Public Land Head Scratchers

[aclawrence]

Heard lots more hooting and crowing this week.  This morning a bird starting gobbling good so someone's response was to start blowing their crow call back at him. Why would you do that?  The bird is giving you plenty of freebies but still you must blow the crow call!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Spitten and drummen]

Heard lots more hooting and crowing this week.  This morning a bird starting gobbling good so someone's response was to start blowing their crow call back at him. Why would you do that?  The bird is giving you plenty of freebies but still you must blow the crow call!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Common sense is lacking in many.

[Rzrbac]

I've got so many and some wouldn't be believable unless you were there. Most are during deer season but here's one during turkey season. It was opening morning and I was waking a FS road about to cut in on ridge top when a small Toyota came up behind me. I moved over and let it by. It pulled over a few yards ahead of me and parked. I cut in the woods but hid to watch which way the guy was gonna go. He got out of his truck and went down toward a creek on the other side of the road. Unbeknownst to me, he has a couple of hounds in a dog box. Once the guy left the truck those dogs opened up and I finally got out of hearing distance of them. Why would a guy bring hounds to the woods on opening morning of turkey season?

[eggshell]

Why would a guy bring hounds to the woods on opening morning of turkey season?

I'm not sure where your at, but in our area guys run hounds on foxes. He may not have been a turkey hunter he may have been going after a dog. They have radio tracking collars on most of them. I have had many hunts messed up by these guys. Then they get pissed at turkey hunters for parking in good listening spots. In some states they have spring bear hunts with dogs too, I think. One of the biggest messes I ever got into was over a dang fox hound. I had permission to hunt several hundred acres of great turkey woods, but the owner belonged to a fox hunters club. Well a trespassing turkey hunter shot one of the prize hounds.  You guessed it. I got the blame, because I was on the property that day. My life was threatened, I was assaulted and I am kicked off the property to this day. Since, they found out it wasn't me, but the land owner closed 1,000 acres to all turkey hunting. Some arsehole messed it up for all of us.

[Spitten and drummen]

Could have been a coon hunter also.

[trkehunr93]

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.

Sent from my SM-J727VPP using Tapatalk

Had the same thing happen to me on national forest during the fall turkey season.  I got to where I wanted to hunt and nature called so I went over to the nearest tree to me and dropped the deuce.  After I finished and got back to the tree I was going to sit at I noticed something moving in a tree about 75-100 yards away.  I kept looking and was like what heck is that, well the more I looked I finally realized it was a bow hunter in a tree stand that had the unfortunate experience of watching me poop in the woods.  I was on the side of the tree facing him so he saw it all.  Definitely not the "whitetail" he was expecting to see that morning.  I acknowledged his presence and packed up and hiked further back in the woods, laughing the whole way. 

Another time a buddy and me were late season fall turkey hunting when we ran into a guy muzzleloader deer hunting.  He said did y'all hear that deer snort over there?  I said no but we stood there with him a moment and listened and never heard anything moving.  He said well I'm going over there to find it, we said good luck and hiked on up the logging road.  After a few minutes we stopped to take a break and a light bulb went off in my head and I said Mark you know what that deer really was that he heard?  Mark said no, I said it was you when you blew your nose coming up the road before we ran into him.  My buddy had stopped right before we ran into that guy and blew his nose a couple of times.  I guess the guy heard it and thought a deer had snorted, we laughed and laughed.  We joke to this day wondering if that fella is still looking for that deer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[g8rvet]

Heard lots more hooting and crowing this week.  This morning a bird starting gobbling good so someone's response was to start blowing their crow call back at him. Why would you do that?  The bird is giving you plenty of freebies but still you must blow the crow call!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We had a guy on a club I was in that we nick named Hooty Who.  He would show up at day light and proceed to HOOOTY WHO, HOOTY WHO, with multiple birds answering him, some of whom were gobbling before he got out of his truck.  99% of the time, he would then just leave.  Not sure if was very hard of hearing or what.  If he did proceed to the bird he would hoot the whole way to him.  That place was loaded with birds and I am not sure he ever killed one. 

[LaLongbeard]

For some reason most of the people on the public land I hunt try to sneak up on a gobbling turkey while blowing a crow call or owl hooting. The Gobbler already is located I never get an answer when I ask them why they do it. It never works the  crow squawking from the ground always gets the Gobblers attention he sees them and it over lol

[NCL]

Why would a guy bring hounds to the woods on opening morning of turkey season?

I'm not sure where your at, but in our area guys run hounds on foxes. He may not have been a turkey hunter he may have been going after a dog. They have radio tracking collars on most of them. I have had many hunts messed up by these guys. Then they get pissed at turkey hunters for parking in good listening spots. In some states they have spring bear hunts with dogs too, I think. One of the biggest messes I ever got into was over a dang fox hound. I had permission to hunt several hundred acres of great turkey woods, but the owner belonged to a fox hunters club. Well a trespassing turkey hunter shot one of the prize hounds.  You guessed it. I got the blame, because I was on the property that day. My life was threatened, I was assaulted and I am kicked off the property to this day. Since, they found out it wasn't me, but the land owner closed 1,000 acres to all turkey hunting. Some arsehole messed it up for all of us.
[/quo

That last sentence is true on so many occasions/places

[TurkeyReaper69]

Where do I even start...
I have had 2 different incidents in 2 different states this year of people driving around on ATVs hitting box calls. One of the guys at least turned the ignition off...
I have heard more owl hooting than carter has pills..

[Rzrbac]

So yesterday evening some great woodsman in a F250 started on crow and owl call at 6:00. They kept hammering till nearly dark. I was impressed with their stamina.
This morning a truck pulled into the same spot below and it was clearly a Diesel engine. The engine never shut off and there was a relentless run on an owl call followed by intense horn honking (all with the engine running) and pulled away without eliciting a single gobble. Bless their heart.

[Happy]

This isn't a public land story but a hunt club story. I had already killed a few birds and wanted to take the kids out and just have a fun morning hunt. I didn't expect to kill anything so I didn't get real serious. We headed into the woods and the kids had a blast. Playing in creeks, catching lizards ect. I didn't care and would occasionally let out a call but since we were making slightly less noise than a tank division in a bamboo thicket nothing gobbled. Eventually the kids tuckered out and we headed back to the truck. As the wife and I were loading the kids up I grabbed my boys box call that was as laying on the seat and let a few yelps out. I couldn't believe the gobble that range out across the field in a small patch of woods of maybe 20 acres. The wife looked at me and asked can you kill him? "Probably" was my answer. She told me to go without her and the kids and go get him. They would just sit on the tailgate and listen I got another quick gobble out of him to verify his exact location and started planning my route. The only way into that patch undetected meant circling around using the roll of the hill for cover. I start slowly walking around, staying low and make it about 100 yards when my phone starts buzzing. I look at it and it's the wife. I answer in a whisper and she just says look to your left. I do and here comes a fellow. Rifle at the ready on a dead run straight for the bird. Its 300 yards across the field and he only pauses once to take a quick look at me and then charges forward. He runs straight to the Crest of the hill and throws his rifle to his shoulder and is using the scope to scan. I just stood there and stared as the fellow charged over the hill and dissapeared towards the woods. I just walked to the truck put my stuff away and then drove over to the patch of woods. Handing my boy the box call I told him. "See if you can make him gobble again." My boy worked that call like mad. It was a heck of a racket for about ten straight minutes. Once he was done we just left. That's just one of many runs in I have had on that club. 

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[briton]

The first time I ever hunted public land a buddy and me set up and let out a few series of calls, next thing you know we catch movement ahead and realized it was somebody crawling on their hands and knees towards us, I whistled and the guy stood up and sprinted the other way.

[Paulmyr]

Happened to me this mourning in Missouri. Get to my 1st spot already a car parked there. Plenty of room but let the guy have to himself. Plan b is to hunt a Ridgeline that's only accesble by about a mile walk over a ridge. Granted it ne Missouri so not to daunting of a task. Chose this location because it was the farthest away from any access point. Never been there before but thought would be a good start. Hunt along ridge but nothing going. Around 8 I hear faint gobble on the ridge I crossed over to get to this spot. Back I go to the crossover ridge. Set there for a bit to find out gobble s we're coming from valley between cross over ridge and parking lot. Valley has open feilds so sneak down to valley only to find bird moved to woods between valley and road. Sneak and belly crawl along Creek bed in open field to get access to woods unseen. Get to woods field and set up about 500yds from where I got out of the truck at 4:45am. It's about 9:30. Sit for a while listening. Nothing. Set out a string of yelps a listen. Nothing. Wait about 10 mins and set out some more yelps. A Tom fires off about 150yds away. Call again nothing. Wait a few mins call again. Nothing. Wait about 10 mins call again he fires off. Hit him with some soft cuts and fires off again. Take call out of mouth and put on knee to resist calling again. Wait 15 mins or so call again. He fires off directly in front of me about 70yds. He's coming wait for what seemed like an eternity but realistically about 10 mins. Scratch some leaves and he fires off moving to the left circling me. Than I hear it. He drumming. He's close but I can't see him. I pinpoint the drumming and he's on the same spot. I can see about 60yds in that direction but still can't see him. Drumming continues for about 10 mins than stops. Wait,wait,wait,nothing. Scratch some more leaves and he fires off further to the left. I wait expecting to see his head above the short brush that's just starting to green up.15 mins pass. Nothing. I call. nothing. I don't want play with this guy's forever because we are so close to the road. I get up to sneak about 80yds to the finger ridge where he 1st fired up with the hopes that might bring him into gun range when I hear it. The god awfullest owl hoot from the spot of the last gobble. At least I think that's what it was. I sneak over and set up on his ridge. Call nothing. Call again and Tom that I heard while calling to previousTom fires off about 250yds away. I than hear yelping and cutting from behind and it doesn't stop. Than the kazoo crow call and more cutting and the kazoo again non stop as he continues along just up the Ridgeline from me towards the last gobble. He hits the kazoo again and I yell up the hill at him "why don't you stick that crow call up your butt" but not in such kind words. It was about 11:30 now and I was steamed. After all that walking,sneaking,and crawling. I finally get 2 Tom's to go and this clown storms in ruins it. Went back to truck and came home to MN steaming the whole way. Oh gotta love public land. Show some good Hunter etiquett by leaving my 1st spot to the guy that beat us there only to get rewarded with the clown and his kazoo.

[aclawrence]

Well that sucks!  I was about 40yds away from a fired up Gobbler one morning about a week ago.  He was just on the backside of some thick brush and I couldn't see him. After a few minutes I hear a hen cutting behind me. The bird gobbles. Then the hen continued to let out the exact same cutting sequence several more times in a row. At this point I knew someone was sneaking in on me. The Gobbler never gobbled again. I hear the walking and turn around and wave at two guys. They saw me and turned and left but it was too late. My hunt was done. When I left I saw where they had parked. About 75 yds down the road from my truck on a real narrow strip of public. I guess since they didn't park right at the gate by my truck they thought it was ok.  I mean really my truck was sitting there on a small public spot. Did they expect me to not be working the bird. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk