HuntingNet.com Forums - Turkey hunting pressure on public land

HuntingNet.com Forums (https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/)

- Turkey Hunting (https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/turkey-hunting-5/)

- - Turkey hunting pressure on public land (https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/turkey-hunting/363587-turkey-hunting-pressure-public-land.html)

i think i am the first northwest hunter to respond and i can say that if you want to hunt public here you have to be up and out of the way. some of the public land here can be so crowded you almost feel guilty staying too long and not giving someone else a chance to hunt. same with deer.
i have been blessed to have the opportunity to hunt private fairly often, mostly deer, but in my group of guys we got at least one bird every time we went and all were on the public land.

Posted from Huntingnet.com App for Android

There is enough public land here that I can find turkeys and not even see a hunter or any sign off one but I have had hunters come and set up about 300 ft. from me after I was sitting there 30 - 45 min.
They come in with crow calls blasting and it's light enough so the turks see em coming and I'm trying to stay quite until I hear the first hen, so then the turks fly away. :confused0024: :bash::hit: :busted:

It just boils down to we're you hunt... Some parts of the us, the public land is over crowded... And some places there's very little pressure... I just so happen to hunt one of the more pressured parts... It is what it is... I still enjoy chasing them... It's becoming a young mans game for me...

here in Pa. there are alot of turkey hunters and we have a fair amount of public state gamelands and state forests. It is sometimes hard to find a place that is holding turkeys and not having at least a couple hunters in that area especially in spring gobbler season.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bald9eagle (Post 4024345)

I have been a life long public land hunter. In Alabama, no less. The pressure is unreal at times. I have hunted on WMA the last few years where you can get a good distance off the road before daylight. Every year there are guys that will ride the roads at daybreak owl hooting trying to get a bird to answer. It's annoying to say the least. Usually I am closer to the bird than they are because I am already sitting in the woods. If they haven't passed my parked truck yet they often want to go after the bird so I give them a couple good hoots or crow calls to let them know.

I have hunted Alabama WMAs a few times. I heard Will Primos say that if you can kill an Alabama WMA mature gobbler you can kill any bird on the planet.
The last year I hunted a WMA I hunted it all year. I heard very little gobbling all season with the exception of the last week of the season. I went to an area I had seen some tracks on but hadn't heard a gobble all season and the very last 3 days I heard 3 to 5 gobblers every morning. Also I didn't see a vehicle anywhere the last week there. I may even go hunt there again this year according to how my season goes.

I hunt the eastern portion of PA most times. The public land gets hammered pretty hard, the closer to Philly you are, the worse it is. But, a buddy & I manage to kill a bird or two on state land every year, so it's doable. Best bet is to hunt the public land during the week (meaning not on Saturday), and there's less guys in the woods the later the season progresses.

I'm really interested to see how my first season is going to play out if I get drawn.

I applied for 2 tags in the same county, one runs from April 13 - 30 then next runs from May 1 - 19. There are 100 tags available and the only plot of public land in the area is about 1700 acres.

I have a feeling that I may have a rough go of it as far as competition goes... we'll just have to see how it plays out. I'm scouting after Rabbit season is over, so we'll see how many guys I run into.

you guy make me feel really bad. i almost never see a hunter, do hunt mostly mid week and seem to have the world to myself. sorry guys, not going to tell you where i hunt, just like it that way. it is someplace where we have rio's though. just don't need the competition.

cheers

Quote:

Originally Posted by 14 ga (Post 4034979)

If I chose to go into the Black Hills, I would see a lot less pressure and a lot more birds. But, my wife is having our first child in March, so I need to stay around here... hence the situation I'm in.

Just hard hunting within an hour of town here, but I do plan to go out during the week, take a few days off. I'm sure that'll help a bit.

here in indiana we only hunt public land and i shoot more everything then all my buddies on private. we have areas and u pick which area, kinda like aq duck blind draw but each area is several hundred acres. deer r easier to hunt i think cause they r almost used to human smell. turkeys r a lil tougher but just have to scout.