Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Excited for fall turkey hunting?

Not sure I'm prouder of.......you or your dog. Which of you is it that doesn't have a sack ??

Now.............ask me how many times I've called gobblers or gobbler flocks into gun range in the fall and NOT pulled the trigger because it's a waste of a regal spring opponent. Called in a flock of 13 longbeards last fall and killed a nice double bearded tom. Then I was pizzed off at myself for weeks for having done it.

No. DON'T ask me. Because I don't feel the need to justify anything to you. I do know that the total number of fall turkeys I've killed is less than 200. But I have no idea WHAT the number is. I'm not a turkey counter. Turkey counters are the guys who have to have a number to toss out during a dick swinging contest in an attempt to legitimize their woods cred. Believe it or not.......no matter WHO you are.......I'll know in the first 2 minutes of talking turkey hunting what someone's skill level is. I don't need told. Quickest way for someone to lose my respect in a turkey hunting discussion (if I ever had any in the first place) is for someone to toss their kill numbers at me. That's where they get an "Oh........that's nice" and I'm done.

Just when I start to think you MIGHT have a tiny bit of usefulness in this forum, Luther, you go and prove me wrong.

I’d imagine that if one limited the hunt to mature gobblers, the challenge would be considerable. The few I’ve run into have been pretty dang wary, and were solo. Scattering a flock of hens and poults then calling one in doesn’t seem all that tough, but the one time I did it for my young son it was a lot of fun, and he sure enjoyed it. I woulda had one too if not for the balky magazine in my .22/45.

We have another few days in January when hunters using stick bows or sidelock MLs can shoot a turkey, a bear (good luck with THAT) or a deer, another mixed bag opportunity. I’ll be hoping for snow that week.

I used to hunt turkey exclusively with a big ol 10 bore SxS muzzleloading shotgun. I truly enjoyed that! On kind of a modern firearm kick at the moment...

But I can see getting back into that. Also used to load shorter black powder shells for a couple old Belgium 12 bore SxS hammer guns (Shrapnel, enjoyed your picture, roll crimp?). Was even published about some of it in the now defunct "BlackPowder Hunting" magazine out of I forget where Wyoming. But that and a couple bucks got me a cup of coffee this morning.

I kept up with it because I was proud of my dog....I stopped counting at close to 200.

I've let a few longbeards walk in the spring so I could keep hunting none in the fall with the exception of the winter season at Ft. Campbell....bearded birds were off limits in their winter season.

One thing I never did was count my kills (except to make sure I did not go over my limit) Same goes for deer.
Had a guy ask me a few years back how many turkeys I have killed, he could not believe that I did not know.

When I first started I kept up with it I could tell you how many at some point you will loose count.

I've always notched the chalk boxes on my box calls and I used to notch my pot calls too.

I only have two boxes one I made in 1995 has about 75 or 80 notches the other box I made in 2007 has over a 100 notched. They only get a notch if they're involved in the kill....its nice to look back on.

Other than that I stopped counting years ago.

I've lnow a lot people that like to brag.....one guy in particular comes to mind I won't mention any names because most here would know of him.

He used liked to throw out these big numbers of turkeys he had killed.

Funny i met him a few years after his house burnt to the ground and story goes he lost everything he had.....when I met him a few years later he had about 60 to 80 beards on the wall in his new house.

Didn't take a Rocket scientist to figure out there was a bugger in the wood plie.

I've also known people that have hunted for decades and killed a lot of turkeys that really don't know much more than when they started out turkey hunting.

This might sound far fetched but ive hunted with a few.....

As much as I like spring turkey hunting I’m still more amazed by all the different sounds you hear turkeys make in the fall. I vividly remember busting a flock of 7 or 8 gobblers one December in KY in a snowstorm that deadened all the sound except those birds gobbling in every direction around us. I’m not sure I ever heard turkeys gobbling in the winter before that day and they must have gobbled over 100 times.

Buster and I ran into a December flock of close to 60 gobblers in Cheatam county Tn. on more than one occasion......gobbling, strutting, fighting turkeys gone wild.

One might ask how you could count 60 gobblers in big hardwoods....you can't but a fellow that lived up there told me about them.

The spring turkey hunter will never hear what a fall hunter will hear or have the conversations with turkeys that a fall hunter can occasionally have....

I learned more about how to call turkeys in my years fall hunting than I ever learned in the spring.

I've took people with my dog and have a turkey come in peeping....peep peep sometimes just one peep.

I look over there and the guy is playing on his cell phone. Later I asked him if he heard that turkey calling directly in from of him while he was playing on his phone he said "that wasn't a turkey that was just a bird".

It was a bird alright a hen turkey that had the hell scared out of it by Buster the Brown Bomber.

You don't suppose that fellow was shooting more turkeys than what the law allowed for, do you ??

My dog hasn’t sniffed a turkey since the spring when I kept some wings and fans to put in the freezer. I got a wing out last night to drag across the back yard this morning before I let him out and without him knowing what I was up to. Normally when I let him out he makes a beeline for the back corner of the yard where I scatter bird seed to feed the doves. Within a few seconds of letting him out he hit the scent trail of the drag to a flower bed in the opposite corner of the yard where I’d hidden the wing. Hopefully we’ll make it to KY in October for a hunt. I figure with all the regulation changes going on this might one of last few opportunities to try to get him into some birds.

I drew my my tag for fall. There were close to a hundred out at the ranch Sunday afternoon when I took my camper out to the barn. I only saw two groups of gobblers. Will be a lot of fun.

Usually hunt them with my longbow, which makes a lot more challenging.

Turkey feather fletchings? Lol! That would be cool!

Now THAT'S cool, right there !!!

I do save wing feathers and fletch arrows with them. Long time ago I even split tail feathers and made flu flu arrows.

Bringing back memories! Enjoy!

I made some of those a few years ago with feathers I picked up while walking my dog. I just wrapped the split feather around the shaft in front of the regular fletching. Works fine.

Fall calling a bird up is an excellent way for beginners to learn to call and communicate.

Let me be perfectly clear, if I get in range of a flock of turkeys in the Fall, I’m gonna scatter ‘em by shooting the fattest one I see. I’ve heard of guys doing what 10Glocks mentioned, not shooting one, but I ain’t that much of a sport.

Shame on me, and pass the gravy…..