The Happy Eggshell Challenge Cup

[GobbleNut]

After my trip up to OK, I would gladly have had an ostrich or roadrunner show up!  ....Oh, and by the way, I did get lost on my way back!  Word of advice to traveling turkey hunters:  Never trust that voice on Google Maps that tells you how to get back home!   

Must not have been aggressive enough with your locator calls

  With the wind blowing 50 miles an hour the entire time, I couldn't have heard a gobbler respond if he was in a tree I was sitting under!  Then again, even when it is calm, there has to be a gobbler in the same county you are hunting to hear one.  I'm not all that confident there was in a few of the WMA,s..  If there were any, they were the kind that don't make tracks or leave droppings.   
(Actually, my woes were a bit more complicated than that,...hunter and landowner interference were major contributors, as well,...but that is a another long and sordid story)

[Happy]

After my trip up to OK, I would gladly have had an ostrich or roadrunner show up!  ....Oh, and by the way, I did get lost on my way back!  Word of advice to traveling turkey hunters:  Never trust that voice on Google Maps that tells you how to get back home!   

Must not have been aggressive enough with your locator calls

  With the wind blowing 50 miles an hour the entire time, I couldn't have heard a gobbler respond if he was in a tree I was sitting under!  Then again, even when it is calm, there has to be a gobbler in the same county you are hunting to hear one.  I'm not all that confident there was in a few of the WMA,s..  If there were any, they were the kind that don't make tracks or leave droppings.   
(Actually, my woes were a bit more complicated than that,...hunter and landowner interference were major contributors, as well,...but that is a another long and sordid story)

Well seems like you have plenty of time on your hands so give us the dirt. We may not care but we can pretend like we do!

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[eggshell]

yeah, what happy said. Yawnn I think I killed the last one in 2010.

[GobbleNut]

(Actually, my woes were a bit more complicated than that,...hunter and landowner interference were major contributors, as well,...but that is a another long and sordid story)

Well seems like you have plenty of time on your hands so give us the dirt. We may not care but we can pretend like we do!

Okay, you asked for it.  Short version of chapter one is your typical public-land, other hunters screwing things up story.  I had gobblers roosted, was about to set up on them on the first morning, and had a couple of guys show up.  I had talked to these guys, told them I was hunting there, and planned to go to a particular location,...but here's the kicker.  They told me that they had several private parcels in the area that they could have gone to hunt that had plenty of birds but they wanted to hunt the WMA first!  This was a very small area and the one roost site was the only one I had found in my day and a half of scouting.  Yet, rather than go to one of the private parcels they had to hunt, these guys headed right into the area I had already told them i was planning on hunting!  Honestly, in my 55 or so years of spring gobbler hunting, I have never seen a more glaring example of poor "turkey hunting etiquette" displayed.

Short version of chapter two:  Went to another WMA and immediately found a flock of birds with two big gobblers in the group.  Unfortunately, they were right on the boundary of the WMA and fairly close to a house on a private property.  When the turkeys saw me drive by, they headed toward the WMA.  As I drove down to the WMA boundary and the parking area, a woman walked out of the house and, more or less, gave me the "stink eye" as I drove by.  I parked in the WMA, circled around into the vicinity the birds had headed and making sure to give the house a wide berth.  I was a bit surprised when I soon got a response to my calling and apparent interest from the gobblers in coming my way.  About that time, someone at the house fired a shot!  Now, I'm not at all certain what exactly happened there, but I later found out from talking to some other hunters that the people that lived at the house did not like hunters.  My conclusion from all of it was that the homeowners saw me drive down and park in the WMA, heard the gobblers start gobbling and heading towards my calling, and intentionally went out and fired a gun to scare off the turkeys,...which as far as I could tell worked very well since I never heard or saw the birds again after that.

Oh well,...some times the turkey gods just give you hints when things are not meant to be....   

[notsure]

"Don't like hunters", but choose to live by a WMA! No different than the dolts who move out to the country and then complain about the smells!

[Happy]

(Actually, my woes were a bit more complicated than that,...hunter and landowner interference were major contributors, as well,...but that is a another long and sordid story)

Well seems like you have plenty of time on your hands so give us the dirt. We may not care but we can pretend like we do!

Okay, you asked for it.  Short version of chapter one is your typical public-land, other hunters screwing things up story.  I had gobblers roosted, was about to set up on them on the first morning, and had a couple of guys show up.  I had talked to these guys, told them I was hunting there, and planned to go to a particular location,...but here's the kicker.  They told me that they had several private parcels in the area that they could have gone to hunt that had plenty of birds but they wanted to hunt the WMA first!  This was a very small area and the one roost site was the only one I had found in my day and a half of scouting.  Yet, rather than go to one of the private parcels they had to hunt, these guys headed right into the area I had already told them i was planning on hunting!  Honestly, in my 55 or so years of spring gobbler hunting, I have never seen a more glaring example of poor "turkey hunting etiquette" displayed.

Short version of chapter two:  Went to another WMA and immediately found a flock of birds with two big gobblers in the group.  Unfortunately, they were right on the boundary of the WMA and fairly close to a house on a private property.  When the turkeys saw me drive by, they headed toward the WMA.  As I drove down to the WMA boundary and the parking area, a woman walked out of the house and, more or less, gave me the "stink eye" as I drove by.  I parked in the WMA, circled around into the vicinity the birds had headed and making sure to give the house a wide berth.  I was a bit surprised when I soon got a response to my calling and apparent interest from the gobblers in coming my way.  About that time, someone at the house fired a shot!  Now, I'm not at all certain what exactly happened there, but I later found out from talking to some other hunters that the people that lived at the house did not like hunters.  My conclusion from all of it was that the homeowners saw me drive down and park in the WMA, heard the gobblers start gobbling and heading towards my calling, and intentionally went out and fired a gun to scare off the turkeys,...which as far as I could tell worked very well since I never heard or saw the birds again after that.

Oh well,...some times the turkey gods just give you hints when things are not meant to be....   

Almost sorry I asked. Almost gonna save reading this for later this evening when I have a fire going and a good glass of bourbon.

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[eggshell]

I had the same woman in Florida once, she certainly gets around. We were hunting an orange grove and soon as she seen us park the truck she was out in the yard messing up the hunt. It was a small grove and the owners made a deal, shoot the hogs and you can hunt turkeys. The broad ran the hogs off that evening. We left and never went back.

[Happy]

Man that is some rough luck. Its almost unbelievable. Especially that part about you calling and a turkey gobbling back!
I'm all seriousness it sounds pretty rough. Better times are ahead though.

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[eggshell]

The public land jerks suck bad enough at home, but when you travel and get it that doubles up the suck. Part of me really hates giving in and letting them win, but more of me doesn't want the conflict and so I do just as you did, move on. Did you go back later? I would guess they were messing with you intentionally, because you were out of state. They saw you scouting and knew you would only be around a few days and so ran you off just to protect the spot for locals. Maybe this is the time you post a special thread online and tell exactly where it is . they'll never get dibs on it again.

That is why I have hired outfitters in some cases. However, in that part of the country it's hard to find one that doesn't use feeders. We always insist we control our hunt concerning calling and set up too, that weeds out about 75% of them. Some offer the semi-guided. It's always a crap shoot on public land. I was lucky when I was working I got to know a lot of people in a lot of states and those contacts were pretty good at leading me to hunting spots.

[boomer]

Was able to get one down this morning on public. Had a bunch of birds that was roosted off the public. Sat up in the far back corner of the place. All the birds that was in front of me gobbling on private flew down and went farther on it. About an hour after flydown heard a gobble in the private cornfield to the northeast. He must have been roosted down on the river. Called a couple times and just waited. He ended up at 12yrds next to the decoys.

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[ManfromGreenSwamp]

Was able to get one down this morning on public. Had a bunch of birds that was roosted off the public. Sat up in the far back corner of the place. All the birds that was in front of me gobbling on private flew down and went farther on it. About an hour after flydown heard a gobble in the private cornfield to the northeast. He must have been roosted down on the river. Called a couple times and just waited. He ended up at 12yrds next to the decoys.

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Awesome, public land too! Pretty birds y'all have!


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[boomer]

Was able to get one down this morning on public. Had a bunch of birds that was roosted off the public. Sat up in the far back corner of the place. All the birds that was in front of me gobbling on private flew down and went farther on it. About an hour after flydown heard a gobble in the private cornfield to the northeast. He must have been roosted down on the river. Called a couple times and just waited. He ended up at 12yrds next to the decoys.

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Awesome, public land too! Pretty birds y'all have!


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Thanks.

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[eggshell]

well done. Just got home from  three days in Ky and hunting sucked....people and hens made it tough. Zero birds killed

[Happy]

Question for the council!!
Took a new turkey hunter out this morning on his property. Have had permission to hunt this place for about 10 years and just never have. Anyways the results of my work this morning has resulted in one dead jake( neighboring landowner) and a clean miss on a longbeard by my shooter. Anyways I was hoping to reward myself with either a whopper meal or chic a Fila spicy chicken meal if I got my guy a bird. However I am hungry now and starting to feel like I did my job pretty well for both the neighboring landowner and my landowner. Am I justified and going ahead and treating myself to a meal?

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[GobbleNut]

Question for the council!!
Took a new turkey hunter out this morning on his property. Have had permission to hunt this place for about 10 years and just never have. Anyways the results of my work this morning has resulted in one dead jake( neighboring landowner) and a clean miss on a longbeard by my shooter. Anyways I was hoping to reward myself with either a whopper meal or chic a Fila spicy chicken meal if I got my guy a bird. However I am hungry now and starting to feel like I did my job pretty well for both the neighboring landowner and my landowner. Am I justified and going ahead and treating myself to a meal?

Nope/Nyet!,...You gotta fast (like that Russian dude) until a gobbler goes down!  As they say over there, if you get hungry,...toughski schitsky.