Hunting a field.

[Gobble!]

Yes. I don't like it but have done it with good results. Have a property that has 3 fields on it and a clear cut area. It's bordered by big timber that I don't have access to but the timber butts up to the fields. I have posted up in the fields with a Strutter in the past with good results.

[Gobble!]

All have been late morning kills 1000-1130.

[K9Doc]

Yes, a couple of properties I have permission to hunt on are almost 100% crop fields...no timber whatsoever.  The birds roost on the neighboring properties, and then pitch down and hang out all morning in middle of the field, as far away from any cover as they can get.  I don't give two poops...I stake up ground blind right in the middle of that sumbeech.   

You can count on Stinkpickle to keep it real.
And Real Funny!!!

[ridgerunner]

Does anybody have any success just sitting on a single field all day? It could be with either a decoy, or no decoy. It seems to me that if you have a nice field close to where they are roosting, it might be beneficial to sit all day and be patient, and wait for a bird to eventually come to that field.

Absolutely!! Works real well...just call every 20 min, content feeding purrs and clucks, nothing aggressive..killed many a bird on pressured ground doing this..sit all day if need be, but if you're in a good area normally doesn't require all day.

[g8rvet]

One of the places I hunt is real small with a beautiful creek bottom that runs through it. I can hunt both sides for about a 1/4 mile stretch.  Very thick in the bottom.  When I first started hunting it, I did what I do on public - move to the bird gobbling.  At least 3 different times, after moving around all morning and not striking anything, I would ease back and check the field, and Old Tom was out there putting on a display for the ladies and would not come back to the woods, despite my horniest hen calling.  You don't have to smack me with a lighter stump to let me know it will hurt.  I learned to be patient and most of the times a bird was roosting on the creek, he would fly out my side and try to gather his hens in the little hay field.  More than a few have died.

2 years ago, I had already killed one there and had not heard any other gobbles, so I moved on.  With about 2 weeks left and no real hot prospects other than a bird my brother was hot after (he got him), I went back out to the field one afternoon and found fresh strut marks, so I knew one was using it.  One rainy day, I parked it on the field and killed him at 11:30 in the morning. He never said a word.  Frustrating bird, but he took a truck ride. 

Rainy day?  head to the field and be patient. 

[nyturkeyduster]

If I hunt a field like that, it's because I'm seeing the turkeys there on a regular basis. I'll set up close to where I.m seeing him enter the field and strut and call sparingly. Otherwise, I'm off to find another bird to hunt.

[Matt.Wilson]

Several years ago, was down to the last day of the season with my last tag. I had strutters on camera midday in a certain field, anytime between 9 and 3 but had struck out multiple times trying to run n gun the birds in this area.  At daylight, with 3 birds hammering all around the field where I had committed to sit,  it was all I could do not to chase. At 830, I heard a hen yelping up the hill from the field, and called back to her. Not 2 mins later, a fired-up gobbler came running down the hill and started thrashing my jake strutter deke like on TV. Great hunt, great action. I love to chase them. But sometimes the terrain and henned up birds, just gotta hunt where they are and they'll show up.

[silvestris]

However, the turkeys are much easier to call up in the woods.

I disagree.  I have killed a number by calling them from fields.  Now, they can be very difficult if you set up right on the edge of the field as the gobbler expects to see the calling hen.  But a setup thirty to thirty-five yards off of the field will frequently arose his curiosity.  It has been over ten years since I have killed one near a field as 98% of my hunting now takes place on public ground without fields.

[deerbasshunter3]

However, the turkeys are much easier to call up in the woods.

I disagree.  I have killed a number by calling them from fields.  Now, they can be very difficult if you set up right on the edge of the field as the gobbler expects to see the calling hen.  But a setup thirty to thirty-five yards off of the field will frequently arose his curiosity.  It has been over ten years since I have killed one near a field as 98% of my hunting now takes place on public ground without fields.

Do you not use decoys if set up on the edge of a field?

[silvestris]

I refuse to use decoys as I believe that the use of sign stimulus takes unfair advantage of the turkey's instincts.  My dear late friend Kenny Morgan, a biology major, held the same belief.

[mudhen]

Yep, hunt fields all the time...love it!

Run around Iike an amateur in open places like Kansas, Nebraska, and see what happens....

Spring turkey hunting is all about bringing the tom to you....doesn't really matter where....




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[TauntoHawk]

I know guys that's how they hunt, kill some good birds deer hunting them from a blind all day. Set up in a good location and wait

I simply can not do it, longest I've ever sat for a turkey was 3.5hrs in fog and rain knowing they wouldn't gobble we just set up in a favored strutting field where we had seen a good bird the day before. It worked just as the fog lifted a bird gobbled a few calls and he drifted into the decoys for my wife's second bird last year but on a blue bird morning you'd have to break my legs to make me sit that long with no action.

[Ringbill]

Like Redfish, fields are foreign to me...we do get prescription burns in our WMA's, these do become magnets for turkey and deer. That burned palmetto scrub is noisy to walk through, must do it early, I hunt the edges and have had success getting toms there as they move through on their feeding routes.

[Timmer]

I have participated in youth hunts with an assigned spot where sitting all day is the only choice and we have had succes.  It's not my style and I can hardly stand it, but it can work.

[Uncle Tom]

I refuse to use decoys as I believe that the use of sign stimulus takes unfair advantage of the turkey's instincts.  My dear late friend Kenny Morgan, a biology major, held the same belief.
[/qui woote]I never use a decoy and in earlier years I would occasionally use them...but I do believe it is more rewarding to call one in, work one, and kill them without help of a decoy. Many use them, and to each his own, but I just feel I get my kicks more without them. Ole timer told me once that is cheating and never forgot it, but have no problem with those that do.