Scouting Turkeys with Google Earth

[shaman]

I finally got to writing up my method for triangulating turkeys with Google Earth

Scouting Turkeys with Google Earth

A lot of guys are going to read this and wonder why go to all the trouble.  Sometimes, perhaps most of the time, it might not be important. However, if you're trying to figure out what side of a property line that gobbler is roosting, or you are on new property and haven't had a chance to scout, this is a really great method.  One place where triangulating a gobbler came in very handy was hunting down in the Big South Fork.  Cousin Tim and I were scouting turkeys on Easter Sunday one year, and had gone deep into BSF trying to hear a gobble.  Finally about 0900, we located a gobbler.  I had a topo and a compass, and I took the ten minutes or so to triangulate him. On the topo you could plainly see a 300 foot deep ravine between us. Even though we were looking at level woods, I warned against it.   

"Tim, if we go after that gob, we ain't gettin' out  before dark." I said.  Tim had promised his mother he'd make church service at noon.

I always carry a couple of compasses with me.  My primary is always a lensatic. I always carry a second, usually a pin-on.  Even though I have been on the property for 17 seasons now, I still carry compasses.  The reason is fog.  We're between the Licking and Ohio Rivers, and fog can come up suddenly and drop visibility to zero. It's easy to get turned around in those conditions.  I've had it happen twice now.  I prefer a lensatic, because even in the worst condition, I can shoot an azimuth and know I'm heading in the proper direction, even if it is going tree-to-tree with 10 yards between.  I keep a pinon compass in my kit, as a check on the primary. You really need three to be certain.  I also have a compass app on my phone to act as a tie-breaker.  I've done 20 miles of open water in a canoe out of sight of land.  I've also bushwacked in Northern Ontario, where a wrong turn would leave me with nothing between me and the Arctic Circle.  Believe me, a lensatic compass is good stuff.

[CntrlPA]

That's a neat idea, thanks for putting it together

[kiltman]

  Thanks

[daddyduke]

Useful info. Thanks! I once got lost in the fog on a 80 acre piece of property. It's was no joke.

[shaman]

Thanks!

I realized after I posted this that I was giving a fairly easy example.  That roost location would be able to figure out just by eyeballing it. 

A more useful example might be down on the flat. Let say you're driving a road in a featureless pine forest with the window down and hear a gobble.  You stop and wait for the next gobble, and shoot an azimuth when turkey gobbles next.  Now, jump in the car and run 100 yards down the road and shoot another azimuth.   Now you've got a pretty good idea where that gobbler is, and can plan your attack.  That gobbler may be 800 yards in and there may be a creek between you and him, but the road on the other side might be only 200 yards away and offer you a  better way in.

Let's say you come back the next morning and listen from the other road.  A quick check of the gobbler's azimuth will tell you if this is the same gob or a different one.  It'll also pinpoint his roost even further.

With a lensatic and a topo map and a fairly accurate fix of where you're taking your azimuths you can pinpoint a roost tree within 10 yards.

[buzzardroost]

Glad to see someone else that has hunted the BSF. I live on the edge of it. I've hunted a lot of different areas and it's still one of the toughest to me.


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[shaman]

KYHillChick is from down that way, so I hunted several seasons down there before we bought the farm. 

My "guide" for a lot of my expeditions down there was Buddy Joe Taylor, the local folklorist and radio personality.  Joe was not a turkey hunter per se, but he knew McCreary County better than anyone and we would go riding together while he filled me in on the local history.  We'd get on some birds, and Joe would drop me off somewhere out in the boonies and then come back and pick me up later.

BSF is not an easy place to hunt.  I went bow hunting on the Deer Opener in September, 1999.  I was over at the Diamond Shamrock Mine.  On a previous trip, I'd noticed a clearing through the trees, and decided I'd post there and see what came out at sunrise.  On my way to this clearing, I fell in a hole up to my waist.  That was a lucky thing to.  After I got out, I sat down and waited for the light to come up.  When it did, I realized that the hole was about 3 feet away from a rather large cliff and the grassy clearing I'd seen at a distance was actually the tops of pine trees.  The cliff didn't show up on any topo map. 

[jims]

I've used google earth to scout quite a bit but in a lot different way.  Where I hunt in Nebraska there are very few trees.  Search for the tallest, thickest trees in an area and that's usually where the turkeys roost!  I can eliminate a lot of areas without turkeys that way.

I'm not sure what the advantage to a compass/map is over a gps with aerial and other maps?  It's possible to use onxmaps with gps to show fences and property lines.  Pretty easy to keep track of where your truck is parked, roosting trees, water, strutting zones, etc with waypoints.  I've used my gps to get out of hairy situations in Colo, Wyo, and Alaska.  It's also nice to carry an InReach with satellite contact for texting messages where cell service isn't possible.  I often bring printed maps on hunts to write notes.

[shaman]

The nice thing about a lensatic compass and a map for me is that I know I can get out without batteries.  I've owned a GPS since the mid 90's.  I've got a GPS app on my smartphone, but I still take the compass.

One example I can give where a lensatic was my savior was up in Algonquin Provincial Park a number of years ago.  KYHillChick and I were up there moose watching.  Lake Openango is fairly big and there are islands all through it. We'd set out before sunrise on a 2-day sprint to get out.  At noon, I stopped and took my bearings.   I discovered there were two solutions to where we were.  One had me right on track, but the other had us waaaay off course.  I made a short detour over to a point and shot two azimuths of the tallest hills we could see, and then compared them to the topo.  There was only one island and one point on that island where those two azimuths made any sense. Bottom line, we were on course and pulled into the Take-out with 45 minutes to spare the next day.  Granted, this was all pre-GPS and Google Earth would have shown me immediately where I was. However, that's assuming I could get a fix from the satellites and that my battery was strong enough.  I have ravines on my farm where you can go hours without getting a sattelite fix.

[BTH]

Started using the map/plotter on my smartphone a few years back. You are right. It really helps get you situated on newer properties Especially when property lines seem like they are all over the place. Works excellent when used in conjunction with game land maps on public land. I keep everything on satellite view while doing this as well.