Quote from: YoungGobbler on March 10, 2026, 09:49:33 PMFor me, I'm still in my young days as a hunter, it's still a lot about the killing part. To sum it up, Killing a turkey to me, it's the congratulation or the accomplishment of saying, I did everything right, it worked, I made no mistake, the bird I studied worked up how it should, I placed my set-up right, I read the situation right, everything worked right and it worked! Comes with a breath taking amazement and a great feeling of pride... That feeling I know you all know...
I think all of us go through "stages" during those early years of learning how to turkey hunt where the pride in the accomplishment of killing a gobbler is at the forefront. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. After a period of time...and the accumulation of successes...I think that pride turns more into a sense of satisfaction in knowing that you have developed the skills to be successful on a somewhat regular basis.
For me, at least, that pride eventually turned more into a reverence for the bird itself, as well as to the entire "process" of hunting them. Anymore, it isn't about killing gobblers as much as it is about just being "out there" where they live,
hearing them, and applying those developed skills to see what happens.
I emphasize "hearing them" because, out of the entire process, that is one of the things about spring gobbler hunting that is most important to me. If there aren't gobbling turkeys out there, I really just don't care much about hunting them. ...But that's just me...
