Since that's the next season in the line up with many seasons opening before others, let's visit blind set ups. Do you brush or not brush. Do you like dekes or no dekes. Set out ahead or sneak in and take the time. There's really no "bad" set depending on your birds. I've learned one thing hunting else where and hunting PA. PA birds, at least in my neck of the woods are more leery of blinds than other areas I've hunted them in. If you can, throw in some pics. I recently just bought another turkey blind and I'm hoping the birds will pay less attention to this blind as I've seen other PA birds become alert to. I'm a veteran shotgunner, a novice spring bowhunter. I know turkey, I'm learning turkeys and blinds. Whatcha got?
Im going to make a few strategic placed natural ground blinds that are knows turkey hot spots for late morning sits. Other than that I plan to run and gun with just a single hen for a deke. My plan for the morning is once I locate one (or have one roosted), i'll go in as silent as possible and find a deadfall or small pine to get tucked into. After that its all about the sweet talk...
Last year I set-up my blind the morning of my hunt. I had spotted a nice gobbler working into a small point of the woodline that stuck a few yards out into a clover field the evening before. I snuck in and setup my blind around 20 yards to the side of the point hoping they would enter the field in the morning at that point and I would be behind them. I had a breeding jake/hen decoy, a standing hen, and a feeding hen decoy out. They were 15 yards in front of my blind. The blind wasn't brushed in, and the gobbler I shot entered the field around 25 yards to my left (opposite of the point). The gobbler was with a hen and it took some aggressive fighting purrs to bring her in, he followed. She seemed a little cautious of the blind but the gobbler didn't pay any attention at all. Its too early to tell how I am going to approach my setups this season, I will let the turkeys dictate that!
I'm an EXTREME beginner to this turkey game. I don't use a blind, and I only used a flambeau hen once last spring. I called both gobblers in with no blind and no dekes. The one I ended up taking, I had to circle around and head him off. I called him in the rest of the way. My fall turkey was taken with the bow out of the stand as you know, and so there can be no worthwhile experience to share with that. I doubt I will ever consider a blind since I move around so much, although this fall I had those birds patterned pretty well, that a blind would have been ideal if I had chosen to try and take one from the ground.
I'm going for my first bird with a bow this year, it looks exciting, any tips you guys have I wouldn't mind to here, thanks
I have never brushed in a blind, and had birds so close I could dang near smell the breath of the gobble. lol I like a full strut deke with a jake fan...even better is my buddies custom struttin jake deke he has...the fan retracts up and down, and it is on a 90* swivel stake hooked to a small zebco 33 that you string towards the blind.....this setup is flippin sweet. When hunting alone from a blind I use the prettyboy/jake combo instead. I will be more like Jeff in that I will be in the blinds more during early morning....but if it aint workin, Im goin to hoof it from there. I MAY make a natural blind or two this year, if I can figure out where I will be hunting 100%. My access is so scattered and hit or miss...I never really know where I will be. I have scattered farms to hunt over a few counties, and of those only a few seem to be a hotspot each spring...just have to wait and see for now. Blind is mint for filming bowhunts for turkey, or if you know where you will setup before hand...but I am nowhere quick enough to run and gun with one. My strategy to tackle AL is to set two trailcams on the two lower foodplots on the river to monitor activity (what time of day turkey are hitting them, and more so to see if the hogs are in the immediate area...these are TINY clearing for the plots)....I will set up the blind based on where I think the turks will head from roost, within 150 yards of the roost. Setup with the bow and gun in blind before dark. If the early morning setup wont work, I will take off playing cat and mouse with them throughout the morning...grab some lunch and return to set the blind on a foodplot midday, try and strike up a new bird possibly, that afternoon start out on foot again to roost a bird more than anything, but not passing a good opportunity if it arises. I sure hope they aren't as tight lipped as they were last year. Early in the season, but they sure were quiet besides on the limb. Reports from the deer hunters down there this fall are that the turks have moved in BIG TIME, we will see. Jeff, why does NC season open so late for being a southern state? I was possibly going to get to head down there the last weekend of march, but season wont open for two more weekends...looks like if anything happens now it will be TN, or wait 2 weeks for NC....Not sure what I will do.
calling in a bird wise, I agree with you 100% later is better, if hunting pressure isn't a factor. I was just hoping it was earlier simply because these early season states give me a headstart on turkey season in my state of KY. I like how KY opens after mid april and goes into may. I hunt mid march in AL and the birds seem tougher to call in this time of year, but it allows more time in the woods. In your shoes, I would like NC just where it is or later like you said. I was just curious as to why it was different than all the neighbors. MS, AL, FL, SC, TN, GA, all open in March..I guess I just assumed NC did too.
Rob, your getting me fired up. I love all this turkey talk lately every ones bringing up I have around 5 blinds I construct and refresh before the season. I guess you can say i do brush them in because thats what they are constructed of I build them out of either cedar branches or pine branches piled up about 2' high in a three sided circle. The big key in these kind of blinds are the back drop. Ill take either cedar or pine and brush in behind me about 4' high to create some shadowing, they dont have to be solid, they can be just leaned against something. without this they are worthless. These blinds are in my honey holes. I also have a portable sheild type blind that i can set up in a run and bow situation :d I carry pruners and slightly brush it in with small sapling limbs. The backdrop takes second hat here as its just to time consuming when your run and bowing. Ill just make use of the background thats available. We have tons of pines in my area and the little short ones work great behind a shield blind. I take one hen and a Motion Tom with working tail or my sons Pretty boy tom with a real tail. They both work great to get the Toms attention. I like to set around 20 yards facing me. As for a seat, this kind of hunting is not comfy at all. I just use a set up seat with a pad on it that keeps me low in the blind, butt around 6" off the ground, My legs are streatched out and im 43 years old damit Here is a couple pics from Missouri. This blind was a run and gun built on the go, and we used a standing cedar tree for a backdrop. I killed my bird in another blind me and Hunsucker built the next day about 200 yards from this one. Mike and Skyler
Brother, If that fires you up, I know you've seen it before but: :d Keep them coming. It'll be here before we know it.
This year will also be my first turkey hunt with the bow. In the past, while shotgun hunting, we walk the hot properties slowly until we get some calls back on a locator. Go home, get a few hours sleep and come back EARLY, set up on the ground with the decoys out, and try to call the boy in. This year will be the same, only I am pretty nervous about acutually having to draw on my quarry, so a ground blind will be employed.
This has been my experience as well. We have set popup blinds just about anywhere and they completely ignore it.
My plan is to stalk them with my Mossberg. But once I take one with the shotgun then I'll try to get one with the bow. If I get after one with the bow I'll be setting up my blind and decoys the morning of the hunt.
WOW!!! My head is spinning.....I'm sittin here reading all this chatter and I'm coming to the conclusion you guys ain't huntin the same thing I'm huntin..... Do your Gobblers make Gobblin noises and strut around and spitt and run like hell at the slightest movement ? Mine sure as hell do. SB sctatchin his head
I don't turkey hunt. But I really enjoyed the gratuitous use of the word deke or dekes(plural). Thank you for bringing a smile to my day.
GMMAT, I hear ya......The guy that introduced me to turkey hunting is "old school" and one of the best turkey hunters in SC...he frowns on using blinds or even using 3.5 magnum....he runs and guns and does not sit in a blind under any circumstance.... I've killed turkeys out of blinds and running and gunning....I think I could pull off killing a turkey w/ a bow out of a blind if I had someone calling for me...or I used the tactic of calling and getting him to gobble than move to a position to intercept him if he was coming....But I still enjoy hunting them solo and running and gunning....So thats what I do to start the day and then into the blind during the middle of the day...And I'm going to hunt w/ my shotgun until I kill one....I named my turkey shotgun after my deceased Father in Law who told my wife on his death bed to buy it for me...so I'm hunting w/ Mr. Cotton till I kill one with him. SB
I will be hunting the northwoods of Wisconsin so it will be stop, call, listen until something responds then setup. This will be my first attempt at a turk with a bow so what head you all recommend? T
Absolutly, trust me SB, I have been busted, weighed and measured, many more times that I have been succesful, because ole eagle eyes was on to me, caught movement, or i screwed the set up :d Ill tell you this though:: Things i have in my favor. 1. 800 acres lease that only 5 of us turkey hunt on. sometimes even some of them hunt else where. 2. low hunting pressure on the property..see #1 3. we can hunt all day long. in the middle of the day is prime after the hens go to the nest. 4. ALOT of turkeys 5. I have some sets that are good every year. They just like to be there. 6. Im very persistence, you wont find me home by 10:00 if i havent did any good 7. The cover is great for me, alot of thick pine groves, but bad for open shots sometimes. 8. When all else fails,,,Dink is Love
