Good waterfowl hunters = good turkey hunters?

[hdshot]

I grew up duck/goose hunting all my life.  I feel I'm a good goose hunter and even was asked if to do some guiding which I said no because of my job can be 24/7 at times.  So my question was do the good turkey hunters make good waterfowl hunters as well?  I thought since my experience of calling and scouting geese and ducks would make me a successful turkey hunter in little to no time.  But several years later with no spring turkey bagged got me out of the loop of turkey hunting for some time now.  I almost bought a tag this year but all the frustration started to boil me over again and now thinking next year.  If I can clear my mind in 11 months should I keep a waterfowl mind set of do I need another mind set that is similar to hunting other game such as deer, pheasants, and or???     

[turkeydancer]

To me it's like apples and oranges ... different critters with different approaches to make you successful .  Like everything you're going to get out of it what you put into it ... do the research, attend seminars, watch videos, read literture, learn calling techniques, etc ... and then spend the time out there getting after it.   Turkey hunting to me is more challenging that deer, elk, duck, goose, grouse, pheasant, etc, and I think that's why I like it so much.   But no one is a good turkey hunter until they gain the experience which will make them successful most of the time. 

[hdshot]

Videos I have seen are just not real world hunting and that's how deer and waterfowl videos tend to be.  One of the best tips I read was when scouting flag down a jogger/walker and ask them if they seen a turkey this morning.  Works but they tend to be around private property.  I have been to waterfowl seminars before and not been impressed since I have been on the public dirt most of the time and can tell they have not, which causes me not to trust other seminars because their world to mine is night and day most likely.  Most are just a live commercial as well to buy something instead of making hunters succeed.     

[Yelper Guy]

 I hunted Turkeys for years before I was successful. I figured they were just like an upland bird, like a pheasant or grouse. I got schooled! They are in a totally different class than upland game. Don't get discourage. Hopefully every time you come up short, you'll learn something and build on it. Your waterfowl experience won't hurt, but I don't know if it will help.

[BOWHUNTER45]

So many factors come into play when hunting anything ...Most turkey and elk hunters are more the same than duck hunters  turkey and elk hunting have the same strategy ... Make one answer and move in for the kill !!! Just remember when hunting Turkey or Elk move in close as you can without spooking him and your chances of success are much higher !! Most of those shows on T.V are done on private or leased land ...a lot different than hunting public land ...those animals are saved and not bothered until they show up to hunt them ...little different story by all means  Do not get me wrong ...we all love to hunt private land and including me but I am not going to pay someone to access it ....Just my  I prefer the good old school farmers that when you ask nicely he tells you to go ahead 

[Mfowl]

Don't get discouraged! I didn't harvest a spring turkey until my 5th season. I have been a duck/goose hunter my whole life, when I got into turkey hunting I didn't have a clue. I tangled with birds in those first few years but couldn't seal the deal. It was maddeningly frustrating! As I hunted on I held on to the things that worked and learned from the mistakes that I made and each season tried to improve on what I had learned. Finally I was able to put enough pieces together that I was able to find success. Now in the last few years I have been getting in to deer/elk hunting and I find myself applying the things I learned turkey hunting to that, scouting, patterning and knowing the areas I hunt. There is a big learning curve with turkeys, some come easy and some school you. If you enjoy it stick with it and your time will come. You might try a fall hunt, the birds are more plentiful and you are just turkey hunting not spring gobbler hunting. You also get to hear the birds vocalize much more and its a great time to learn anout them. My first bird ever was a fall jenny after a few years of spring frustation.   

[gaddy]

duck & goose hunters( at least a lot of them ) are blowhards. calling loudly & then calling some more. turk hunters learn to be subtle, gentile & sexy. hammer em hard when needed, but caress them softy when they respond and are close.
when it all comes together it is a beautiful thing.
I have duck & goose hunted most of my life but my approach to turks is totally different.

[turkeydancer]

Videos I have seen are just not real world hunting and that's how deer and waterfowl videos tend to be.  One of the best tips I read was when scouting flag down a jogger/walker and ask them if they seen a turkey this morning.  Works but they tend to be around private property.  I have been to waterfowl seminars before and not been impressed since I have been on the public dirt most of the time and can tell they have not, which causes me not to trust other seminars because their world to mine is night and day most likely.  Most are just a live commercial as well to buy something instead of making hunters succeed.   

Turkey hunting can be hours of frustration, but you can go from the outhouse to the penthouse in seconds ... nothing better.  It takes a lot of patience something that I was taught early and often by the thunderchickens.  Once you learn what to do and when, you will become consistently successful. 

I can't disagree with a lot of what you have said about most videos, TV shows, and seminars ... but I have always been one that strains out the bad and usually can find some good things to take away and learn from them.  A lot of good advise is also in previous forum topics that will also help you ...

Although I have nothing to sell, I have been doing 2 hr basic (to intermediate) turkey hunting and calling seminars for over a decade at such venues as Cabelas, Sportsmans Warehouse, Wholesale Sports, GI Joes, several Sportsmans clubs, etc ... and the sole purpose was to help educate newer turkey hunters in what I had to learn the hard way in order to increase their learning curve and make them successful.  Many on this forum can attest to this ... the only thing I have gained from the seminars is the satisfaction that I get when I get the e-mails with pictures of their birds and a nice thank you.  I had some NWTF friends that started doing seminars after attending mine for basically the same reasons.  If you want to come to one of my seminars next spring, I can let you know when and where it will be.

[baldopepper]

One thing I advise turkey hunters (or virtually any hunters for that matter), get to know the area you hunt very well and don't try to cover so many areas.  I'd far rather hunt an area I know very well that has few animals or birds than an area I don't know at all that has quite a few.  We've hunted the same rather small area for 20 years, taking birds every year after the first 3 (learning curve years) and attribute that succsess to knowing the area very well.  Every year I run into hunters who started the morning 50 miles or more from where I met them and spend the day running around looking for birds.  Find an area with birds and get to know it.  Geese are a lot easier to pattern and hunt than turkeys, but even then knowing the area and their habits is critical-same as turkeys. Too many guys tell me how they heard birds that morning, had no luck and moved on.  You're far better off to stay and hunt that area where you know there are birds than to go wandering around looking for more. Some on here have posted stories of taking days (or even weeks) chasing one or two birds before getting them, but at least they were hunting where they knew the birds were there.  Patience and persistence are real keys to any type of hunting, but especially turkey's.

[hdshot]

I have done the fall and winter hunts and have got a few hens and jakes the first few years it opened and I think that is what helped me get out of spring hunting because I found success, but spot and stalk hunt got dull and didn't give me the thrill of calling or decoying a bird like waterfowl does.  Also some of the damage that got me out of spring was I would see 100's of birds in the fall and winter seasons then 0 in spring season.  Never believed in ghosts until I got into spring turkey hunting.

Turkeydancer, do you make it to the e. side to hold seminars?   

 



       

[Gobble Doc]

I think you just have to stick with it.  I took 3 trips this spring with with either my son or by myself and came up empty this year.  We made some mistakes and we also had some strange luck.  At one point we had a bird walking in right to us and gobbling like crazy when a dog showed up barking and my son just had to watch the bird turn and walk away.  One thing I've tried to convince myself to do is to go knock on a door and ask permission if it is an area that you consistently see birds.  Over this spring I now have several additional places to hunt where the people I met were very nice and let me hunt their property.  The hardest for me is to stay patient.  My most successful hunt was after sitting for 4 hours in one spot not moving. 

[turkeydancer]

HDSHOT - Never been asked to do ones other than Puget Sound area (in Olympia, Tacoma, Puyallup, Federal Way, Gig Harbor, Silverdale & Tulalip/Marysville).