Does anybody have any success just sitting on a single field all day? It could be with either a decoy, or no decoy. It seems to me that if you have a nice field close to where they are roosting, it might be beneficial to sit all day and be patient, and wait for a bird to eventually come to that field.
It can work I'm sure but I'd never use a day like that. It'd kill me
The turkey that I shot last year (My first turkey) was shot in a situation sort of like that. We followed a bird for an hour or so and never could get on him. We finally just went and sat up against a tree on a field that had been disked (spelling?). Eventually, a nice gobbler just came walking out to eat. The guy I was hunting with hit the call a couple of times and the bird just looked over at us and kept on eating, like he wasn't interested. Well, he eventually started making his way down the edge of the field. Maybe five minutes later, he was flopping around at twenty yards. That day, it paid off to just sit and wait. I do not know that I, personally, would have the patience to sit for hours on end, heck I have trouble doing that in a deer stand. It does, however, seem like it could/should pay off more than once in a season.
I personally don't have the patience to sit on a field and wait on one all day. However, I did stay with one in a field last yr from around 9 am til I killed him around 4 pm. I either had a visual or could at least hear him the whole time. I didn't use a decoy but that's because he was already in the field when I got there. It's a flat field with very short grass so no cover to crawl and stake one out. Either way, I think I set up on him 4-5 different times and finally had to belly crawl 80 yds or so to a better vantage point where I would be in range. He was henned up the ENTIRE time. I was all but dehydrated when I got to the truck. I'm not sure I want to do that again honestly.
It can work if you have enough patience. However, the turkeys are much easier to call up in the woods. Gt between his roost and the field and your chances are very good.
Quote from: deerbasshunter3 on February 19, 2015, 01:33:37 AM
Does anybody have any success just sitting on a single field all day? It could be with either a decoy, or no decoy. It seems to me that if you have a nice field close to where they are roosting, it might be beneficial to sit all day and be patient, and wait for a bird to eventually come to that field.
Not a "criticism" here, but this strategy you're describing is what I call "Deer Huntin' for Gobblers"... IMO, the whole allure of turkey season is that you do NOT have to sit still as a board, freezin' your cajones off, waiting & a hopin' & a prayin' for something to come along...
I'm not saying that what you're saying will NOT work, but ... Man, move around some, if that seems like your hottest spot, HUNT IT, but ... ALL DAY LONG?? I personally have NEVER done that in almost 20 years of turkey huntin'; defeats the purpose, to me...
Again, just my :z-twocents:
BGD
Funny.
How many guys will tell u that's not true turkey hunting.
We ALL want the "Classic" early morning gobble, setup, fly down,
Strutting/Gobbling all the way and BOOM !!!
That's not gonna happen but a few times in a season,
If u hunt a lot!
I am hunting turkeys!!! Be it sitting and waitin' on a field,
Or walking and calling.
I'm gonna do what gives me the best chance to
Get a close encounter and kill a gobbler!
There will be those that tell u that it not turkey hunting.
That's B.S. They won't kill as many as I do.
That's a Fact Jack!
Have fun. Take in every min of it and any good
Day in the field is better than a day at work!!
It works for me, buy then I have a combination of factors:
1) I hunt a single 200 acre farm. I've had it since 2001.
2) I'm now hunting the great-great-great grandchildren of the birds I hunted the first year
3) I can scout just by sitting with a cup of coffee on the front porch.
Because of this I know pretty much where the turkeys are going to be. It's rather silly to go putting that knowledge on hold and running around the farm like I don't know. My only questions are:
1) Which blind to got to.
2) How long to sit.
It's a little like having your own bass pond. It's just a matter of deciding if you're going to go throw plugs from the dam, worms off the dock, or dabble a rubber frog in the weeds.
Last year I ate tag soup for myself after calling in a bird for #3 son on the Opener. The birds just were not cooperating. My neighbors all gave up and went elsewhere. Me? I stuck it out and tried my best with what I had. I had some good action, but it all ended up in bad luck. Gobs came up on my blind side or a bush blocked the shot -- the usual stuff.
Is plunking your butt in one field a good idea? Some years I tag out. Some years not. If you are dead-nuts sure the turkeys are coming to a field to feed, or coming to one end to loaf in the shade or whatever, that's worth spending the whole season pursuing. I have a barn where the flocks have dusted themselves for generations. I can go there in the afternoon and sit in the barn and let hens dust themselves in one door, while I patiently wait at the other for the gobbler to come strutting by. Eventually it is going to pay off.
Yes, a couple of properties I have permission to hunt on are almost 100% crop fields...no timber whatsoever. The birds roost on the neighboring properties, and then pitch down and hang out all morning in middle of the field, as far away from any cover as they can get. I don't give two poops...I stake up ground blind right in the middle of that sumbeech. ;)
Quote from: stinkpickle on February 19, 2015, 12:23:09 PM
Yes, a couple of properties I have permission to hunt on are almost 100% crop fields...no timber whatsoever. The birds roost on the neighboring properties, and then pitch down and hang out all morning in middle of the field, as far away from any cover as they can get. I don't give two poops...I stake up ground blind right in the middle of that sumbeech. ;)
Now, THAT is a GREAT REASON to sit on a field all day long...
If I thought the turkey would be where I saw them during deer season, I could go plop myself up under a tower stand and just wait for them to walk out. Unfortunately, I get the feeling that where I saw them during deer season is not necessarily where they are going to be come April.
I must admit, snakes are what keep me from wanting to run and gun on the property that I hunt. Our property sits on the edge of the swamp, and a good majority of birds roost in the swamp. That being said, there are some fields that border that swamp. I just figured that the turkey would eventually come out into the fields. I don't care for old Joe No Legs and will most likely be hunting alone, so I do not want to go walking around the swamp. Call me a wuss, call me whatever, but I do not like snakes.
Quote from: deerbasshunter3 on February 19, 2015, 12:40:55 PM
Call me a wuss, call me whatever, but I do not like snakes.
10-4; not calling you a wuss AT ALL; I nearly got bit by a HUGE rattler a few years back, myself... But, they make snake boots & bird shot for a reason... I'll be d*mned if I'm gonna let snakes stop me from doing what I want to do, bro...
Again, I'm not calling you a wuss, but snakes & spring-time come hand in hand... Never gonna change that fact...
It depends on the property I am on and the birds I am after.
I have a field behind my house that the birds roost across the creek on another property. I have no trees whatsoever so I will hunt from a blind there on rainy days (the birds seem to spend more time there then) or on Saturdays (other people hunt on the places I hunt Mon-Fri on Sat, no one but me is on my place.)
Just remember one thing, every bird is different and every situation/property is different.
I try to come up with a plan that will let me harvest a bird given my knowledge of how I believe a bird will be acting and the situation/property I will be on.
What's a field? I would love to have a field to sit on. Unfortunately all I have available here in Florida is swamp and a few small areas of pines . I'm not crazy about cotton mouths but if I didn't hunt where they are I wouldn't be able to hunt. It's not uncommon to run up on several a day when it's warm. I miss seeing a lot of deer and turkeys before they see me because I'm watching where I put every step. My lease looks like Vietnam. Every time I watch a turkey hunting show and they are hunting a field I am jealous.
If I hunt with my friend again, we will be running and gunning. If I am by myself all weekend, I will probably try both. There is something about the peace and quiet of just sitting in nature that I enjoy.
I wore my snake boots last year and that got old after having to walk through a bunch of water (They are not waterproof). If it is cold out still, I will most definitely be wearing my rubber boots.
Yes. I don't like it but have done it with good results. Have a property that has 3 fields on it and a clear cut area. It's bordered by big timber that I don't have access to but the timber butts up to the fields. I have posted up in the fields with a Strutter in the past with good results.
All have been late morning kills 1000-1130.
Quote from: stinkpickle on February 19, 2015, 12:23:09 PM
Yes, a couple of properties I have permission to hunt on are almost 100% crop fields...no timber whatsoever. The birds roost on the neighboring properties, and then pitch down and hang out all morning in middle of the field, as far away from any cover as they can get. I don't give two poops...I stake up ground blind right in the middle of that sumbeech. ;)
You can count on Stinkpickle to keep it real.
And Real Funny!!! :TooFunny:
Quote from: deerbasshunter3 on February 19, 2015, 01:33:37 AM
Does anybody have any success just sitting on a single field all day? It could be with either a decoy, or no decoy. It seems to me that if you have a nice field close to where they are roosting, it might be beneficial to sit all day and be patient, and wait for a bird to eventually come to that field.
Absolutely!! Works real well...just call every 20 min, content feeding purrs and clucks, nothing aggressive..killed many a bird on pressured ground doing this..sit all day if need be, but if you're in a good area normally doesn't require all day.
One of the places I hunt is real small with a beautiful creek bottom that runs through it. I can hunt both sides for about a 1/4 mile stretch. Very thick in the bottom. When I first started hunting it, I did what I do on public - move to the bird gobbling. At least 3 different times, after moving around all morning and not striking anything, I would ease back and check the field, and Old Tom was out there putting on a display for the ladies and would not come back to the woods, despite my horniest hen calling. You don't have to smack me with a lighter stump to let me know it will hurt. I learned to be patient and most of the times a bird was roosting on the creek, he would fly out my side and try to gather his hens in the little hay field. More than a few have died.
2 years ago, I had already killed one there and had not heard any other gobbles, so I moved on. With about 2 weeks left and no real hot prospects other than a bird my brother was hot after (he got him), I went back out to the field one afternoon and found fresh strut marks, so I knew one was using it. One rainy day, I parked it on the field and killed him at 11:30 in the morning. He never said a word. Frustrating bird, but he took a truck ride.
Rainy day? head to the field and be patient.
If I hunt a field like that, it's because I'm seeing the turkeys there on a regular basis. I'll set up close to where I.m seeing him enter the field and strut and call sparingly. Otherwise, I'm off to find another bird to hunt.
Several years ago, was down to the last day of the season with my last tag. I had strutters on camera midday in a certain field, anytime between 9 and 3 but had struck out multiple times trying to run n gun the birds in this area. At daylight, with 3 birds hammering all around the field where I had committed to sit, it was all I could do not to chase. At 830, I heard a hen yelping up the hill from the field, and called back to her. Not 2 mins later, a fired-up gobbler came running down the hill and started thrashing my jake strutter deke like on TV. Great hunt, great action. I love to chase them. But sometimes the terrain and henned up birds, just gotta hunt where they are and they'll show up.
Quote from: J Hook Max on February 19, 2015, 11:23:03 AMHowever, the turkeys are much easier to call up in the woods.
I disagree. I have killed a number by calling them from fields. Now, they can be very difficult if you set up right on the edge of the field as the gobbler expects to see the calling hen. But a setup thirty to thirty-five yards off of the field will frequently arose his curiosity. It has been over ten years since I have killed one near a field as 98% of my hunting now takes place on public ground without fields.
Quote from: silvestris on February 28, 2015, 10:02:36 AM
Quote from: J Hook Max on February 19, 2015, 11:23:03 AMHowever, the turkeys are much easier to call up in the woods.
I disagree. I have killed a number by calling them from fields. Now, they can be very difficult if you set up right on the edge of the field as the gobbler expects to see the calling hen. But a setup thirty to thirty-five yards off of the field will frequently arose his curiosity. It has been over ten years since I have killed one near a field as 98% of my hunting now takes place on public ground without fields.
Do you not use decoys if set up on the edge of a field?
I refuse to use decoys as I believe that the use of sign stimulus takes unfair advantage of the turkey's instincts. My dear late friend Kenny Morgan, a biology major, held the same belief.
Yep, hunt fields all the time...love it!
Run around Iike an amateur in open places like Kansas, Nebraska, and see what happens....
Spring turkey hunting is all about bringing the tom to you....doesn't really matter where....
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I know guys that's how they hunt, kill some good birds deer hunting them from a blind all day. Set up in a good location and wait
I simply can not do it, longest I've ever sat for a turkey was 3.5hrs in fog and rain knowing they wouldn't gobble we just set up in a favored strutting field where we had seen a good bird the day before. It worked just as the fog lifted a bird gobbled a few calls and he drifted into the decoys for my wife's second bird last year but on a blue bird morning you'd have to break my legs to make me sit that long with no action.
Like Redfish, fields are foreign to me...we do get prescription burns in our WMA's, these do become magnets for turkey and deer. That burned palmetto scrub is noisy to walk through, must do it early, I hunt the edges and have had success getting toms there as they move through on their feeding routes.
I have participated in youth hunts with an assigned spot where sitting all day is the only choice and we have had succes. It's not my style and I can hardly stand it, but it can work.
Quote from: silvestris on February 28, 2015, 11:48:03 AM
I refuse to use decoys as I believe that the use of sign stimulus takes unfair advantage of the turkey's instincts. My dear late friend Kenny Morgan, a biology major, held the same belief.
[/qui woote]I never use a decoy and in earlier years I would occasionally use them...but I do believe it is more rewarding to call one in, work one, and kill them without help of a decoy. Many use them, and to each his own, but I just feel I get my kicks more without them. Ole timer told me once that is cheating and never forgot it, but have no problem with those that do.
:OGani: I may this year, my 8 year old daughter wants to go this year. New blind and decoys to accomodate her needs. We will hunt in a blind on a field or an opening in the woods. I have a good looking spot on a power line also, that is the piece we will hunt those nasty 4 year olds if they made it through the winter.
I have a strategy that works every year for me . At the crack of dawn I'm chasing any gobbler that sounds off. I 'll stay after them until 9 or 10. Then I go to another spot that has thick pines on both sides with a grassy road running down the middle. In Pa we can only hunt til 12. I spend the last hour or two of the morning just sitting near this road, calling off and on. I do this every day. I hunt active gobblers til about 10 then I go and sit on this grassy road til noon. It may take most of the season but I kill one every year in that exact spot. Also, it gives me a chance to rest from all the chasing early in the morning.
I agree with silvestris and Uncle Tom on those decoys, to me that is cheating. Everyone has the right to hunt by their own rules though.
Myself I hate hunting those evil field turkeys. I will if needed but prefer the big woods myself.
I hunt in Ohio where my buddy and I have a couple thousand acres of land to hunt between 2-3 counties. The properties are anywhere from all woods to fields mixed with woods.
By far our most successful hunt are field birds. In fact, we have left birds in the big timber to birds we have patterned in the fields. If we have a bird hitting a field every day we are there the first day.
By the second week the field birds are usually non existent due to their visibility from others. We then switch to those birds using the big timber.
On my own personal farm I have several small 1/4-1/2 acre food plots that we kill birds on every year.