The woes of hunting public land...

[| Justin |]

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Yesterday I was out hunting public land with a buddy of mine (opening weekend here in California)... Unfortunately public land is all I have access to, and so naturally I have to share with the other hunters who are in the same situation as me.

We hunted all morning and were back at the car having a snack and discussing plans for the rest of our hunt, when we saw a group of hunters in a truck down the road from us park, let out a ridiculous peacock-esq locator call, wait 10 seconds, drive their truck about an 1/8th of a mile and repeat this process over and over.

Fast-forward about an hour... we found a flock of turkeys (which is a feat in its self on public land).  We see at least 4 toms that are with about a dozen hens.  We watch them for a few minutes and I can see the direction that they're headed, so my buddy and I get set up in a spot to intercept them.  We sit down and I do a little calling.  About 20 minutes pass, and sure enough the whole flock appears 40 yards or so away from me.  Hoping to double up, I'm waiting for them to pass through some brush so my buddy can get lined up on one as well when all of a sudden we hear "sccreeeeeetttch, WEEEEEYYYOOOOOOOOO YIP YIP YIPPPPPPPPEEEEE!!!!"... the jerks from earlier in the day were still at it, on a nearby road.  All of the turkeys immediately run in the opposite direction (not one gobbled at their call by the way).  The truck peels out and continues down the road, not knowing he had just ruined what was about to make my opening weekend a success.

Long story short, I was able to call back a couple hens after about another 30 mins or so, but we didn't get another look at any of the toms for the rest of the day.  I have plans to go back to this spot in hopes that this is a routine that this flock follows, but who knows.  Unfortunately my work schedule won't allow for me to get back out there for at least a few more days.

PSA - If you're hunting public land, respect the fact that other hunters have it as rough as you out there.  A big part of hunting for me is just enjoying the outdoors, and experiences like this one really take that away from me and like minded individuals.

[memert116]

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You almost have to wonder if they were yelling out in an attempt to spook the birds off....

[| Justin |]

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You almost have to wonder if they were yelling out in an attempt to spook the birds off....

The timber there is pretty thick and I don't think there's any way they could have seen us or the birds from the road.  On both occurrences they probably could see my car, so common sense should have told them there were other hunters in the area nearby.

[Heller]

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Some guys are just selfish hunters. They obviously don't care about fellow hunters and are just plain lazy IMO.

[memert116]

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Some guys are just selfish hunters. They obviously don't care about fellow hunters and are just plain lazy IMO.

very true.....just a sad shame!!

[| Justin |]

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Some guys are just selfish hunters. They obviously don't care about fellow hunters and are just plain lazy IMO.

very true.....just a sad shame!!

Yeah, definitely.  I was actually a bit paranoid to even attempt to call the flock back in, wondering if these guys would hear me and come investigate.  Hunting public land is depressing :/

[quackaddict]

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We hunted all morning and were back at the car having a snack and discussing plans for the rest of our hunt, when we saw a group of hunters in a truck down the road from us park, let out a ridiculous peacock-esq locator call, wait 10 seconds, drive their truck about an 1/8th of a mile and repeat this process over and over.

This happens non-stop on one of the NF that I hunt. Except it's usually a crow call followed by a half-hearted attempt at sounding like a hen on her death bed with a box call. Wait 30 seconds, drive 1/8th mile, repeat. I hate it for you man...I know exactley how annoying it is.

[| Justin |]

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I hate it for you man...I know exactley how annoying it is.

I appreciate that. 

[nickp]

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Where I hunt there is a guy that kills a ton of birds per year (well over the 3 limit).  If he doesn't hear anything, he will stop by several trucks that are parked with the hunter gone and listen.  If he hears one, he goes in.  He is a magician with calling though, and usually gets the bird.  Drives me up a wall. 

[| Justin |]

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Where I hunt there is a guy that kills a ton of birds per year (well over the 3 limit).  If he doesn't hear anything, he will stop by several trucks that are parked with the hunter gone and listen.  If he hears one, he goes in.  He is a magician with calling though, and usually gets the bird.  Drives me up a wall.

Wow, that would irritate me to no end.  Sounds like someone needs to report that guy for poaching.

[| Justin |]

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Well, got to the spot this morning and apparently I'm not the only one who knows there are turkeys in that area.  Another truck was parked close by... we hoped he had headed off in a different direction, but as we walked toward the area where we wanted to set up, we heard the unmistakable sound of waaay overdone yelping up ahead.  The turkeys had decided to roost really close by last night, and were drummin' like crazy.

We sucked it up, quietly left the area and let the guys have "our" spot.  We set up about 2 miles down the road, and got some scattered gobbles here and there... after an hour or two, we had some turkeys purring and clucking real close by, but we never got a look at them... because those assbags from last weekend showed up blowing their locator calls like crazy again and scared them off.  No joke... same guys, same stupid zombie peacock locator call, scared off more of our birds.

Later on we went back to our original spot and found that the other hunters had left, so we set up and called in a tom.  There's a barbed wire fence between us, and he didn't want to hop over it (other side of the fence is private property, so we did the right thing and let him strut off into the sunset without a mouth full of lead).

Going back out in the morning... hopefully with better results.

[jakesdad]

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Probably saw it on TV so they figured it must work.Maybe one day you should follow them around then when they've had enough and ask why you're following you just say you were wondering what they were trying to call with that dying cat call.

[| Justin |]

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Probably saw it on TV so they figured it must work.Maybe one day you should follow them around then when they've had enough and ask why you're following you just say you were wondering what they were trying to call with that dying cat call.

I actually had a third run in with this bozo on Sunday... you guys are going to think I'm making this  up at this point, but I promise, 100% fact... anyway, we had a tom gobbling at us that didn't want to move, so we decided to do a little run-n-gunning.  We were having a bit of trouble pin pointing him, (thick timber), so we'd do a little yelping, hear him gobble, and then continue toward him.

We hear a truck on the nearby road, but didn't realize he had stopped... I yelp on my mouth call at the tom and he gobbles... I hear the truck door open and slam shut.  It's quiet for a minute or so, and then he blows that rape whistle of his again... no response from the tom.  We moved a little more and could see him pushing through the brush full speed toward us, so we flip out our blaze orange flags from our vests and wait.  He walks right up on us and my buddy yells "hey!" at him... he waves, says "oh... sorry" and runs full speed back to his truck.  We never heard another gobble for the rest of the day.

I wished he hadn't taken off as quickly as he did, because I wanted to try to find a polite way to tell him shove that call up his , but I had my mind set on that gobbler near by and didn't realize he had blown it for us again. 

I think I'm done hunting out there on the weekends... Time to use up all of my paid time off and stick to weekdays.

[tomstopper]

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Some guys are just selfish hunters. They obviously don't care about fellow hunters and are just plain lazy IMO.

^^This