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Just Wondering

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bvoss

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Maury County, TN
What got you into turkey hunting? When did you start?

For me it was 1998 and we just started getting turkeys in the area of Maury County where I lived. My dad and I recruited one of his buddies from work who was a veteran turkey hunter. He took us both out and showed us the ropes. I still remember that first morning as we walked up on the ridge and a big tom HAMMERED only 100 yards or so away. We each killed a jake during our first year and have been hooked ever since.
 
I started last year because it gave me another reason to be in the woods. I haven't gotten a turkey yet but I'm hoping I will this time around.
 
I got to looking around at all the equipment I have and decided that all I would have to get was some type of call and maybe a decoy to be able to hunt them. I have been playing around with it for several years and decided to get serious last year. I killed 2 Toms off the farm and I intend to kill some more this year.

I called my first tom in from a long way off and watched him strut up to a decoy I had out and from that point on I was hooked!!
 
i dabbled in it back in HS and college on family land in Bama but didnt really stick with it till i moved to TN. one of my best buds got me into it again (still the best turkey caller/hunter i know) because i had a bunch of property to hunt that was covered. so 10 years later I cant hunt enough to satisfy the hunger.

I will say that turkey hunting can be rough if you have places with a small amount of birds. I have been blessed to not have that issue yet as both the pieces i hunt i have never been to in 10 years and not heard at least 1 bird.
 
Well it was the fall of 1999, the day before thanksgiving, me and my dad were enjoying some fast squirrel hunting action on the chilhowee mountain, we were sitting in one spot watching when all of the sudden we heard what sounded like a stampede coming closer and closer (we were 15 yds off the top of the ridge and they were up on the flats). So when they topped the ridge, hundreds and I mean literall hundreds of turkey started pouring off the ridge, it seemed like the woods were blanketed with turkey, so we decided next spring we would try our luck turkey hunting. Well luck may have it, but our very first outing with no experience at all, we called in 2 nice toms with a lohman pump yelper, and man I have had the fever ever since that day I killed my first turkey and heard my first gobble from 20 yds away
 
Started in 2000. I don't know for sure why. I alreay deer hunted. I guess I heard people talking about it and wanted to try it.
 
My dad wasnt a turkey hunter but my best friends dad was. I got to wanting to go because of my friend talking about it and what not. So Dad started taking me and we both pretty much learned together.
 
started late 80's or so. just enjoyed the outdoors and when the fish weren't biting, gave me something else to do.
 
Growing up with thousands of acres to hunt which were full of turkeys. I think I started when I was around 12 years old, but it could have been a little later. I did start before I could drive, because I can remember riding my bike to hunt. It made it fun as a young kid trying to get home with a turkey while peddling. Thank God it was flat back home. almost 20 years later I still have the same passion, I just kill a lot more birds each year all over the SE.
 
My dad had tried to get me into it when I was in high school. I finally went with him one morning. We saw birds, but didn't hear any gobbling. He was ecstatic, because birds were very scarce in our parts in the 80s. It didn't do anything for me, so it wasn't until I was out of college that I decided to go again.

That day hooked me. He called in and killed a bird after what seemed like hours. I had never been so shook up while in the woods. I had actually laid my gun down and taken off my glasses, because I just knew that gobbler was going to spot me, even though I was in full camo.

That would have been 88, I guess. The next few years we went a lot, and I went by myself when he couldn't go. In those days, just hearing a gobble was an accomplishment, but it was a drug that I craved, so I kept going.
 
Not last thanksgiving but the year before, a big flock came through our backyard on thanksgiving day. I had seen plenty of flocks over the past several years, but for some reason, this one time changed things. I ran out and chased em in to the trees just for fun. Then started thinking of ways to kill one...then got into reading the regs, and found out they were big game animals and started learning more about regs and then doing research online about calls.

Not too long after that, I made my first tube call via instructions I found online, and started experimenting with those. By the time the spring 2010 season came around, I was getting my licenses and hunters safety course.

I arranged a trip with a friend on some of his land in Dickson, and we went out before sunrise and there were 3 or 4 gobbling in the trees that morning. I let him do the calling and I had his gun and we had one gobbler coming in, but when his head started to show, he saw our strutting decoy and turned away.

I never shot a turkey that day and that was, to date, my only turkey hunting trip.

This spring obviously is going to change that and I'm hoping to get my first bird this year. I recently bought a 12 gauge as some of you know, and have a small collection of different calls, have learned how to use tube, slate, box, and diaphragm calls. Still practicing the calls so I don't mess up in the field. I think I've got everything except the actual hunting experience to shoot my first bird this spring. I will let the pressured WMA birds teach me how to really hunt when I head out there on opening morning.


So that about summarizes it and in case you didn't notice, it was a flock of turkeys that got me into all kinds of hunting. Before then, I was just into fishing. Been fishing for over 7 years and figured that one day, I might start hunting. Now those gobbles in the early morning have definitely got me hooked....
 
this is a great topic. i will have to really think about this. but i do remember tryin to use a mouth call!!!!!!
ROFLMAO
 

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