Your #1 turkey hunting weakness

[762]

Mine is definitely lack of confidence. All the consistent killers I know have this confidence that borders on arrogance. They hear a bird gobble and in there head that's todays victim. I'm trying to get to that point.

[greencop01]

                                      Overcalling and PATIENCE     

[Bill Cooksey]

First thought was "time." But it's really not time so much as access. Just don't have access to decent ground close enough to home to hunt when I only have a few hours available. Have plenty of other weaknesses; we all do. I do however have confidence that if there are turkeys and time, I'll kill them.

[Hookinembig]

Calling too loudly. I have really been working on my calls and getting a purr on my mouth call. I can do the kee kee pretty well. The trick to purrs on the mouth calls is gargling with your throat(like you are gargling water) not using your lips. Check out Preston Pittman purr video on Youtube. I never knew that until this year and it really worked. But my biggest thing especially with the mouth call is being to loud. I can do soft calls on the my pot call but prefer to use the diaphragm and thats tough for me. I think the trick is to call them softly just as a normal hen would do. If you think about it typically when you hear a hen yelp its pretty soft and she is not shouting from the roof tops like me. So that would be my weakness for the year.

[foxred1962]

Getting too excited in the moment watching the show or getting surprised by the quiet sneaky gobbler and not putting my cheek tight to the stock.... Missed several over the years by shooting over the head that way... Try to talk to myself the whole time now... Safety off check down squeeze... But I know the rush will still win again eventually and I'll watch him fly away educated...

[nitro]

Time. ( more precisely, the lack of it)..

Single Dad, fulltime (and then some) job,department of finance and transportation for a soon to be 15 year old daughter,   and 38th season this year. I have fewer seasons ahead than I do behind me..   (IF) I make it to retirement, I already have my places that I prefer to kill birds in found.. Just need more days in the woods..

Yall enjoy every second of your time hunting the Wild Turkey.. It goes by too fast. Do whatever you have to and expand your season by traveling to kill birds. It's most rewarding.

Best wishes for all your success.

[outdoors]

                   1# turkey hunting weakness 
                              OBSESSIONS 
                           HUNTING TURKEYS

[crow]

my biggest weakness is that I hunt a property that borders a property where the Swedish bikini beach volleyball team practices. But there are not many turkeys there.,

I have other better places to hunt with more turkeys, but I always seem to go back to that one place

[GobbleNut]

Honestly, my biggest weakness is that I am not willing to "deer hunt" turkeys.  Because my turkey hunting "evolved" by hunting places where you can actually call to turkeys and have them come in to your calling gobbling and strutting, that is what turkey hunting is all about to me.  However, in my travels I have found that hunting with that strategy does not always work very well in some places.  It is very difficult for me to adjust to a deer hunting strategy to kill turkeys,...and, frankly, I would just as soon not do that. 

On the other hand, I have hunted a number of places where the resident experts said "you can't kill turkeys by hunting them your way here", only to find out that yes, you can,...if you just try it. 

[Bill Cooksey]

GobbleNut,
I'd consider that a preference. At some point, most of us decide there are ways of hunting we'd just rather not do. Not a dig at those who hunt that way. It's just a personal choice. I'm the same way. Now, when things are dead late in the morning, there are times I'll just sit and rest for an hour to see if something starts up, but that's a bit different.

It hit me one closing day a few years back. I'd been guiding, really an entertaining deal, for business purposes almost every day of the season and still had one of my four TN tags left. I'd called up one for someone that morning, and after the guests all pulled out I told my boss I was heading home. He stopped me and said I should try to fill that final tag on a bird that had given everyone who hunted him fits for weeks. He'd only been hunted in the morning, and I'd only hunted him once, but he roosted in the same little group of pines over a little chufa patch every night.

It was pretty much a layup. Just sit quiet and wait, and he was coming to those trees. About two hours before he was due, I walked in and found a spot that would allow me to move and shoot no matter how he came in and settled in. Fifteen minutes later, I said to myself, "Self, what in the world are you doing? You hate to deer hunt, and you're actually going to sit here and do that to a turkey. Why don't you head home and hope he's here to hunt your way next spring?" And, that's what I did.

I have no issue with anyone who hunts that way. It takes it's own skill and mindset. I just derive no pleasure from it, and that's why we do this.

[Spitten and drummen]

lack of areas with a few un pressured birds. don't get me wrong , I love the challenge but if I had areas with a good population of birds that wasn't hammered daily then I would see my success rate jump through the roof. I usually do pretty well though with most years getting my limit.

[Bill Cooksey]

Biggest calling weakness I've seen in others is not knowing how to call hens. Biggest overall is fear of screwing up and their inability to quickly get over screwing up. A pretty well known turkey hunter once said something like, "An average turkey hunter is always worried about screwing up. A great turkey hunter knows he's going to screw up; he accepts it." He was 100% right. Obviously that leaves out the below average hunters who blunder about the woods spooking ten birds for every bird they see or hear. Personally, I've been all three...on the same day.

[MDSTRUTNRUT]

#1 weakness:     LACK OF PATIENCE   BY FAR,    #2  TOO MUCH CALLING

[jlawson382]

Hoo, boy, how to pick the #1.  Inexperience, I'd say, but along with it I'll take impatience, overcalling, underscouting, drive time to my hunting land, and just a dash of a lack of confidence to season the stew.

[DawgsFan1]

#1 weakness has to be lack of confidence. I know guys who truly believe they can kill every bird they hear. I wish I had that confidence.