We have a very varied topography across the U.S. but wondering where do you kill most of your birds? I live in the upper Midwest where we have a mix of hardwoods and farmland, I would say I hunt "fields" open areas 80% of the time and the other 20% in the timber. Most of my timber hunts are late season when we green up and I can move through them without being seen as easily.
MK M GOBL
Back home it's almost entirely timber hunting. There's fields on the club and on the farm but it's mainly wooded area that you're going to be hunting. Where I'm living now is mostly farmland. Well, the private ground is anyway. You don't have much option but to hunt the fields. I've found the birds in the wooded lots to be easier to kill. They can't see as far and are more willing to come check things out. Field birds can obviously see a greater distance and for me are less likely to break strut and come on in. It happens often enough that I've got zero problems hunting fields but the odds for me are far greater that it's not coming into shotgun range. Having said that, I still prefer the field of view offered by a field and tend to set up near one if I know the turkeys are going to be there.
One of my favorite and best hunting spots is a state wildlife management area that runs along river. This area can be quite thick in spots with a few patches of hardwoods. Love it and have hunted it for 25 years. Always feels like home when I'm down in there.
There are numerous pine plantations, here in Eastern NC. Normally I hunt open areas, roads, log decks and clear cuts. Its hard to hunt in the small pines due to the under brush so you locate roost sites before and during the season and set up in the open areas above, close to their roost sites and call them within range. It's tough hunting but if you know where they strut and frequent, the annual two bird limit normally isn't hard to fill. Scouting and being where the turkeys want to be is the key to filling tags here.
Public land is where I have my luck...This year I took 7 in fields with a bow and 1 with a gun. In the woods I shot 1 with a bow and 2 with a gun. I have spots that I can't hunt in the woods and spots where there are no fields or just CRP.
Same here, but with a one bird limit. :'(
Quote from: bbcoach on February 12, 2016, 06:56:57 AM
There are numerous pine plantations, here in Eastern NC. Normally I hunt open areas, roads, log decks and clear cuts. Its hard to hunt in the small pines due to the under brush so you locate roost sites before and during the season and set up in the open areas above, close to their roost sites and call them within range. It's tough hunting but if you know where they strut and frequent, the annual two bird limit normally isn't hard to fill. Scouting and being where the turkeys want to be is the key to filling tags here.
Down here my lease is 1300 acres of rolling and flat old growth hardwoods. The leases that surround us is all 10 year old cutover. It is a wild turkey breeding haven. We also have alot of Springs and a creek through the whole property. The hens nest in the cutover and fees on our club. Only bad thing is I have to share with 5 other die hard turkey hunters lol. We usually hear 5 to 20 across our property between all of us on any giving day.
Hunt a lot of public land and old strip mine property. Prefer to kill them in the timber cause I love the gobble of and eastern in the timber. But I have killed them in fields and timber. Will play on whatever ground they choose.
In my home state hunt Mtns with very little openings so mostly all hardwoods
Kill most on roads or open spots on the pines. Sometimes I get lucky and kill one along a creek with a few hardwoods around, but mostly hunt in pine jungles.
Probably about 60/40 fields, woods for me. I used to hunt almost all woods. I hunt around the house a lot, and there are lots of fields here around home. I guess it depends on my mood and what the birds have been doing recently. I like the fields because I see more birds and if they aren't gobbling for whatever reason, I can make a loop out around them and get close enough to try to call them, but I love my woods hunting too. A lot of mornings I'll start out in a hedgerow along a field somewhere, or the edge of the woods and end up on a ridge later in the morning, or the opposite way around. I love it all and I don't really see a lot of difference in success rates one over the other. When I'm hunting the local state land It's mostly woods hunting, very few fields.
Bob
50/50 on either a field edge or in the timber depending on which spot I pick for the day. Some days they are all over the ag fields, and others they don't want to leave the timber for one reason or another.
A lot of my luck has been ag fields
In MT most birds I've killed have been in broken breaks type country with fairly open ponderosa pine with scattered natural openings. Ive killed birds in similar but greener country in Nebraska on multiple occasions. I've not spent any time in cottonwood riverbottoms here in MT and minimal time in the mountains. I'm planning on more time in the mountains this year.
When we lived in Colorado I hunted true mountain birds in a mixture of ponderosa, lodgepole, spruce, and aspen. The ridge tops were typically open.
When I hunt back home in Illinois I hunt mostly hardwoods in either the riverbottoms or the hills. The riverbottoms are private land but the hills are NF. Most of my Easterns have come from the NF.
Don't have many fields so ridgetops are prime.
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More of the turkeys I've killed have come from timber than anywhere else, probably 60/40 woods versus open areas. I have killed some near field edges & powerlines, but most are in the woods along trails, logging roads, or loading decks. I've primarily hunted two different horse farms for the past few years and the turkeys there like to walk the horse trails I maintain, the same way I use those trails to get closer to them.
Jim
Public land river bottoms. Mostly wooded with a few food plots or grass fields, usually maintained by a local farmer.
Almost all of my birds here in PA are killed in the big woods. That's where I feel the most at home.
Quote from: turkeyfoot on February 12, 2016, 09:12:58 AM
In my home state hunt Mtns with very little openings so mostly all hardwoods
Yep. Very few open areas and fields where we hunt in NC, kill the majority of our birds in hardwoods.
2015 Old Gobbler contest Champions
Timber but where I hunt here in NY, my go to spots are on a pipeline that has hardwoods on each side of it. Just an absolutely deadly spot....
Wherever he wants to die.
Hardwood ridges mostly. Have killed a few in the fields, but I'd rather run the big ridges with them.
I hunt timber and fields but I prefer timber.
Quote from: mote1977 on February 12, 2016, 04:13:53 PM
Almost all of my birds here in PA are killed in the big woods. That's where I feel the most at home.
All mine are killed in the "Big Woods" sans blinds and decoys. I cannot recall ever killing a field bird.
In the timber. Not much else on public land here in nc. pa.
Just like WildTigerTrout-no blinds or decoys.
Regards
Turk
In S. FL. you had better have some Cypress close by ..
I've hunted just about all terrains and I'm will be more than happy to kill him wherever he wants to die.
It seems though that they usually don't wanna die when I'm out there lol
Sounds like my luck!
I nearly always hunt hardwwod ridges with a few areas that have pines. It seems that if I'm lucky enough to shoot, I may as well leave that area alone for the next several years because I never hear another there in that time.
Y'all ever choose between woods/fields depending on what the weather is doing? Wind, rain?
Quote from: 357MAGNOLE on February 14, 2016, 08:47:40 PM
Y'all ever choose between woods/fields depending on what the weather is doing? Wind, rain?
In rainy situations I have had the best luck in fields or open areas. I believe they can use their eyesight better and also they love to bug during the rain.
In the field!
MK K GOBL
It's pouring rain in this picture
Most of mine are killed in the swamps
Timber...dang field birds will make you pull your hair out ????
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Here in FL I've killed a lot in the citrus groves, not quite fields and not quite timber. Nothing says spring in FL like hunting turkeys and smelling orange blossoms. Now on public, it's woods and palmetto flats. Good stuff !!!
Mostly pines for me with the occasional field or hardwood! Logging roads and loading zones are were most of my turkeys die.
Timber, I like it up close and personal, love seeing them work their way through the trees looking for "that" hen