Calling a gobbler across a creek

[jakebird]

I'm prob gonna get my chops busted for this but I'm one of those guys that likes to call birds before season. I enjoy photographing and videoing them and I've done it for years and will continue to do so. Today I hit up a very pressured piece of public land that gets hammered in season as hard as anywhere I've ever been. In fact there was another guy leaving from scouting today as I arrived and he told me how tough these birds are and how they can't be called in. I chuckled and headed toward a field where I had glasses four strutters from the road minutes before. I got in position to glass them from a high bluff across a large creek approx 150 yards from the birds. They cut me off on my first series of cuts and one broke away from the group and came in on a string but surprised me by flying the creek and the steep bank and coming right in to 20yards. I call birds in here every year but never hunt there. Its kind of the local joke because it gets hunted so hard its pathetic. Here's the link to the video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&persist_app=1&v=UfpqrwRdlYg

[nsselle]

Nice video, thanks for sharing.

[sbbow]

 

[Gooserbat]

Okay in a friendly way I'm here to bust your chops. 

What someone dose on their private property is their business but I don't think you should do such on public land...It gets hard enough for everyone why make it harder.  I wish it was illegal while ON PUBLIC LAND to posses a turkey call while afield for 30 days prior to season.

That said, to bad it wasn't season.  I'm sure he would have been carried out over your shoulder.

[VaTuRkStOmPeR]

What was the point of this?

The turkey just came to a call, did not find a hen where he clearly knows the "hen" should've been and abruptly leaves.

I'm with gooserbat. If you want to go on private property that you hunt and call up your birds before the season, that's one thing.  But doing it on public ground where your actions can impact others, I find that to be disgraceful and discourteous.

I'm also curious about something.... Do you have private access? If so, why were you on public land calling birds? Why weren't you calling up your own birds?

[jblackburn]

 

[DirtNap647]

  no comment

[jakebird]

Since you're not from the area and don't have firsthand knowledge of the place I see why you might have that impression, but trust me that no serious turkey hunters actually hunt there. Its close to a city and the birds are very visible from roads, so they get harassed from the roads and the city people hammer them relentlessly to the point that one year there was actually a local vendor considering setting up his French fry stand in the parking lot. I would never hunt there for safety reasons alone. Idiots stalking your calls, belly crawling up on your decoy, if one bird is foolish enough to gobble there will be a circle of ten guys surrounding him in minutes. Its the worst place to hunt turkeys you could imagine, and I feel zero guilt having some fun there preseason, not to mention I don't spook the birds. Any serious turkey hunter avoids the area. There are tons of better public land spots in the area. If someone takes a kid there, they have no sense of safety first. I would make my kid wear an orange pumpkin suit if we went there. I hit it up today because it is fifteen min drive as opposed to an hour to the state land where I hunt where btw other people call to them season as well. And we still kill them there every year. It's just not that big a deal. If done somewhat discreetly I really don't think it has a big impact on them. No more than the guys calling to them from their vehicle on the road with their head hanging out the window or the dog walker who lets their labrador chase the flock across the field. And yet we still kill turkeys every year in spite of all of that. So cry me a river, man. There are no call shy turkeys due to calling preseason. Its human presence in the woods and getting shot at and bumped off the roost that makes them skittish.

[MouthCaller]

Wow I'm kinda impressed he came across that creek like that... better call him into your lap one flop off that bank you'll be swimming to get him...

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[slamman]

no comment

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