Bobgobble2

In a day when cuttin and runnin and aggressive calling seem to be the method of choice,sitting still and just a few calls to let them know your there kills alot of longbeards!

bogobble

LOL Fro!

I learned, if I' m goin to kill turkeys consistently with my bow, that I got to get some sights I can actually see.

mauser06

i learned that all the things ive been taught all my life about hunting wasnt so useless..you know how kids are..impatient and not really paying attention..i was always thinking ya ya ya dad i cant hunt in 6 theres no reason for me to be out here....but all them scounting outings i tagged along on and all the teaching payed off and i bagged my first gobbler all by myself.....scouted them alone..found them alone...patterned them alone....and hunted alone for my very first time and i bagged my first turkey....my dad says i now graduated the hunting aprenticeship by bagging my first buck this year and the turkey all by myself proved im really graduated...i think hes proud of me knowing i listend and learned...its one thing to beable to call in pressured called to preseason birds when your a seasoned vetern..but i am 16 and did it alone.....my dads a good teacher...i also learned how to field dress and clean a turkey myself.....i didnt get to hunt but 2 days so i didnt learn much in the field.....i did learn that birds are workable after 9 or 10...i always thought it was just about useless to hunt past then and alot of times id call it quits about then....

KitsapCaller

Pretty much what you mentiond and...

- even though I got skunked my for my first three years, my turn will come.
- to scout more dilegently
- to secure private permission
- to put in for my fall permit!

Paddyballz

First off, I learned to call a lot less often. Watching many hunting videos can be misleading beacuse those guys call much, much too often. This is especially important when hunting pressured/educated birds and when hunting on public land. God only knows what private estates these guys film on. Those birds so willing to come running towards your calls without a care in the world just don' t exist in NY State. Maybe on some 20,000 acre private parcel in Texas (not bashing the beautiful state of Texas), but not in NY.
Second, I have become confident using a diaphragm call. This is one area where videos definitely did help me. Listening to the pros call can' t be beat as a training aid, you just have to remember to tone it down and call less often.
Third, I learned what it is finally to harvest an awesome Eastern gobbler. This year was my first (see previous post). I have learned that patience does pay off in the turkey woods, and experience is a great teacher. I' m looking forward to next year already, even though I have 1 more hunt to go this year!

DaveH

I learned to never trust weather forecasters. If they forecast rain, they mean sunshine . . . and vice versa. I also learned that the rainiest and foggiest mornings can sometimes be better than a warm sunny morning--although I didn' t get any of those (warm/sunnies) during my trip.

sporebrain

Hi there. I' m new to the sport and this is my first post here. I live in NE PA and this is the first year that I got into the Spring gobbler season, after being lured by all the turkeys I was seeing and hearing during deer season. I am not a young hunter, but I just never got into turkey huning before. I guess I didn' t know what I was missing. I practiced calling all Winter, did a little preseason scouting on two pieces of property, and took a couple of vacation days during the season. On Friday I shot my first wild turkey; just under 22lbs, with a 7in. beard and 7/8in. spurs. What a thrill. My wife roasted it yesterday and it was fantastic. Photos have not been developed yet.

Being new to this, I was definitely on the exponential part of the learning curve.

The first big lesson I learned was to trust my calling. I had gotten a couple of recordings and practiced quite a bit over the Winter, but had no idea that I could actually get birds to come to those crazy sounds I seemed to be making. This caused me to spook birds because I was up moving around while they were coming in to me.

This leads to my second lesson-that when they stop gobbling for a while they are probably on there way in. Again, a couple of times I thought that I had blown it for some reason when a bird that had been gobbling like crazy shut up. So I got up to change locations and bumped right into them.

A third lesson is not to call too much though, because of he danger of giving your location away. A couple of times birds seaked in behind me without gobbling and saw me, because they new right where to look.

Which ties in with the next lesson-it really seemed like they were much more reluctant to gobble as the season progressed.

Anyway, after learning where they were meeting the hens, and learning to call well in moderation, I was able to stake out a breeding area and call a nice gobbler in for a shot on the morning of the second to last day of the season, on public game lands that had been parked full all season long. I am quite pleased and can' t wait for the fall season.

Well, I saw this topic, which I really related to, and wanted to share some of my observations and see how they compared with those of some of the more experienced turkey hunters. Also, speaking of the fall season-does anyone have any advise for calling in that season; I have read that it is possible to call birds from a pecking order perspective, rather than a breeding one in the fall.

Enjoy the woods,
Sporebrain

Mr. Longbeard

That as long as I hunt on Heavily Hunted Public Land that I' m not going to kill a gobbler every spring and I' m going to have to use my woodsmanship and work much harder for my gobbler than the average joe hunting on private property.[:@][:@]

maytom

Well, similar to what Ken posted, my " honey holes" were trampled by many other turkey hunters, yes these were private propery areas, but I can see that the land owner must of given others the OK as well, or they were tresspassing. Either way, those spots were shot this year because of it!!
I can now see that I can' t ever let up stopping in and asking for permission to hunt on new lands, becasue my old spots will never be the same now.
I also noticed that " many" so called turky hunters don' t practice sportsmanship or have ethics while hunting. They " BARGE" right into your area, act rude, swear at you for being there, and then continue on right through the area your hunting!!
This year was a joke because of it, and I will have to find new spots to pursue my favorite spring pastime. Another thing I have found out the hard way, don' t waste your time hunting the weekends, every other Yahoo and his brother will be out in full glory, and the worst part of it is that you find that out affter you' ve been in the woods since 5am and then have these so called " Turkey hunters" stumble in after 6:30am when it' s daylight out!! Yes, folks, I' m a little ticked with this season as you can see, and it' s only going to get worse. A special thanks to the NWTF and their membership drives, that' s all we need right now is another 2 million more in the woods!! BS!!!![:@]

don loch

pursistance...........