Who keeps a turkey hunting log?


turkaholic

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I've been logging turkey hunts for almost 20 years. I believe writing things down makes things more clear as the years go on. I have learned lots of information about the areas I hunt by reviewing past years adventures, and by keeping detailed information about weather and gobbling activities. Its great to compare one year to the next. I look forward every winter to reading over my log and reminencing with my brothers about past hunts and planning new ones. Not only do I record all of my hunts, but also my companions as well. Recently I have gone hi tec with my log. By incorporating a Garmin map60 gps I can down load my kill spots and way points to a mapsource topo map. Make it even better, add Google Earth to it For a 3D look at the entire area with flags marking all your way points. Its a nice way to calm my turkey fever all winter.

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I've been turkey hunting for many years now (started in the mid 70"s) but I didn't start keeping a detailed turkey hunting journal until 7 years ago.

If I'm present for the hunt to witness the action first hand (whether I carry a weapon or not) the details of that hunt go into my journal.

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Guest turkeynutz64

I started to a few years back. I started branching out to other states so it was much easier to remember areas and sizes! I also started because my youngest daughter made me a journial from scratch in school to keep for her! They actually made a hard back book(paper and cover) from wood, news paper and glue!

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I do keep a hunting journal, of sorts.

It started out as writing the story of my turkey and other hunting kills. But I quickly found I'd write a lot in those stories about the weather, sign, misses, and other experiences in the field besides the kills themselves. In effect I now write the story of each hunting season spread across several installments which usually contain one or more kills in them at some point. I do this on my computer and back the files up as part of my usual backup process; these stories and hunting memories are more precious to me than just about anything else on my hard drive.

I've also always taken a lot of photos and started geotagging them with coordinates a couple of years ago, too. (I use Google's free Picasa software which lets me add coordinates by firing up Google Earth.)

I often revisit previous years' stories in the months leading up to a new season, and as you noted, I feel like I learn things sometimes only after I have some time and distance from them, looking back in the "hindsight" rearview mirror.

One more note about hunting journals and family:

My father started giving me copies of his hunting stories a couple years ago. They go back all the way to the year I was born, and I cherish them and the mentions of my grandfather (who didn't keep a journal buts appears in my dad's) already even as he's still with me. It's one of the few glimpses into my father's thinking that I've got written down to read and share, and in that sense it's precious beyond even the hunting and outdoors context. Someday I plan to leave all of his and my own stories to my children, too, as one more piece of the puzzles that were their Dad and Grandpa. :)

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Just log in each turkey i kill. . . . date, size, location. . . . need to start a more detail book to see if i can see threads from year to year.

I do keep a log of that info......... plus yardage and gun used.

There's just so many days I've had great hunts and not killed birds that I'm sure I've forgotten a lot of them in almost 30 years. :(

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