Okay here's one big question on turkey hunting kinda a subject I want to see

[Cut N Run]

It depends where I'm hunting as to how I hunt.  On small properties I often have to myself, I've already scouted the areas I know turkeys prefer to hang out.  Ahead of time,I'll find the nearest downed tree or wide tree and add a little brush or limbs to help break up my outline.  That way, I can move to any side of the property and already have good place to set up.  I never tried hunting from a popup blind.

On big tracts of public land I try to get as far from the parking areas as possible, then move slowly using terrain to cover my movements.  I've killed more and better birds by knowing where they get the least pressure.  Calling sparingly is a key on pressured public birds too. 

Lots of times the older birds will be pretty quiet on harder hunted land and will likely take their time coming towards you.  If you get in too big a hurry, you could bump them, or run & gun yourself right past them as you go hot footed after a two year old who loves the sound of his own voice.

Jim

[Mason Dixon]

    "However and where ever the wind blows my wattles."

[Tail Feathers]

No blind, rarely use dekes, closer to run and gun but I tend to set up further from birds and call them a distance.  I've been busted too many times trying to get close so I let my call work for me.

[SpitNDrumN]

I live in the mountains and hunt basically all public land so I've always been on the move. I just take my time cutting ridges trying to find a bird that is ready to work. I'm always covering ground unless I'm in birds and know where they like to be. Stopping and listening on high ground. I don't have any fields or flat ground to hunt gobblers out of a blind so I've never used a blind and covering ground is to much in my blood. Just how I like to hunt gobblers. I usually crack down on a box call first to strike up a bird if I'm trying to get my call out long distances. But if I'm pretty sure I'm in birds I'll start out soft because there may be a gobbler pretty close. I'll listen and if I don't get a answer then I'll trying letting out a cut on a box. I'm a big time believer in a gobble call so I just about always shake a gobble shaker before I move on to the next spot to listen/call from.

So in a nut shell I'm a run n gun I guess but I don't get in a big hurry like "running" until I find a bird. Once I locate a bird I may start moving fast to get in tight with him as fast as I can.

[Ruger M77]

mostly run & gun

[callmakerman]

I love to run and gun

[Premier Turkey Calls]

I prefer to sit and work a bird. In Wisconsin, with parcels of land being 80 acres and less, running and gunning is not efficient as there is not enough room to work. I take pride in being able to sit and work a bird. Anyone can ambush and run and gun but only the very best can call in a bird out of his comfort zone. I don't shoot as many birds as I could if I run and gun but I am looking for a quality and enjoyable hunt, I'm not hunting for numbers. The quality hunts are the ones that you remember.

[alclark2]

I have to say run and gun. It's more of a slow and steady. I haven't killed nearly as many turkeys as any of you I'm sure, but I learned to walk and sound like a turkey. If a turkey slowly walks through leaves I try to mimic that sound. I call at strategic locations like previously mentioned or every 50-100 yards. Usually very soft calls, a few clucks or a 3 series yelp. I quit hauling decoys and blinds and use this method. Stealth and good calling is what I think kills my birds. (I'm not saying I'm a great caller by any means, but knowing what turkeys sound like is important. Don't drag your feet in the leaves, pop open your loud blind, fumble with decoys, and belt out the loudest 10 series yelp you can.)

The "run and gun" brisk walk and call every 100-200 yards only works at spots with roads I can walk quietly. Public trails 3- 4 miles long that make a loop.

I only blind hunt in open areas in rain or wind. When I start bow hunting I'll probably consider using a blind.

Ambush, I don't have local birds. Period. ZERO birds were killed in my county this year. 1-2 in years past. Therefore, I don't have the luxury of patterning birds so this method doesn't really apply to me. I guess you can say that I have a few fantastic public land spots. I go there sit and call. It can be very productive. I think that this doesn't really apply though. IMO ambushing is bush wacking a turkey on a travel route that didn't know it was coming.

To sum this up... It really depends on conditions of the hunt. There is no one answer.

[cluck]

Ive used all the methods talked about and not ashamed to say so. But the most meaningful hunts are the ones that every poacher and hunter in six counties has encountred, and if you get witin two hundred yards of him, he shuts up and goes two counties east. Just the kind I like. I don't want to kill a two year old the first day of the season. I want one to teach me something I ain't never seen before. I want the oldest, wisest, toughest. They teach skills. And you don't always fill your tag. They can make you feel like a first year turkey hunter. If they carried a shotgun we'd all be dead. They make men out of boys. They demaned respect and I give it. It's never a sure thing even at fifteen or twenty yards.He doesn't care if you've  hunted fifty years. If I could kill one a year like that, I'd take that over kill'in twentyfive two or three year old birds.   The End, cluck

[Walkerz07]

 110% run and gun!!!!! Only time I might sit in a blind is when it's raining and I have a field I can hunt but still it is hard to work them. I normally will get out and belly crawl or what ever I have to do to get closer.

[Gobble!]

All of the above have their place. Most of the time its run and gun for me.

[paboxcall]

I hunt public ground 100%, on really large tracts of forest.  My go-to method is to quietly troll for a bird that's willing, I'm way to attention deficit to sit inside a blind for hours on end.

I've hunted small tracts of private ground and dealt with field turkeys, the experience just makes me want to get back to the big timbered ridges where I can roam.

[shaman]

In my early days, I was primarily a run and gunner.   In the past decade or so, I've stopped running. The main reason why is that I have my own 200 acres, and I am now hunting the great-great-great grandchildren of the first turkeys I met on the property back in 2001.

The land has not changed significantly in 100 years, and turkeys respond to the land in pretty much the same way from generation to generation.  As a result, it becomes a matter similar to structure fishing with bass. You find the structure and hunt it.  It also means that I keep running into the same characters year after year.  If you read my weblog, you'll find a story from 2003 where I hunted one gobbler, Mister Natural, all season-- unsuccessfully I might add.  Since then, I've wised up, and killed the sons and grandsons of Mister Natural several times.  It is though the same bird appears over and over again.   As a result, my turkey hunting life is filled with recurring characters.  Besides 'Natural, there's the Garbage Pit Bandit, Silent Bob and the Two Jakes (sometime 3), The Virginia Rambler, Mister Moto. . . it's like a play being re-cast every year with different actors.

I used to rep for a call company, and my boss was always saying there was no such thing as a honey hole.  He was hunting the South, and he had endless tracks of public land to hunt.  As a result, he never stayed in one spot long enough to see a honey hole.  On the other hand, I limit myself to hunting just my own 200 acres. That's the challenge for me.  I will tell you, that if you sit and watch a spot over a decade, you will see patterns develop and there are places where a honey hole can exist.  There are at least a couple of them on our place. Once I started talking about it in online forums, I found out other hunters had seen the same thing. There is actually a lot of us out there, guys who only hunt small plots like family farms.

How does this effect my hunting?  For me, it ends up being more of a sit-and-wait thing.  After about a half-dozen years or so, I realized I was putting my back against the same trees.  In several spots I will put up blinds and I also have a couple of luxury box deer sheds that I use when the weather gets inclement.  I'm not a dirty little ambusher, like my boss used to insinuate, but I do kind of like to get there ahead of the turkeys and get settled in.  You may see the distinction or not.

Run and Gun?  Look, if I head off from the house in any one direction with the intent on  run and gun, I'll be to the back property line in 15 minutes. I can circumnavigate the place in 2 hours. 

[bamagtrdude]

Just want to see what's the popular vote on turkey hunting methods from seasoned turkey hunters in general .and what one takes more skill in the woods .
Okay number 1
to run and gun .
2
to sit in a ground blind and work a bird
3
sit and ambush them ..
not a debate Just want to see what popular .
I am a ground blind hunter .

Typically, I start most every hunt with #3; then move to #1 quickly, if my #3 "setup" didn't work.  This year, I'll be trying out #2.

[turkey buster]

I'm more of a call and go guy. Once I hear one he's got my attention until... well I hear a different one