Ive never really turkey hunted a lot but it seems to me that just by observation from a tent blind that deer are a lot harder to fool the a turkey as I have had big Toms walk right next to my blind and never have a clue I was there ...a mature buck just will not come up that close unless he is on a doe's trail dd
It's all about location with Turkey Hunting We did not have any in SE MI until 2002 They each have their challenges, I enjoy them both.
With a Bow ole SB is 0/0, I killed a forkhorn with a bow in about 1980, joined the army and just this season got back into it.... with a firearm, since I Started seriously chasing Turkeys (1996)I've killed 18 Gobblers.....I have killed bunches of bucks and have had 4 mounted...total mature bucks would be in the neighborhood of 20 since 1975... So Bucks to Toms would be 20/18. I'd take a Tom over a Buck anytime. I imagine you ask why....Because I'm 50 and anything that I can flip over my shoulder and carry out is pretty damn cool. SB
I look at turkey hunting as a nice way to pass the time until I can seriously hunt deer again. I've only been hunting turkeys for the last 14 years and I've taken 15 of them. Some years 0 some years multiple. It took me a couple of seasons to figure things out but after that it seemed to be a snap. About the only thing that has ruined my turkey season has been some horrible weather. In the spring we only get 5 days up here and for a lot of my seasons I only hunted the weekends. I've only hunted turkeys strictly with a bow last season and got one my second day. I usually try to get one right away so I can cruise around on my bike, golf and have a sort of vacation all in one with my GF. For me, it's just not that hard to get one. Although I've only taken 1 with a bow, I do know how to place my decoys to get them in close as most of my shotgun kills are 26 yards or less. I have taken several toms with 11-12" beards and spurs ranging from 1 1/4 to 1 3/8" long. I guess these are trophies!?? I'll tell you one thing...... I have one whole turkey mount and several fan, beard and spur mounts and when people come over and look in my basement they go "Holy Crap!! Look at those deer!" I show them the turkeys too but they keep going back to the bucks I've got mounted. The deer are my real trophies, turkeys come in second place for me.
Well Jeff..... The answer to your question is in my last post. If you could have tagged out so easily with your gun for the last two seasons, why not with your bow? Too far away? If so, adjust your set up.
According to your numbers the turkeys look much easier to kill then? 1.5 gobblers per season vs .625 bucks per season.
I will say this.....The more I read this thread the more it convinces me that how turkeys are hunted across the country varies greatly. In some places you can use a rifle....I have zero interest in killing a turkey with a rifle because using a rifle eliminates any and all of the defensive mechanisims the turkey has. Using a pop up blind is almost as big of an equilizer, but when the birds are silent I feel the best thing to do is leave the property for another day or get in a pop up and not bump/spook the birds. But the REAL DEAL on Turkeys is the classic predawn gobbling and dealing with real hens and trying to manuever on a bird with only your camo and terrain as a blind. Fellas remember this, when a Gobbler is Gobbling he is Calling hens to him. SO to get him to come to you you have to make nature reverse it's self. So this GObblerr is gobbling and wondering why the sexxy hen isn't coming to him and if he comes in he is coming in suspicious and nervous and most of the time silent. He can see as well as an eagle and hear as good as any predator on earth and knows exactly what tree that hen calling is standing under. He can fly like a duck and get airborne and at full speed as fast as a quail...you can not out quick one and if your weapon is not trained on him early you are not going to kill that bird but you are going to make him that much more difficult to kill.And it only takes about two days of calling and they wise up and become seriously difficult. So all you guys that simply squat at the base of a tree yelp twice and have turkeys run to you and you select one at your leisure raise your wepon and harvest a bird....I'm bettin your either shootin domestic turkeys...a domestic hybrid or your really shootin mockingbirds and robins and don't know no better. SB
1975, I was a sophmore in HS and started deer hunting...I was the only person in my family who hunted deer.... I taught myself....I didn't kill my first mature buck until I was a Jr. in College(1980)....I killed them fast and furious until about 96. So I'd have to say my numbers of equal comparison would be from 80-96. So 20 in 16 years for Bucks. For Turkeys I would say that when I started learning turkeysa I was already pretty good in the woods, I knew the property like the back of my hand and the guy that started me was a true expert...so I had a big advantage at the early stages....THere is no question for me...Turkeys call on way more skills and woodsmanship than a mature buck. But that does not mean that I think Killing a Buck is easy. Hell I've killed bucks that came running to me cause they heard my climber scraping the tree and when I turned around he was so hot I was able to pull my frifle up, chamber a round and shoot him at 20 yards...standing there all bloodshoteyes and hunchin with his tongue hangin out... SB
Fair enough... Curious...what do you consider to be a mature buck since many people have varying definitions?
Hunting different animals in different locations=extreme variability in our individual percepetions of what type of hunting is considered "tough" and what is considered "easy".
I have always had intentions of hunting turkeys in different states before this thread. After reading it I HAVE to make that a priority. No better way than to see & experience for myself.
I consider antlers to the outside of the ears a mature buck.... I don't consider that to determine a "Trophy" so to speak. In SC during my hunting life time....people would not shoot does and would shoot any thing with visible antlers...thus there were very few "mature bucks"... that has changed thankfully....I see B&C bucks in my front yard now...my neighbor killed two this season....shooting off his porch....I'm not in to that....but next year I'm going to put barriers up on my place that will make it difficult for him to pull that off again. SB
That is very good!!!! If you can hunt SC turkeys as easily as you indicate that you kill your birds, then you would be in the top 5 hunters in SC....remember what state Headquarters the Wild Turkey Federation. I honestly mean no harm....but I simply think that natural born reakl life true blooded easterns are the far and away the most difficult animal to hunt in North America. And I define difficult as requring the most woodsman skills and woodcraft and knowledge of the land and prey and ability to do the things required to lure a gobbler into the range of a shotgun/bow(20 yards)...I'm not talking about Physical demands....it doesn't place in that category....I admit it. SB
LOL!!!! I have been known to take advantage of Hevishot #5s and crackem at 60 +...but those birds had made me angry and worked me into a frenzy of death and destruction. SB
