I' m interested in hearing what you guys will do next spring differently than you did last spring.....

For me, it' s quite simple. I need to find scout hard and find good locations with roosted birds and be patient. I need to be willing to log in some hours (developing a serious case of turkey hunter' s butt if you know what I mean). Sit still, put out good calls, and wait for my shot.

I have already purchased a choke tube which has raised my confidence in my shot 100%. I know without a shadow of a doubt that if I get a shot, its a gonner.

What about you guys?

I am also planning on changing a little of my technique. First, I am going to use decoys to try and pull them in that last little bit, and second, I am also purchasing a new choke tube to tighten my pattern.

good luck guys.....first year of my 5 year turkey hunting career i didnt get skunked...patience and expirience is key.....you have to learn when to be patient and when to keep moving....kitsapcaller....i dont wanna sound rude or anything i dont mean it that way at all..just a bit of advice.....your pattern may look great on paper....but when that bird comes walking in you forget everything and you panic and just shoot....if my bird wasnt walking in the direction i pulled he would be lauging still....he walked into the edge of my pattern....i got him good....but at the range he ws he shouldnt had a head if he got hte mass....i remember vivadly....the sights were about 8 inches to the left of him....he walked right into it....just some advice so you try not to make the mistake i almost did.....you may shot turkeys before and already know....i iddnt htink id ever miss a turkey with my pattern....but i didnt think about target panic...my mind went blank.....5 long years i had many turkeys come in but never got a shot off....i thought id never win.....i was shocked when i seen him! good luck....you sound like you know what to do...man i cant wait for spring!! gobble obble obble!

No Skunking here IM 3 for 4 now and getting better every year... Mainly I use the same approach each year, I hunt the same spots for the same ammount of time... It seems to be working well so idoubt I' ll change much. I might try new calling techniques though, just to be different!

I made the mistake my first spring when I moved to SC of locating some gobblers gobbling off the roost.
I thought I' d be fine for the season along with a five bird limit.

I got skunked that year and have done my homework ever since.


No shortcuts in turkey hunting if you wanna be consistant.

Mause06....no offense taken. I know what you' re talking about! When ' ol longbeard is on his way, it seems that the heart beats a little faster and I get short on breath. I' ve learned that it is important to settle down, take a deep breath, and gather yourself to the best of your ability to take a good, well-thought shot. Look, the bottom-line is that you may only get one shot. How well you have prepared (practicing shot placement) and learned to control your emotions plays into how successful that shot is going to be. I think we call it experience? Learning the lesson of hard knocks. We' ve all learned some of this...maybe some of us the hard way.

i' m not going ot think i' m going to wound a bird if i see red it' s down........next year....i was waiting for him to walk out from a few palmettos leaves, i could of got him..next time i will... you know i still see him from time to time, still hanging out with the 3 jakes he was hanging out with, same location.......approx. it' s like he' s saying, hahahahaahaha...............

Last spring I hunted NE MO and got beat on two consecutive days by birds hung up on the other side of a fence I didn' t know was there. That' s not going to happen again. Better scouting is the key, I guess, and so if I go to new territories, I' m going to allow more time for actual " walk in the woods and get the lay of the land" scouting.

I' ve also posted this before, but I learned that birds will walk out in a mud field, rather than on the grass edge, in a rain, so field setups in the rain will be different, if I' m faced with that again.

I also am going to go to a Nitro custom duplex load with HeviShot, and will repattern my choke, possibly getting a new one if it seems appropriate.

Next spring I' m going to East-central Kansas with a rookie turkey hunting friend who has land access there. Any tips on hunting Kansas gobblers??

It was a good year for me Kits.But one thing i did learn is if it looks like rain or is raining to take the time and put on rain gear.My hard headedness got my gear and of course myself absolutely soaked this year because I got on a nice gobbler at first light and we battled back and forth till noon.During the hunt it began to rain and instead of getting my rain gear out I left the rain gear in my pack and proceded to get completely drenched![&:]Wont happen again!!

I think if the coming winter is the same as last year, I' ll take my camp/roadtrip hunt later in the season - the birds just weren' t as into things as I was... Saw plenty of birds, but unless you managed to bush wack one, there was little point in trying to call em' in - they just were not responding yet... If anyone from Eastern WA wants to do an experiment (my buddy swears the struttin' begins with the bloom of those lil' flowers over there) keep an eye on the flowers and compare it to the time things really heat up.

Another thing is I may break down and buy one of those digitized binocular cameras... anyone know anything about em?