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Run & Gun or wait em out?

J

JDBinTN

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What works best for you setting up and waiting in likely area or staying on the move? feel my biggest problem is I dont live very close to my main hunting areas and rarely do get to roost a turkey. So usually stay mobile but I know alot of guys have success waiting them out kinda like deer hunting
 
I like to run and gun better than sitting all day. I usually try to set up for the fly down in a known travel area or near the roost. I will sometimes sit it out for a couple hours, then run and gun. Just depends on the property, the turkeys and how hundreds of other factors that I seem to sit and analyze when things are slow.

I really enjoy sneaking around the edge of a field, inside the woods, till I spot a bird. Then get as close as possible and start calling.
 
I like to do a combo of both, I move quite a bit but call sparingly. I do a ton of listening, more than I do calling. I have found over the years that if I get to an area where birds have been during the day or season, and just patiently wait without calling that they will usually sound off on their own.

Since I started letting them dictate my moves with their own voices I have been killing a ton more birds than I did in my days of running all day, or sitting and calling from one spot.

Silence and patience, is lethal.
 
If you don't get busted or bump a bird while runnin and gunnin you ain't trying hard enough. :D


;)
 
Big property is run and gun for me but I dont go around calling much at all. My own property is sort of a hybrid approach, I move some and sit some, maybe sit in a spot for an hour and then move along. For some reason birds there will not simply run off, they will fly to the next ridge 3/4 mile away. So I have to minimize spooking any birds if Im hunting there or I wont have any after a day or two.
 
Depends on how much room I have to roam. The place close to me is 40 acres so you can't move a lot and I'm more patient and will sit longer. If I've got more land to cover I'll normally move a little sooner. Patience kills turkeys so sometimes I'll tell myself 5 more minutes and when it's up I'll say 5 more until I finally move.
 
Poser said:
I'm sure it's nice to have private land with turkeys on it, but it is difficult to imagine turkey hunting on 50 acres. I don't think I have ever hunted turkeys on a property smaller than 5 thousand acres. I've definitely boxed myself into boundary corners, but its nice to know you have room to stretch your legs and start over again when you screw up. Pressured birds are tough, but having 40,000 acres of terrain variations, pine, hardwoods, hills, bottomland, cutover and controlled burning is truly awesome for running and gunning. I can do small Properties for deer hunting, but not sure if I could get into turkey hunting on it.
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very true. but there are some middle/southern tn farms that are so laoded with turkeys, you could 4 limits off 50 acres and never tell a difference in the population
 
Re: Run & Gun or wait em out?

I think some patience on my part may have paid off in the past, but I enjoy hunting them down too much to just sit and wait. It's that excitement that makes turkey hunting so fun so I'll probably be a R&G turkey hunter til I'm physically unable to anymore :)
 
stik said:
having only 20 or so acres, we don't have much choice but to wait em out.
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Don't have much more than that myself stik. And besides, when I finally find/hear one, it's usually in just a small area anyway, not much bigger than a few square yards. ;) Getting to it, or getting it to come to me, now there's the dilemma. :D
 
MUP said:
stik said:
having only 20 or so acres, we don't have much choice but to wait em out.
Click to expand...

Don't have much more than that myself stik. And besides, when I finally find/hear one, it's usually in just a small area anyway, not much bigger than a few square yards. ;) Getting to it, or getting it to come to me, now there's the dilemma. :D
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they are roosting on us in 3 huge oaks. they fly down and go to the neighboring property for the day and don't come back until late.
 

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