Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Turkey hunting or armed napping?

Always a little of both! The later into the trip, warm sunny days that heat up the camo... I always seem to find myself checking my eyelids for pin holes!

A nap means you aint moving around spookin birds .
Used to nap at my northern no tick spot.

Southern public land there's a big flat rock in a decent area.......we dubbed it "the mattress"

I hunt for the first half hr or so (first light), then nap. Then try again, same spot, if no go.........move.
I work an odd shift so mornings are brutal. I don't sleep for chit either. Nap seems to be no prob.
Don't nap at home though.

Bud saw copperhead last time we went. Ratllers around too.
Another reason I sleep on that big rock.

I fell asleep once when I was fall turkey hunting. I had been trying to strike a flock of birds unsuccessfully and had finally settled on an oak flat to do a little blind calling. Before I realized it, I was asleep. When I woke I heard rustling and opened my eyes to see I was completely surrounded by a big flock of hens, jennies and jakes. I collected myself, eased the shotgun to my shoulder and killed a plump jake.

Sleep hunting is definitely in my arsenal. Yep.

There's actually a fallen (yet still rooted and alive) maple on our property that has been dubbed the "Turkey Sleepin' Log" for 30+ years. Been a lotta beaks hit the dirt within 40 or so yards of that log !!!

Armed napping?

Absolutely. I'd say that it is one of my best tools in the toolkit. I don't think most of us understand how noisy we are. Napping, if it does nothing else, reduces the amount of extraneous sound I'm making.

Let me give you an example. On my most recent scouting trip, I was on my way out to my favorite spot, The Honey Hole. Just before I got there, I was met with a gobbler in a tree just down the way, up in a low limb maybe 50 yards from my objective. I quickly set up my umbrella mic and skedaddled. I withdrew to a fallen tree a good twenty yards from the mic.

You can hear the result in my most recent podcast-- it's posted on here as another thread. The gobbler pitched down and came over to the mic and tried to court it. He gave up on the hens within 100 yards either side of him. He heard my boots rustling on the wet grass and that was all it took. What's more, when I got the audio back to the house, I found that the mic had picked up my withdrawal to the fallen tree and even things like boot scrapes and pouring a cup of coffee from my thermos-- quiet, but it was there.

Normally, I post the mic within a yard or two of my setup. The microphone pics up breathing, sniffles, farts, and stomach growls. During the pre-season, I've got an umbrella mic that improves the gain to the front and attenuates what's happening behind. That's what I was using that day. At 20 yards or more, it was still like I was right there.

What I normally do during hunting season is get out and get settled in a good 20-30 minutes before legal hunting. Some time in the first half hour of hunting, the turkeys start making noise. I will do some tree calling, and then I settle back and wait. It's still before 0700, and the real show starts in the 9 O'Clock hour. Most of the 8 O'Clock hour is dead space. I'll frequently nap for at least half that time. In recent years, I'd say about half the birds I've taken have come after the nap.

I don't nap at home either, but in the turkey woods...

After 30 plus years chasing turkeys around the midwest, I notice I do nap more and the hills are getting longer and steeper! But, just because my eyes are closed, it doesn't mean my ears are, until they aren't! Haha!

I try not to and my redbull consumption goes up.

But about 9 it get tough.....

Zzzz... phone set on 30 minutes and buzz in my shirt pocket