RockyMtnGobblers

When you strike out turkey hunting what do you think the reason is?


When you score a bird what would you contribute your success to?

Ihuntandfish

Success I contribute definately to patience and good calling, and to be honest, sometimes luck.

Failure can be lack of patience, not doing the right calling(calling too much/calling too little), or the turkeys won't cooperate, like when they are henned up.

SwampCollie

What is your definition of striking out? You don't really expect to kill a turkey every time you go hunting do you?

FWIW; Impatience is what costs most turkey hunters birds. Frankly, all you learn as a young/new turkey hunter is how to be patient and how to let the birds work you. You can make some very terrible sounds with a turkey call and have them jumping in your lap just as long as you are in the right place and make those calls at the right times. Another big thing that costs people birds is lack of scouting and not knowing their property and the habits of the birds that live on it.


As to success:

Most of my success as a turkey hunter (in my own woods) comes from knowing the land exceptionally well. Knowing how to get from A to B without setting off alarms, knowing where they roost, where the drink, where they strut and where they nest. I'm an above average turkey caller, but I don't call very much when I'm hunting unless the bird needs it (rarely). I am at times too patient, and there are a few times when I probably could have moved on a bird and shot him.... but what fun is that? I want them to come to me.... and I want them to come in strutting.

In places I have only hunted a few times, or even in new places, my success is largely attributed to the ten years of dismal failure I went through as a young turkey hunter, and the down right stubborness of wanting to do it on my own. What I reaped from that school of hard knocks was how NOT to do it. A few general principles that turkeys will follow 95% of the time. It is best to play the odds... and experience will teach you what those odds are.

When I do shoot a turkey, it is typically because I feel like shooting a turkey. The bird put on a good show... gobbled well, played the game like he is supposed to. So just like an Englishman smashes his glass so it may never be raised to a finer toast.... I'll put the whop chuey on him so I can look back on the pictures and fondly remember him gobbling ten feet behind me and feeling like I had a T-Rex breathing on my neck.

I don't view success as just ME shooting a turkey either. I put a lot of people on birds (usually) before taking a gun myself. And these days, if I get one inside 40 yards I consider him "dead" whether I shoot him or not. Catch and release so to speak.

mohunter82

success to me is just being in the woods on an early spring morning. a light dew sits on top of the grass. me settling againt that tree on the edge of the field. just waiting for the world to wake up.

Mr. Longbeard

Hens
No hens

RockyMtnGobblers

Success to me is being in the woods with the gobblers. Thats it.
After the shot my funs all over.
I have always cherished the time I have in the mountains while turkey hunting, seeing Lynx, Elk etc.
Last year I started out hunting in my favorite place,I had two nice gobblers come in and I decided not to shoot, they proceeded to fight. I put my shotgun down and videoed them, now 10 years ago I wouldn't have put my gun down but now it's all about being there for me and not about bringing one home.
I then went to a new place I had never hunted but it looked like it may have turkeys. The first morningI found gobblers roosted and set up just around the bend from them. I set my camera up and called in a Jake and a gobbler the Jake beat up my Jake decoy and the gobbler came within feet of me. NoI didn't shoot he had a small beard, but last year was the best season I ever had because it became all about being there.
My video is not that great but I got some great footage including a gobbler gobblingon the roost, and memories to last a lifetime. Last season was only 4 days for me, but what a great 4 days!!

Failure to me,well in the back of my mind I wished I'd taken a shot.

JW

Success - each time I am out it is a success. I video all jakes and call it my Shoot and Release - alot like Catch and Release method fisherman use. It is not about getting the shot. I am past that. Even if I work a bird and it doesn't come in at all or hangs up out of range that is a success. I learn from that and try to figure out why. If I move on a bird and bump it it is a success and not a failure. I stop analyze what I did and add to make my woodsmanship better. In the 20 years I have hunted each year I learn something new. It is all a success.

Failure - hadfew of them I recall - all missed shots - looked for hours and even days because I know they where not clean misses but poor aim points/poor mechanics. Now that was a long time ago as I have improved the gun I use to Stop that Failure. I hate loosing game. I know it happens but to me there is a reason it happened. Taking hurried shots helps produce crippled game. Knowing your equipment and its limits and Taking careful shots stops that.
Twomissed shotswas from using just a plain bead sight. I do beleive I inched my head up off th stock and thus missed. To stop that I went to Tru-Clo add on sights to the gun I used. I could not beleive the bird was not flopping -another was a loss due to my eyesight over time. I have gotten old and thus the eyesight was not seeing the back ramp clearly of my Tru-Glo set and dang-it, I missed again. So now I have a scope to which I have used for many years.

JW

Hurricanespg

More than likely I made a stupid move.......probably lack of patience more than anything else.

Hunting where the birds are patiently, and God smiling on me.

Yes I do..

mfd1027

I turkey hunt because it's what I do! Usually 50-60 days a yr.

I have success because I go a lot.

Dan

drdi

Now that right there is the plain and simple truth!