Turkey hunter Vs Turkey Killer?

[ScottTaulbee]

I like to hunt turkeys. I guess I might as well admit that I am one of those guys who can be dropped off on any piece of ground and usually come back with a turkey. Does mean I am one of the bad guys? You can tell me.

However - I have probably way less calls than most on here, and even hunt with some calls that I have made with my own two hands instead of just buying them all. For years, I hunted with just a crude homemade slate, a lynch box and a diaphragm. It was only the past few years that I have gotten some decent calls. I don't use decoys, and I never hunt private land. I like to hunt public birds, and where I live they are hard to kill and that is the only birds that I want to try and play chess with. I am not the best caller in the woods and never will be, but call good enough and realize that many times it is knowing when to call more so than sounding like Dave Owens. I have enough patience to fill the ark and a decent amount of woodmanship. I kill most of my birds by knowing how (after many years of learning) to just think what he is going to do before he does it. I have talked with Paulmyr off of here of recent, and I think he is much the same way.

I try to avoid all other hunters to extreme ends and will avoid whole blocks of woods to not ruffle another fellow feathers. I won't hunt Saturdays most times just trying to be a good sport for the fellow who has to work all week and Saturday is his only day to hunt (I am in church on Sundays). I try to exhaustion to follow the law to the letter. I am like Chester and want to win the game, and I want them in my lap before I kill them. If I have not beaten them, and they have not came to me because of my calling, then it is no good for me.

I was one who always tagged out every year early and then called birds for other hunters. BUT - with the way things are now, I have for several years now taken a stance to not fill my last tag wherever I was hunting trying to insure that there are some birds tomorrow. I am more and more becoming one will call them up and then let them walk off. It is rare for me these days to even mention to anyone that I killed a bird, unless they ask. For me, it is a private thing that brings me satisfaction and a matter of respect between me and the turkey. My biggest concern at the moment is that I am working to figure out how to get rid of MORE nest predators to better help the hens to do their thing, because the turkey are in trouble in my state. Another top priority for me is buying and giving quality calls to guys who do not have any worth mentioning to start with. I get more joy in buying another guy a call than in buying one for myself.

That said, I am not sure if I am a turkey hunter or a turkey killer. Maybe I am neither. I will let you gentleman decide. All I know is that I love to be in the woods, and I can fall off the face of the earth for the whole day and it is just therapy to my soul. If I kill a turkey great, but if not I am still praising the Lord for Him giving me one more day to enjoy His creation.

[mention]mountainhunter1 [/mention] we are very much alike. I don't hunt private land, I prefer public, National Forest with mountains is what I prefer. I fill my tags every season, except last season, I intentionally didn't fill my last tag. I have killed turkeys with pot calls and wing bones that I've made myself. I don't use decoys, TSS, or red dot sight. And like you, I will not shoot one that is just passing through. I have to whole heartedly know that I got in his head, used what I know about turkeys and beat him on his own turf. In the past I would be tagged out, at the latest, 3 days into the season and would take 6 or 8 more people every spring that needed help just to call them up one more time. I haven't in a few years except for a couple select people. Last season I could have filled both my tags by the second day of season but drug it out until the 13th day. I spend a lot of time with each type of call practicing daily and have for 20 years. And much like yourself, if I kill one to eat, that's all I'm worried about. After the first one, I'll continue to go and call them up and take pictures of them. To me, calling them up and having them completely convinced that you're a hen and you used your knowledge of the turkey to set up in the right place the first time to have him close is what trips my trigger, the trigger pull doesn't matter as much anymore. And like you said, take that of it as you will. I don't post my birds to social media, only my kids and wife and dad know when I kill one most of the time. I'm just a guy who has had a fascination and love for these birds since the first time I saw and heard one when I was 5. I love the birds, the places you hunt them, and everything about the spring woods with them in it


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[901CritterGitter]

Id say a turkey hunter takes pride in a fair match and holds his head high after losing . A turkey killer will swing and shoot at a gobbler after hes been seen and putted at , where a hunter would let him live until the next hunt. A killer would also crawl a ditch to ambush turkeys that arent responding and playing the game

[Cowboy]

This is all semantics, but my personal differentiation would be that one operates within a framework of ethics and fair chase while the other operates from a belief of by any means necessary. I won't roost shoot. I won't fire at birds on the wing. I won't fire at birds on the run. I want to win the game, and plenty of days they just flat beat you. If that means not killing, so be it. I'll be back tomorrow.


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Well said

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[strum]

  We used to have a 3-bird limit here in Ga and I usually tagged out most years.
  Started last season thinking I was turkey killing machine and I had it all figured out.
I was mad that they dropped the limit to 2 birds and thought id be done in no time.
Well I hunted more days last year than any other and had everything that could go wrong happen.
Ended the season with a big fat goose egg.
That said I learned a lot and had an amazing season. Turns out I'm no killer at all.
  I'm a turkey encounter hunter. In other words, I'm hunting for the moments, the memories, and a little luck.

 

[ScottTaulbee]

  We used to have a 3-bird limit here in Ga and I usually tagged out most years.
  Started last season thinking I was turkey killing machine and I had it all figured out.
I was mad that they dropped the limit to 2 birds and thought id be done in no time.
Well I hunted more days last year than any other and had everything that could go wrong happen.
Ended the season with a big fat goose egg.
That said I learned a lot and had an amazing season. Turns out I'm no killer at all.
  I'm a turkey encounter hunter. In other words, I'm hunting for the moments, the memories, and a little luck.

Absolutely!


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[King Cobra]

In the context of everyone being an ethical hunter.

Yes, there is definitely a difference...
I know a few killers and many, many, hunters !!!
As long as everyone is having fun that is all that matters. 

[ditchdigger]

I have hunted HARD for 20+ years with VERY limited success. Many more sob stories than success stories. I'm a turkey hunter. On the other hand, I have a friend who has been hunting not as long as I but he is one of those guys who gets out of the truck and shuts the door and a turkey gobbles 100 yds away from the door closing. He walks to the nearest shrub, gets behind it, makes a call and here he comes. BOOM. (He has MANY more similar stories) I hesitate to call him a turkey killer in a negative sense because he loves the bird as much as I but I have come to the conclusion that maybe some are just luckier than others.

[Paulmyr]

I have hunted HARD for 20+ years with VERY limited success. Many more sob stories than success stories. I'm a turkey hunter. On the other hand, I have a friend who has been hunting not as long as I but he is one of those guys who gets out of the truck and shuts the door and a turkey gobbles 100 yds away from the door closing. He walks to the nearest shrub, gets behind it, makes a call and here he comes. BOOM. (He has MANY more similar stories) I hesitate to call him a turkey killer in a negative sense because he loves the bird as much as I but I have come to the conclusion that maybe some are just luckier than others.

Your buddy is the Fonzi of turkey hunting!    AYE!

Is that the new label! Turkey thug, turkey killer, turkey Fonz!

[ditchdigger]

I have hunted HARD for 20+ years with VERY limited success. Many more sob stories than success stories. I'm a turkey hunter. On the other hand, I have a friend who has been hunting not as long as I but he is one of those guys who gets out of the truck and shuts the door and a turkey gobbles 100 yds away from the door closing. He walks to the nearest shrub, gets behind it, makes a call and here he comes. BOOM. (He has MANY more similar stories) I hesitate to call him a turkey killer in a negative sense because he loves the bird as much as I but I have come to the conclusion that maybe some are just luckier than others.

Your buddy is the Fonzi of turkey hunting!    AYE!

Is that the new label! Turkey thug, turkey killer, turkey Fonz!

He just may have a new nickname now!!!

[eggshell]

Theses discussions have only supported my feelings on states reducing bag limits. When you consider the overall picture and flock dynamics for a whole state they are mostly insignificant and only pandering to hunters groan to "do something". So few hunters consistently fill all their tags it just doesn't do a lot to save birds. If you want to be significant shorten or close seasons. Last year in Ohio they reduced us to one gobbler. It reduced the kill by ~4000 gobblers, or about one gobbler per township (23,400 acres ). Yeah, not really going to make much difference in a flock of 250,000.

Back on topic. I am more confused now than when I first read this thread. I have heard guys described as "Killers/murders" and only thought it meant they were highly successful at bagging birds. Never ever thought it meant they were unethical. I guess I am a killer. I pretty much fit the criteria here. I have filled every tag in my home state for probably 25+ years or more. I have filled most of my out of state tags. I take pride in being able to get my birds in new ground. There is no mistaking that I am leaving the truck with the intent to fill a tag. I like hunting and enjoy the outdoors immensely, but I am there to kill a bird. Sure I will often just back off if a hunt is going poorly, but that doesn't mean I won't be back soon. I hunt legally and I am adamant about following the regulations.

We like eating turkeys and consider them a special addition to our freezer. Turkey pot pie, turkey casserole, turkey and noodles, roast turkey and more are meals we look forward too. I don't want to offend anyone, but why are we finding one more way to vilianize our fellow hunters?

[ChesterCopperpot]

I am more confused now than when I first read this thread.

From the get go it became a conversation of semantics. Without clear and agreed upon definitions of what is meant by each term you can't have a meaningful conversation. The responses can't help but wander around aimlessly. I hunt two states consistently and get four tags between them. I tend to kill four birds a year. I would never say I was a "turkey killer," but by some folks definition I guess I am.


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[Zobo]

How does a turkey hunter become a turkey killer?.


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Desire, experience.

[crow]

" I don't want to offend anyone, but why are we finding one more way to vilianize our fellow hunters?"
[/quote]. this is Egg shells quote




Because the green monster is raising his ugly head 

[Greg Massey]

" I don't want to offend anyone, but why are we finding one more way to vilianize our fellow hunters?"

. this is Egg shells quote




Because the green monster is raising his ugly head 
[/quote]      Agree ... We have enough people in Washington wanting to take what little rights away that we have left... So my suggestion is you better start supporting each other ... In fighting the resistance ... IMO ...

[the Ward]

I feel ripped off. Just checked my drivers license and it just has my name on it.