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How do YOU turkey hunt?

I have a scope on my gun. I got it years ago based on threads on this forum after I had a gun not patterning right. Optics allow you to adjust whereas a bead is set. The older I get the more I appreciate the scope.

I prefer to sit at the base of a tree. No blind no decoys ( I'm not lugging it), and call them in. I use TSS. Most shots are inside 40 yds. The ones that aren't, aren't by much.
 
I think it's amusing how we put restrictions on the methods and presentations that are acceptable for killing a gobbler.

Everything is dependent on the availability of birds and the hunting pressure. The place I hunt used to be a turkey paradise. You could go in any field and hit a box call a few times and turkeys would come from every direction. Your criteria for harvest could have been a slingshot only!

Now it's much different! Like anything else, populations shift and game gets more wary. Now there are more hunters than turkeys harvested. You can use a slingshot if you want. You are never gonna kill anything.

Personally I like to run and gun. Decoys are a detriment because they frighten turkeys. Yelping can also work against you on occasion. Under these conditions you will do whatever it takes. That usually means only calling to a gobbling bird when he's in the mood to check out that shy hen whose soft clicking and purring in a tone he finds alluring. If you can ambush him, that's a bonus. That takes skill believe it or not.

I like to make it challenging but not impossible. Some years I get two but most years I may get one or none and that's enough challenge. I hunt most everyday that are good days for them to gobble. I don't want to hunt turkeys that don't gobble. It's challenging to me and that's what makes it worthwhile for me.
 
Seems like every hunt is different on the tactics. Sometimes I'll run and gun if I don't have Intel on a bird. Sometimes I'll sit 75 yards from a bird I've roosted the eve before for hours without him gobbling until he fires up.

About the only absolute.... i won't shoot a bird after 5pm, particularly so if I can hunt the next morning. I'd rather put him in a tree that eve and spend hours overanalyzing my set up for the next morning than kill him and miss out on the mental masturbation.
 
I don't have a red dot or scope on mine. Just dual beads (front and back). I sometimes run and gun, and will sometimes cover a few miles in a morning. Mostly just try and get one to gobble and try and set up, and if he seems difficult, I will shut up and wait him out. I will sometimes use a decoy but, not much. I've never used TSS, and never will. I like Winchester Long beards. I tried to get in an argument over at old gobbler turkey forum about TSS once. But, nobody took the bait.:cool:
 
no red dot, no scope. i carry a deke, but it's just a foam pad when i lean back. have never killed a bird over a deke or from a blind. or with a bow, missed 13 and counting. :eek:;)only shot one bird over about thirty yards, and that was my mis-judgement of range. 46 paces... going to my old model 37 winchester 20 gauge this season... weighs about half what my 10 did. "less is more, more or less"
 
Whatever it takes to get one down. As of late in a blind with decoy as its small acreage. But this year may be a little better since I got a new rob roberts edition benelli m2 on the way to the house as of today. Thanks nwtf
 
I have a scope on my gun. I got it years ago based on threads on this forum after I had a gun not patterning right. Optics allow you to adjust whereas a bead is set. The older I get the more I appreciate the scope.
I'm amused by people that are critical of others for putting optics on turkey guns. They've obviously never patterned a shotgun and assume every shotgun shoots where you point it with different chokes/ammo. I also shoot a scope and have for years.
 
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