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Blount County Hunter

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What are some of your biggest or most reoccuring mistakes involved with turkey hunting? The goal of this is to possibly prevent other turkey hunters on here from making a common mistake while after a gobbler. One my biggest mistakes is moving my head to quickly, I have been busted several times by just looking from side to side, recently I have been pretty good about slowly scanning my area, but there are still times where I get caught offf guard and move to quickly, keep in mind turkeys can almost see 360 degrees in all directions at any given time
 
I had one gobbling behind me sporadically across a creek and two 70 yards in front of me still in the tree. I set up facing those two. The one across the creek flew the creek and landed 5 yards from me directly on my right. I never could get a shot. The other two went directly away from me. Lesson - Dont think they wont fly a creek.
 
muddyboots said:
I had one gobbling behind me sporadically across a creek and two 70 yards in front of me still in the tree. I set up facing those two. The one across the creek flew the creek and landed 5 yards from me directly on my right. I never could get a shot. The other two went directly away from me. Lesson - Dont think they wont fly a creek.
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Oh yes, I have had them fly 200 yds, one ridge to the other ridge, just to get to me
 
REN said:
Patience....that is all that really needs to be said.

calling too much is prob #2

indecisiveness on what to do is prob #3 in my book.
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I agree, its kind of like an instinct to know when to make a move, or sit tight, and yes overcalling is a huge factor for new turkey hunters, I remember when I first started, I would call to every gobbler I heard or would answer, I'm glad I grew out of that phase, now I carry my watch and call very seldomly and usually very softly unless I'm am firing up a bird, and also I think calling to loud is a very big problem as well
 
NOT BEING PATIENT enough!!!

It's harder when you don't know what is in the area and are just calling in hopes of a tom hearing and then working towards you. But when you KNOW he is there.... seems like time goes by in slow motion.

Turkey's have their own schedule.... you can't force them to be where you want them to. Be patient.... you can/will be successful.
 
Grizzly Johnson said:
NOT BEING PATIENT enough!!!

It's harder when you don't know what is in the area and are just calling in hopes of a tom hearing and then working towards you. But when you KNOW he is there.... seems like time goes by in slow motion.

Turkey's have their own schedule.... you can't force them to be where you want them to. Be patient.... you can/will be successful.
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Its not uncommon for me to sit in one spot for 6 hours, the gobblers knows where I'm at, he will come when he is ready
 
I guide a lot more these days and try to take new hunters out as much as i can or even somewhat inexperienced ones. when i do i try and let them make the decisions of the hunt with my guidance so they can learn why we are doing what we are doing. it is amazing how a gobble at 100-200yds away can freeze a persons brain! the main thing i learned from some dang good turkey hunters is you need to make your mind up quick and always have a plan B ready. if you hear one on roost or on the ground you need to take a sec to plan out your attack then GO FOR IT. you cant stand around debating on what you need to do and then do it slowly because you are not confident in what you decided. Turkey hunting is a never ending learning game so make your decision on your attack and go at it full bore. If it doesnt work or something goes wrong then learn from the mistake and figure out why it didnt work and move on with a lesson learned.

eveyone will say overcalling so that one is easy...the idea is to make him so fired up he cant resist defying nature and come to you...calling every time he gobbles seldom makes this happen...if you call and he answers then just sit tight, after 10 mins or so if he has not gobbled again then just hit something soft and short. If he answers again after that and is closer just put your calls away! if he answers and is further way then maybe try and get aggressive if you have already determained he is in fact further and not just pointing in another direction. Full leaves also makes this more difficult. if he seems to not be making any progress over an extended period of time then it may be time to make a move on it and try and get in another spot.

one last rule that is a MUST is KNOW YOUR TERRAIN!! know where every fence, creek, ditch and rock wall is. A bunch of turkeys have been left alive due to people not knowing there was a fence between them and the bird.
 
k810329 said:
its tough for a man my size to sit still for long periods and after a bit i start to figit.ive been busted on several occassions so i started using a blind whenever possible.
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I prefer a make shift blind out of fresh limbs and dead sticks over a store bought one, they seem to be a lot less suspicious when coming to them
 
Blount County Hunter said:
Its not uncommon for me to sit in one spot for 6 hours, the gobblers knows where I'm at, he will come when he is ready
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Not me! If I have heard a bird, then I will wait a while. But if I have heard nothing, I'll leave and come back another day when they want to play on my terms.

As far as mistakes, they are too many to list, but many of them go back to patience.

One thing that has helped me though is to not be afraid to think outside of the box and try something different. Seems to work for me more often than not.
 
Very good tips REN! I know some of these tips on here actually will help people if they put them to use in the woods! I'm glad you all are coming up with some educated tips and logical reasoning behind them
 
VolDoug said:
Blount County Hunter said:
Its not uncommon for me to sit in one spot for 6 hours, the gobblers knows where I'm at, he will come when he is ready
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Not me! If I have heard a bird, then I will wait a while. But if I have heard nothing, I'll leave and come back another day when they want to play on my terms.

As far as mistakes, they are too many to list, but many of them go back to patience.

One thing that has helped me though is to not be afraid to think outside of the box and try something different. Seems to work for me more often than not.
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We all play the game differently, most of the turkey I have killed have came in silently, so I don't let the silent part of hunting frustrate me one bit
 
Moving to quickly. Lot of times I just need to slow down and hunt smaller areas that I know have birds instead of trying to hunt the whole 2,500 acre area that I normally hunt. I know Im only the one hunting there, legally anyway, so I get really caught up trying to hunt everywhere lol
 
As for movement...TurkeyBurd has told me he's sat still enough to have birds within arm's reach, but has run them off just by blinking. I'd say it's good advice coming from someone who's killed over 300 birds.
 
Well after I kill them, they are in arms reach lol, but I haven't ever had one alive within arms reach, well other than when I paralyzed one at 45 yds, and walked up to it while it sat there with its feathers all spread out an neck about 2 ft off the ground, i swung at it like baseball bat and it gobbled every time I hit him in the head to finish him off, but I have had a few jakes, come within a couple ft of my gun barrel
 
Blount County Hunter said:
We all play the game differently, most of the turkey I have killed have came in silently, so I don't let the silent part of hunting frustrate me one bit
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Oh absolutely. I didn't mean for it to come across as a slight.

I am sure that I would have killed more birds over the years by doing just that.

But, I am just too impatient and addicted to gobbling. It is what makes me get out of the bed all of those mornings in a row.
 
Some mistakes I've made:
Eating sushi the night before the season opener,
Not bringing enough toilet paper for a hunt,
Forgetting my shells,
Forgetting it was the season opener,
Crappie fishing when I should have been turkey hunting,
Getting married to someone who does not hunt,
Getting married to someone who likes to fish,
Sneezing when trying to call,
Looking for my mouth call in the leaves for over an hour after I sneezed,
Not remembering I had another mouth call in my pocket,
 
Setting up poorly. Nothing has cost me more birds then not setting up in the best possible position. Whether it be not having the ability to see over a rise, behind thick stuff, etc etc. But more times then not a bird would have died if I had thought about my set ups a little more.
 

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