What do you consider heavily hunted

[ilbucksndux]

If you have never hunted heavily pressured land.......go to LBL in Kentucky. Then you will know what pressure is. Back here at home most turkey hunters want to be alone so it is rare that you run into people hunting on public land.........except in youth season. There seems to be people everywhere with no regard to how many or who else is around..........its a great way to teach your kids.

[NYlogbeards]

I consider it heavily hunted when one or more hunt an area often, I try to avoid people as much as I can and try not to take someone else's bird they are working and when someone is in the area calling frequently too much I stay quiet and prepare for a stray bird that may have been spooked. This one time I was sitting on the edge of a field and was calling in a Gobbler from across but this one guy thought he could stalk the turkey and make his way to the bird by walking between me and the Gobbler out in the field, i was amazed at how stupid this guy was but nothing is surprising and I know he knew I was there but that is the joy of Public Land.

[Cutt]

Once saw 75 cars parked at a 2700 acre public wildlife area....

Now that's some serious pressure, figuring most of those vehicles might of had more than 1 hunter?

[Bowguy]

Wow lots of terrible posts. Stinks you're all going through that. I figured it'd be worse in this wonderful state. Guess I was wrong.

[OldSchool]

I consider the places I hunt heavily pressured, public and private alike. One piece of private land here by the house has five or six other guys with permission on it on any given day and there's always a few that sneak in. They all spend the mornings trying to call birds away from each other or sneaking in and trying cut the other guys off. I refuse to play that way, so a lot of mornings I'll hang in a good spot for an hour or two and listen to the show till they've had enough and leave. None of them seem to hunt very long and more often than not all they do is spook the birds. Once they're gone I get after the turkeys. There's very little respect shown for the other guy anymore and unfortunately, it seems to get worse every year.

I do have a couple spots where I can get away from all but a few of the diehards, but my knees are so worn out that by the time I get there, I wonder if I'm going to make it back.

Bob

[Strick9]

Heavily hunted is an area that gives the green to go, the yellow caution and the black and white for the win. Thats my favorite area to take a trophy Tom.

If I could confiscate all the owl hooters from one block of woods I could save the snowy owl in a day.

If I could grab every striker we would already have the material to build the wall.

If I could grab all the box calls we could reassemble the Ark.

Steal all the leafy jackets and we could cover up more than the Clintons past 20 years.

[Bowguy]

Heavily hunted is an area that gives the green to go, the yellow caution and the black and white for the win. Thats my favorite area to take a trophy Tom.

If I could confiscate all the owl hooters from one block of woods I could save the snowy owl in a day.

If I could grab every strikers we would already have the material to build the wall.

If I could grab all the box calls we could reassemble the Ark.

Steal all the leafy jackets and we could cover up more than the Clintons past 20 years.

That's awesome!

[TauntoHawk]

In my local area there are tons of people, very few birds, and no large tracts of public land

I have seen 10 vehicles for a 99acre chunk of SGL... That's like trout fishing shoulder to shoulder. I'd rather not go

I've spent hours and miles scouting and within an hour of home and found a few huntable birds in hard to get to spots on decent size piece of public but only on weekdays the weekends you'd still probably have to share a tree to sit under or struggle to find a place to park.

Private in this area is near impossible to get unless it's family. Most don't own enough acreage to effectively turkey hunt, and leasing is out of the question with what people want for poor hunting. Fortunately I have places up north and in NY that are the complete opposite and for that I am truly thankful. Fair amount of free access to private, and tracts of decently unpressured public with good bird populations. It's 4.5hrs of driving one way and I'll do that about 3 times a spring. One weekday a week a squeak out before  work.

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[RutnNStrutn]

Public land in FLA. Florida owns hundreds of thousands of acres of "public" land, but only some of it is open to hunting. Even less when it comes to turkey season. Then most WMA's have a permit system and you have to get drawn to hunt there. Then for those that do get drawn, there is a buddy system where you can bring a guest, which usually means darn near doubling the amount of hunters. For the WMA's that don't require a permit, it is chaos. If the place holds birds, there are literally hundreds of hunters, most of which have zero courtesy and many have no clue as to what they are doing. There are idiots driving up and down the roads spooking birds. More idiots walk and call because that's what they've seen on TV. Public land Osceolas don't gobble hard like the birds you see on TV. They often come in silent, and these idiots spook them. So it ends up that you have a bunch of very educated birds in most FLA WMA's. That is why I'm very selective about what WMA's I put in for, and I avoid the open WMA's totally.
To make matters worse, there are many beautiful "public" lands that are home to a lot of turkeys, that are not open to hunting. Hikers, bikers, campers and equestrians get to recreate on them for free while the hunters that cannot access them foot the bill. 
You've got to be rich to own or lease private land. Florida is being developed like crazy, so the hunting lands are shrinking. Land owners know the value of their land, and of their Osceolas. Thanks to the NWTF and their Grand Slam, hunters all need to come to Florida for an Osceola. The outfitters snag up as much land as they can, then charge $2,000 for one Osceola.  That's why the average Joe cannot afford to lease land. Pretty aggravating when you have to go through so much just to hunt a bird in your home state.
End of rant.

[catman529]

The public land I hunt


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[Spurs]

Simply put...there are 0 secret spots to turkey hunt in AR.  Even on private land, miles from any public, my place (doesn't have many birds anymore) I have had up to 3 guys setup with decoys inches from the property line to attempt to work a bird I was on. 

If you have a secret spot, consider yourself lucky.  I have been burned on numerous occasions trying to find that Spot for myself...now I do different.  I go to the areas that hold a moderate amount of turkey for that given property, get there early (sometimes 2-3 hours), park in an obvious fashion to let people know where I'm going, have my vest on, gun against a tree, and stay ready to jump out of the truck as soon as I see headlights or when it comes time for me to go.

This has worked for me more than anything.


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[jtoliver43]

Ive got a new property this year that I have permission to hunt. about 500 acres and I'm told by the farmer that I'm the only one turkey hunting there. Seems ideal, and Im super grateful and excited for the opportunity, however the landowners grandkids and all their buddies are out there all the time shooting guns and riding 4 wheelers. In this situation i can't say much, since its more theres than it is mine, I just hope I can get in there and get on a bird or two without them possibly messing up a hunt. I already have trail cam pictures of them stomping around the woods.... but I also have a few nice birds on camera

[owlhoot]

Try Missouri public land ,  a parking spot for yourself, good luck with that. heck even a lot private is hunted at the boundary to boundary .