Advice topic

[mfd1027]

Sorry Rick.  I just couldn't resist.    OK,  what is it you want to know? 

[ElkTurkMan]

This perhaps one of the best threads I have ever read.  Seriously this is outstanding info.  It's great to be here guys.

[harvester]

This perhaps one of the best threads I have ever read.  Seriously this is outstanding info.  It's great to be here guys.

Feel free to share of your knowledge with us.

[harvester]

How many of you guys carry a set of hand pruners with you turkey hunting?

[ElkTurkMan]

I do and use it very often.  In fact I consider it a very important piece of gear.   

[gob09]

I do and use it very often.  In fact I consider it a very important piece of gear.   

yep i forgot to mention those i have some fiskars that work great and for christmasmy wife got me a AVID turkey tool that has a saw on it

[ElkTurkMan]

I'll throw something out here.  I hunt a lot of state & federal ground, and what I am finding is usually less equals more.  Less agressive and softer calling, and sometimes less calling in general.    When moving through the woods SLOW DOWN, you can still cover a lot of ground, but do it very slowly and LISTEN.  Another handy thing I have learned is when walking fire breaks or old logging roads try to stay in the shadows and again go slowly.  When going around a corner have your gun half way ready. 

[unclerick]

Leadership just can't get any love these days  

I carry a set of pruners in my vest and use them alot, they are probaily the most inportant tool I carry besides TP.

[unclerick]

I'll throw something out here.  I hunt a lot of state & federal ground, and what I am finding is usually less equals more.  Less agressive and softer calling, and sometimes less calling in general.    When moving through the woods SLOW DOWN, you can still cover a lot of ground, but do it very slowly and LISTEN.  Another handy thing I have learned is when walking fire breaks or old logging roads try to stay in the shadows and again go slowly.  When going around a corner have your gun half way ready. 

Wes are you listening to this..

[mfd1027]

Yep- pruner's and a folding hand saw.  Don't leave home without em.

[mfd1027]

"Setup".   It's a term that we all use that is related to, "hopefully", the last place we plunk our butt's to get ready for that final approach where we hope to kill our gobbler.   Setup is not something to take lightly and paying attention to detail at this critical point in the chase will pay off big.    Deciding where to sit, what tree, so on and so on is a lot easier on property you know well.  On public land it can be a nightmare.   So many times on unfamiliar land we setup in a great looking spot only to have that gobbler stop just out of range and then find out, after the battle is over and he's walked away, that there was an obstacle between your "kill zone" and the gobbler.   We scratch our heads and come up with all kinds of reasons why we didn't kill him  "hens-always number 1-lol", "too much calling", "not enough calling","wrong call", "he saw me",  "predator", "other hunter", "etc", "etc".   Anytime I'm not successful on a bird I always ease up to where he "hung up" to find out what made him stay there.   You'll learn a lot about turkey hunting just doing this one thing and secondly I've killed a lot of birds calling them back to that spot but this time I'm either waiting in the hang-up spot or close enough to it to kill him.    It's going to happen on public/unfamiliar land so don't get discouraged,  use it as a learning experience.   You haven't done anything wrong you just happened to pick an ambush spot that didn't work.   On land that your familiar with "hang-ups" shouldn't happen as often.   Just a few example's of "things" that will cause birds to hang up would be: a body of water (stream, creek, river, pond, flooded roadway or large puddle after a hard rain),  a fence,  thick undergrowth (be careful after greenup-places that turkeys will walk through during the early season are now places they hang up), blow downs (trees, etc),  something as simple as a log can hang em up.   When I strike a bird or am moving in on a roosted bird I get real serious about setting up.  The first thing I ask myself is will a turkey walk through this stuff.  I want good visibility.   Unless i know the exact tree a bird is roosted in and the exact tree I want to sit at I give gobblers a little room when hunting a roosted Tom.  I figure he's got visibility up in that tree (think about how much our visibility is when hunting out of a treestand) and if he see's me the likelihood of killing that Tom that morning are pretty slim.   I also want the room so I can slip into my setup undetected and so I can survey the surroundings and pick out the best spot to kill him.    I usually setup about 100 yds or so from roosted birds and that's a rough figure.  Understory can make  a big difference in how far or close I get.    i will always err on the side of caution.   If you think about it a bird can easily glide 100-200 yds when he pitches out of a tree so even the 100 yd. mark is relatively close.   So, the first question is will a turkey walk through this stuff.  If you don't think he will "move".  Many times I've walked away from birds to find that perfect spot, sometimes I move left or right if I know there's a better spot to kill him in.    I call "very" sparingly at this time.  If I've had a response and I have a general idea where he is I'll make my move before I call again.    I'll move on birds that I know are coming if I don't like the spot I'm at.  A lot of times that little move alone will make a bird commit.   If he was coming where you were and expecting to see you there and the next time he hears that hen she's moved off to one side or the other he'll put it in high gear to find you.  I think they have the sense that the hen is either moving away or she's also looking for him and now if she's in a good spot for the meet up he'll come trotting in.    Turkeys like visibility and gobbler's like to show off (strut) where they can be seen.   Enough on visibility.  Just take note- visiblility is a good thing.   Now for the exact setup.   Be careful with the tree you pick to sit at.  I always look for one that has a nice looking flat spot or even a curved spot on the trunk that I can lean back on comfortably.   I also check for roots,  a big root underneath your butt "sucks".   Check both left and rt. of where you plan to sit and see if you can slide either way easily.   It happens all the time.   I "hate" chairs or those little elevated webbed seats for this reason.  I've got a bunch of them hanging in my shed-lol   They don't go turkey hunting with me anymore.   I use a  Big Game cushion that's thicker in front and slopes downward toward the tree.  I love it.    I can slide off of it easily if I need to adjust left or rt.    Look for sticks, limbs, pine needles, leaves, etc etc and rake em out of the way.   I prefer to be sitting on dirt if I can and that includes the area out to where my feet are.  I clear out a "lot" of room.  Being able to make moves in relative silence is nice.   Be careful about having cover out in front of you.   I like having cover out in front of me but the closest I want any of it is beyond where my feet are when my legs are straight out in front of me.    I also make sure there's nothing that will interfere with me swinging my gun.  It really suck's when you pick a tree that's in the rt. spot only to find out that your gun barrel hits a tree that's 3' in front of you when you need to swing your gun left or right.  It's also best to sit with your left shoulder toward where you expect your gobbler to show up (for rt. handed shooter's).   If you face directly at that spot it's really hard to swing rt. if it's necessary.   With your left shld. facing that sweet spot you can easily swing 180 degrees without having to move your butt.  Essentially you've increased your coverage area from just over 90 degrees to 180 degrees when you sit with the forend shoulder facing the area you expect your gobbler to show up.    Will I give up the forend shoulder toward the bird scenario for comfort/cover, you bet, but I do pay attention to it.    As far as gun up on knee in the ready position or not I'll leave that up to you.  I don't sit that way.   I like to be comfortable so I just lay my gun on my lap.   If I'm comfortable I know that I'll get  my chance to make my move.  Many times I'll have birds in range but I'll just be sitting there with my gun on my lap. lol   Probably not the best advice.   That's how I do it.   I hate getting all cramped up. lol    I don't use a vest anymore.  I will unbuckle my fanny pack and set it somewhere out of the way.   I take my boxcall out of it's holster, pot call out of pocket with one striker and set my mouthcall carrying case on my leg.  I use one of those rubber change purse's for my mouthcall's and I usually already have one or two in my mouth.  That's rt.  a lot of time's I will have one against my cheek and be running the other one.   A call that a lot of folks would be well seved by that gets overlooked a lot is a push pin.  I have 3 of them and I usually carry one with me.   It's an old Quaker Boy and it's caused the death of many a turkey.   An "easy clucker" is also a great "killing" call.    Sometimes all you need is a single cluck and a good single cluck on a mouthcall is not all that easy to do when you're all excited and breathing hard.  You don't want to be using a two handed call (pot/box)when they're close.   Get yourself a pushpin.   Mine happens to have a really neat little yelp to it too.   They have a reputation for only being for beginner's and kids and I can tell you from experience that's BS.   They're killers. 
Sorry this post is so long!!!  As you can probably tell setup is pretty important to me.     

[keyser12ga]

That is great information Dan, thanks.  I have a question that has been bugging me:  Say you are hunting state land and you know where you have seen birds the last few days, but don't know where they are roosted.  You are there well before light and you know where you want to set up.  With not knowing where they are roosted, how far in do you go, do you go to where you want to be quickly and quietly and setup?  Do you play it safe until light so you don't bump them off the roost?

[mfd1027]

Josh.  If,  you've seen these birds later in the morning and you have an idea of where they roost you're in good shape.   Try to figure out the route they're using to go from roost to where you saw em and setup somewhere along that route.   That's probably oversimplifying things.   If you're worried about busting them off the roost be conservative and hang back until that first gobble and if you can move up on em a little do it.   For every bird i've killed off the roost I've killed 10 later in the morning.  Being successful at killing a bird off the roost requires special circumstance's and if the stars aren't aligned just right you can ruin an entire morning if you get too aggressive.         

[keyser12ga]

Thanks Dan, I plan on doing much more scouting this year.  Last year I knew where I saw birds during the day, but I didn't actually call my bird in until mid afternoon, so I didn't know if by going deeper into the woods (trying to avoid other hunters) before light I risked scaring more birds away than it was worth.

[harvester]

Thanks Dan, that is some more very good advice. Having to set on those roots or rocks sure do make for a long hunt. Make sure you give yourself time to clean you out  a good spot to set. It may only be for five minutes or an hour or longer.

Keep'em coming fellows