Outing tracks

[g8rvet]

Do you "out" tracks? (don't know if that is a regional term - meaning to deliberately step on, brush out tracks of birds).

I never did on the hunt clubs I was in, but they were small and I was friends with the members. I would tell them where I had seen them, if they asked.

We do it all the time on public land.  Sometimes with our feet, sometimes with a cut down tree branch.  Are we unusual in this?  I have seen Tom tracks with fresher boot marks and have wondered.  If I see a bird track I intend to hunt, I am getting rid of the evidence. Also nice to check the area again later to find fresh ones as well.  Here in Florida, the sandy soil will leave good tracks until the next hard rain.  Just curious if we are being hogs or if that is a common practice (I am still gonna do it )

[owlhoot]

Never crossed my mind to do that   

[Farmboy27]

Never even thought about it. Most guys are listening for a gobble. If they here one they know the birds are there. Any serious hunter is going to know the birds are there whether they see tracks or not. Just my opinion.

[g8rvet]

I doubt it will help much in the AM, but fresh tracks found later in the day have been the death of many a bird from my group.  We killed one last year in a place I had sat off and on for 2 weeks and never heard a gobble.  Went back a week or so later and found fresh tracks. Killed him the next morning.  I am talking though about a huge tract of woods and we use tracking to find new places to listen since we can't be everywhere at once.  Y'all don't? 

[BowBendr]

Do it all the time, I kick turkey poop out of the road beds too.
The turkeys in the NF around here dont hit locator calls reliably, and they dont gobble all day every day. I take my chances, hope they dont gobble for somebody else and I keep the forensic detail hidden


2015 Old Gobbler contest Champions

[Roost 1]

Yes we do!!! Also walk back and forth to make it look like the place has been hunted to death...... Lol

[Farmboy27]

I doubt it will help much in the AM, but fresh tracks found later in the day have been the death of many a bird from my group.  We killed one last year in a place I had sat off and on for 2 weeks and never heard a gobble.  Went back a week or so later and found fresh tracks. Killed him the next morning.  I am talking though about a huge tract of woods and we use tracking to find new places to listen since we can't be everywhere at once.  Y'all don't? 

You and I hunt very different areas around very different hunters!  Around here we don't have a lot of huge tracks of timber. We have ridges that can be heard from one side or the other. Most of the guys around here that hunt all day are going to hunt where ever they can whether they see tracks or not. We also have plenty of fields that are visible from the roads so if there are turkeys in the area, everybody in the county knows about it. I guess there might be some guys that say "hey, here's a turkey track let's hunt here". But for the most part the guys that are going to kill a bird have done their homework and don't bother looking for tracks come season. They are looking for the birds that make the tracks.

[Jim K]

This reminds me of a year I was preseason scouting. I was walking a logging road and there was lots of droppings on it. LOTS. Went back a week later and hardly found a one. Made me laugh. The Guy spent a lot of time pitching poop.

[RutnNStrutn]

In FLA on the WMA's I hunt, I do it routinely. It's tough enough to kill a bird without leaving clues for the competition. Nothing aggravates me more than some disrespectful "hunter" to crowd me on a hunt. Up in SC on my lease, we don't have that issue. There are only 3 of us, and we hunt different times in the spring.

[g8rvet]

I doubt it will help much in the AM, but fresh tracks found later in the day have been the death of many a bird from my group.  We killed one last year in a place I had sat off and on for 2 weeks and never heard a gobble.  Went back a week or so later and found fresh tracks. Killed him the next morning.  I am talking though about a huge tract of woods and we use tracking to find new places to listen since we can't be everywhere at once.  Y'all don't? 

You and I hunt very different areas around very different hunters!  Around here we don't have a lot of huge tracks of timber. We have ridges that can be heard from one side or the other. Most of the guys around here that hunt all day are going to hunt where ever they can whether they see tracks or not. We also have plenty of fields that are visible from the roads so if there are turkeys in the area, everybody in the county knows about it. I guess there might be some guys that say "hey, here's a turkey track let's hunt here". But for the most part the guys that are going to kill a bird have done their homework and don't bother looking for tracks come season. They are looking for the birds that make the tracks.

You are right, I think we just hunt very differently.  Part of finding a fresh track also tells me a gobbler I knew was there is still alive.  I use that intel on hard hunted public as well.

I killed one on a private place I hunt because I found strut marks on about a 3 foot by 9 foot piece of sand. Only sand on the whole tract.  I had been there a lot of days before work and had not heard a peep and tracking is not possible there.  It is my before work spot (10 minutes from my house, 10 minutes from work).  If I had not seen those strut marks, I would have thought only one gobbler (that was in my freezer) was using the farm that year (which is not unusual there) and would have hunted elsewhere.  He took a truck ride on the last day of the year I could hunt. 

[silvestris]

Not only do I rub out tracks, but I carry a stick with a turkey foot on it and leave a lot of tracks near the road.

[Greg Massey]

You guys are unreal, never heard of such hunting, funny what a guy will do to kill a turkey. OMG

[Bill Cooksey]

Done it a million times. Not always but more often than not. 

[SteelerFan]

Never heard the term, and never even thought about "outing". Then again, in my neck of the woods (or mountains) - you would be hard pressed to find a track. Maybe near a mud puddle on a logging road or powerline, but that would be it.

[Bill Cooksey]

As someone else mentioned, I often make sure and leave plenty of my own footprints.