Told myself I would never...

[fishunt247]

I'm not saying I run around gobbling every 8 seconds every day I hunt. I might gobble one or two occasions the whole season. And with discression. It's a judgement call. If I know other guys are in the area or if I'm in a spot that I've seen guys in/hunted frequently, I won't do it. And it's always later in the season. I often hunt 6-10 miles from the nearest road, pretty remote by most standards. In the past three seasons I've seen 3 hunters in the field, two of those being this year, and I've maybe heard 5 gives that I haven't seen. I'm not hunting areas of the state that recieve as much pressure as NE. So like I said, it's all a judgement call. Don't take my advice if you don't want to. That's what this forum is about, exchanging ideas. 

[Machias]

Sounds to me like the birds don't have hens, right? My advice stands. On May 4th this year, trying to strike a gobbler, nothing was working. As I often do later in the year, I gobbled. A bird answered, and proceeded to triple gobble for like thirty minutes. As we were moving in on him, I'd gobble to check him, and he would freak out. I'd fire back, one or two or three times. This went on for, like I said, thirty minutes or more, just a gobbling fiesta. I stopped hen calling cuz he didn't care about that. Long story short, he flew the canyon to where I was gobbling from. He didn't have hens. If it were me, I wouldn't even take a hen call out of my vest and solely gobble, since hen calls don't seem to be doing it, but to each his own. I get the safety issue, but if you're sure nobody else is around, go for it. Good luck.

I'm just trying to make sure which version is correct, this one or the one you just mentioned.  I have no issues with what you just typed.  The version in quotes is what I don't want new turkey hunters to key in on and think that's a smart way to hunt.  That is the only reason I am beating the dead horse here.  Lots of new turkey hunters are reading everything we type here.  I would hate for one of them to not realize some of the extra dangers they can put themselves into using some of our methods and tatics.

[turkeydancer]

I can guarantee you that I've had a dozen hunters a day come in to my hen calling on public land, and broke up many hunt.  I was glad to get some private land to hunt, but many hunters ignore fences just like they ignore safe and ethical hunting.  I myself use gobbler and jake calls from time to time as the situation warrentd, but only on the private land.  But I am also aware of my surroundings at all time ... because as stated, some people don't care about you or property lines in their quest for an easy gobbler.

That said, we have beat the safety issue here to death ... any newbie reading this will get the picture ... proceed at your own risk.    

[fishunt247]

Both, but my wording was a little off. Sorry. I meant I might gobble at 1 or 2 birds a year. The bird on May 4th was the most I've gobbled at a bird, and 90% of it was done while I was moving in on him, trying to pinpoint him. I struck him from 3/4 of a mile away, and didn't have a straight shot to him. I had to loop way around, and the way the country was I couldn't see the ridge he was on, so I had to keep checking him until I got there. I was set up and gobbled from there for maybe 5 mins. As dancer said, how many guys come sneaking in to hen calls, expecting for a gobbler to be with "her?" Moral of the story for new and seasoned hunters alike, as you and I both stated in the Traditions thread, don't sneak up on birds or bird sounds, right? Everything we do is a judgement call, and there's a safety issue with everything. I think everybody gets that.

[Machias]

Understood and agreed, I'll climb down off this high horse.

[fishunt247]

I didn't wholly take it as a high horse, you are just warning others about the some of the dangers of turkey hunting. It's all good now.

[turkeydancer]

Like my dad always said, 99% of all humans are caused by accident ... or was it the other way around? 

[Machias]

Like my dad always said, 99% of all humans are caused by accident ... or was it the other way around?