Have You Ever?

[OLE RASPY]

I have never given up but have moved on.To all these people saying that they have hunted a bird for 2 or 3 years or even a couple weeks or even a couple days whatever, how'd did you know that was the same bird? Dont look like to me you would know unless you followed it around.

[guesswho]

To all these people saying that they have hunted a bird for 2 or 3 years or even a couple weeks or even a couple days whatever, how'd did you know that was the same bird? Dont look like to me you would know unless you followed it around.

There's some Moron that lives probably a couple miles from me if I had to guess.  Almost every Saturday morning between 10 and 10:30 I hear this vehichle with a loud muffler leave from the same location squealing his tires, hits second gear and barks the tires again, then I hear him shift two more times until he's out of my hearing range.  I've never seen the vehichle or who's driving it.  But I know it's the same vehichle by it's sound and routine.  Same holds true for some birds, not all but some.   

I had one I could identify by his last gobble.  Cuz would gobble a lot, then  you would hear him double gobble.  After that you may as well take a nap because he was through for about three hours.  He did this for three years that I know of.  I learned to take that double gobble to mean the same thing as a two word phrase I use some times when I'm done messing with someone or something for a little while.

I've never had to tap out on a bird but I did call a truce one time. 

[ferocious calls]

We call him potato patch and he has made my day more than a few times.

Was fall season, my best bud and I had been after him all season when on the last day we were about to give it up. While walking out of the woods I get a phone call, lean my gun against a tree and take the call. During the call my bud says " I just heard yelp yelp from over the hill". I reach in my pocket and pull out my box call, giving 2 gobbler yelps. Finish the phone call and hear something rustle leaves, a squirrel shows himself from that way. we are standing on the trail when from behind the squirrel comes potato patch head down running at us. He stops at 30 ft and stands shining in the sun. I whisper over my shoulder " shoot that son of a gun" He says my gun is against the tree with yours!! It was better than carrying him out of the woods. 3 yrs he has been hoodini. I love it and will quit him when he is gone.

[gobbler336]

had one in fla two years ago that i gave three mornings two, roosted in this tiny swamp strand and ran it and a palmetoo thicket next to it, it was super thick in there, i mean i 10yd shot was a long one, but this bird loved to gobble i mean for three days i worked this bird from daylight to 1, wich is quiting time down there and he gobbled for most of it.  i had him mere feet from me, at times i could hear his feet in the mud and his feahters rubbing palmetoos but he just would not show himself,  on the third day at around 1245 i had enough, i could hear him drumming just to my left and he was  close, he had been a bit closer earlier but i would say he was still less than 15yds at that point, i new i had to do something as i had gave this bird to much time and my trip was only a week long, so i decided to stand and see if i could see him, i waited for him to gobble and when he did i stood, all i seen were a few palmeto's shake, that was the last day i gave him, told my freind about him who is a local, and he said there had been a bird in that strand for years and he had never heard tell of anyone killing a bird in that thick !#%&, and wanted to know why i even tried.  i will always remember that bird, he would get so excited he would gobble so much that at the end of about the fourth of fifth one you could actually hear him suck in air.  he was still in there this past year but while i was there another guy was parked there alot, i'll bet he's sitting on a limb in there right now.

[Gobble!]

I have never given up but have moved on.To all these people saying that they have hunted a bird for 2 or 3 years or even a couple weeks or even a couple days whatever, how'd did you know that was the same bird? Dont look like to me you would know unless you followed it around.

Seems hard for me to believe also but anything is possible I guess. I have hunted a bird one day that was not interested at all in playing. Gone back to that area another day and killed a bird, for all I know that may have been a different bird or it could have been the same bird he was just hot that day. I have also killed birds in consective years at the same location. This is why its hard for me to believe you can hunt the same bird for 3 years but I know most here have been hunting turkeys much longer then me. This will be my 8th spring chasing long beards.

[Gobble!]

An old field bird got the best of me for about 2 days then I got out the 270

What  shame! 

jk

[guesswho]

Have you ever run across a gobbler that finally made you just tap-out and quit?   I mean give up and quit messing with him for good.   If so how many days or seasons did it take for you to give up?

I spent 4 mornings once on one walk-away gobbler before I quit. 

I'm guessing he tapped out, or was tapped.

[El Pavo Grande]

I've been whipped by a few, but never tapped out.  Like others I have given one a break to look for another, but always return at some point.

As far as identifying a gobbler as the same one you have hunted over an extended period of time, I think it is often easy to identify a gobbler by his habits and even his gobble sometimes.  Like someone said, they are generally creatures of habit.

[OLE RASPY]

Yeah i understand what yall are saying fully about the same turkey following the same path and gobbles the same but i have had two or more toms in front of me before gobbling and really they all sounded pretty much the same.But i have been hunting this bird for  7 years now well i say hunting he gobbles in the morning on property where i cant hunt or dont have permission to hunt and stays over there its bout 300 acres, really i have never tryed to call him in but he has gobbled to my calling before but i always end up calling a nother bird in, I have never step across boundry because i always end up killing a bird where i am hunting.This bird will just about everytime double gobble.This will go on for bout an hour in the morning and i wont ever hear him again that day.He dont gobble every morning either.I didnt start paying attention to him till bout 3 years hunting the adjoining property i guess cause i cant hunt where he stayes.He also dont roost in the same tree either he usually will roost within 200 yards though every year.There is people that hunt over there to i have heard some shooting.I always wondered if its the same bird because of the double gobble.The first gobble is long but the second one bout like a half gobble.Thanks for the replies.I wasnt doubting any of ya but was just wondering.I probally havent been hunting them as long as some of ya, but have been after it now going on my 16th year and still learn every season.

[misfire]

Had a pair that ran together last year. Everybody and their brother got the fanny's handed to them by that pair. They would gobble at anything and everything you threw at them. Start coming your way only to skirt the property and go on the adjoining property and laugh at you. I tried to contact the general of the local army base to call in an air strike, they were some aggravating turds to say the least

[mightyjoeyoung]

I took my biggest and certainly oldest PA bird a few years back.  I hunted that bird for 2 years and 9 days.  I would always start to get frustrated and end up hunting another spot and getting my bird but until THAT YEAR, I never hunted a single bird so hard.  Him and 2 other subordinate long beards (these were all 4 plus year old birds by then) would gobble like their tails were on fire off the roost on this beatiful oak point jutting out to the edge of a grape vinyard.  They would hit the ground, hen up and gobble for about another half hour as they worked out into the vinyard and then that was it.  didn't gobble again till well after legal hunting time.  I had trail cam pics of these guys and could get within 10 yards of them while scouting but those old birds knew where their bread was buttered!  After finally making up my mind to kill the boss, I spent 9 straight days hunting those birds.  On the 9th day...of the 3rd season, I finally decided to get nasty and worked my way to within 50 yards of the roost and between the roost and the vinyard about 2 hours before even the first hint of daylight.  I could hear feathers scraping on bark as I sat there.  There were turkeys EVERYWHERE!..at least 30 hens were roosting within a 60 yard area and the gobblers were about 40 yards behind and left of them in a huge old oak over a swampy bottom next to the point.  I made a few tree calls before realizing that there were hens in the tree i had my back against and then shut up.  About 45 minutes AFTER daylight the hens decided it was time to get their lazy butts up and go eat.  Within about 2 minutes every hen was on the ground, some so close I could smell them.  the Gobblers were still in the roost.  You ever get that feeling you were bing watched?     I thought for sure I was gonna get busted as the hens fed past me to the vinyard but amazingly my leafy suit worked and they never did hear my heart pounding out of my chest!  I was already muzzle to the area I thought the gobblers would fly down to so as the hens fed along the grape rows I gave a few soft clucks that were answered immediately by what seemed every gobbler and jake in the woods and then I made one loud, sharp series of cutts and cackles and the big bird flew down and popped into full strut right in front of me.  As he landed, my finger was already on the trigger and as he stretched his neck to see what hen was purring at him, he got a facefull of Federal copper plated lead 5's.  He weighed 24 pounds, 6 ounces, had a nice thick 12 1/4" beard and 1 1/4" spurrs.  That bird gave me fits for 3 seasons.  My single most memorable bird. 

[Shotgun]

I don't know what it means to tap out.  The more he beats me the smarter I hunt him.

[Ol'Mossy]

I gave up on one for 2 seasons then killed him the third.

[WildTigerTrout]

 My friend and I hunted a BIG, OLD and SMART Gobbler for three seasons. We both came close to bagging him on several occasions but luck was always on his side. We did'nt quit but never brought him to bag. I believe he died of old age!