Public Land Head Scratchers

[tomstopper]

Had a co worker who liked to turkey hunting but had never killed one. I took him to some public to scout one evening and we split up til dark. It's probably forty minutes before fly up and I can here him hit the owl call. Then he hits the crow call and then some kind of squeal.Im thinking why is he calling so early. We are in a river bottom and I work my way over to him just in time see him throw another call out. I ask him why he is calling so much and so early. He says early, it looks plenty dark enough to him. I look at him and say Frank take your sun glasses off. He takes them off and says jeez! What time is it?

Haha. LMAO

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[fallhnt]

I'm sure all is well on private ground.

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[dejake]

As far as sticks across the trail, I do that.  In the dark, it lets me know where I need to cut into the woods to a pre-scouted position.

[6shot]

Last year I had a gobbler found on a field edge well before season on a piece of public ground that has very few turkeys on it . I even went several mornings before season opened before daylight to just listen to him gobble since the field was really close to the road . I knew it would be aggravating to hunt this bird being so close to the road but I was going to try it . Opening morning I left home WAY earlier than normal and actually pulled out of driveway and followed a Jeep the entire 16 mile drive to see him park in the spot where I was going to . That was nice ! Anyhow , got to go back a few days later and was set up on the edge of the field well before first light . As it was breaking daylight I saw headlights coming up the road and they drove on by where I was parked so I thought I was OK . Wrong ! A few minutes later , actually in decent daylight by now , I heard poles and brush breaking in the direction of the road and then I looked and saw his flashlight coming . He came to the upper end of field across from me , turned his light off , sat down and started calling . Wow ! I just got up and left and when I got to the truck to leave , guess who was parked up the road - Yep , the same Jeep that had beat me there opening day . Happy ending though , I killed that bird about a week and a half later after about a two hour back and fourth hunt that I finally got him killed on the second time I had him at 30 yards that morning . He is the most rewarding bird I've killed because I'm sure he been tormented to death by other hunters for nearly three weeks .

[sasquatch1]

As far as sticks across the trail, I do that.  In the dark, it lets me know where I need to cut into the woods to a pre-scouted position.

X2


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[turkaholic]

My brother and I are standing together listening at first light. We hear a gaggle of gobblers going off and make a plan. Suddenly we hear someone storming down the trail, the guys walks up to us and says" there's a 30 pounder in there" and storms right past us. By the time it hit me what just happened,he was running down the trail. That poor gentleman returned to his vehicle and it appeared he must have run over a nail or something. Pay back is a bitch.

[GobbleNut]

I've posted this before, but for this topic, it is worth repeating...

A friend of mine was hunting with his son.  They had walked in and set-up above a roosted gobbler up on a ridge in the dark, getting there very early before daylight.  They had gotten in pretty close, about seventy five yards from the bird and sat down where they were about level with him in the tree.

They had been sitting there for a while and the gobbler had started gobbling some very early.  Pretty soon they saw a guy coming in from their left, right at them.  My friend shined his flashlight at the guy and he knows he saw him, but the guy moves between my friend and the gobbler and sits down (hard to freakin' believe!). 

My friend doesn't want to cause a scene with his son along with him, so he just sits there waiting to see what happens.  Soon it gets light enough for them to see the gobbler in the tree, and the guys starts scooting down the hill on his butt towards the bird.  Roost shooting is illegal here, but the guy just scoots down the hill until he is within range of the bird, and right there in front of my friend, he shoots the gobbler out of the tree.

The guy runs down the hill, grabs the gobbler, and takes off back towards his truck.  Well, my friend follows the guy out, gets his license plate number, and turns him in.  The guy got a big fine and lost his hunting privileges for a few years,...and my buddy got a $500 reward for turning him in. 

Sometimes there is justice after all!   

[yelpy]

This is a good laugh.

I was in a hurry one evening getting to where I planned on setting up yo catch the birds going back to roost. When I was heading down the old logging road in a hurry I felt a bad rumbling in my lower intestine. Oh no I got to go! I just kept on going until I could hold it anymore. I stopped next to a tree, threw off the gear, dropped my drawers and started to relieve myself. I turned my head to look up the mountain and their he was another hunter set up about 20yrds from where I was relieving myself. I was so embarrassed and felt soooooo bad for that poor guy. He never said a word. He just got up and left.

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[M,Yingling]

all i hunt is public  oh man the stories lol 

one that realy got me was i had watched these 3 gobblers for 4 weeks and they was well off the road was their every weekend and during the week  so evenings when possiable to just check them out and make sure nothing out of ordinary happened  They always roosted on  posted  private ground like 60 yrds in from line but flew down on to public ground and preceded to work their way thur old over grown strip cut i would stay back off line 60 yrds because of heavy brier patch on line and they would work their way to small clearing ,,, now i had seen this go down at least 15  times before season ,,i did my own little things to see if others have been in area and never noticed any thing  ,,,first day comes iam to the spot good and early get in woods 1 1/2 hrs before daylight time comes they did their thing gobbled like crazy well 15 minutes into good light here comes 2 guys  kid u could see the sack decoys and blind on their back  they walk past me 50 yrds  heading toward the birds i blow a crow call they stop i wave orange They stand their a minute and proceed to walk toward gobbles ,,,  i give them in a low voice that they could hear what the f,,k   ,,,guys stop lol and hollers iam hunting posted ground they keep walking  They bumped the birds because they was gobbling 100 yrd different direction    i just sat their a bit and called sounded as they was comimg my way then i heard the other guys call they was close and because of the briers i could not see   weir they set up ,,,I figured f it got up and headed down thur briers with orange on  these guys sit up right on that line 60 yrds in front of me  walked to about 20 yrds of blind asked if they   see any thing in a loud voice  yea me neither i said LOL  and headed toward the gobbles and bounce them to next county    ,, me i avoid people at all costs i could here 10 birds gobbling if i see someone ill back out and leave ,,, some people have no respect for other turkey hunters when they screw my day i give them the same respect back lol

[Gmed]

Most of the replies talk about the early morning antics which I have encountered as well, but the thing that gets on my nerves just as bad is/are the "turbo cluckers" who won't get off a call from daylight until they decide they have had enough for the day. I had set up on a gobbler three mornings in a row and he gobbled his head off on the roost. He would hit the ground and walk directly away from me onto posted private property, no matter how much or how little I would call. On the third morning, someone on the private property decided they would like to try him. From his first gobble until 9:30, the guy must have yelped 1,000 times. The old bird pitched out towards Mr. Turbo, but at 9:30 I saw his white head coming through the woods. He never made a sound and came to within 30 yards when my shot shut down his morning. I guess the other guy had to go change his shorts as he didn't know I was close until I shot.....

[DumpTruckTurkey]

Im always amazed when I run into someone, usually the walk out... they always tend to talk in normal loud voices.

SMH everytime....

[Spitten and drummen]

Im in Southwest Ms and we have alot of guys that come up from South Louisiana. If anyone has ever been down to South Louisiana you would know that many of these guys fish and their choice of footwear are white rubber boots. Anyway I have seen a couple of these guys slipping along a bottom or ridge decked out in camo including facemasks and gloves , with their pants tucked in , yes you guessed it , white rubber boots. I just kind of shake my head. Its funny seeing the white boots flashing through the woods with every step. Stop and cut and yelp and then move again. I dont know , maybe a tom will think its a albino hen.

[Plush]

Im always amazed when I run into someone, usually the walk out... they always tend to talk in normal loud voices.

SMH everytime....

This wasn't on public, but one time I was deer hunting and I was about 30-40 yards from a fence line going to this field. I could see a long ways away this guy working the fence line. Well eventually he gets up towards me and sees me (obviously when you are blaze orange). Well I am sitting up in my tree and as he sees me he is like "OH HELLLO FELLOW HUNTER.......HOW ARE YOU TODAY.....HELLO?....ALRIGHT NOT FRIENDLY I SEE, HAVE A NICE DAY." He was sitting there yelling to me for at least 30 seconds as I blankly looked at him. My dad a good 40 yards from me could hear him.

I mean really? How stupid can one be. I was trying to hunt, I am not going to yell...and I am in a tree stand. I am not going to take the time to get out of my tree to come talk to you.

Public land has so many headscratchers because it just gets lazy hunters in droves. Lazy hunters don't take the effort to scout or truly learn to hunt. People who invest time/money to hunt usually don't make such stupid decisions. Too many guys that grab a gun and head out into the woods just to "hunt". It is like they are bored and pretending to hunt will do.

[wolfman]

On a public land draw hunt several years ago.  1,000 acres, 6 hunters allowed on it.  There is a road that travels through the gameland.  Usually you'd park your truck on a trail or just off the road where you wanted to go in.  One guy blocked access to about 1/3 of the gameland by setting up right on the road.  had a hen decoy in the middle of the road.  It was a windy day so his decoy was spinning like a helicopter.  I really wanted to barrel through there and run over it but behaved myself.

[LaLongbeard]

Im in Southwest Ms and we have alot of guys that come up from South Louisiana. If anyone has ever been down to South Louisiana you would know that many of these guys fish and their choice of footwear are white rubber boots. Anyway I have seen a couple of these guys slipping along a bottom or ridge decked out in camo including facemasks and gloves , with their pants tucked in , yes you guessed it , white rubber boots. I just kind of shake my head. Its funny seeing the white boots flashing through the woods with every step. Stop and cut and yelp and then move again. I dont know , maybe a tom will think its a albino hen.

South La is home to the  "Coon A$$ "  one of the dumbest creatures the Lord made.