What I mean is at what point in your hunting career did you figure out how to have success in the turkey woods on a regular basis, where you didn't feel like you were muddling your way through it?
For me, it was this past season. I had had excellent success for the first 4 seasons hunting, and thought I had it all figured out.
Then came the next 4 seasons...........
I was really humbled by how little I knew, and how much I still had to learn, but I didn't give up, and kept plugging away.
Finally this past season, I really felt I was a part of my own success due to decisions I made that put me in a good position to harvest a bird. I went in the day before I killed him, learned what I needed even though I didn't get a shot, and had success the next day.
How about all of you?
Early 70's. I watched a Bobcat watching and maneuvering on a covey of quail. In the end he had his lunch. That's when I figured out I need to be more like Mr. Bobcat. He figured out the killing spot and put himself in position undetected.
To be perfectly honest I'm still trying to figure it out. I can't break the habit of over calling.Luck is a major part of my success.
Honestly, I went by myself the first time when I was 11 and killed one within 2 hours. Ever since then I've been pretty successful. I've had a few birds give me fits over the years but mostly if I get on a bird I will kill him within 3 days. Deer hunting was the same way but it takes a pretty big buck to get me excited anymore but a 2 year old Longbeard will have me shaking like I've never seen one!
I'm certainly a better hunter than I was 5, 10 or 20 years ago, but I'm still learning. I don't think there will ever be a season where I don't get reminded of a past lesson or learn something new.
I learn something new EVERY season!!! For me personally "get it" means that I finally learned that no two hunts are ever the same, to stay away from doing the same things year after year and to try and hunt/kill in the moment. I also never take a kill or encounter for granted it could always be your last season (not being dismal just a fact).
Second year turkey hunting on a narrow short point ( say 300 yds long. ) I witnessed a hen cutting to my left ,driving two longbeards crazy in their strut zone at the end of the point ( back and forth. ) I sat and imitated her on my double slate over glass hs strut ( learned to cut ) killed one the next morning the other the day after , but 18 years later still learning , still getting burnt !
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Everyday in the woods we learn something new!!!! But when i finally figured out the patience and letting turkeys do what they do, the numbers quickly went up!!!
I got off to a real fast start in the turkey woods. Very early in my career I actually had been out to the woods 9 times turkey hunting and called six birds to the kill. Five of them my own, one called up for a friend.
I was batting .666 on hunts! :turkey2:
My average is substantially lower nowadays. :toothy12:
Quote from: Gooserbat on February 01, 2014, 02:40:21 PM
I'm certainly a better hunter than I was 5, 10 or 20 years ago, but I'm still learning. I don't think there will ever be a season where I don't get reminded of a past lesson or learn something new.
:agreed: this is me......
The biggest thing that helped me was learning to be patient. As long as you haven't spooked him or over-called to him your still in the game. You can circle away and around and fool with him all day. He will come when he's ready. :camohat:
always learning something new..most of the time the learning is in regards to setups (where to position, how to position in relation to bird location).
Every time I think I "have it" the next turkey I work makes a fool of me.
I'm a lot more confident and have more patients than I used to have, so I'm more successful now
but I Learn and relearn every time out.
Like alot have stated you learn something new every time your in the woods chasing those long beards. But I do get what your saying chatterbox. I was fortunate that my dad started taking me with him turkey hunting when I was about 8. I started carrying a shotgun at around 10. The first call I ever learned to use was a mouth call crazy enough. But I went many season before calling in and taking a turkey. I got to see my dad call in several and take them up to that point....which it was always his goal to let me try and take them but it never seemed to work out. But it taught me alot and my dad taught me ALOT! Then my dad got very sick when I was in my mid teens so I ended up having to go alot by myself. I went rounds with many different long beards and after a few years I finally sealed the deal. I learned a bunch up to that point but at that moment I got it...I finally put a bunch of things I had learned together and it worked, I set up right, I called just right (not over calling like so many times before), I learned what to say and figured out for the most part what they wanted to hear. From that point on until now I've had many successful hunting seasons. Which a successful hunt to me is not carrying one out even thought that is a bonus. But since then there has not been one season I've not been blessed to bag a long beard. Whats even more enjoyable for me is I've been able to call in a bunch of long beards for others and most important my dad! I know I'll learn alot more this year but I do have a confidence that took many years, many hours, and many long beards going the other way to obtain! That's just a few of the many reasons I love turkey hunting so very much!!!
God Bless
I began to become a much better turkey hunter during the 1980's. I improved even more in the 90's. However, I still learn something on nearly every hunt. That is what is so great about turkey hunting.
Read my Avatar ! Being Patient & Digging In IMO will kill alot of gobblers !
vaturkey :newmascot:
I haven't killed my first bird yet, but I believe I can tell where I have evolved as a turkey hunter.
3 areas where I have definitely improved on are
1. mouth calls and calling in general
2. thinking more about how and where I am setting up and putting myself in a good spot that gives me the advantage
3. being patient
With those three things I was able to call in my first group of turkeys. Gobbler never came in close enough to seal the deal, but jakes and hen came within 5yds of me and never spooked. All three components lead to a fun morning
Quote from: Vaturkeyhntr on February 01, 2014, 04:18:10 PM
Everyday in the woods we learn something new!!!! But when i finally figured out the patience and letting turkeys do what they do, the numbers quickly went up!!!
My sentiments exactly. :z-winnersmiley:
Crap, I killed my first one in 1998, around 30 later I still don't know what I'm doing!
At some point every season I decide that I hate turkeys and hunting them and swear I'm going to sell it all. Then God will smile and put a loud mouth two year old gobbler in front of me and all will be right again.
Man I love two year old gobblers!
I pretty much "got it" from the get go. have been killing birds with much regularity ever since I started.
That being said.............. I learn and improve every time I go to the turkey woods.
some days you ride high and make 3 longspurs look dumb. Other days a jake makes a monkey of you. That's why this sport is so freakin' addictive !!!
Some days I feel like I know it all.......then there are the days the birds remind me I dont know a thing!
I've been fortunate to harvest several,several longbeards and for being self taught pretty much,i've done pretty well.But every year since i've started,bird or no bird,I always come away with something new learned.......good or bad.
When I realized the only one on a clock was me.
Quote from: jakesdad on February 01, 2014, 08:34:30 PM
Some days I feel like I know it all.......then there are the days the birds remind me I dont know a thing!
Should be carved in a stone somewhere. Yep.
Still not sure I have it all figured out yet, but that's part of what makes it all so fun.
One day I may get there, until then I will keep enjoying the ride.
I learn something new every year. but I felt like I had some what of a grasp on things when I started reading really paying attention to my mentors and not thinking it was so easy. it took me about 4 seasons to get what was happening and start to under stand how and why turkeys act the way they do.
First of all great post! I muddled along for what seemed like years. There were not many turkeys and not much in the way of helpful literature, tapes, etc. You pretty much had to depend on other hunters, most of whom did not really want to be of help, or felt that you should learn the same way they did, from years of experience in the woods.
I was lucky and killed a bird after only 3 years of hunting. It is still the largest bird I've shot and the hardest one for me to get. Literally hours of cold and wet time that included walking in water close to my waist and crawling in the mud up a hill. In reality, I was just very lucky on that hunt and it took me quite a while to shoot another one.
I've made so many mistakes, felt like I'd learned nothing and at one time thought how more much I really enjoyed hunting squirrels. Eventually, I became a little more consistent but even after several decades of hunting in a lot of different places, it's still a challenge...thankfully.
I did however come to realize that it's the hunt and not the kill that is most important.
Thanks,
Clark
I think it was last season for me, when my wife gave me the biggest compliment any turkey hunter could get.
She has been with me on dozens of kills, and has taken her share too.
We had taken a friend along with us one morning, and got a turkey gooble to a hoot. We then closed some distance and made our setup.
I made one series of yelps, and he cut me off with a Gobble.
My wife turned to my friend and said, That turkey is Dead!! We all just looked at each other with stupid grins, but she was right! :gobble:
I remember thinking around year 4 or 5 of killing turkeys, am I going to be able to do it again? Call them in and kill them. I don't have those thoughts anymore but I still keep learning every year. One thing I try to do is make my calling better every year. Or at least learn how to use a different call or make the odd calls sound better. It keeps me sharp with my calling. Now I have thrown in making calls and thats a whole nother world.
I haven't, and I'm not sure that I ever will. It seems as if blind luck is the best thing I have going for me. Every year I know exactly what I'm doing, then I hunt with a friend of mine and after watching him work a bird it makes me feel like I've never been in the woods, and I realize that I still suck.
What worked yesterday won't work today cause that turkey is dead!
Like many of us, I learned turkey hunting from a mentor/friend (way back in 1962) who was like a second father to me. Most of those techniques were very conservative, many would say "old school". I still use some of them. But I really "got turkey hunting" after I watched a video produced by Denny Gulvas (you who have been around a long time may remember him). He taught me to be an aggressive turkey hunter and that did it for me. Its been a great ride ... this is my 51st Spring Season. Good luck and "think safe" to all out this Spring.
Probably the biggest thing I've learned over the years is to put a lot of time in scouting. I try to roost birds every evening before I hunt.
This works for me because I hunt in a 20 mile radius from my house most of the time. I know that doesn't work for many hunters due to driving time, public land hunts etc.
Even when I roost birds I don't always have a successful hunt obviously....they can fly down on private land I don't have access to etc., etc.,but it sure ups the odds in my favor and gives me time to plan my set up for next morning...I may look at topo maps etc to plan the best set up.
For me scouting is the " OK I get it "
After the first 10 gobblers I shot I realized I was starting to get proficient , after I got to about 80 gobblers I realized I didn't know jack s#%^
For me, "getting it" was realizing that the enjoyment I get from spring gobbler hunting does not come just from killing a turkey, it comes from all of the things that happen before the trigger is pulled. A positive end result,...that is, killing a gobbler,....means nothing to me if the method I use to achieve that is not what I, personally, consider to be a "proper" one.
Having said that, each of us has our own circumstances and conditions under which we must hunt. I do not try to impose my standards or methods on anyone else. I learned long ago that "getting it" in southern New Mexico is not necessarily the same as "getting it" in New Hampshire,...or anywhere else.
The past few seasons I have really began to have a lot of success in the turkey woods. I do not judge success by filling my tags. I enjoy filming turkey just as much as I do shooting them. Just when you think you have a bird figured out they will throw something knew your way. The more you spend in the woods the more you will learn. I grew up learning off my dad who is a great turkey hunter. Always watching Denny Gulvas videos and turkey videos of all sorts. I listen to CDs of turkey talk in my truck when traveling and practice with my calls every chance I get. Another thing that has helped my turkey skills is building a pen and having my own turkey that I can listen to at any time. It's a great tool to get specific sounds. I highly recommend filming birds and going back an watching your footage over and over and you will discover things you would not have if you didn't have the footage. I feel confident in my skills because of the time I put in but some birds are just hard to figure out or can be very incorporative. It's called hunting for a reason. Get in the woods as often as possible and study. It's like anything the more you practice the better you will be. Good luck to everyone this upcoming year. Unfortunately I made a career change that won't let me get out much this upcoming year. I sure am going to miss it. Be safe!
I first got it around 1968, then really got it in the mid 1970's when I started hunting public land birds.
I got it pretty good right now but feel I can continue to get better. Was very proud of the year I had last year because it was tough and I had to use patience but still filled all my tags.
Started feeling pretty good about it 7 or 8 years ago after having good success on private and public land here at home and on some out of state hunts. Two years ago I got my son on his 1st bird at age 6 and another friends son at age 10, killed my season limit the first 2 days of the season and was feeling like I was getting good. Then it came time to get one for my buddy! Let's just say that that has been the most humbling experience for me a turkey hunter I've experienced. Were going on season 3 and have yet to put one on the ground for him and I'm beginning to wonder where and what kinda bad juju he's got on him or if it's ever gonna come off. I mean we've had birds in range and out of range, too far and too close, hang ups and screw ups and just about everything imaginable and unimaginable happen while to trying to get him a longbeard.
So, I think I used to get it but I've been beginning to wonder lately.
When I started calling less and thinking strategically more...
I wouldn't say that "I've got it", because I'm still learning and (hopefully) improving every season. I didn't get to feeling confident in the turkey woods, and start harvesting bird(s) every year until about 8 years of hunting turkeys. I'm much more confident now. I think it comes with experience. Also with opportunity. We all don't have the opportunities that others do. Experience and opportunity go along way towards producing confidence.
I'd say it took me 3 years. Hunting the fall really helped me " get to know turkey's". I have a great teacher as well.