Twenty-five years of turkey hunting

[Guest tguil]

I’ve been hunting Nebraska Turkeys since the 1982 spring season. I’ve hunted these critters with both bow and shotgun. I use the same bow setup for turkeys that I use for deer – sharp broadheads and my compound bow set at about 60 pounds. My shotgun is a Mossberg 500 20 inch Turkey Special with changeable choke tubes. I usually shoot Federal #4 or #6 three-inch mags. I’ve traveled some to hunt turkeys – Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and even Alabama. But I much prefer hunting in my home state Nebraska. In Nebraska, I have hunted the Pine Ridge, The Niobrara River Valley, the Verdigre area, the Nebraska National Forest at Halsey and the southeast part of the state. I live in a rural area and have the critters coming up on my deck to eat out of my wife’s birdfeeders. I’m a relative decent caller but far from a spectacular. I prefer to still-hunt rather than sit in a blind. I’d be hunting right now but we are experiencing winds of twenty-five mph. The turkeys are hunkered in and so am I. I have a computer. They don’t. So what have I learned over the past twenty-five years hunting these critters? Lots.

1. The main reason to hunt a turkey is to kill it in any manner that works. Call them in, stalk them, bush whack them, crawl through tall grass and rattlesnake infested irrigation ditches to get at them. Anyway that is legal and ethical is OK by me.

2. Turkeys are out and about all day. I’ve killed more turkeys midday that I have in the early morning hours. I myself do not find the predawn hours a lot of fun when you are sitting next to a tree freezing your butt off. Get up, fix a nice breakfast, wash your muddy truck and then go out and get your bird. Piece of cake. I’ve done it

3. Turkeys would much prefer to hangout in a rancher’s cattle yard than on an open prairie. Yep, I’ve set up a cattle yard blind.

4. Turkeys will walk right past a wonderful decoy setup to get at a cattle feed trough. They will even go right up to your parked truck if it looks like the rancher’s truck

5. A rancher in a big cowboy hat and a bright red jacket is more likely to get his bird than experienced turkey hunter in the latest designer camo – even with a bow.

6. If you shoot the head off a tom at 30 yards with a bow, claim that it is skill.

7. It is not ethical to “pop” a huge tom that is gobbling at you as you are in your garage waxing your truck even if it is still turkey season.

8. Practicing your calls can get you lots of attention – not always good. But always good fun doing it.

9. Always look before letting off a call. There may be a nice couple of toms ten feet away. (This happened this spring.)

I’m sure that all of you have many tales to relate about turkey hunting. What other sport allows a usually mature hunter to put on camo, paint his/her face and make a complete fool out of him/herself. Damn, I love this sport.

Wind or no wind. I’m headed out again. Later.

Tom

[dartonman]

Great post....good luck this season......al

[huntinguide]

those are some words of wisdom there

[Guest tguil]

Well, it's later

I'm in from my second hunt of the day. The temperature on my small piece of the Nebraska prairie is 82 degrees and the wind is blowing at about 30 miles per hour. I was the only "critter" moving. Time to let my camo air out a bit and have a Classic Coke. We have 29 more days left in the Nebraska season and believe or not there are 40 more days left down in Kansas. I'm retired and can hunt every one of them if I want. Shoot, that's even better than working for Realtree. A few more turkey hunting truisms:

1. A bowhunt is successful is you take a righteous shot at a tom (or hen in the fall), miss, but don't lose your arrow.

2. It takes only two seconds for a spooked whitetail to scatter a bunch of turkeys that you have been stalking for two hours.

3. To most folks a "fly down" cackle and a "fly up " cackle sound exactly the same.

4. It's sometimes more fun planning for the hunt than actually doing it, especially if you end up stuck in a snowdrift or mud hole.

5. When the nice lady in the town cafe offers to let you come over to her place and take a couple of toms with a "chicken hook", remind yourself that a "chicken hook" is not a legal weapon in most states.

6. Turkeys can't distinguish what camo pattern you have on your shotgun, bow or "chicken hook".

&. You really don't need a vest full of junk to have good time, consider hunting "nakid". On a hot day in the Nebraska National Forest I took a nice tom with a bow while I was wearing a t-shirt and shorts. What rattlesnakes? I don't see no stinkin' rattlesnakes.

7. A "dead" turkey can fly over a hundred yards clearing a grove of cottonwood trees in the process. This happened to me after I put broadhead "clean through" a turkey's vitals.

8. Turkeys are darn tough (an understatement for sure). I hit a tom in the wing with a broadhead knocking it off its feet. It jumped up. The broadhead fell to the ground and the tom was off. No blood no feathers, just a memory.

Now it is fun to "take a turkey", but what is even more fun are the memories of past hunts. In my book, all turkey hunts are successful. Time in the turkey woods carrying a shotgun or bow. You can't beat it.

Oh, the two toms that were ten feet from me when I was getting ready to call. Yep, I took one and left the other for another day (or season).

Tom