Learn Anything?

[guesswho]

Good luck and I love that pine tree shot.  I know of a pig hickory with a broadhead stuck smack dab in the middle myself. 

Wess

I'd probably like your big hickory with a broadhead stuck in it more than I do my pine tree

[guesswho]

2.  Turkeys hear EVERYTHING.  sometimes your "stealthy" footsteps actually add to the illusion that you're another turkey.

3.  I've learned to pay alot more attention to selecting a spot for a set up, especially in the rush following an unexpected gobble within 100 yards.  that bird might come to within 5 yards, but if you aren't set up in a good spot, you aren't going to kill him.

Ah, somebody's been paying attention.   

[redleg06]

I learned that there are some turkey that aren't supposed to die....

I named one bird "lucky" because I shot over his head once at 30yds---then came back the next weekend and had my reddot reticle fail/not properly illuminate with him standing at 40-----but watched him walkoff to roost so I had a good plan for the morning when a tornado rolled in at 3a.m and we had to abandon turkey camp in the middle of the night....

I think the good lord wanted to watch "lucky" strutt for at least another year...

[Nimrodmar10]

Unfortunately, there are some lessons we have to learn more than once. Fortunately turkeys are good teachers. Here are a baker's half dozen I had to rememberize again this year:

1. You can't get to the woods too early but you can get there too late.

2. You don't have to be able to shoot a turkey at 50-60 yards if you'll call him in to less than 30. (And 1 3/4 oz of shot kicks waaay less than 2 7/16 oz)

3. Don't spray Permanon tick spray on your skin or breath the vapors, it's poison.

4. Never yelp on a turkey call until you're standing next to a tree that you can work a bird from when he gobbles just out of sight.

5. The older you get, the harder it becomes to get up. (From the bed at three in the morning or from the base of a tree when you just dropped a big tom.)

6. 90% of the work involved in killing a turkey is done before the day of the hunt.

7. Killing a turkey is 75% woodsmanship and 25% calling.

[Yooper]

I learned you might as well not bother driving for two hours if the lightning that's pounding the area is flat out scary and the rain is so hard you can't see out a pickup truck's window because you probably aren't going to see a turkey no matter how much you want to. 

[Shotgun]

I got reminded that turkeys that have been hunted hard don't follow the rule as long as your still they will not spook.  You better have your butt hidden well. 

I learned that I'm not quite as fast as I used to be swinging on a gobbler to my right.  It's best to just stay still and let him walk off and then reposition and to try to call him back.

I learned when setting up on a feild you better be as close to edge as possible, but hidden well.  All it takes is one tree in the way to make the difference of kill or not.

[Solid Snake]

I learned a lot in my second season turkey hunting.

1. Just because I killed a 25 lb stud my first year doesn't mean I'm going to kill a turkey at all my second year 

2. Just because my buddy who farms the area calls me and tells me he see's 50 turkeys before season in the field that I have permission to doesn't mean I'm going to kill a turkey.

3. Thermacell really works! The mosquitoes were horrid this year and would swarm me as soon as I sat down but once that badboy got heated up, there was none in sight!

4. I now see why you all talk about taking toilet paper in the woods...it's not fun walking all the way back to the truck with only one sock on...

5. I'm still calling too loud and too often 

[turkey_slayer]

1.  turkeys continue to cross rivers, fences, and come down hill when they shouldnt.

2.  We do have rattlesnakes so need some snake boots.

3.  Need a thermacell.  Hard to sit still with a tom in range but behind cover with biting flies chewing on your ears and forehead!

4.  When you think they are not going to do anything and are ready to leave wait at least 30 more minutes

5.  People, if he dont answer the first 50 hoots he probably aint going to answer the next 50!

[Bigg E]

1. Be patient
2. Call less and look more

[catdaddy]

I hunted quite a bit with a 77 year old friend (Keith) this year. He is one of the original "Old School" turkey hunters. I learned from him that:

1. Quiet and sparse calling is effective. You don't always have to cut and yelp loudly on a mouth call, even if the turkey is far off--which brings up the second thing I learned--
2. Turkeys can hear much further that I imagined. In Kentucky while hunting with Keith, I called in a bird and killed him from over 150 yards out on a very windy morning. Keith would only let me yelp a few times here and there on my slate--it worked like a charm. 

[Spring_Woods]

I relapsed from last year. I was much, much more patient last year than this year. Need to work on that waiting 15-30 minutes longer part. I busted two different birds this year because of that. 

I learned that in the rain, you take what you can get. I killed a jake, which I was perfectly happy with.

I learned that in my first encounter of the year, and years past, I miss. I now call that a "warning shot"  I hope to proudly break that tradition next year.

There's more I'm sure

[TauntoHawk]

1. patience is always important, even in run and gun it needs to be a calculated part

2. try not to waste to much time second and third guessing my instincts, the birds aren't really out to trick me they're just living their lives the way god made them

3. sit tight just a little longer

4. scout, scout, and scout

5. dont get hung up on the big bird that made you look silly when theres other properties to hunt... this was huge for me in NY I got so focused on one in particular monster bird that I ignored properties with several more patternable birds

[wildturkey6]

Oh Hell yeah I learned to take both of yer gloves off befor ya pee when ya been hunting in Poison Ivy. C ause the one ya hold yer underwear down with just may touch ya where ya don't want it too. There is one gun that I will never take out in the woods again as long as there is Poison Ivy around.

[pittboss]

1.Old gobbler is an awesome place to hang out.
2. Don't take anything for granted.
3. When you see a shooting star on the way to your hunting spot expect to climb 1000 ft in elevation and 1 mile north of where you started to get your bird.


pittboss

[RutnNStrutn]

I learned that I'm not as good of a turkey hunter that I thought was. Then again, I seem to learn that lesson every year. Should have bagged 3 or 4 more gobblers than I did.