Are you old school or new school?

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Boll Weevil

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No, I'm not talking about wearing a buckskin loin cloth, using an atlatl, or toting a muzzleloading flintlock shotgun...and no this topic isn't meant to devolve into my way is better than your way. That being said, in the last few years I've seen what appears to be a "new generation" of turkey hunters that applies very different tactics than the "old generation."

This time of year, waiting on the season to open, I get more than a little anxious and sometimes watch reruns of Turkey Thugs, the Avian X guys, Turkeyman, Mossy Oak shows...anything with a gobble that helps me get through the doldrums before April gets here. Maybe TV isn't a good measure but seems to me that turkey hunting has changed a good bit since I first got started 30 years ago. I wonder if the old timers I learned from would look at how things have changed (if they had cable or knew how work a computer :shock: ) with disdain. With the exception of a Burris Fastfire on my shotgun, hunting style, tactics, and gear hasn't really changed much for me since I started. Only after watching those shows (and all the commercials) did I come to realize how different turkey hunting has become. If I showed up in some of those camps they'd probably think I was some old geezer with absolutely no business in the turkey woods.

Just another spit'n whittle topic to help us get to April but do you consider yourself an old or new school turkey hunter?
 
Most definitely old school.

My hunting consists of a call, a gun, a tree, and a vocal bird.

I don't ambush, bush whack, fan, or sit in a blind.

I don't own or use decoys.

My name is Setterman and I have issues with the trends occurring in the sport of turkey hunting. :D
 
old school. i hunt in line with what Setterman said above for the most part but I am open to new techniques to kill birds as long as it falls into my idea of hunting them.

If the birds are not gobbling or willing to work then i will head to the house and try again later.
 
I'm Old School. I started out in the 60's using my 870 30inch duck gun and whatever shells I had left from duck season. I carried one box call and I killed turkeys. Now I own a vest and carry a 20ga and shoot the Federal HW shells but hunt the same way. I will never resort to hunting in a blind or using decoys and cant stand listening to people who brag what great turkey hunters they are who kill 4 turkeys each year out of a blind. Just noticed in the Cabelas turkey catalog you can now buy an electronic call to place on a tree and let it call the turkey to you God help us
 
i personally think turkey hunting is no different then deer hunting in that its a journey and you evolve as a hunter (if you started young). When i first started way back when i just wanted to kill turkeys no matter the technique (within being legal, decoys were not legal in bama growing up so never used them). After i started killing them by ambushing or full on assault hunts I kinda got the "kill" approach out of my system and really wanted to work on my woodsman ship and hunting skills. these days at 36 the "kill" is not really the point its the hunt, its the memory if sharing it with a great friend or my kids, its about using the basic techniques and the habitat to make me successful.

Don't get me wrong i still love shooting turkeys in the face, but i no longer define myself as being a good turkey hunter by the # of turkeys i kill in a season.
 
Sounds like we traveled the same road, REN.

I remember exactly 1 turkey I bushwacked as a kid...snuck up on a strutting bird and while standing on his neck have never had such an empty feeling while turkey hunting. Based on how my mentor taught me to hunt the noble birds, I knew better, and bushwacking that bird was no more sporting or rewarding than if I'd shot him off the limb in the predawn darkness. That was a turning point and since that time I sought to hone my skills as a woodsman, caller, and hunter rather simply tote a bird out "by any legal means necessary."
 
When I get on a turkey I try to kill it, I don't care if I call it in or bushwack it, the challenge to me is getting that bird on the ground, especially since I don't have the target rich environments like some of you have


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easy45":239noifx said:
When I get on a turkey I try to kill it, I don't care if I call it in or bushwack it, the challenge to me is getting that bird on the ground, especially since I don't have the target rich environments like some of you have


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Yep
 
Old school all the way. There so many birds in parts of the state, that all you have to do is sit and wait for a flock to show up.
 
I just love to turkey hunt! I don't go out of a morning and say I am gonna do this to be "old school" , or do that to be "new school". I just hunt however I feel like hunting, don't really care what others think , and I cherish every second of the short season!!!
 
JAY B":2b9jnflf said:
I just love to turkey hunt! I don't go out of a morning and say I am gonna do this to be "old school" , or do that to be "new school". I just hunt however I feel like hunting, don't really care what others think , and I cherish every second of the short season!!!
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X2
 
JAY B":1fi2tbpo said:
I just love to turkey hunt! I don't go out of a morning and say I am gonna do this to be "old school" , or do that to be "new school". I just hunt however I feel like hunting, don't really care what others think , and I cherish every second of the short season!!!
Click to expand...


thats a good way to look at it, I don't think (or at least i hope) this thread is not going into a "this is the right way to kill a turkey". I don't personally care for certain techniques but then again It doesn't matter to me how you choose to do it within the law. I will teach my son the way I believe it should be done but it will be up to him to decide what or how he likes to hunt them.
 
I do hunt out of blinds and use decoys. Don't get me wrong I would much rather run n gun them. But have found that my success rate is much higher if I am patient and sit in the same spot I started at in the morning. I always killed out run n gunning but the birds that were left were pretty much unkillable. Now my season is good from start to finish. Last year I watched 17 long beards die. And I got to introduce some people to the wonderful world of turkey hunting. I don't deer hunt them. I still call them. I just don't try and get a hundred yards from them before I call anymore.
 
I'm strictly old school--with the exception of my scoped shotgun so I can shoot hevishot at 75 yards. And possibly my remote controlled decoys, and of course, my extra large hunting blind that also holds my sleeping cot for when I need a nap. I also keep a shelter close by for my ATV, I hate it when my seat gets wet or cold. Other than that...I'm strictly old school!
 
Only thing I will not do is shoot one on the roost... I will hear a gobble and go to it and hope I can convince him to meet me half way. Then hope like hell I kill him. That's old school my way.
 
JAY B":1pqoe8wb said:
I just love to turkey hunt! I don't go out of a morning and say I am gonna do this to be "old school" , or do that to be "new school". I just hunt however I feel like hunting, don't really care what others think , and I cherish every second of the short season!!!
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What he said. :tu:
 
Depends on how old you consider "old school"

Archibald Rutledge old? (i.e., let-your-black-servant-bait-them-for-a-month-and-then-kill-them; OR shoot-them-with-buckshot-when-they-flush-in-front-of-a-dog-on-a-deer-drive; OR sneak-up-to-the-tree-after-they-fly-up-to-roost-and-roll-one-out; BUT calling them up in the spring is unsporting because they're "love sick") -- I'm not that old school.


Tom Kelly old? (i.e., shooting one over a chuffa field is no different that shooting them over a corn feeder, decoys take advantage of a chink in the turkey's instinctive armor and ought not be used, and sport is more important that the kill) -- I like to think so.
 
I would be old school. I do agree with setterman, things have changed so much. Most don't remember when we didn't have any birds. I started in the early seventys. To me, the sport is calling him up, and I don't mean 70 yds. Now so much is about the kill, not the hunt. Not knocking anyone. Hunt em with a bow. Its a lot more fun.
 
Some old, some new, long as it's legal and I am having fun. I prefer what is considered "old school" of finding a gobbling bird, sitting under a tree and calling him in. I think most people prefer that. I'm not anti decoy, and would like to kill a bird over one, but I rarely ever use them. I'm not anti blind but I don't like the limited mobility. I have a pop up in case I want to sit in the rain and stay dry.

I've also shot a gobbler off the roost about 3 years ago. I caught a lot of flak for that yet I still am not sorry for doing it. That was my 2nd solo turkey season and the first year I tagged out. I don't want to shoot one off the roost again, because it takes some fun out of the hunt and cuts it extra short. I did shoot a hen out of a tree last fall, but that was after I dropped 2 birds in 1 shot and they scattered to the trees. I don't think I have any meat left, maybe one breast if that.

I guess I am of the new generation of turkey hunters, but I tend to sway toward the old style of hunting, without looking down on the new ways, and am open to try them as well.


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