I like hunting everything. Turkeys and ducks right up there at the top. I plant thirty or forty acres of food plots every year and spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours doing it - to attract and keep deer on my place. But, I also know if I just wanted to kill deer - including the biggest buck on the place - I can put up a corn feeder or dump out some nut grub and hunt the food pile and have just as good a chance for success as doing anything else. I have numerous neighbors who own five or ten acres and most of “my” bigger deer fall prey to them at their feed pile. Where I hunt turkeys, it is all woods - big woods - no fields to set up a ground blind and take a nap while you wait. If you are going to kill a turkey, it involves a lot of walking, scouting, and proficiency with a call. I have never got as excited deer hunting as I have turkey hunting when one is right over the hill gobbling and drumming. You have to get them in close - fifty yards or closer - A deer at 200 yards is a chip shot. Ducks are similar - you have to have some skill, no how to call, know how to place the decoys, understand how they will work in for the shot - and again - they must be close. I like to shoot doves, to - but we refer to that more of shooting doves than hunting doves. My group often kills 75 doves in a day. That is a season of duck hunting. We kill eight or ten deer - and pass a hundred deer - and we are lucky to kill one or two turkeys.
Hypothetical-protecting the wild turkey
- Thread starter Howboutthemdawgs
- Start date
I like hunting everything. Turkeys and ducks right up there at the top. I plant thirty or forty acres of food plots every year and spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours doing it - to attract and keep deer on my place. But, I also know if I just wanted to kill deer - including the biggest buck on the place - I can put up a corn feeder or dump out some nut grub and hunt the food pile and have just as good a chance for success as doing anything else. I have numerous neighbors who own five or ten acres and most of “my” bigger deer fall prey to them at their feed pile. Where I hunt turkeys, it is all woods - big woods - no fields to set up a ground blind and take a nap while you wait. If you are going to kill a turkey, it involves a lot of walking, scouting, and proficiency with a call. I have never got as excited deer hunting as I have turkey hunting when one is right over the hill gobbling and drumming. You have to get them in close - fifty yards or closer - A deer at 200 yards is a chip shot. Ducks are similar - you have to have some skill, no how to call, know how to place the decoys, understand how they will work in for the shot - and again - they must be close. I like to shoot doves, to - but we refer to that more of shooting doves than hunting doves. My group often kills 75 doves in a day. That is a season of duck hunting. We kill eight or ten deer - and pass a hundred deer - and we are lucky to kill one or two turkeys.
blueKYstream
5 year old buck +
There's an interaction while turkey hunting. It's fun to hear them light up the morning with calls and listen to them spit and drum when they get close. The sight of them strutting is cool too. You can sit in a spot and hunt them or run and gun. You can decoy, no decoy, or use a tail fan (all with their own following). They taste good. In my opinion, it takes more skill than most, or some might say all, other types of bird hunting.
I can understand why some don't get into it though. I guess that would be like fishing for me. Sure, it's fun to go once or twice, but outside of saltwater fishing, I don't understand how people get so into it.
I can understand why some don't get into it though. I guess that would be like fishing for me. Sure, it's fun to go once or twice, but outside of saltwater fishing, I don't understand how people get so into it.
S.T.Fanatic
5 year old buck +
I can catch an unlimited number of fish in one year with a year round season.
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
I’m not gonna try to convince anyone who doesn’t like to hunt them of the contrary...since you have no interest can I hunt your land!
DrDirtNap
5 year old buck +
For those of you who do not turkey hunt I would recommend that you never start. Turkey hunting affects people in strange ways. It’s a disease. Now any of you that dislike turkeys and don’t hunt, let me know if you need some help reducing your population.
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ksgobbler
5 year old buck +
Of the things I like to hunt.
1. Ducks
2. Turkeys
3. Quail/Pheasants
4. Doves
Ive had hens standing on my feet, jakes walk into a gun barrel, birds gobbling 5 yards away and seems you can feel it rattle your chest. Ive also dueled with birds for hours before conciding defeat, sat through severe thunderstorms, seen the look on people's face when they take their first bird, and in general spent alot of nice spring days afield. Deer will walk right up to you. If you told me I could never harvest another deer on my place but turkeys would be available I would take that contract in a heartbeat.
1. Ducks
2. Turkeys
3. Quail/Pheasants
4. Doves
Ive had hens standing on my feet, jakes walk into a gun barrel, birds gobbling 5 yards away and seems you can feel it rattle your chest. Ive also dueled with birds for hours before conciding defeat, sat through severe thunderstorms, seen the look on people's face when they take their first bird, and in general spent alot of nice spring days afield. Deer will walk right up to you. If you told me I could never harvest another deer on my place but turkeys would be available I would take that contract in a heartbeat.
woodduck
5 year old buck +
The first turkey that ever came to me on the ground did it a long time ago. I sat there with my hands shaking and my breath short and my heart hammering so hard I could not understand why he could not hear it. The last turkey that came to me last spring had exactly the same effect, and the day that this does not happen to me is the day that I quit.
The last one that ever does come to me will call fourth the same emotion that the second one did.
I will sit there waiting, gun up and heart thundering, and say to myself what I have said on every single occasion since the second one.
"I'm glad I lived to see it - one more time"
Tom Kelly_ Tenth Legion
For those of you who are unfamiliar, Tom Kelly is an author who writes books about turkey hunting. Not how to but entertainment. The Tenth Legion was the title of his first book and also what he refers to as a turkey hunting cult.
Turkey hunters really are a cult and if you've never done it you wouldnt understand.
Another one of Mr. Kelly's quotes is " I don't hunt turkeys because i want to, I hunt them because I have to".
The last one that ever does come to me will call fourth the same emotion that the second one did.
I will sit there waiting, gun up and heart thundering, and say to myself what I have said on every single occasion since the second one.
"I'm glad I lived to see it - one more time"
Tom Kelly_ Tenth Legion
For those of you who are unfamiliar, Tom Kelly is an author who writes books about turkey hunting. Not how to but entertainment. The Tenth Legion was the title of his first book and also what he refers to as a turkey hunting cult.
Turkey hunters really are a cult and if you've never done it you wouldnt understand.
Another one of Mr. Kelly's quotes is " I don't hunt turkeys because i want to, I hunt them because I have to".
S.T.Fanatic
5 year old buck +
This is exactly the way I feel about trout fishing.
There's nothing like Turkey hunting. The spring woods, the calling and interaction, the strategy, the movement. If your hunting turkeys like you hunt deer I can understand why you don't like it. In fact, I own two parcels of land 40 and 100 acres that are full of turkeys. I chose to do the majority of my turkey hunting on large public tracts so I can chase gobbles and not be limited by property lines. There's nothing like charging in after a hard gobbling bird in a piece of timber you've never stepped foot in. Tenth legion is an excellent read. I'm in Central WI and turkey numbers are pretty solid and we have shitloads of predators that virtually have no check on their populations. I believe turkey populations are cyclical. If you get 2 or 3 years with great nesting conditions you'll get alot of birds. If its the opposite, not so much.
I find it odd that the majority of northern states seem to have fairly solid turkey populations - an area that would seem to provide harsher living conditions for turkeys - than in the south where turkey populations have been documented to be in widespread decline. A big difference I have found in research data correlates directly to nesting success. This is from a article about turkeys in Wisconsin:
Witecha said DNR staff conduct brood counts each summer, logging observations of turkey, grouse and pheasant broods into August. He said brood counts for turkeys generally range from 4-1 to 4.5-1 ratios.”
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.greenbaypressgazette.com/amp/780278002
Poult to hen numbers across much of the south acreage around 1.8 poults per hen - less in my home state of AR. Southern turkey nests are being eaten up by predators - and for some reason, northern turkey nests are not. Most northerners claim they have predators galore. I have never run a trapline in WI, but I have accompanied trappers in SD and NE - and even though they thought they were covered up with predators - from my experience - they had no idea what being covered up with predators really is.
Does a northerner put on snake boots when out and about in the woods in warmer weather? Do northerners have their tractors almost tip over from driving through hog rooting while cutting hay in pastures. Would a northerner catch 42 coons, 15 possums, and a fox - in three weeks around a 1/3 acre sweet corn patch? Maybe all that would be normal all over the north country. That is normal for us in the south.
Witecha said DNR staff conduct brood counts each summer, logging observations of turkey, grouse and pheasant broods into August. He said brood counts for turkeys generally range from 4-1 to 4.5-1 ratios.”
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.greenbaypressgazette.com/amp/780278002
Poult to hen numbers across much of the south acreage around 1.8 poults per hen - less in my home state of AR. Southern turkey nests are being eaten up by predators - and for some reason, northern turkey nests are not. Most northerners claim they have predators galore. I have never run a trapline in WI, but I have accompanied trappers in SD and NE - and even though they thought they were covered up with predators - from my experience - they had no idea what being covered up with predators really is.
Does a northerner put on snake boots when out and about in the woods in warmer weather? Do northerners have their tractors almost tip over from driving through hog rooting while cutting hay in pastures. Would a northerner catch 42 coons, 15 possums, and a fox - in three weeks around a 1/3 acre sweet corn patch? Maybe all that would be normal all over the north country. That is normal for us in the south.
S.T.Fanatic
5 year old buck +
We have a ton of coon but I doubt snakes around here have much of on impact on the population. Wis. has a few hogs here and there but they havent established i dont think we have ever had one in Minnesota to my knowledge. Owls and bald eagles have made a major comeback in our area but I dont think the eagles eat live pray.
rocksnstumps
5 year old buck +
Tons of coon and possum here but also the yote numbers are climbing as well. I think as has been mentioned early that yotes are harder on furbearers that raid nests than on turkey numbers directly.
Did catch a yote taking out a turkey on camera once but think most times turkeys are able to get away.
Nesting success drives turkey populations in my opinion. Not the occasional adult bird getting whacked since I bet cars take out more adults than yotes.
Did catch a yote taking out a turkey on camera once but think most times turkeys are able to get away.
Nesting success drives turkey populations in my opinion. Not the occasional adult bird getting whacked since I bet cars take out more adults than yotes.
Telemark
5 year old buck +
Me too.
ksgobbler
5 year old buck +
After getting our teeth stomped on a written exam yesterday I was ready for some woods time. Got home around 6 and was in the woods by 630. Got to hear some gobbling and got the blind set up to take my son today. Camera said I had a visitor there earlier in the afternoon.
weekender21
5 year old buck +
Excellent podcast, everyone that “manages” for turkeys should listen.
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weekender21
5 year old buck +
You’re on to something there. Corn feeders everywhere and fur trappers nowhere.
Again this is regional due to the wide variety of baiting regulations but in some areas coons undoubtedly have a huge impact.
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weekender21
5 year old buck +
After three years of running trail cameras I’ve yet to get a trail camera picture of hens with poults. We have turkeys but the survival rate in my area isn’t good. Glad to hear trapping has helped. I’m planning to hit the nest predators hard next January/February. I’ll observe the results after a few years and decide if I’m making an impact.
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weekender21
5 year old buck +
The home range of turkeys makes it nearly impossible to ensure good habitat. Outside of public lands there aren’t many contiguous landscapes encompassing thousands of acres. That’s the frustrating part if you’re only controlling a few hundred acres. Equally frustrating trying to control predator populations if your neighbors aren’t.
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Telemark
5 year old buck +
There is a YouTube video on how to make a tapered box for body gripping traps. I made a few and trapped raccoons with them with great success. Got 9 huge females and a big male in a couple weeks of trapping. I spread a bit of bait all over the eare as well as a bunch of bait inside the box, usually crackers and cookies. Then I threw some marshmallows in the box. Very successful.
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