Spring Closed, Looking Towards Fall

[Alavoie52]

With Spring Season in the books, I'm curious to see what lessons everyone has learned and willing to share. This was the first season personally and I think I found over 100 ways to not bag a Tom. But with that comes learning. From improper scouting, too little or too much calling, and lack of equipment (left my choke at home on the table) I think I messed up every way imaginable. Regardless I enjoyed my time in the woods and pursuing this animal and cant wait for next Spring and even excited for Fall. So what lessons has everyone learned in the Spring, and what tips do the old timers have for Fall. 

[Happy]

You haven't messed up in every way imaginable yet. Ten years from now you will still surprise yourself.  Stick with it and pay attention and the odds will begin to shift

[fallhnt]

Look for birds in fields in late summer and start your scouting for Fall.

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[Kylongspur88]

You haven't messed up in every way imaginable yet. Ten years from now you will still surprise yourself.  Stick with it and pay attention and the odds will begin to shift

Right! Nothing like showing up to hunt and realizing your gun is still at the house. Designated caller for the day.

[diyj98]

You haven't messed up in every way imaginable yet. Ten years from now you will still surprise yourself.  Stick with it and pay attention and the odds will begin to shift

Right! Nothing like showing up to hunt and realizing your gun is still at the house. Designated caller for the day.

I've never forgotten my gun, but I have either forgotten my ammo once........or maybe twice over the years.  Of course I also once pulled out my 2 3/4" only gun to find I only had a box of 3" shells with me.

[mufishgrad]

Left a box call on top of my vehicle once during my first season. It happens to all of us. The first year is tough for a new hunter, and always a learning experience. There's a steep curve on turkey hunting that you can only get with experience by not just reading books and practicing calling, but getting out as much as you can.  It's important to enjoy it and not get stressed out or you'll feel like it's a job and won't find it as much fun. Fall is a great way to get out in the woods to try to learn turkey behavior and add to your experience as a hunter. Probably my number one tip to you that I'm still learning to break myself is patience, but in a different light.

I try to run and gun too much and rarely take the time to set up in an area where I've seen turkeys year to year, and also recent sign. It is because of this that I have bumped more birds with my calling and walking than I care to remember. I would say if you find an area with a good amount of sign, stick around there at least an hour or so before you move again with your calling. It could give the birds time to show up and not see you if you find a good place to set up instead of walking to them and watching them run away on accident. This is just one of the things that has happened to me, and could happen or may have to you.

[silvestris]

If I should walk and call, I usually stop and listen a few minutes and not hearing anything, I will call and move a couple of hundred yards or so to a good spot to hide, listen a while before calling and moving along. 
If you immediately call upon stopping you may spook a silent gobbler coming to your premature call when you begin to move.

[Sir-diealot]

You haven't messed up in every way imaginable yet. Ten years from now you will still surprise yourself.  Stick with it and pay attention and the odds will begin to shift

Right! Nothing like showing up to hunt and realizing your gun is still at the house. Designated caller for the day.

I had my step-father come up for a deer hunt from out of state several years ago and I was so concentrated on getting him into a good spot I forgot my gun at the house. Left the gun in the back of the truck once with no cap on the truck, luckily it stayed right where I put it in the case.

Took my best friend on his first deer hunt on his fathers land and realized when I got there that I had forgotten my jacket. I had to stay low because I was wearing a light gray shirt at the time and looked like the Northern end of a Southbound Whitetail deer. I did see a deer go by but let it pass because it was going down the trail he was on, few minutes later I hear bang, then after a while he comes walking up and I ask him if he got the deer and his reply was "No, a squirrel was pissing me off so I shot at it" I miss Jerry but he was not much of a hunter.

[Cut N Run]

about 17 years ago, I had a grown gobbler in range, got a good bead on him, & CLICK! No shell in the chamber.  He didn't freak out, so I waited for him to go behind a big tree where I could load the gun.  I dug into the wrong vest pocket and slid what felt like a shell into a chamber. I tried to ease the bolt down quietly, but the bolt wouldn't close.  I looked down in a panic and realized that I'd loaded a round disposable lighter instead of a turkey load into the chamber. The gobbler didn't wait around to find out what was going on.  I learned to keep my lighter in an inside pocket in a plastic bag where it can't be confused with ammo. D'oh!

Jim

[Brwndg]

Like Happy said keep at it. Too many things to learn, but that is the fun part of the game.

I started chasing Spring Gobblers back in 1987 and killed my first bird EIGHT years later! 
Not saying this is the norm or what will happen to you, but it is a learning curve and every hunt teaches you something new and something not to do again.  I took my Godson out two years ago on his first Spring hunt and he killed a bird in the first 20 minutes! Granted I set him up and did all the calling, but it can happen.

Once the ice was broken and I killed that first bird it seemed to get easier, mostly because my confidence grew because I had actually done it an called in and killed a mature Tom all on my own.

Over 30+ seasons later I still learn something practically every time I hunt. 
You will kill a bird!  Stick with it and learn from your mistakes...and you will make a million of them!

[BB30]

With Spring Season in the books, I'm curious to see what lessons everyone has learned and willing to share. This was the first season personally and I think I found over 100 ways to not bag a Tom. But with that comes learning. From improper scouting, too little or too much calling, and lack of equipment (left my choke at home on the table) I think I messed up every way imaginable. Regardless I enjoyed my time in the woods and pursuing this animal and cant wait for next Spring and even excited for Fall. So what lessons has everyone learned in the Spring, and what tips do the old timers have for Fall.

Fall is a great time to listen to turkeys and a lot of their vocabulary. I really like to find a couple decent sized flocks every fall and listen to them on the roost. You get to hear some stuff you might rarely hear in the spring and yet some of it is still extremely useful in certain situations. I also like to follow these flocks as closely as possible and try and maintain contact throughout the morning.

If you can learn to keep up with a decent sized flock of turkeys without spooking them it will be a very beneficial tool during the spring.

It also allows you to just watch turkey's for an extended amount of time which helps with the learning curve of learning a turkey's vocabulary and their movements/habits. Some of that will change with the changing seasons but a lot of it will stay very similar in the spring.

Basically the more you can be around and watch turkey's the more you will learn and in turn the quicker the learning curve will progress. You will have seasons where you feel like you have finally figured this tho g out and then along comes a season where you get your butt kicked routinely it will routinely humble you.

The more you watch and learn about these birds the more Innate admiration and respect you will have for your quarry. They truly are a special gift that we get to enjoy each spring. Soak it up!


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[Jmbradt3873]

As soon as the season starts, a box of the shells I am using that year as well as an old single shot 12 gauge goes behind the seat of my truck.

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