Scouting south florida

[irishff727]

Well I wish I could say I am siting on prime chunk of private land with birds galore. But I'm not. Been scouting a good chunk of public land and the past two weeks been hearing birds. Last  year was a bust with only one bird seen the whole season for me. Hunting is tough and public land has been very very wet but is starting to dry out some. Was out yesterday gave a few hoots on my hooks owl stick and had a bird fire back. Hopped on the pot and had him hammer back at me several times. Never responded and never saw him come in. Checked out some other spots and have a few in mind gonna hunt hard opening weekend and then try to hit up Wednesdays as they are not as busy. Wish me luck guys. 7 days left

[cracker4112]

Good Luck! I gotta wait until Zone C opens...

[Ross R]

Ready to go here in the south zone. Birds have been gobbling for a while now.

[Muzzy61]

Good luck.
i'm in zone C (florida)  birds here have started gobbling a little.

[VaTuRkStOmPeR]

What's the point of calling to them when you can't kill them....?

And people wonder why public land turkeys are tough...

[TURKEYWHACKER]

  Hope ya do well. I'll be out Sunday morning ( central Florida ) scouting for the youth season and my opener the following week.

[irishff727]

Wasn't planning on calling him in right to me was just trying to see if any birds were wanting to talk to me that morning

[owlhoot]

Oh you lucky devils , getting to hear the gobbling and ready to hunt

[gwa]

Good luck!
Calling birds before season gives you confidence and does no real harm unless you spook them.

Denny

[VaTuRkStOmPeR]

Good luck!
Calling birds before season gives you confidence and does no real harm unless you spook them.

Denny

I guarantee more birds respond to calls than most hunters believe; many of them just do it silently.  So, unless you're going to sit there as you would when hunting and wait a bird out for an hour and a half, it's pretty ignorant to assume pre-season calling is benign since most of the guys doing it aren't doing it with the same mentality of a hunter carrying a shotgun.

By calling to the bird, you're encouraging a negative encounter and cannot control what happens once you put the striker to the pot call. You're not learning anything by calling a bird in before the season that is going to help you during it.  By staying silent and listening/ observing them on their natural patterns, you will put yourself in a position to kill and kill efficiently once the season opens.

If I was scouting Florida public land right now, I'd be listening for and isolating many regularly used roost sites so I could be within 50 yards of a gobbler's roost tree on opening morning. I'd want him dead as fast as possible before the Wack jobs showed up to mess me up...

[Swamprunner]

Here is a list of all the reasons to call to a bird before the season:

[VaTuRkStOmPeR]

Here is a list of all the reasons to call to a bird before the season:

Dude, I just died laughing at this.

Well played, sir.

[saltysenior]

Here is a list of all the reasons to call to a bird before the season:

I asked the owner of the Parksville,sc gen. store what happened to the birds that were so plentiful in the area....i'd gone 4 am's without hearing a gobble....his reply was that there are still plenty of birds but they are quite nowadays......he said with it being all public land in the area, every forest road and logging deck has had people trying out the calls they got every nice weekend since Christmas

[deerhunt1988]

This is what calling on public land two days before the season resulted in during my last hunting trip to a Florida WMA.




Never would have known the birds were in the area had I not did some cutting at 2:00PM at a spot we were scouting. Came back opening day and...Well..You can see the results.



When you have limited time to scout/hunt and live ~650 miles away, it can pay to get aggressive. And this wasn't the first time pre-season calling has landed me some birds.  Just gotta be wise about it.

[AndyH]

I think calling to them before the season being bad is an old wives tail. Been doing it a long time and have never noticed it being harder to kill one once the season has started.