Old school turkey killers

[GobbleNut]

Good post Gobbler-one,...and welcome to OG.  Look forward to hearing more from you.   

[Howie g]

Is guess you could call me old school , been after em since 78/ 79 .
A lynch box and a cane reed is all I had . Double barrel 20 ga with 2 3/4 #4s
No Camo , no mask etc .
I still hunt the way I learned , no deeks , and if you don't Yelp them in close range , you don't shot . Or atleast use woodsman skills to get close .

[tha bugman]

My dad and my uncle were my first major influences.  All we had was brown carhartt camo that we bird hunted in.  We used the guns we used for everything else.  My dad and I would go before every season and cut bundles of cane that we would construct blinds with.  The only calls we had were small pieces of slate that my dad and uncle had found in an old abandoned school house blackboard.  The strikers were constructed of a piece of cane for the bell with a toothbrush glued into it for the striker portion.  Vests, cushions and decoys were unheard of.  If you were lucky you got to sit on a boat cushion from time to time.  Man those were truly the good old days.  My dad and uncle are gone now and I would give anything to be able to share the woods with them just one more time.  I feel truly blessed to have been able to grow up when I did with the true old school turkey hunters of yesteryear. 

[High plains drifter]

I learned turkey hunting from an old Indian named Bob Gibson. He was from the crow reservation. He shot an old lc Smith 16 gauge. I really didn't know what I was doing,until I met him.He taught me how to move in the woods,  and how to call. He also taught me how to find turkeys,  and where to look. He was a great hunter.

[silvestris]

That' what they all say, "I was taught by an Indian."   

[stinkpickle]

I'm sure there were a few around, but some of those old guys were pretty secretive when it came to turkeys.  Others would just shoot them out of the trees.

[Turkeyman]

I started turkey hunting in the mid-70s and, although I knew a couple guys that turkey hunted, they were no more learned than I was. Back then there was very little info, or knowledge in general, and it was pretty much learn on your own as you go. The turkey population explosion, due primarily to trap and transfer, really hadn't started quite yet but at least if you did find a couple birds there weren't as many hunters either.

[Hobbes]

My kids would probably think of a different age class and time for "old school" than I do.  The oldest is 21 and youngest is 18.  I'm "old school" in their eyes, at a minimum old.  I would consider the "old school" folks a couple generations before me and I'm 50 (51 tomorrow).  A generation older than me probably learned old school ways because their mentors were old school. I'm speaking in general terms because there are no exact dates.

With all that,........When I started in 1990 I didn't know anyone that hunted turkeys besides a couple of Dad's co-workers and I didn't actually know them.  I've no idea how they hunted and the only info Dad got out of them was season and application dates.  I just didn't live in an area with much of a turkey hunting heritage, so we fumbled around on our own.

[High plains drifter]

My first 10 years, I messed up a lot in the woods. Nobody taught me anything,  but I kept at it, and I learned just by being out there. I knew 2 hicks from Ohio, and I watched them, and learned from them, without them even knowing about it.I learned 2 valuable things from them. Then I met Bob Gibson  through my mom.That set me on the right path.

[GobbleNut]

My kids would probably think of a different age class and time for "old school" than I do.  The oldest is 21 and youngest is 18.  I'm "old school" in their eyes, at a minimum old.  I would consider the "old school" folks a couple generations before me and I'm 50 (51 tomorrow).  A generation older than me probably learned old school ways because their mentors were old school. I'm speaking in general terms because there are no exact dates.

With all that,........When I started in 1990 I didn't know anyone that hunted turkeys besides a couple of Dad's co-workers and I didn't actually know them.  I've no idea how they hunted and the only info Dad got out of them was season and application dates.  I just didn't live in an area with much of a turkey hunting heritage, so we fumbled around on our own.

Happy birthday, Hobbes!     

I started this turkey huntin' stuff long before most here did,...back in the 1960's.  I knew a couple of the real "old school" guys,...and also got to watch and/or hear a number of others.  I will be kind to all of them and say this:  Most of them hunted the way they did because it was all "new" at the time and they, themselves, were in the "development" stages of this thing we call spring gobbler hunting. ...But from what I saw, they were very limited in their outlooks as to what constituted good turkey huntin' methodology.

My total respect goes out to those fellows (and my apologies to anybody that thinks I am making these comments to "diss" them,...I am not), but my "new" old-school ways of spring gobbler hunting after nearly sixty years of doing it have changed significantly over the years from those I heard them preach back when I was a young'un just getting started.

To put it "convolutedly", they "knew what they knew" but they "didn't know what they didn't know",...and now "we know what they didn't know" (or at least a great deal more),...and that has changed the turkey huntin' game.  Admittedly, that is not all necessarily a good thing,...but "it is what it is".   

...At least that is the view from this not-quite-so-old, "old school" turkey hunter. 

[bobk]

I began turkey hunting in the late 1960's  I was mentored  by two older family members that were excellent hunters. The  techniques  that they developed were very effective. Refining their methods based upon my time in the field has made them even more effective.  I quess that my 1960 based hunting techniques qualifies me as a " Old School " hunter.

[High plains drifter]

My kids would probably think of a different age class and time for "old school" than I do.  The oldest is 21 and youngest is 18.  I'm "old school" in their eyes, at a minimum old.  I would consider the "old school" folks a couple generations before me and I'm 50 (51 tomorrow).  A generation older than me probably learned old school ways because their mentors were old school. I'm speaking in general terms because there are no exact dates.

With all that,........When I started in 1990 I didn't know anyone that hunted turkeys besides a couple of Dad's co-workers and I didn't actually know them.  I've no idea how they hunted and the only info Dad got out of them was season and application dates.  I just didn't live in an area with much of a turkey hunting heritage, so we fumbled around on our own.

Happy birthday, Hobbes!     

I started this turkey huntin' stuff long before most here did,...back in the 1960's.  I knew a couple of the real "old school" guys,...and also got to watch and/or hear a number of others.  I will be kind to all of them and say this:  Most of them hunted the way they did because it was all "new" at the time and they, themselves, were in the "development" stages of this thing we call spring gobbler hunting. ...But from what I saw, they were very limited in their outlooks as to what constituted good turkey huntin' methodology.

My total respect goes out to those fellows (and my apologies to anybody that thinks I am making these comments to "diss" them,...I am not), but my "new" old-school ways of spring gobbler hunting after nearly sixty years of doing it have changed significantly over the years from those I heard them preach back when I was a young'un just getting started.

To put it "convolutedly", they "knew what they knew" but they "didn't know what they didn't know",...and now "we know what they didn't know" (or at least a great deal more),...and that has changed the turkey huntin' game.  Admittedly, that is not all necessarily a good thing,...but "it is what it is".   

...At least that is the view from this not-quite-so-old, "old school" turkey hunter.

I knew some people who turkey hunted, but they didn't seem to know a heck of a lot, and I knew I would be way better than them eventually. I just needed to find my stride,  and then I became good. Don't assume people know anything.

[Kylongspur88]

I've had the privilege to know and hunt with some of the "old school" guys. Sadly some of them aren't with us any more. These guys wear blue jeans and bdu's and shoot red hull #4s and will fill every tag every year. There's a lot to learn from old guys like that.

[guesswho]

These guys wear blue jeans and bdu's and shoot red hull #4s and will fill every tag every year. There's a lot to learn from old guys like that.

Some of them never filled the last tag until the last day. 

[Kylongspur88]

These guys wear blue jeans and bdu's and shoot red hull #4s and will fill every tag every year. There's a lot to learn from old guys like that.

Some of them never filled the last tag until the last day.

True. If you've got a tag to fill get up and hunt. Lots of folks are done after the first few weeks of the season.