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How Long Did It Take You To Kill Your 1st Spring Turkey Without A Mentor?

Started by quavers59, February 16, 2021, 12:07:29 PM

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drenalinld


THattaway

4 seasons I guess. Started hunting at 12 and first turkey was a double at 16 years old. Turkeys were ghosts and haints in the woods for the first few years but after those first kills things began to click a bit better.
"Turkeys ain't nothing but big quail son."-Dad

"The truth is that no one really gives a dam how many turkeys you kill."-T

"No self respecting turkey hunter would pay $5 for a call that makes a good sound when he can buy a custom call for $80 and get the same sound."-NWiles

arkrem870

When I was 14 I saw a group fly up to roost from the deer stand. It was fall gun season and I went and got close to them before daylight. They flew down in my lap and I killed a hen.

i took a Lynch box call out that spring and called one up close enough to see him but not in range of my 20 gauge. Dad drove me out 3-4 mornings (dad didn't turkey hunt)

The next year I called up three jakes strutting and gobbling and killed my first one @ 16.

I learned to use a mouth call over the summer. Got proficient with it

Called up a gobbler on the opener the following year and killed it with old Winchester lead #6
Then killed another gobbler three days later

Was hooked after that. Started traveling the next year @ 18 yrs old....to Missouri first then all around the country.
LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS

hpo

Day 1, heard a gobble after I hit my Primos double slate over glass call and automatically assumed it was another hunter, My curve was steep. It took me years and I choose not to think about the actual number. 
Shoot'em in the Face!

longbeards

1979, first time really hunting spring birds and have been hooked since..I laugh at how clueless I was back then! BUT it never gets old,,,cant wait for 21 season!

captfire

I got into turkey hunting about 10 years ago in went in to blind didn't know much just found a place set up and called sometime I would get on to gobble I would hammer back but never seen a turkey about 2 years after that a meet a guy that killed them every year I went went with him a time are two but no luck so I started watching Jason cruis on you tube I've pickup a lot from him. I started hunting hunting like him ive killed 1 are 2 turkeys every year. THANKS JASON...

THattaway

Might be relevant to add that there wasn't much readily available in the way of how to call and hunt turkeys 40 years ago. Just some threadbare magazine articles and a few cassette tapes. Maybe a book or two but not readily available. Fast forward to internet days and plenty of great info is a google click away. Point is, learning curve is much better these days compared to back then with or without a mentor.
"Turkeys ain't nothing but big quail son."-Dad

"The truth is that no one really gives a dam how many turkeys you kill."-T

"No self respecting turkey hunter would pay $5 for a call that makes a good sound when he can buy a custom call for $80 and get the same sound."-NWiles

wbyman

 I took up Turkey hunting later in life. I studied, read tons of books, watched videos, talked to local hunters and walked the land. Opening day I got set up and called lightly, sun barely coming up, he roared out a gobble!
I was all by myself and I hear a voice in my head, it was my late grandfather, "be patient...wait for him"!
Took my first bird and have been hooked ever since. One of my best memories!
"Control your destiny, or someone else will"

makestomstremble

Never had a mentor. Killed a longbeard my first season, which was 1983. My buddy and I, (who was equally as clueless as myself) had actually given up hunting for the day, it was around 2 p.m. and was fishing in a pond. I noticed I could barely hear a tom gobbling about 3/4 of a mile from us in the river bottom. I asked my friend if he could hear it, we grabbed our shotguns and headed that direction. I set up probably 150-200 yards from where I thought the bird was and yelped three times on my Lynch box, and about 4-5 minutes later I could see him walking my direction. Have hunted them every spring since.

mhamby

I set out, turkey hunting on my own when I was 17 (1993) and called in 2 Jakes for my Cousin and I. We doubled on those birds (first birds for both of us) and that was it for the season.
The following year, I successfully called in and killed 2 toms by myself.
As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

Kylongspur88

First spring I had my driver's license so the way my birthday falls I would have been 17. Got really lucky and called in a jake off the roost with a quaker boy push call and shot him with a #5 federal from the gold box. I almost choked on my skoal.

roberthyman14

Took me i think 7 seasons.  But in seasons 5 and 6 I somehow missed a bird both of those years.  All of those years was self taught.  1st couple seasons I'm not sure if ever even setup on a bird.  But I was a pro at making them gobble on the limb until 9 oclock

Prostaff member for Old Crow Custom Calls


Chad Gus715

Took me 5 days, i never had mentor or anyone to teach me how to hunt turkey, so i taught myself. I killed my first tom in the last day of our 5 day season ( season is now 7 days) i had giving up on the season, when my dad wanted to go look at my uncle's new horse. Pulled into his driveway just as 5 toms crossed the road a couple hundred yards away. My uncle told me to go after them, i grabbed my shotgun and took off across the road. Went in about a 100 yards at down, called once, they gobbled and came running in, first one i got a clear shot on i killed. Took less than 5 minutes and 20 minutes before the close of the season.

quavers59

  I have read all the replys. Alot of Hunters here have struggled  like me. 3 years ,4 years ,5 ,6, + 7 years.
    Too bad you can't  walk them up like a frozen Pheasant. It seems plenty here have had a long Learning curve like me.

Nathan_Wiles

3 seasons for me. I had an almost moment in my first season that really got under my skin...probably why it became such a "thing" after all these seasons.

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