question

[Happy]

Question. Everybody who has turkey hunted much has heard the whole calling skill vs woodsman ship debate. My question is, if you could take 10% of you skills in either of those catagories and add them to the other which would it be. Personally I would trade a little calling ability for a little more woodsmanship.

[357MAGNOLE]

Probably the woodsmanship.  I have read many times that people hear other folks who cant call worth a damn but still manage to call in birds.

Last year was my first, I sucked (still not great) with the pot call and I brought them in a couple times...

Great thread by the way.

[buzzardroost]

Woodsmanship! You don't have to sound great to call in a turkey.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[southern_leo]

I'm definitely for woodsmanship! I grew up hunting family land I ran around on. And although we didn't turkey hunt we deer hunted and I always took my knowledge of those woods for granted. Now I'm having to scout public lands and learning quickly I need to brush up on my woodsmanship skills.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

[NJstrutter]

For me it's woodsmanship. I know my calling ability has never been that great. After eight seasons and a lot of practice, my calling needs improvement. I found that by scouting hard and learning all I could about bird movement, strutting areas, and roosting/feeding areas, I could still be successful without being the greatest caller.

[VaTuRkStOmPeR]

A good caller can make a turkey do a lot of things a poor caller can't.

People forget that turkeys speak their language everyday of the week. They know what it's supposed to sound like and what it isn't.  They also understand the context in which their fellow turkey uses a vocalizations has a large impact on the actual meaning .

[silvestris]

I.don't wish to offend anyone but it has been my experience that those who emphasize  woodsmanship are usually not that conversant with turkeys.  I was lucky to have been taught by two great turkey hunters.  One sounded like crap but killed a lot of turkeys and was very good in the woods.  Kenny Morgan & I used to laugh and say that the turkeys finally just gave up and surrendered.  The other was Kenny who was a great woodsman but loved and concentrated on conversing with turkeys.  Our time was spent not as much on practicing woodsmanship skills except in gaining good ground from which to converse with a gobbler without the gobbler having any suspicion concerning our existence. 

From the foundation I received from those fine gentlemen and my study of the language of the Wild Turkey, I believe that I am going to call every turkey that gobbles into shotgun range.  I don't, of course,, but I believe that the gobbling turkey is going to come.  I went to ten gobbling turkeys last Spring and nine came into shotgun range.  The tenth was across the creek and by his actions, I surmised that.he was in tow.  I called him in silently the next afternoon for a friend who didn't yet realize how well they can see.

I use woodsmanship in my hunting but except to gain a superior calling positition, not consciously.  I sure do get a kick out of the mental challenge of trying to determine the manner of calling that will cause him to commit.  If I had to deer hunt them or use decoys, I would quit.

[tomstopper]

I would say woodsmanship (I think of woodsmanship as being able to correlate knowledge of not only the woods but the animals in relation to it and their species itself and then being able to put it all together. Ex: deer hunters look for funnels, oaks, & turkey hunters look for ridges, oaks, etc.) reason being I use this first and foremost to try and locate areas that based on my knowledge of terrain, food types/quantity, water, roosting trees, etc. will likely hold and support populations of birds. Once I have an area picked, I try and get permission and then get to scouting (I don't care how good of caller one is, if there are not birds there then what will it matter.....  ).

Now if you do find an area that has birds, then we can discuss calling. I don't think you have to be a great caller but I do think that you need to understand when to and not, different types and somewhat of a reason as to why they call like they do when they do (I don't think any of us on here would throw out alarm putts at birds and expect them to come into us and this is because we have learned why and what it means).

Here is some food for thought. My nephew started hunting with me 2 years ago and within that time period has learned a ton of knowledge than beforehand. He had only heard turkeys on the outdoor channel gobble but basically never heard a hen "talk" because the only yelps, clucks, cuts, etc. that he heard was coming out of a mans mouth or off a friction call. When I gave him a slate to practice on, he replied to me that he would never sound as good as a real hen so I decided to test him. I turned his back to the computer and turned on youtube and played some sounds from callers at the NWTF and then switched to a video of a real hen talking. I did this at least 3 times and asked him a simple question: which is real and which is not? All three times he picked the NWTF competition caller as being "real". My point for this test was to prove to him that you don't have to be perfect with your calls but its more important to understand the call itself. This understanding will aid you in the hunt and overall the basic knowledge of the wild turkey.

So my conclusion is this: Without improving your woodsmanship I would think that you would be doing yourself a greater disservice  than you would be if you increased your calling ability by 10%. Just my 

[shaman]

Question. Everybody who has turkey hunted much has heard the whole calling skill vs woodsman ship debate. My question is, if you could take 10% of you skills in either of those catagories and add them to the other which would it be. Personally I would trade a little calling ability for a little more woodsmanship.

Woodsmanship.

If you want to be more precise about it: acquiring the skill to anticipate where turkeys will be and finding good cover beforehand to effect a successful ambush.

I don't mean that I want to go out and ambush turkeys without calling.  However, even if I were out running and gunning, I want to:

a) anticipate where a gobbler is going
b) get there first
c) hide myself in such a way that I will be able to see him before he sees me
d) be able to get my gun up, acquire his head and neck and close the deal.

I have called turkeys in just by shifting my weight on my knees  in dry leaves.  I have yelped at 2 PM and had a turkey come strolling in at 5 PM.  Heck, the first time I ever went turkey hunting-- my first yelp even-- I had a gobbler honor my call. However, it has taken 30-some years to figure out where to be and where to sit and where to put my gun so that I can get the shot. I still get it wrong a lot of the time.  My grand daughter, the Mooselette, is 4. She can call well enough to get a gobbler to answer.

Calling? Yes, I have called gobblers out of the roost.  I have made gobblers come running from 300 yards away.  However, I never got a gobbler to go somewhere that he would not have thought of going to in the first place.

One other thing:  most hens would never win a calling contest.

[turkeywhisperer935]

Woodsmanship hands down. Got a friend of mine that isn't the best caller in the world but I wouldn't want him hunting me I can tell you that.

[OldSchool]

I'll have to say woodsmanship too. Calling birds is the stuff, but IMHO there's so much more to turkey hunting than sitting down someplace and calling. From learning to recognise the places that are attractive to the birds and why, the time of day or year they're likely to be in certain places, reading sign, knowing the right places to set up and so many other little things.

I don't underrate calling though, either.  I think if we learn all we can of woodsmanship, put it to good use AND learn as much as we can about turkey vocalizations, when to make what calls, subtleties in tone and volume, and cadence, we'll be more successful and get most satisfaction out of this wonderful obsession.

Bob

[VaTuRkStOmPeR]

I.don't wish to offend anyone but it has been my experience that those who emphasize  woodsmanship are usually not that conversant with turkeys.  I was lucky to have been taught by two great turkey hunters.  One sounded like crap but killed a lot of turkeys and was very good in the woods.  Kenny Morgan & I used to laugh and say that the turkeys finally just gave up and surrendered.  The other was Kenny who was a great woodsman but loved and concentrated on conversing with turkeys.  Our time was spent not as much on practicing woodsmanship skills except in gaining good ground from which to converse with a gobbler without the gobbler having any suspicion concerning our existence. 

From the foundation I received from those fine gentlemen and my study of the language of the Wild Turkey, I believe that I am going to call every turkey that gobbles into shotgun range.  I don't, of course,, but I believe that the gobbling turkey is going to come.  I went to ten gobbling turkeys last Spring and nine came into shotgun range.  The tenth was across the creek and by his actions, I surmised that.he was in tow.  I called him in silently the next afternoon for a friend who didn't yet realize how well they can see.

I use woodsmanship in my hunting but except to gain a superior calling positition, not consciously.  I sure do get a kick out of the mental challenge of trying to determine the manner of calling that will cause him to commit.  If I had to deer hunt them or use decoys, I would quit.

This.

Most guys don't know the difference between a gobbler yelp or a hen yelp.  They don't understand their hen yelp cadence is too slow.  They don't understand that when a hen cutt, that one cluck is low and the other high. 

It doesn't matter if an average caller can identify a superior calling position and hide himself well when you're talking about henned up or early season turkeys.  They don't know how to integrate gobbler yelps with hen assembly yelps and the technical aspects of calling that will get those birds into gun range.

The average caller can kill a hot bird with no hens without any problems.  They go to the field and find the right bird on the right day 2,3 or maybe 4 times a season but when you're watching 10-20+ turkeys die a season, you ain't just calling the hot birds and it's the calling that facilitates that success.

[turkeyfoot]

Without a doubt woodsmanship. Honestly if you know the land and where the birds strut and done your scouting as well as understand a turkey even a novice can kill birds with no more calling than simple yelping, But it sure aint as much fun

[davisd9]

Woodsmanship.  You can call like the greatest caller ever but if you cannot set up correctly or know how to move in the woods then you will not kill as many turkeys.

[Shoot2thrill25]

Well Im average AT BEST in calling department, and a little above average (at least I like to think so) in the woodsmanship department.  Most my opportunities at birds, I have ambushed or snuck up on them. Got more serious about becoming a better caller a few years back. Most my focus was on a diaphragm (hard to run a pot call while drivin) and being able to talk to them makes a world of difference. I think great turkey hunters are well above average in both.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk