Kill Success Rates?

[TauntoHawk]

success rate is very heavily tied to quality of ground.. My Shot opportunity rate on PA public is bellow 25% where my NY private ground is closer to 75% over the last 10 years. I am the same hunter but less birds more pressure changes the game. On private I know if I leave a bird alone he will likely be alive and still roosted in the same spot if I want to come back to him in a week, public that almost never works out.

I am also out about half my days afield calling for other people and not hunting for myself that tends to drop the success rate a little on those days as well. Overall I try not to leave things to chance either, I rarely hit the woods at day break hoping to hear one to chase. I am usually going in on birds I roosted or know will be there based on scouting knowledge within a high probability and expect to be withing 100yds of a gobbling bird most every morning out.

[tha bugman]

Let's step it up. With decoys vs without decoys

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Ohhhh crap here we go...

Oh no he didn't 

[g8rvet]

I think my success on public is severely limited by the one hour drive to where I hunt and working until dark.  I have time to scout my private spots due to location, but really don't need to roost them there, although I sometimes do in order to pick one or the other.   I work every other Saturday and although I am off on Wednesdays, I work on Tuesdays and can't make the woods in time to roost one.   

I know that scouting for ducks makes the success rate sky rocket as well and when I am off on a trip an afternoon scout is critical.  And we kill birds then.  Maybe I should quit my job? 

[eggshell]

As I look over all the post I have thought a lot about this. I think there is no other criteria as important for success than the abundance of birds where you hunt. I have hunted all variations in my 45 years of turkey hunting and I would choose to hunt land with more birds, even if it had more pressure, in most cases. Of course there are limiting factors in this, but over all more birds equal more success.

[Turkeyman]

Over my entire turkey hunting career I'd say it's 3-4 days. I used to hunt mostly public and it would have been, perhaps, 5-6 days. Now I hunt mostly private and it's more like 1-3 days. A regret I have is not having kept a good hunting journal/diary. This datum, and much more, would have been included.

[Happy]

I will say this. The day I base my enjoyment of turkey hunting purely on success then I will quit. I know this thread isn't meant in that manner and i am not preaching. But in all honesty I will hunt every day I get with enthusiasm and to the best of my ability. I always want to get better but I refuse to make the turkeys I kill just another number.  Chalked up and forgotten. That's not why I hunt and that's exactly why I don't try and keep track of how many I have killed. I like to sit back on a familiar ridge and remember birds from the past. Turkey hunting is a passion but I couldn't care less how I stack up as a "killer". I hunt for me and my enjoyment.

Sent from my SM-G800R4 using Tapatalk

[grayfox]

I will say this. The day I base my enjoyment of turkey hunting purely on success then I will quit. I know this thread isn't meant in that manner and i am not preaching. But in all honesty I will hunt every day I get with enthusiasm and to the best of my ability. I always want to get better but I refuse to make the turkeys I kill just another number.  Chalked up and forgotten. That's not why I hunt and that's exactly why I don't try and keep track of how many I have killed. I like to sit back on a familiar ridge and remember birds from the past. Turkey hunting is a passion but I couldn't care less how I stack up as a "killer". I hunt for me and my enjoyment.

Sent from my SM-G800R4 using Tapatalk

X2 Happy 
If I based my enjoyment on success I would have quit years ago.

[GobbleNut]

To answer the original question, I would "guesstimate" that, since 1965, my personal success rate has averaged around 50% on either killing a gobbler or having the opportunity to kill one.  As others have stated, that statistic is not one that is of any importance to me.

There are places I can hunt that I feel confident I could kill a gobbler just about every day. I know the terrain. I know where the birds roost and where they are going to go. The fact is that I rarely hunt those places.  When I hunt, I want to challenge myself by applying my skills and tactics on birds in situations where I don't know exactly what they are going to do.

The one factor that I base my "hunt success" on is my ability to find a gobbler to have an "encounter" with every day, especially on ground that I am not familiar with.  More specifically, if I use my methods of finding gobblers to hunt, locate one on the roost, get a good set-up on him, and then have a conversation,...then I am satisfied to some degree whether I kill him or not.  My goal is to do that every day of the season, wherever I am hunting.  Now, if I kill gobblers with some regularity doing that, then all the better. 

On the other hand, I consider a hunt a failure if I cannot find a bird to hunt using my techniques,...on property where I know there are birds to be hunted.  Also, if I hunt a bird and make silly errors in the encounter about things like setting up, calling, moving, etc. that result in a bird getting away, then I have a certain level of "disappointment" with myself. 

However, if I do my part and the gobbler still eludes me for whatever reason, I know it is just part of the game,...and I move on to the next encounter.