pulling birds from bordering properties

[Cbw33]

got a new lease this year and the land owner says it is full of turkeys. i have not seen much sign so far. went scouting and the property just across the road from me i heard at least 5 gobblers all together gobbling on the roost 300-400 yards away i would guess, couldn't see them but could hear them. they went quiet after they flew down so I'm assuming they had a good group of hens.the property has more mature hardwoods than the parcel i am on . lets hear some tactics for trying to get birds on to this property. this will probably be the only year i hunt this lease so it would need to be a short term fix

[Cbw33]

i am located in south georgia

[JLH]

Lots of corn.....

[Mike Honcho]

I make my living pulling birds off neighboring property...in my mind anyway.  Its early so those birds will probably break up and spread out more as season progresses.  I just am patient and call'em  over.

All joking aside it is more of a challenge but use your best turkey hunting skills....you may try to find a spot to set up close to the property line if you can....there's nothing more satisfying than lining up the bead on an old tom just after he crossed on to your side of that line!

[Tennessee Lead]

Every bird I killed last year was called across a property line. It's a lot more fun lol.


Sent from my iPhone that I ain't smart enough to use with tapatalker

[owlhoot]

Joking a side , be respectfull to the property line and be carefull if someone hunts across the fence.

[WildTigerTrout]

I make my living pulling birds off neighboring property...in my mind anyway.  Its early so those birds will probably break up and spread out more as season progresses.  I just am patient and call'em  over.

All joking aside it is more of a challenge but use your best turkey hunting skills....you may try to find a spot to set up close to the property line if you can....there's nothing more satisfying than lining up the bead on an old tom just after he crossed on to your side of that line!

I agree, two of my successful hunts were with birds that were on property that I could not hunt. They both turned out to be the most memorable turkey hunts I can remember. I worked one for over two hours and finally got him to cross the property line which is separated by a barbed wire fence. As soon as he crossed the fence I smashed him! The following year I killed another big boy sitting at the same tree as the first!!!! Hey it's a good spot!

[Jay Longhauser]

Depending on the terrain I'd get as close as I can to where they like to be on their own in a spot that they can easily walk to without having to cross something that they may hang up on.  If you go early hope one of the gobblers is tired of getting beat up on and wants to come looking for a hen alone, or late morning when the hens they are with are leaving them.  I usually see gobblers wander further later in the season, I assume looking for hens as fewer are receptive.

[Cut N Run]

All but three of the last 25 turkeys I killed came across property lines to get to me. Seeing if you can pull them to where you can legally hunt is part of the challenge.  You've definitely got to have your patience working and make your calls count to succeed.  Turkeys are turkeys no matter where you go, but having smaller pieces of land to hunt them on or having the possibility of somebody else getting a crack at them before the turkeys get to you can make it more of a test than on big properties.

It will help you to learn where the turkeys like cross from where they roost onto the property you can hunt and find a set up near there to take advantage of their movement.  My old lease had a bench just under a ridge line the turkeys liked to travel and  it was easier to call gobblers towards that bench than down towards the creek bottom.

That gang of gobblers is going to break up and those turkeys will wander to where you can hunt.  Get where you can take advantage of their movements & good luck.

Jim

[shaman]

I don't know quite how to put this.  This is not meant at any single person.

First off, I used to be in this situation.  I had only one 80 acre plot to hunt. I had to drive 3 hours to get there, and I usually only had 1 day a week were I could hunt.  There were no turkeys resident on the property, so I had to content myself with trying to call them over the line.  That was over 30 years ago.

Now I own my own 200 acre farm.  I've got plenty of turkeys on it, and one of the problems I have is that I can't hunt my own property lines.

1) I have neighbors who go right up to the fence and call loudly for hours at a time.
2) They frequently shoot into my property without thinking there might be someone on the other side

Look, I can't tell y'all that what you are doing is somehow inherently wrong. It certainly ain't unlawful, and the Good Lord knows I used to be walking in your shoes.  The only thing I think I can say is

1)  Be mindful of the folks over on the other side of the fence.
2)  Be mighty sure of what lies on the other side of the fence.

I have one young hunter who keeps his plug out and fills his shotgun with 5 rounds of 3.5" . He has 300 acres to hunt, but he is fascinated with what is on my side of the fence.  Ever since his Dad let him hunt on his own, he has been coming up to my fence, and sometimes crossing it to hunt the creek bottom that marks my property line.  He has a crystal call and he grinds on it with abandon from before first light to close to Noon, and then he likes to empty the five rounds into something before he goes home.  Usually it is one of my fence posts. In the past decade, I have been scared to hunt that creek bottom, both from the fear of catching a round in the face, but also because he is so raucous with the call it is hard to hear myself think let alone hunt.  The state police ran him out once when he was a juvenile.  Now he is an adult. I talked to him about it years ago, and he flat out denied the whole thing.  The next season he was right back there.

In a way, he reminds me of when I was starting out.  I saw the other side of the fence as a trackless void, and I had no clue that the bed and breakfast over on the next ridge catered to turkey hunters.  I don't know if I would have cared.  My goal was to get a turkey.  I had a right to be there, and if I could get a turkey to come over it didn't matter to me what I did.  I picked my calls for volume and worked them as loud as I could for as long as I could. 

My son is now the same age as this boy was when he started hunting.  I had Angus out this past weekend and was showing him the areas I think he will be successful hunting.  My advice to him was to work up to the edge of the westernmost ridge, but not to venture down the into the bottom, not to follow turkeys calling down there and to suspect any calls he hears coming from there.  For as much as I find it distasteful that young hunter pretty well owns that bottom. My family has to stay out.

[shaman]

I had an idea about this on my way into work.  It's from one of my other neighbors, Wally.  His advice is to make sure you understand that fencelines are not impenetrable barriers.  He had a hunter come down to his fence a few years ago and set up a camo pop-up  right on the line and then crawl in.  Luckily it was just as the light was coming up and Wally saw him from his own location, but if he had not seen the flashlight, he would have never known that hunter was there.  The fence was on the far side of the creek from Wally, and about 30 yards out from his blind.  The hunter never opened up the window facing Wally, but it made Wally wonder what would have happened if he had not seen the other hunter and the flock had shown up as planned. 

[WildTigerTrout]

I do not trespass or shoot into property I don't have permission to hunt. Nothing wrong with calling a bird over property lines.

[GobbleNut]

This is a tricky subject,...and one that is a "one size does not fit all" proposition.  You are taking the "high road", Shaman, in your approach to your situation, but I think you are truly the exception to the rule with it.

If I had two hundred acres to hunt,...and no where else,...the very first thing I would do is post the perimeter of my property to the legal requirements of the state I was in,...and then some, if I thought it was needed.  If I knew I had a trespassing problem, I would make it clear to the person that they were to stay on their side of the fence,...and if they violated that trust, they would be prosecuted.  Further, I would regularly, and randomly, patrol the property boundary to make sure there was no evidence of violation. 

I most certainly would not sacrifice hunting one of the best areas of my property because it bordered theirs.  If the birds are hanging out, or roosting, on my side of the property, I would be hunting them,...and hunting them often.  I think after a while, the neighbor would get frustrated with that situation and move away from the property line to hunt.

Having said all of that, I would also be asking myself (and before any of the above),...How can I have a better relationship with this neighbor?  I would contact him and have a frank talk about the situation.  Perhaps he has a very small property to hunt and there are no other turkeys on it other than the ones along the fence.  In that case, maybe I would offer to let him hunt the fenceline birds a day or two a week,...and I would hunt them outside of those agreed times. 

Regardless, neighbors make bad enemies.  I would try to resolve the issue amicably some how. 

[Mike Honcho]

I should have clarified...the properties I hunt where I need to call across the lines are not hunted by others...landowners just don't let anyone hunt on them so I am safe setting up near the lines...the closest  I have set up was 30-40 yards from line...shotgun range and the are agricultural fields so I can clearly see there are no other hunters nearby.

[shaman]

I don't mean to impugn anyone's methods or motives here.  I also don't think calling birds over a fence is necessarily unethical.   I've been on both sides of this.  Over the years, I've had gobblers shot out from underneath me, and found myself being hunted by other hunters.  I'm sure those fellows thought they were doing due-dilligence.

As much as I'd like to keep my birds to myself, it is hard when I'm not out on the property full time.  After I retire there in a few years, I'll open up some of the old logging roads and make regular patrols. I'll also start putting up Orange markers at stand and blind sites.  My goal is to take both bottoms back.

A lot of this is not an ethics thing, but a safety thing.  We've gone most of our time out there with no serious problems.  However, it took a while for some neighbors to get the message and in the mean time we got shot at a few times from the interior of our own property.  Pellets at 80 yards are still nasty.  My biggest concern is always going to be deer season.   You just don't know who is out there and what is going to come flying through the air.