WOODSROADS is my Favorite way to quietly move through the open hardwoods. They are wide enough to be inviting Turkey highways as well as opposed to a Trail. If you can go d some woodsroads on your Topo map that run Near some Fields and Wetlands-- all the better. I try to stay away from the Fields in good Sunny Weather. Hunters Gravitate to Fields like-- Bees To Honey! Take the Backdoor Approach and some extra walking to put yourself in a much better position in the Hardwoods . If Fields are 1/4 mile away- some Gobblers are going to check your calling out. Calling and Woodsmanship will get your Gobbler. It takes time to learn all this though. Now is the time to to Scout and learn the wetlands and hardwoods. Winter Scouting keeps you in shape as well. Luck out there this Spring!
Quote from: quavers59 on January 28, 2019, 09:43:50 AM
If Fields are 1/4 mile away- some Gobblers are going to check your calling out.
Great advice and leads to great turkey "hunting" as opposed to sitting in a popup on the field watching a flock of decoys.
Quote from: quavers59 on January 28, 2019, 09:43:50 AM
WOODSROADS is my Favorite way to quietly move through the open hardwoods. They are wide enough to be inviting Turkey highways as well as opposed to a Trail. If you can go d some woodsroads on your Topo map that run Near some Fields and Wetlands-- all the better. I try to stay away from the Fields in good Sunny Weather. Hunters Gravitate to Fields like-- Bees To Honey! Take the Backdoor Approach and some extra walking to put yourself in a much better position in the Hardwoods . If Fields are 1/4 mile away- some Gobblers are going to check your calling out. Calling and Woodsmanship will get your Gobbler. It takes time to learn all this though. Now is the time to to Scout and learn the wetlands and hardwoods. Winter Scouting keeps you in shape as well. Luck out there this Spring!
Very Good advice. ...
Not quite the same but similar. Last spring I ran into a guy on a farm I hunt. He said that he had been working birds from a certain spot in the woodlot (I knew the exact spot) and was getting used. One day when he wasn't there I walked the long way around to the opposite side of the bird and sat near a fence line with an open field behind me. He gobbled on the roost and I answered very softly and he roared back. I just sat there and at flydown time he landed about 25yds away. A fine 3 yr. old bird. Doing different things does work.
I'll add to this a little...............
Always, ALWAYS call a little and wait a while before going around a bend on a woods road. Gobblers like to use them just as much as gobbler hunters.
Great advice in this thread! I have killed a few birds in what we call log roads.
I have had great success using logging roads/firebreaks over the years...until this past season! While hunting public land in KS (Perry WMA), I had a bird on the edge of a lake around 90 yards away. He was at the end of a beautiful green grass trail and I was hiding behind a fallen log but he would not budge more than five yards in my direction. I don't know if another hunter had tried a similar setup or what...but I have a vendetta against that bird now and I hope to see him again real soon!
I can't say that I have ever had a vendetta against a gobbler, I know exactly the feeling of the challenge some of them can be. To me those birds are the pure essence of turkey hunting. I have hunted a few like that throughout my career. I wish I could have been 100% sure it was the same gobbler the next season or the next. They would be in the same area and they would use the area the same way to avoid me. I once hunted what I believed to be the same bird for three seasons, on the third season He finally came in , if it was indeed the same bird. That being said, I waited for the right chance and took my hat off and shook it at Him. I hope He lived as long as Old gobblers can.