• Help Support TNDeer:

Stickin with one turkey??

W

wkyhunter

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2009
Messages
294
Reaction score
39
Location
Kentucky
What is your thoughts?
I try not to let a particular bird get under my skin and become a season wrecker.
It seems I have better success when I hunt a particular bird no more than two days in a row. I might come back to him several times during the season and try him again.
Part of it, I'm sure, is hunting public land and not having any control over who is "messing" with a bird. I am fortunate to have a small farm, but the birds are very hit/miss on it so most of my season is spent hunting public ground.
Just throwing this out for discussion.
 
I stick with him till he dies. Not enough birds to leave one that I know is there. Bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush [emoji2]
 
I try not to, but will, however I spread it out rather then hit them day after day. If a bird has hens chance snare he will have them for a while so I'll leave him for a week then try again. Season wreckers are a real problem, they literally have destroyed an entire season for me in the past. I've got one now that's a problem and I'm not sure exactly what to do with him
 
I got lucky with my trophy bird.... found him on a farm opening weekend I usually don't hunt any more due to the decline. I wasn't turkey hunting at the time, just making a new salt lick for the deer. I knew he had the longest beard I've seen in a while when I saw him, but chose not to hunt him until this past weekend to ensure he had a chance to breed all the hens. The afternoon I decided to go after him, I just happened to find him by himself under a cedar tree in the shade 500 yards away. Took about 30 minutes to sneak to within 100 yards, but then was almost anticlimactic how fast he came running once I got set up.

If I see a bird that excites me, I'll usually stay on him until I get him or he bests me (usually the latter)
 
I'm hard headed. I let one bird wreck 2 whole seasons. I couldn't leave him alone and I couldn't kill him. I could tell a book of stories about that bird. The final chapter is after the 2nd season he whooped me the land sold, and I never got to hunt him again. Probably a good thing. I'd still be chasing him. Someday I might stop by and talk to the new owner and see if he ever killed that bird. So yes, if I get one I can't kill but I can find every day, I'll drive myself crazy trying to kill him.
 
I can get a grudge against all birds on a certain area of public land if they've been wearing me out, but as for one tom being a season wrecker, I haven't had that happen yet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Spurhunter":2gjnrubz said:
I'm hard headed. I let one bird wreck 2 whole seasons. I couldn't leave him alone and I couldn't kill him. I could tell a book of stories about that bird. The final chapter is after the 2nd season he whooped me the land sold, and I never got to hunt him again. Probably a good thing. I'd still be chasing him. Someday I might stop by and talk to the new owner and see if he ever killed that bird. So yes, if I get one I can't kill but I can find every day, I'll drive myself crazy trying to kill him.
Click to expand...
I'm just curious how you know it's the same bird. If you know for sure then that's a legendary gobbler..and I would be sick about the land being sold after all that effort.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
It depends on how many other birds I can hunt and if others have access to the SW.

But I also enjoy battling them. However it gets bad when he consumes my every waken moment trying to figure out how to get him.

I will say that my last true SW ended with my laying on top of him and then strangling him. He about sent me to the insane asylum.
 
catman529":2oaibzk0 said:
Spurhunter":2oaibzk0 said:
I'm hard headed. I let one bird wreck 2 whole seasons. I couldn't leave him alone and I couldn't kill him. I could tell a book of stories about that bird. The final chapter is after the 2nd season he whooped me the land sold, and I never got to hunt him again. Probably a good thing. I'd still be chasing him. Someday I might stop by and talk to the new owner and see if he ever killed that bird. So yes, if I get one I can't kill but I can find every day, I'll drive myself crazy trying to kill him.
Click to expand...
I'm just curious how you know it's the same bird. If you know for sure then that's a legendary gobbler..and I would be sick about the land being sold after all that effort.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I am sometimes skeptical also when people say "that's the same bird we got on two weeks ago" or something like that, but I'm 99% sure it was him every time for 2 seasons. We had 400 acres on one side of the road and a small 60 acre block right across the road. On the 60 acres was a field shaped like a crescent moon. He would roost around that field every night and he would gobble his head off every morning on the roost. If I set up on the field he'd fly into the woods. And vice versa. I tried calling. Not calling. I tried decoys. I even tried a strutting tom decoy. I swear he knew they were not real. He would walk by at 60 yards eyeing them for a minute then go the other way. He was just always one step ahead. I could roost him, stick one hen decoy in the field, let the sun come up and he fly down into the woods and walk away gobbling. I asked for suggestions here and everywhere else. The only way I could've ever killed him was either shot him off the roost or taken an unethical 60+ yard shot and he deserved better than that. I don't even think fanning would've worked. He would've known that turkey didn't have a head and walked away laughing. He was a most worthy adversary. I hated him but it was so much fun. I seriously could write a book about him and all the days we went at it. If he hasn't died of old age I'd bet he's roosted over the "horseshoe field" right now.
 
It depends on what else I'm seeing or hearing in the woods. I have called up young birds and they always got a pass that an older bird wouldn't have. Upon doing this several times I go after the older bird. Once I do, and that bird consistently bird evades me, it sort of becomes a challenge to take him; especially when he gets into a semi pattern. Get on that pattern and he shifts to another. Get on that one and he shifts again. Move and counter. Move and counter. Before you know it the season is ending and you're left scratching your head.
 
Back when there were fewer gobblers for me to choose from I'd stick with the same bird but that was out of necessity. Nowadays I just go find another bird that wants to die that day, and save the ornery bird for when he's maybe a little more vulnerable later in the season.
 
What I hate is that one bird who you have played the game with so many times and he has whipped your butt, then to have another guy walk in on the perfect day while you are stuck at work and cant go and the bird acts totally different and walks in his lap like a dang 2 yr old. This when in fact you know how the other guy hunts and everything and it wasnt something different he did. IT was just that "day" that bird could be killed...
 
oh and to answer your question, 3 yrs. It took 3 yrs to kill one bird one time. But by god he had some hooks on him. I hunted him when I could, but didnt sit on him all season...
 
I love a worthy adversary. I'll chase a particular bird unless he is henned up. Generally the second half of the season is when I'll chase after a single bird (also when I've tagged a couple).

I spend the first half of the season trying to find one willing to play.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I try to stick with one until I either kill him or feel "I" have pressured him too much. The gobblers I target have been pounded day in and day out since the opener, and even before. I'll leave one alone and keep "checking" him at different times week to week. With that being said, there are always a few I let get under my skin. The ones the googans deem "unkillable" are the ones I enjoy. ;)
 
I have had those before and they did just that wrecked my season... One had me at least 14 hunts, gobbled like a fool the whole time on public ground too. I began to think that every one knew of this bird as being unkillable because I only bumped into one other hunter in 14 days..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 

Latest posts

Back
Top