Plenty Of Utube Traveling Public Turkey Groups Now.

[Teamblue]

I'd say some of them do it for ego gratification.  I personally dont care for the monetization of our natural resources in that way.  What would really be a problem is if their need to produce a youtube show would somehow trump any other hunters access to the same resource we all share. 


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[Sir-diealot]

Most of them don't make money. They're just trying to be like the Hunting Public.

Who's that?

Who ?  Only the best bunch of killas known in modern times!

So Rodger Raglin, Tom Miranda and formally Fred Bear?

[Dtrkyman]

I always go back to the time when internet forums flavor of the week to chit on was the TV guys, everyone said they could never kill anything if they had to hunt public land like we do!

Carefull what ya wish for!

I watch a few of them, most of the newer ones that pop up I ignore, I waste enough time watching crap on youtube!

[Spurs]

I always go back to the time when internet forums flavor of the week to chit on was the TV guys, everyone said they could never kill anything if they had to hunt public land like we do!

Carefull what ya wish for!

I watch a few of them, most of the newer ones that pop up I ignore, I waste enough time watching crap on youtube!

Remember the Eddie Salter Squealing Hen?!?!?

[quavers59]

   Over the last few years at least and pick your Location in the US- There must have been at least a mild confrontation or worse as a Local Legend arrived at his Favorite  Hotspot Field at about the same time as a crew of 2 ,3, or more Guys with Camera equipment  .
    Who gets the Field? Probably  not fun for 1 Local Man to have a Muffled back and forth with 2 or 3 Guys in the Pre- Dawn Blackness.
    The above must have happened a number of times by now.

[ScottTaulbee]

I'm not saying it's the YouTube guys, I think it's a combination of all the "cool" things. A piece of public that I have hunted since about 2009 has several "tracts" which are 100 to 4 or 500 acres and totals 8,500 acres, the past 2 seasons you can barely step foot on the place. There used to be around 30 or less taken a year off of the whole place. This past season there were nearly 70 taken. Every pull off for the first 2 weeks of season had at least 2 trucks but typically had 8 or 12, every day, all day. 99% of them were from Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Mississippi or Tennessee. No doubt YouTubing or "Chasing the 49". I continue to dance around those guys and kill my birds, but it definitely makes it less enjoyable.


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[guesswho]

   Over the last few years at least and pick your Location in the US- There must have been at least a mild confrontation or worse as a Local Legend arrived at his Favorite  Hotspot Field at about the same time as a crew of 2 ,3, or more Guys with Camera equipment  .
    Who gets the Field? Probably  not fun for 1 Local Man to have a Muffled back and forth with 2 or 3 Guys in the Pre- Dawn Blackness.
    The above must have happened a number of times by now.

Local Legend?   I'll probably side with the crew of 3 or more guys with camera equipment who will be in and out.   Sounds to me like the Local Legend thinks he's a little higher on the public turkey hunting hierarchy than most, at least in his own mind.   

[the Ward]

   Over the last few years at least and pick your Location in the US- There must have been at least a mild confrontation or worse as a Local Legend arrived at his Favorite  Hotspot Field at about the same time as a crew of 2 ,3, or more Guys with Camera equipment  .
    Who gets the Field? Probably  not fun for 1 Local Man to have a Muffled back and forth with 2 or 3 Guys in the Pre- Dawn Blackness.
    The above must have happened a number of times by now.

Public land is public.  The drama can be avoided by purchasing your own property to hunt on.
Public land has always been like this for as long as I can remember. Good spots get found out
about, then get over run unfortunately . Long before you tube existed. It stinks, but it is what
what it is. At least we have public land to hunt on, might not be the case for future generations
the way it is going.

[jhoward11]

I have looked at some of the you tube videos, and don't think they are put together that well. Not that the older ones were that great by any means. I would love to see someone put together a video where they miss birds, trip over logs, run behind a tree and take a leak, get totally shut out. Quit going back and editing everything!!! I don't need music, and then when it stops, you know the shots coming. Just video a true hunt. Good and bad. I don't need to know where your hunting either. In fact I could swear I saw someone's video where they said they were in 2 different states but the land looked just alike. So, take that with a grain of salt.

[Dtrkyman]

Public has definitely gotten more public!  I had a complete chit show in a state last year for the opener, ignorant hunters at every turn.

Hike in several miles and loacted a bird, dude on an ebike(trail not open to ebikes) rolled in and fd that hunt up.  Had a guy intenionally walk up and down a road between me and some gobbling birds and just a basic lack of respect for other hunters all the way around.

All locals, not youtubers in sight! Was shocked at the amount of pressure and this in a "non turkey hunting" state so to speak. 

Main problem there is the birds are concentrated early in the season and lots of folks know where they are, they get beat up so bad then that after the initial mess the birds are extremely quiet and do not respond well to calling!

[Spurs]

   Over the last few years at least and pick your Location in the US- There must have been at least a mild confrontation or worse as a Local Legend arrived at his Favorite  Hotspot Field at about the same time as a crew of 2 ,3, or more Guys with Camera equipment  .
    Who gets the Field? Probably  not fun for 1 Local Man to have a Muffled back and forth with 2 or 3 Guys in the Pre- Dawn Blackness.
    The above must have happened a number of times by now.

Local Legend?   I'll probably side with the crew of 3 or more guys with camera equipment who will be in and out.   Sounds to me like the Local Legend thinks he's a little higher on the public turkey hunting hierarchy than most, at least in his own mind.   

This is where I've had all of my 'confrontations'.  People who have been "hunting this spot for a week" or "my daddy showed me this spot".  I always try to be the bigger person if it comes to the point that it's obvious neither one of us wants to leave. 

Side story:  In one of the areas that I frequently hunt near my house, I've had guys claim I'm on posted land.  So we went down the rabbit hole with maps and I proved to him that he was wrong...NOT ONLY WAS HE WRONG but he was standing 300 yards inside public property DURING a quota hunt.  Literally at the beginning of the conversation he stated he'd "killed his first deer, duck and turkey right in that same bottoms". 

[aclawrence]

I'm not saying it's the YouTube guys, I think it's a combination of all the "cool" things. A piece of public that I have hunted since about 2009 has several "tracts" which are 100 to 4 or 500 acres and totals 8,500 acres, the past 2 seasons you can barely step foot on the place. There used to be around 30 or less taken a year off of the whole place. This past season there were nearly 70 taken. Every pull off for the first 2 weeks of season had at least 2 trucks but typically had 8 or 12, every day, all day. 99% of them were from Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Mississippi or Tennessee. No doubt YouTubing or "Chasing the 49". I continue to dance around those guys and kill my birds, but it definitely makes it less enjoyable.


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This makes my heart hurt for you and the turkeys.  That really sucks. Its scary to me when that many more birds are taken off the landscape. It's undeniable the pressure has skyrocketed since YouTube turkey hunting has taking off since around 2018 or so. I sure hope the pressure will ease up. Turkey hunting is hard. Maybe people will start to give up lol.


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[GobbleNut]

It's undeniable the pressure has skyrocketed since YouTube turkey hunting has taking off since around 2018 or so. I'm sure the pressure will ease up. Turkey hunting is hard. Maybe people will start to give up lol.

I think this may end up being the silver lining in this debate about ever-increasing pressure on public land.  At some point, we should reach that "point of diminishing returns" where a lot of folks, especially those newer to spring hunting, stop hunting due to the number of hunters in the woods hunting what appears to be an ever-decreasing number of available gobblers.  We'll see if that hypothesis is true and how long it takes.

Of course, those of us that have been doing it a long time are 1) more stubborn about giving in, 2) know enough about turkey hunting to persevere and succeed where others fail, and 3) probably know places to go, and are willing to make the effort to get there, so as to get away from that increasing hunting pressure.

[aclawrence]

I meant to say "I sure hope" instead of "I'm sure" but hopefully you're right. Pulling up to a crowded gate or running into other hunters isn't fun. I imagine it's easy for new guys to be fooled by other hunters calling and after having a few negative experiences in this way they will be discouraged. I know we have needed new hunter recruitment but there's got to be a balance in there somewhere.  If we could get all the new turkey hunters to switch to coon hunting we'd be uptown!


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[ScottTaulbee]

It's undeniable the pressure has skyrocketed since YouTube turkey hunting has taking off since around 2018 or so. I'm sure the pressure will ease up. Turkey hunting is hard. Maybe people will start to give up lol.

I think this may end up being the silver lining in this debate about ever-increasing pressure on public land.  At some point, we should reach that "point of diminishing returns" where a lot of folks, especially those newer to spring hunting, stop hunting due to the number of hunters in the woods hunting what appears to be an ever-decreasing number of available gobblers.  We'll see if that hypothesis is true and how long it takes.

Of course, those of us that have been doing it a long time are 1) more stubborn about giving in, 2) know enough about turkey hunting to persevere and succeed where others fail, and 3) probably know places to go, and are willing to make the effort to get there, so as to get away from that increasing hunting pressure.

I know back during the COVID year, I talked to several of them that pulled in the lot after me or that I ran in to walking out and these were "local" guys that hadn't Turkey hunted before or college kids from another state that were attending school here and giving it a try. But 21 and 22 season there was a huge influx of of out of state guys on this particular WMA. I'm not sure if it was posted on the internet or something but the amount of people exploded. But the National Forest Land I prefer to hunt about an hour east of there didn't experience the same, at least the area I hunt of it. Opening weekend 5 or 6 trucks, after that it's just me and one older fellow that's probably my dad's age that grew up down there and has hunted it since our first statewide season. He comes and visits with his parents and stays at his boyhood house and hunts. We get along well and I can count on us pulling in at about the same time, we walk to a listening spot that coincidently we both were using without knowing it, and we listen to the whippoorwills and talk life until the first gobble, after there is a couple that gobble we each pick a bird and part ways. If one bird gobbles I let him have it and drive to more land a ways down the road. I've yet to catch his name and we've done this for 3 or 4 years now. And I hope and pray I hear his gun crack all morning long. I don't mind guys that know the sport and are respectful. It's the ones that bust through the woods in front of you making cellphone videos and get mad at you because you're there first.

Story from that National Forest land that happened year before last. I was the first to the gate and walked in, at gray light, a couple gobblers started up and after fly down got with hens, they worked their way up to the top of one of the mountains with me right in tow, I had closed the distance and could hear them all walking right around a curve in the terrain in front of me. At this point It was about 10 am, I had been with these birds since day break. As I was about to ease on around the curve, I hear a gunshot close and a turkey flapping, not 50 yards below me on the left side of the mountain.  The turkeys I had been following froze, next thing I know, this guy is whooping and hollering and carrying on and the turkeys I had been with took off like airplanes. I got up and walked out and as I was coming off the mountain I ran in to successful hunter. He had heard the gobbling and was trying to move in and ended up basically walking up on a Jake and killed him. I kept my words to myself. That's a thing that gets under my skin, act like you've been there, there's no reason to holler and carry on and alert others birds to hunters.


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