Do you "out" tracks? (don't know if that is a regional term - meaning to deliberately step on, brush out tracks of birds).
I never did on the hunt clubs I was in, but they were small and I was friends with the members. I would tell them where I had seen them, if they asked.
We do it all the time on public land. Sometimes with our feet, sometimes with a cut down tree branch. Are we unusual in this? I have seen Tom tracks with fresher boot marks and have wondered. If I see a bird track I intend to hunt, I am getting rid of the evidence. Also nice to check the area again later to find fresh ones as well. Here in Florida, the sandy soil will leave good tracks until the next hard rain. Just curious if we are being hogs or if that is a common practice (I am still gonna do it :) )
Never crossed my mind to do that :lol:
Never even thought about it. Most guys are listening for a gobble. If they here one they know the birds are there. Any serious hunter is going to know the birds are there whether they see tracks or not. Just my opinion.
I doubt it will help much in the AM, but fresh tracks found later in the day have been the death of many a bird from my group. We killed one last year in a place I had sat off and on for 2 weeks and never heard a gobble. Went back a week or so later and found fresh tracks. Killed him the next morning. I am talking though about a huge tract of woods and we use tracking to find new places to listen since we can't be everywhere at once. Y'all don't?
Do it all the time, I kick turkey poop out of the road beds too.
The turkeys in the NF around here dont hit locator calls reliably, and they dont gobble all day every day. I take my chances, hope they dont gobble for somebody else and I keep the forensic detail hidden ;)
2015 Old Gobbler contest Champions
Yes we do!!! Also walk back and forth to make it look like the place has been hunted to death...... Lol
Quote from: g8rvet on May 18, 2016, 07:56:59 PM
I doubt it will help much in the AM, but fresh tracks found later in the day have been the death of many a bird from my group. We killed one last year in a place I had sat off and on for 2 weeks and never heard a gobble. Went back a week or so later and found fresh tracks. Killed him the next morning. I am talking though about a huge tract of woods and we use tracking to find new places to listen since we can't be everywhere at once. Y'all don't?
You and I hunt very different areas around very different hunters! Around here we don't have a lot of huge tracks of timber. We have ridges that can be heard from one side or the other. Most of the guys around here that hunt all day are going to hunt where ever they can whether they see tracks or not. We also have plenty of fields that are visible from the roads so if there are turkeys in the area, everybody in the county knows about it. I guess there might be some guys that say "hey, here's a turkey track let's hunt here". But for the most part the guys that are going to kill a bird have done their homework and don't bother looking for tracks come season. They are looking for the birds that make the tracks.
This reminds me of a year I was preseason scouting. I was walking a logging road and there was lots of droppings on it. LOTS. Went back a week later and hardly found a one. Made me laugh. The Guy spent a lot of time pitching poop.
In FLA on the WMA's I hunt, I do it routinely. It's tough enough to kill a bird without leaving clues for the competition. Nothing aggravates me more than some disrespectful "hunter" to crowd me on a hunt. Up in SC on my lease, we don't have that issue. There are only 3 of us, and we hunt different times in the spring.
Quote from: Farmboy27 on May 18, 2016, 08:17:55 PM
Quote from: g8rvet on May 18, 2016, 07:56:59 PM
I doubt it will help much in the AM, but fresh tracks found later in the day have been the death of many a bird from my group. We killed one last year in a place I had sat off and on for 2 weeks and never heard a gobble. Went back a week or so later and found fresh tracks. Killed him the next morning. I am talking though about a huge tract of woods and we use tracking to find new places to listen since we can't be everywhere at once. Y'all don't?
You and I hunt very different areas around very different hunters! Around here we don't have a lot of huge tracks of timber. We have ridges that can be heard from one side or the other. Most of the guys around here that hunt all day are going to hunt where ever they can whether they see tracks or not. We also have plenty of fields that are visible from the roads so if there are turkeys in the area, everybody in the county knows about it. I guess there might be some guys that say "hey, here's a turkey track let's hunt here". But for the most part the guys that are going to kill a bird have done their homework and don't bother looking for tracks come season. They are looking for the birds that make the tracks.
You are right, I think we just hunt very differently. Part of finding a fresh track also tells me a gobbler I knew was there is still alive. I use that intel on hard hunted public as well.
I killed one on a private place I hunt because I found strut marks on about a 3 foot by 9 foot piece of sand. Only sand on the whole tract. I had been there a lot of days before work and had not heard a peep and tracking is not possible there. It is my before work spot (10 minutes from my house, 10 minutes from work). If I had not seen those strut marks, I would have thought only one gobbler (that was in my freezer) was using the farm that year (which is not unusual there) and would have hunted elsewhere. He took a truck ride on the last day of the year I could hunt.
Not only do I rub out tracks, but I carry a stick with a turkey foot on it and leave a lot of tracks near the road.
You guys are unreal, never heard of such hunting, funny what a guy will do to kill a turkey. OMG
Done it a million times. Not always but more often than not.
Never heard the term, and never even thought about "outing". Then again, in my neck of the woods (or mountains) - you would be hard pressed to find a track. Maybe near a mud puddle on a logging road or powerline, but that would be it.
As someone else mentioned, I often make sure and leave plenty of my own footprints.
I will "out" tracks quite frequently. Although I do it to find at which point during the day a turkey is traveling by the area. I will do the same with dusting bowls, raking them out smooth with my boot or hand, basically just separating fresh sign from old...
Quote from: silvestris on May 18, 2016, 10:38:21 PM
Not only do I rub out tracks, but I carry a stick with a turkey foot on it and leave a lot of tracks near the road.
:TooFunny: :TooFunny: I'm laughing as I visualize you doing this
I rarely do this turkey hunting,...there are so many tracks that you would spend all your time trying to scuff them out. I have used that tactic for some other game species, however.
As for leaving human tracks, if I am hunting somewhere that I want to possibly discourage others from hunting, I will consciously leave my own tracks in very obvious places in hopes that anybody else that comes along will see my boot tracks, get discouraged, and move on.
Ahhh, the games we play to try to give ourselves an advantage.... ;D
Best stunt I ever pulled was faking the death of a turkey several folks were hunting. There was a spot on a dirt road he liked to strut in the middle of the day, and that spot had to be walked by to access the area. Thing is, the bird didn't roost anywhere near that spot. I had a few minutes to hunt before work, but I had the next day off. Instead of trying to find an early bird (late in the season, and birds were scarce), I got to that spot early. I carried a bag of feathers with me. At sunrise, I pulled the trigger, ejected the hull where it would be easy to see, walked into the road and dumped a bunch of feathers around and then walked all around the spot.
Next morning I got there about 10:00am after getting beat up by another bird. There were two sets of bootprints going in and out. They stopped at the site of the "kill," and turned around and walked out. Oh, and my hull was moved about ten feet. The turkey showed up at 10:45. I did make him gobble at a call before pulling the trigger so I could claim I called him.
Yes...I hunt public land
Quote from: silvestris on May 18, 2016, 10:38:21 PM
Not only do I rub out tracks, but I carry a stick with a turkey foot on it and leave a lot of tracks near the road.
I was a waiting on that one :TooFunny:Have to make and sell a turkey pooper scooper . Make a fortune and retire where there are REAL turkey tracks!
Quote from: silvestris on May 18, 2016, 10:38:21 PM
....but I carry a stick with a turkey foot on it and leave a lot of tracks near the road.
Please post up a pic of this contraption.... ;D
Bet I have kicked the soles off a couple pairs of boots doing it over the years ;D. Throw turds out the roads too. Hunt a lot of public land and do what I can to keep the lazy hunters at bay as some don't hunt turkeys they just hunt some of the people that hunt turkeys.
Quote from: silvestris on May 18, 2016, 10:38:21 PM
Not only do I rub out tracks, but I carry a stick with a turkey foot on it and leave a lot of tracks near the road.
HA! We made a turkey foot on a dowel rod to mess with my brother one year. My nephew put tom tracks in his boot print like 4 times before he figured out we were messing with him.
I used to make Sasquatch prints all over where I hunt to try to scare others away. Next thing I knew the entire cast of the "finding Bigfoot" tv show were stomping all over my area. So I started borrowing all my neighbors cars and parking them at my spot the night before so it looked like a pile of people were hunting there. But every teenager that drove by thought that there was a party going on and stopped. Soon there would be a bonfire and loud music. As a last resort I started parking by my spot during preseason scouting and walking around wearing nothing but rainbow colored speedos trying to make everyone too uncomfortable to stop and scout. It turns out that doing that drew in an even less desirable group! I was at my wits end on what else I could do when suddenly it hit me! What if I worry more about calling in and killing the birds myself and worry less about someone else finding them? Well I know it sounds crazy but guess what, I tried it and it really works! I actually have more fun not stressing about something I can't control and my wife isn't worried about me leaving the house in speedos anymore. It's like a win/win!
Funny advice Farm. I used to really worry about how others think and what they do, but then I stopped judging other people and learned to find humor in other rituals that seem silly to me. Now I am happier. If this thread offends you, I would suggest not reading it. You will be happier to. win/win
It's all good g8rvet! Just poking some fun.
Gotcha. What is typed on the internet is often difficult to comprehend what would be simple to understand in person, humor or sarcasm is lost. I had a ranch manager that spoke a little English and I speak very little Spanish. On the phone, we could not understand each other. In person, no problem.
Understood. I don't do what you do and you don't do what I do. Doesn't mean it would be pleasure to sit and talk turkey with you! Lol.
Yep, I've obliterated some tracks in my day.
I've also taken great care on more than one occasion to pick every single feather at a kill site to avoid folks who would try to take over a honey hole.
Nowadays I'm not so sure it's necessary where I hunt. It's private land and the 8 or so other turkey hunters on the lease have had so little success over the years I feel kind of sorry for them and leave the clues these days.
Yep im gonna remove any evidence of turkey's I can and try to limit my tracks at the same time!