Prospectcing?

[Grouse]

Sometimes as I'm leaving and I don't have a bird over my shoulder I wonder if I should have called more. Of course I will occasionally maybe once an hour if nothing else is talking. It seems generally if the bird isn't already gobbling pretty good on his own more often than not he is just giving me an obligatory gobble anyways. I just hate announcing my presence or location if I don't have to. I'll call more frequent and cover alot more ground in the late season but just wondering if any of you guys think generally I'd does more harm than good?

 

[ROVERBOY]

I sometimes run and gun sometimes. It depends on the mood I'm in. Toms hear a lot of calling during the season, from hunters and hens. I don't think it conditions them a whole lot.

 

[Southern Sportsman]

I very rarely leave the woods thinking that I didn't call enough :mrgreen:

 

[Setterman]

I prefer to just sit silently in areas where I'm confident birds are nearby. If a bird is workable I feel he will sound off on his own. Also I've got zero interest in killing a silent sneaker bird. I can't count the number of birds I've had fire off and reveal their location by being patient and ultimately resulting in their death

 

[Boll Weevil]

I don't know if this has evolved over the years but the traditional run'n gun method has turned into a good way to booger birds...so much so I don't anymore. I've had way more birds come to me and not say a word than the other way around when covering ground. 1 out of 10 will holler but the other 9 start coming and next thing you know, round a bend in the road and he's standing there.

Agree w/Setterman: hang out in areas waiting to hear one gobble before making a plan. Either that, or setup, blind call on occasion, and sit for a spell. Walking and calling is a fantastic way to educate birds.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

If birds are silent, I typically set up and wait for a silent bird to come in. But the second a bird sounds off, I'm headed in his direction. Hunting the same land for 20 years, when one sounds off, I can almost guess the exact location he is at, even if it is 2 ridges over. My favorite is setting up on them before daylight and waiting on fly down - can't beat it. I don't give away my location (using turkey calls) until I am setting up on a bird. Walking and turkey calling will educate birds fast - I don't do that unless it is later in the season and I am desperate or they have truly made me frustrated

 

[elknturkey]

I don't know if this has evolved over the years but the traditional run'n gun method has turned into a good way to booger birds...so much so I don't anymore. I've had way more birds come to me and not say a word than the other way around when covering ground. 1 out of 10 will holler but the other 9 start coming and next thing you know, round a bend in the road and he's standing there.

Agree w/Setterman: hang out in areas waiting to hear one gobble before making a plan. Either that, or setup, blind call on occasion, and sit for a spell. Walking and calling is a fantastic way to educate birds.

This. I did it in my younger days and was successful but you booger more than you kill. I don't have any spots where I can hear a half dozen in any direction so I'm usually after 1 bird when I go and all my eggs are in his basket

 

[Grouse]

Ok good, that's how I've been operating and do well. So I will just carry on. I was just wondering if I may be shorting myself in some way. I appreciate the responses!

 

[woodsman04]

If they ain't gobbling, I sit around a good listening spot and wait for one to gobble, if life allows. Running and gunning doesn't really work unless you have thousands of acres loaded with birds and all the time in the world to hunt. You spook a lot, but if you land, time, and turkeys why would you care?
I really never have been a runner, when you grow up not having a lot of turkeys and hunting pressured turkeys you learn to avoid hunting aggressively.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

['borohunter]

Only hunt public land - don't have much choice on that. I've been shocked at the number of hunters I can tell are calling. Can't imagine what turkeys have heard and seems they have learned the real from the fake. I don't call much at all on public land because of this. I tend to take more of a deer hunter mentality with "slow and steady".

 

[cowhunter71]

I sit at popular gates quite often, waiting on the morning crowd to come out so that I can go in. Most are the younger run and gun crowd that are now part of the pinhoti cult. Tell me all the time that I am wasting my time going in behind them, because they've blown the trees down yelping and cutting every 100 yards across 10 and 12 miles of NF, only to not strike a gobbling Turkey. Their reasoning is the same as most of the other googans, if Turkeys are not gobbling at all the racket they are making, there must be none there, or the ever popular, they are all dead. There heads would explode if they new the amount of Gobblers I have killed behind them over the years. I say this all the time, and firmly believe that it is because of these idiots, that I will always have Gobblers to hunt on public ground. Although they will kill a few, they continue to bump and educate far more, and for this, I sincerely thank them.

 

[TheLBLman]

I prefer to just sit silently in areas where I'm confident birds are nearby. If a bird is workable I feel he will sound off on his own. Also I've got zero interest in killing a silent sneaker bird. I can't count the number of birds I've had fire off and reveal their location by being patient and ultimately resulting in their death

EXACTLY
Patience is a virtue.