Longest sit on a bird?

[guesswho]

I honestly couldn't tell you.  I tend to lose track of time.  I know when he's close and about to get in range, minutes can seem like hours.   And then once the trigger is pulled, it all seems like it happened so quick, even if it was hours. 

[Happy]

I would say two hours tops. It's probably more like an hour. If he is just ain't moving my way, then I am gonna try and figure out why. I have stuck with the same gobbler many times for 5-6 hours. But I don't hold still.

[Tail Feathers]

I can't recall any real marathon sessions.  Maybe I get tired of waiting and move on.   

I may see why I don't kill more turkeys...

[RutnNStrutn]

Me and a friend in Ohio stayed on a gobbler from right after fly down until 11:55 (noon end there). We followed and worked him for hours. Finally they walked out onto a power line. We worked them for hours. He took care of himself, then later the hen let him breed her, and during this time he fought off 2 other gobblers.
We called to him and he would gobble, but he wouldn't leave his hen.
My friend got out my half strut jake decoy, and crammed the stake into a rotten fencepost. Then he started gobbling at the tom with a box call. He would turn and look at the jake deke, but still he wouldn't come. With time running out, the gobbler finally tired of the jake's gobbling and left the hen. He marched uphill to whip him some jake butt, and walked straight into a face full of #5's. After hours of trying to kill him, I got that gobbler with minutes to spare.

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[ferocious calls]

As far as flat pinned down, maybe two hours. In instances where I'm not pinned down, I'm gonna move some, even if it's only five or ten yards. The illusion of movement and the illusion of multiple birds are two things I'm always trying to create if at all possible.


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This

[rifleman]

Just about 3 hours in the George Washington NF in WV.  He and a hen were roosted very close together and she flew to him.  They spent about 3 hours parading back and forth on the edge of a cliff maybe covering 15 yds or so before they did the deed.  She disappeared and he folded up and walked right at me.  And, I shot over him.  I was worn out and sore from sitting there all that time.

[AndyN]

Hour and a half before sunrise until sunset to shoot two with a bow. Lots of 4-5hr sits.

[Kylongspur88]

Over 4 hours. It's tough for sure. I just remind myself turkeys aren't on my schedule so I have to exercise some patience

[GobbleNut]

As far as flat pinned down, maybe two hours. In instances where I'm not pinned down, I'm gonna move some, even if it's only five or ten yards. The illusion of movement and the illusion of multiple birds are two things I'm always trying to create if at all possible.

I would say two hours tops. It's probably more like an hour. If he is just ain't moving my way, then I am gonna try and figure out why. I have stuck with the same gobbler many times for 5-6 hours. But I don't hold still.

These two pretty much sum up my outlook on working a gobbler.  To expand on my personal turkey hunting philosophy a bit, I categorize turkey hunting into three different approaches.  These are passive, proactive, and reactive. 

Without direct confirmation that a gobbler is "interacting" with my calling, and is showing interest, I am not likely to sit "passively" in one spot and wait for him to show up at some point.  I just don't fit that hunting style, and quite honestly, I do not have the patience for it, even if I wanted to,...which I don't.  Now, don't get me wrong, I don't care if someone else hunts that way.  It's just not how I "evolved" as a turkey hunter because I have mostly hunted where that approach was not necessary,...or more importantly, not at effective (or nearly as enjoyable) as one of the other two approaches mentioned above.

Proactive and reactive hunting actually fall into the same category, really, but the latter most times follows the first for me.  Simply stated, proactive hunting means actively searching for a responsive gobbler, mostly by moving along at a pace that "fits" the place and circumstances in which I am hunting.  That pace may be categorized as "creeping", or at the other extreme, "race-walking", but it definitely falls in between those two at some level,...again depending on the circumstances. 

Once a gobbler has been "struck" by that proactive approach, then things become reactive.  Simply stated, what I do in terms of staying in one place,...or relocating,...as well as my calling strategy,...is entirely based on what the gobbler "tells" me he expects from me, or conversely, tells me what he doesn't want from me in terms of a meeting location or a calling strategy.  Everything I do is "reactive" to what he is doing. 

However, over the many years/decades I have been doing this, the times I have stayed in one spot without moving for any extended period of time could probably be counted on one hand,...and even if I was missing a finger or two.   

[TrackeySauresRex]

The late season game is a rough one. There were quite a few sits that were extra long. When a bird would answer you once and you would say, he knows I'm here.(He didn't want to play right now)
On several occasions, after good early morning action, then it gets quiet, I've been lucky a lot between 11/12

[Twowithone]

I did a similar hunt with my nephew. The gobbler gobbled at 6:00 in the morning and I was carrying the gobbler out of the woods at 9:10 that was my best hunt I've been on for gobblers.


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[dzsmith]

Ive sat many hours on many birds, many times. What i learned this year.....is those types of encounters are getting rare. Someone else will simply walk up to the bird. If your goal when going in the woods is to bring one out, you better get to gettin....having 4 birds across 3 states killed inside 100 yards of me this year has probably broke me permanently of playing the long game with a turkey. at least on public that is.

[WV Flopper]

 Had to think for awhile because I to am one to move. Move to, flank, circle or just move to another turkey.

Several years ago on the last day of season about 6 in the morning I spotted a strutter and a flock of hens. I think he had seven hens with him. I stuck with him all morning on a strip job. The whole flock finally left the strip opposite of me but returned in just a short minute or two followed by a bear. He was just feeding on grass, same as the turkeys.

That pushed the turkeys right across the strip to me and beyond. I caught up to them in a small clearing and finished the hunt.

During that morning I seen many things happen. Seen him breed a couple of the girls, seen turkeys napping, of course strutting, a bear. It was quite the eventful morning.

I want to say this happened before WV had moved the season up a week. That would have put it third week of May. They have changed season around a couple times since. Last day now is the same weekend as it was long ago.

[Hoytboy247]

I've had some decent sits but unless I can see or hear a bird constantly I move somewhere.  This past season I started to sit longer and it pays off, birds that I usually would have left I killed because i sat and was patient.  It seems like a lot of time the bird is coming but he's gonna get there when he wants to if it takes 5 minutes or 5 hours.

[Tnandy]

Got on a 22 pounder last year in TN. I struck him at daylight. I moved 4 times on him, with him getting around 100 yards each time but never committing. I finally realized that 2 of my set ups where near his strut zone. Around 12:30 pm, he came within 100 yards again toward me on this small ridge he was strutting back and forth on. I hit my crow call just to see where he was. As soon as he gobbled, I high tailed it "out of view" to the other end of the ridge. Got set up, made some very soft feeding purrs, scratched in the leaves a little, and got ready. Within 10 minutes, I saw that white head easing along and heard that familiar sound of a spit drum. Killed him at 1:30ish. It was a great hunt and a blessing to harvest an old monarch of the woods. It was a long day but one I don't think I will ever forget.