Name No States

[POk3s]

For years now, I've been beating this drum and it just seemed like right the time to be big and bold about it. It does seem as though some of the big players in YouTube are getting more secretive. Others, simply, are not. It's a free country but with freedom comes great responsibility

Regardless, I care not to argue about it anymore than I already have. I'm just merely coming here to tell you that this video now exists and there will be a few more, if you're interested in watching and supporting THIS STYLE of turkey hunting and secretism, give it a watch. If not, that's okay.

Thank you,
Trent

https://youtu.be/RgfDV_fdEr8?si=G-Gr292HqVME048r

[Gooserbat]

I've not watched it yet but I love the idea

[CALLM2U]

The education piece is certainly an uphill battle.  Some folks just really don't care to learn or listen. 

I was hunting a 20 acre piece of public one time, the only access was via one place and my truck was parked there.  Bird gobbling his head off.  Guy pulls up at daylight, parks behind my truck and walks right into the middle of the piece, blowing the bird off the limb. 

I politely as I could explained the dangers of small piece hunting, ethics of being beat to a spot ect, ect.  His response "It's public land, get over it" 

[bwhana]

Thanks for sharing Trent and enjoyed the video except it reminds me of 50% of my hunts on public. So my #1 takeaway is I need to go to Spirit Halloween and buy an old lady mask and maybe some guys will feel sorry for me and let me have the bird even after they walk in on me

[Greg Massey]

I enjoyed watching the video... Trent ... looking forward to more.

Yes it's Public and every hunt is a learning experience for both parties..

Thanks for sharing

[POk3s]

Thanks for sharing Trent and enjoyed the video except it reminds me of 50% of my hunts on public. So my #1 takeaway is I need to go to Spirit Halloween and buy an old lady mask and maybe some guys will feel sorry for me and let me have the bird even after they walk in on me

I can't say I have ever had it happen quite like this! Maybe I've just been lucky!

[POk3s]

I enjoyed watching the video... Trent ... looking forward to more.

Yes it's Public and every hunt is a learning experience for both parties..

Thanks for sharing

Thank you Greg!

[Tom007]

Great job Trent. It's a shame that's how some hunters operate. When she saw your truck, she should have yielded and moved on. When she hung around after she knew you were set up, that tells me she will never be an ethical hunter. Sad, great video though. Good luck this year, stay safe!

[GobbleNut]

Great job Trent. It's a shame that's how some hunters operate. When she saw your truck, she should have yielded and moved on. When she hung around after she knew you were set up, that tells me she will never be an ethical hunter. Sad, great video though. Good luck this year, stay safe!

I wouldn't personally condemn her to quite that degree...yet. Hunting in the west most of my life, I can tell you that spring gobbler hunting has been slow to catch on and many hunters out here approach turkey hunting like they approach other big game hunting. Simply put, the ethic accepted by those of us that have been doing this a long time...which is to back out if someone else in there before us...has not fully developed among western turkey hunters as of yet. Not only that, but to a lot of westerners, turkey hunting is just a casual pastime...picking up a gun and going hunting just because it is a hunting season they can participate in during the spring. Knowledge of the sport and the established ethics of long-time turkey hunters isn't even in their vocabulary. 

Not only is that ethic still in its development phase out here, there are a couple of other complicating factors at play. The first is that Merriam's turkey populations in most places they exist are not uniformly dispersed across the landscape. The birds are often concentrated in specific areas with lots of dead space between them. The second factor is that Merriam's gobblers are much too willing to give away their locations. Those scattered gobblers are perfectly willing to let everybody know they are there...and as such, hunters tend to concentrate where they hear them, often coming from several different directions.

The result of all of the above is exactly what Trent...and many of us that live and hunt out here...must deal with on a somewhat regular basis. Hopefully, Trent spoke with Donna long enough to at least make her think about things...and maybe adjust her approach to spring gobbler hunting. However, there are a lot more "Donna's" out here in this part of the country.

[POk3s]

Yes I mean...it was a tough spot for me. Of course I deleted out a bunch of garbage you couldn't hear that well, in the video, but afterwords I really kind of felt bad. I was a bit taken back by knowing I was the one who could've done something horribly by "thinking" she had left. In the back of my mind, I didn't hear a truck leave but I thought maybe she went hunting somewhere else, toward the jakes I mentioned.

Also, like I mentioned, if I would've known it was an older lady, I wouldn't just let her have her chance at popping up and shooting him. I have my suspicions of how that would've played out, but who knows. You can see it was a woman, when I zoom in on the video, but I didn't notice that in real time.

When she didn't seem to get the hint, at all, when I started telling her I didn't know where she was, I kind of dropped it. She was an older lady with sole health issues. That's really all I know. She kept her mask up the whole time and moved slow. She also kept saying she had a rough morning and couldn't get out of bed on time. I'm not entirely sure what that meant but think I have it figured out a bit.  But anyway, I would've gladly just yielded for an older lady out hunting by herself.

That's not how it played out. I don't want to be hard on her in real time, or on the video but I thought it was worth a segment on safety and also just respect to hopefully turn the tide a little bit.

[eggshell]

Sadly the public areas are just going to get more and more use. Our sport is changing and sadly not to our liking. I am old and my days are numbered in the field and part of me is ok with that under these circumstances. I feel for you younger guys though. I watched the video and posted this comment hoping it might make some viewers think. Like Trent I was in position and not the intruder.

Wow, I don't think you owe anyone an apology. It just magnifies the safety issue and I am glad you posted this. We should always know where our shot may go down range, but in flat land you can't always have a backdrop. As a hunter if you are waved off a bird and acknowledge that wave off and turn away, you need to leave the area, period. She was wrong and created the situation. Most any hunter would assume she left. Was she going to try and shoot that bird out from under you? I was shot and almost died in a similar situation several years ago.  I know it's hard to do, but I could not have stayed on that group of birds unless I talked to the other hunter. I would have pulled out and tried to make contact with them. Take my word for it, no gobbler in the entire world is worth an accidental shooting. We must do our best to know what is happening around us, but sometimes our best isn't enough. Again She put herself in harms way, but that is no solace after an accident. The guy who shot me was a veteran turkey hunter and he was traumatized over it too. Everyone looses.

[POk3s]

Sadly the public areas are just going to get more and more use. Our sport is changing and sadly not to our liking. I am old and my days are numbered in the field and part of me is ok with that under these circumstances. I feel for you younger guys though. I watched the video and posted this comment hoping it might make some viewers think. Like Trent I was in position and not the intruder.

Wow, I don't think you owe anyone an apology. It just magnifies the safety issue and I am glad you posted this. We should always know where our shot may go down range, but in flat land you can't always have a backdrop. As a hunter if you are waved off a bird and acknowledge that wave off and turn away, you need to leave the area, period. She was wrong and created the situation. Most any hunter would assume she left. Was she going to try and shoot that bird out from under you? I was shot and almost died in a similar situation several years ago.  I know it's hard to do, but I could not have stayed on that group of birds unless I talked to the other hunter. I would have pulled out and tried to make contact with them. Take my word for it, no gobbler in the entire world is worth an accidental shooting. We must do our best to know what is happening around us, but sometimes our best isn't enough. Again She put herself in harms way, but that is no solace after an accident. The guy who shot me was a veteran turkey hunter and he was traumatized over it too. Everyone looses.

I responded to your comment over on the video but in short. You're right and really, on one hand I'm glad everything ended as a "happy" experience for us both but I also have that voice inside of me that says I should've done more. It was my responsibility to make sure she understood and instead of doing that, I chose to just "be nice" and drop it. I hope I'm better mentally prepared for next time this happens...

[eggshell]

Sadly the public areas are just going to get more and more use. Our sport is changing and sadly not to our liking. I am old and my days are numbered in the field and part of me is ok with that under these circumstances. I feel for you younger guys though. I watched the video and posted this comment hoping it might make some viewers think. Like Trent I was in position and not the intruder.

Wow, I don't think you owe anyone an apology. It just magnifies the safety issue and I am glad you posted this. We should always know where our shot may go down range, but in flat land you can't always have a backdrop. As a hunter if you are waved off a bird and acknowledge that wave off and turn away, you need to leave the area, period. She was wrong and created the situation. Most any hunter would assume she left. Was she going to try and shoot that bird out from under you? I was shot and almost died in a similar situation several years ago.  I know it's hard to do, but I could not have stayed on that group of birds unless I talked to the other hunter. I would have pulled out and tried to make contact with them. Take my word for it, no gobbler in the entire world is worth an accidental shooting. We must do our best to know what is happening around us, but sometimes our best isn't enough. Again She put herself in harms way, but that is no solace after an accident. The guy who shot me was a veteran turkey hunter and he was traumatized over it too. Everyone looses.

I responded to your comment over on the video but in short. You're right and really, on one hand I'm glad everything ended as a "happy" experience for us both but I also have that voice inside of me that says I should've done more. It was my responsibility to make sure she understood and instead of doing that, I chose to just "be nice" and drop it. I hope I'm better mentally prepared for next time this happens...

That's called learning. Anyone who is open to learning is welcome in my woods.

[Tom007]

Great job Trent. It's a shame that's how some hunters operate. When she saw your truck, she should have yielded and moved on. When she hung around after she knew you were set up, that tells me she will never be an ethical hunter. Sad, great video though. Good luck this year, stay safe!

I wouldn't personally condemn her to quite that degree...yet. Hunting in the west most of my life, I can tell you that spring gobbler hunting has been slow to catch on and many hunters out here approach turkey hunting like they approach other big game hunting. Simply put, the ethic accepted by those of us that have been doing this a long time...which is to back out if someone else in there before us...has not fully developed among western turkey hunters as of yet. Not only that, but to a lot of westerners, turkey hunting is just a casual pastime...picking up a gun and going hunting just because it is a hunting season they can participate in during the spring. Knowledge of the sport and the established ethics of long-time turkey hunters isn't even in their vocabulary. 

Not only is that ethic still in its development phase out here, there are a couple of other complicating factors at play. The first is that Merriam's turkey populations in most places they exist are not uniformly dispersed across the landscape. The birds are often concentrated in specific areas with lots of dead space between them. The second factor is that Merriam's gobblers are much too willing to give away their locations. Those scattered gobblers are perfectly willing to let everybody know they are there...and as such, hunters tend to concentrate where they hear them, often coming from several different directions.

The result of all of the above is exactly what Trent...and many of us that live and hunt out here...must deal with on a somewhat regular basis. Hopefully, Trent spoke with Donna long enough to at least make her think about things...and maybe adjust her approach to spring gobbler hunting. However, there are a lot more "Donna's" out here in this part of the country.

Good points Jim, you know I respect and read almost all your posts, you are a tremendous wealth of turkey knowledge. However, I do not experience as much hunter pressure as many of us on the forum and have a different feeling on what I saw in Trent's video. First off, he saw the truck pull up in the dark, pull a short distance pst his, but still park too close to him. I believe she should have drove past at least a half mile or more to park. Second, he had to whistle, and flash his light to her in the dark. At that point, she should have left. 3rd, while he was working his Tom, she appeared to be "stalking" towards the strutter. Trent whistled her away again, but she looped back into his set-up. This to me is a bit much, this sport requires safe-space and common sense ethics while pursuing and calling in turkeys. Ethical buffers must be adhered to to make things safe, fun, and successful. This is just my feelings and how I play the game. I do know it is tough to navigate popular public lands, thus these guidelines regarding ethics are of paramount importance to all involved. It would be a good thing for Donna to join this great forum to learn from the great fraternity here. Lord knows I've learned so much from all of you, surely making me a better turkey hunter. Be safe, thanks for sharing Trent and Jim.