Curiosity question as to thoughts

[Bowguy]

When I was a kid turkey hunting was like a secret cult. No one would give you the slightest inkling as to anything that could help. No one would show you how to call, I remember getting a Quaker boy (I think) diaphragm and reading the instructions. Imagine trying to learn like that? Learning the sequence from real birds. No one would mention what calls to use, talk about guns, loads, roosting, locating, etc. about the only ones even remotely giving us info was companies trying to market their wares.
Fast fwd to today. Some expect everything given to them, info flies around so easily. Guess im getting old as i get up everyday 1:30- the latest 3:30. I don't wanna wake my girl so usually go downstairs and watch you tube. Often turkey hunting is suggested. Seems every show is trying to help someone. I for the life of me can't remember a shift of when this started. My theory is around the time the web was becoming popular? I remember the first time I ever heard of it (world wide web and "surfing" it) there was some commercial promoting it with nuns. A better time that was. Anyhow Idk I cant really say for sure.
There's good and bad in this info sharing. Let's focus just on the positives but does anyone else remember a shift? Like it came out of nowhere.
And I know I've said this before but it bears repeating. There's lots of knowledge on this forum. Many of these guys had nothing handed to them and freely give out info they found hard so hard obtain. Pretty selfless fellas.

[Yoder409]

I think "the shift" started with the first Primos "The  Truth" video......around 1988.  Turkey call advertisements on VHS.....that you BOUGHT.    Realtree and Mossy Oak were a year or two old and trying to gain traction as THE commercial camo giant.    So sponsorships were born.   Five years later, the "world wide web" became available to the general public and the rest......as they say......is history.

[Tom007]

Great thread Mike. I started in the early 80's after my wife's dad got me into hunting. After seeing Turkey in the PA woods while hunting grouse (they have all but vanished), I started reading about them. You are right in the fact that Turkey hunting seemed to be a well kept secret for some reason. When I mentioned Turkey hunting to my father-in-law he told me I was crazy, you'll never get one of those things. I started my quest anyway, bought a Knight & Hale cassette and learned the mouth call. The sporting good stores really did not have much of a turkey hunting section, if any at all, unlike today. As Don said above the early pioneer videos, Primos, Realtree, and I'll add Knight & Hale seemed to get things rolling by showing us that you can harvest a turkey and it really is fun and challenging. PA was ahead of NJ due to the fact that Jerseys season did not commence till 1981. I used to buy mouth calls, box calls etc in a little General store in PA. Over the next several years, the sport started to blossom. Turkey hunting shows, custom call making, turkey specific firearms and gear and the availability of birds all led to where we are today. I think turkey hunting just wasn't popular early on due to a lack of exposure in the hunting market. Fast forward to today, the turkey world has exploded becoming big business all the way around. The only unfortunate thing for all of us might just be that the resource we are hunting might not be getting the attention it needs, hopefully the future holds a a brighter outlook for this, only time will tell.....

[Yoder409]

I think turkey hunting just wasn't popular early on due to a lack of exposure in the hunting market.

That..........and a whole lotta places didn't even HAVE turkeys 45-50 years ago.   That includes where I'm sitting right now.

[Tom007]

I think turkey hunting just wasn't popular early on due to a lack of exposure in the hunting market.

That..........and a whole lotta places didn't even HAVE turkeys 45-50 years ago.   That includes where I'm sitting right now.

Amen to that my friend....

[Zobo]

   I think the shift Bowguy is referring to is a more recent phenomenon. It occurred to me something weird was going on when my twin sons invited their friends over a few year back and they all sat in the living room in complete silence looking at their phones. 

   For me, the major shift occurred when cellphone internet connectivity came into its own. In other words, when averaging ordinary people got a "Smart" phone.

[Turkeybutt]

I think there is a shift. The hunting vids make it look easy and the "Urban Hunters" with their $1000.00 camouflage suits are finding out they just can't go out in the woods and sit for 20 or 30 minutes and kill a turkey or a deer. Most don't want to put in the time nor have the patience and are looking for quick results. After a year or two of coming home empty handed they give up and move on to other things.
When I started there wasn't a lot of information to be had and the old timers didn't share much of anything. I bought mouth calls made by Ben Lee and the frame were made of lead! Hell back then we didn't know any better, we used what we had. My first slate call was from a old slate shingle from a barn roof that was sanded and made to fit into a old coffee lid. There wasn't Dick's, Cabela's, Walmart or Amazon you could call or get on the internet and order something you got what they had at the general store or made something yourself. A 35 MM film case and cap cover with a condom made a decent turkey call.

[Bowguy]

Thanks for the replies guys. I wasn't really looking for a concrete answer as it was only a discussion/curiosity piece but all well thought out considerations .
Still in my mind what's best about turkey as turkeybutt aluded to is you can't buy one per se. It's still one sport if done legally and ethically you need to understand to be consistently successful. Thanks to all the men here willing to pass on knowledge to the next generations.
I still remember fondly opening up a first call expecting magic. Seeing a first bird display and really remember the bird in the Catskills came tip toeing down a slope, towards me in full display on the way to meeting a 10 ga bark. Hope all the first timers get to experience success this season. It's getting close.

[GobbleNut]

Yep,...pretty much agree with everything said.  There are a bunch of factors that have contributed to where we are today.  Fundamentally, though, it all comes down to the old saying..."Try it, you'll like it!"  Turkey hunting sells itself...once someone tries it and has the experience of having a gobbler come marching through the woods to their calling.  If that bird comes in gobbling and strutting, that will seal the deal for that hunter.  Unfortunately, that also means that he is going to tell everybody he knows how much fun it is.  That has been hastened along by all of the exposure in the form of products, marketing, and media coverage in all its forms. 

I (and some of my associates) am/are as much to blame for the state of wild turkey hunting here as anybody.  Back in the mid-60's when our spring season first opened, it took us ten years to begin to figure it out, but once we did, we unwittingly decided that we needed to tell the local hunting "world" about it.  Beginning about 1980, we would put on turkey hunting seminars at various venues in the spring on an annual basis.  We introduced hundreds of new turkey hunters to spring gobbler hunting over the next forty years.  We are now reaping the "rewards" of doing that...seeing our turkey woods becoming increasingly crowded with each passing year.  Would that have happened anyway with all the current exposure to the sport?  I don't know for sure, but I do know that we certainly did not help the situation any in our blabbing to the world how much fun turkey hunting is.  ...And we are quite honestly beginning to regret it now.  We stopped doing the seminars when Covid hit.  We have the opportunity to start them up again...but we have decided that there are enough turkey hunters out there that maybe we better not.   

Looking back to those 60's when I first "attempted" to spring gobbler hunt, to put it bluntly, there was nothing...almost no information to be had about turkey hunting.  Other than a few written articles occurring in the spring in national outdoor magazines by a just a couple of outdoor writers from the southeast, turkey hunting was just a blip on the radar.  If you could find a turkey call in a local store, it was by today's standards a rudimentary instrument that, with enough practice, a guy could make enough turkey-like noises to get by. There were no decoys, no "turkey vests", no robo-gobblers, or anything of the sort. We all learned through trial and (mostly) error...without any of today's modern turkey hunting conveniences.

Ahhh,...if only we could go back to those days!...   

[Zobo]

We forgive you Gobblenut

[Notsoyoungturk]

When I grew up, my dad was a duck and deer hunter so I did the same things.  I was able to learn from him and his mistakes.  I was able to pass that knowledge on to my kids.

When I started turkey hunting 5 years ago.  I had no clue where to begin.  Fortunately, I had a few friends that helped.  I read voraciously and watched videos.  Then, I joined the forum.  I have benefited tremendously from the shared knowledge and cannot thank everyone enough for sharing.  My learning curve has been easier as a result.

I will say, however, that the best teacher has been the woods and the turkeys.  You can read and watch all you want but there is no better teacher than doing and making your own mistakes.  Fortunately, I have had my share of success but I am continually humbled by this great bird and I hope that feeling never changes.

Thank you again to all those that have selflessly shared their knowledge.

[Gooserbat]

Not a lot here I can really add to other than I think today's hunters are way to dependent on spending money on gear and paying someone else to do it for them, other than woodsmanship and putting boots on the ground.  Sure I like modern convenience but I also like hard earned rewards. 

Another thing was fur harvest and low predator population made for a population explosion of wild turkeys in the 70-90s that yeiled a new hunting opportunity.

[guesswho]

I started in the 60's as a kid hunting with my parents   Yes, both Mom and Dad turkey hunted.  We had a 100,000 acre WMA in South Central Florida that had a really good population of turkeys.   On a busy weekend you may have ten hunters checked in including the three of us, lot of times it was us and maybe two or three other people.   Information was nonexistent.   Nobody ever heard or saw any turkeys, but about every vehicle you saw (which was very few) had turkey feathers in the back, and the back of the hunters pants leg was blood stained.  That what my Dad always taught me, don't ask anyone if they killed anything, just look at the back of their pants.   Pants don't lie.

I don't remember any specific time of the popularity increase, but I remember it was late 70's to early 80's when I noticed more and more deer hunters who started hunting turkeys.   Big difference between the original turkey hunters I remember and the new deer/turkey hunters.   The new d/t crowd seemed to like to hear themselves talk.   I killed this, I heard that, I saw this etc.   When did the N"WTF" start up? 

[Quig]

Money foremost, immediate flow of information and communication and more people competing for the same or less resources - thats my view on whats happened the past 30 years

[Zobo]

When did the N"WTF" start up?

I love this!