree with, in the hunting world, should be banned. I've guided hunters for a long time and I honestly belive that some people feel a sense of moral superiority when talking about the way hunting should be done and what should be legal or not.
Another thing you have to remember is that when you own the property, pay the taxes on it etc., you tend to take a dim view of anyone telling you what you can and can not do on your property. Not just hunting but anything a land owner may want to do on his on place. This may apply to construction, drilling, demolition etc., not necessarily to hunting.

To answer your question about shotgun hunting on my website. Those are the rules set down by the land owner of that particular ranch. Him being the land owner he can do that. His thinking is that most hard core turkey hunters generally use a shotgun anyway. Family can use rifles but paying hunters are shotgun and archery only. I do have another place to hunt turkey that is a bit cheaper that allows turkey hunting by either rifle, shotgun or archery.

In any event, to each his own and enjoy your hunting. No one is from an inferior state....However I do suspect the New Orleans area of living off the rest of the country.

hawglips

There is no other hunting sport where most hunters are totally camo-ed up, sitting on the ground behind their decoys on the edges of fields.

Rifles and turkey hunting don't mix. Just too dadgum dangerous. Shooting at small targets with a rifle may be fun -- stalking animals may be fun -- but that ain't turkey hunting.

Hal

hawglips

This ain't turkey hunting.

Hal

gobbler afflicted

I know for a fact that the Turkey in Texas are not the same bird hunted in the east. The hunt the Rio Grand sub species of wild turkey, and simply put they are about as dumb as a bag of hammers. I am friends with someone who hunts there every year. Him and his wife kill 3 birds each before noon on their first day every year.


But just so you know, there is a huge differance in the eastern wild turkey, and the pets you are hunting in texas.

Ryan Campbell

DoubleA,
You appear to be a man of great wisdom and common sense and most of all the ability to comprehend logic.
A head shot on a turkey with a .22 is a challenge, they tend to move around a lot.