Pressure, accidental hot-spotting, and technology

[bfriendly]

I dont care near as much about the harvest as I do just being out in the woods. Seeing anything or hearing a gobble off in the distance is icing on the cake for me.............I hunt PUBLIC Land.

I hunt to be in the woods and enjoy Everything about it, including being wore out when I get back to the truck after walking alot farther than I wanted to

I thought I was one of very few who even hunted Public land..............I thought ya'll ALL had a lease somewhere

 

[ryanwhit]

Somehow, there are some who just don't see this.

Loose lips do indeed sink ships.

 

[Nicodemus]

Somehow, there are some who just don't see this.

Loose lips do indeed sink ships.

That was THE FIRST lesson my Granddaddy taught me nearly 60 years ago. To keep your mouth shut as to where you were hunting.

 

[bfriendly]

I guess I am one of those who just wont. Or perhaps I subconsciously wont tell someone exactly where I got something, but give general info instead(so maybe I do). I do find joy in sharing something that just might give another some joy...........thats the way I was raised.

All this talk of No birds is just something I have not felt..........I see them everywhere and hear them blasting off at mid day

Maybe if I were a true Turkey Hunter I'd have my limit for sure by now If I could call worth a flip, that would help too

Of course I have had many days when I see or hear nothing, but I am blessed. If someone asks(and I get plenty of PMs), I am happy to share. But I am having a fantastic time in the turkey woods-its my favorite season and I have yet to kill a bird

Right now I am more concerned with a big food plot that just got mowed or harvested or something, but is no longer there.

That super high moisture holding grass(whatever it is) would surely have had the pigs in it good in just another week or two

 

[Gut_Pile]

Currently Active Users: 794 (83 members and 711 guests)

Just remember these numbers every time you post a location here.

 

[goblr77]

That was THE FIRST lesson my Granddaddy taught me nearly 60 years ago. To keep your mouth shut as to where you were hunting.

My Grandaddy taught me the same thing about hunting and fishing. When someone asked him where he caught his fish he would always tell them, "north of the dam."

 

[ryanwhit]

My Grandaddy taught me the same thing about hunting and fishing. When someone asked him where he caught his fish he would always tell them, "north of the dam."

I had a long and serious talk with my 6 year old about this matter earlier this spring. Tell nobody. That includes family. Once that information has passed over your lips you no longer have any control over it..

 

[cumberland]

At the risk of sounding curmudgeonly and too much like a "the way it used to be", I've gotta voice my opninon on a few things. More hunters in the woods, less private land available, and shrinking habitat means more pressure on public lands that hold turkeys. The internet and technology have both directly and inadvertently increased pressure on places I personally hunt. How do I know this? I've asked other hunters I see with out of state or county license plates how they found out. You know what the near unanimous answer is...the internet. I started turkey hunting in the 80s, there was no internet and we guarded our spots closely. The way I was raised. If someone asks, don't be rude, but don't give up anything because if you tell one, you've told ten. Turkey hunting isn't a team sport and no I don't want company from people I don't know when I'm in the woods. For the last few years, it's been getting worse; pressure, cars parked every mile on public land that used to be unknown or at least un-pressured. I've nearly been shot twice, had multiple birds buggered up, and talked to too many guys who, I'm sorry-but, have no business being in the woods (apologies to you millennials who have the offense meter of a 7 year old girl from Vermont). What do I think some issues are...

The new DNR telecheck, while neat to look at, is basically pointing a finger on a map and saying "here is where the turkeys are" county by county. I mean, give us the harvest record, but is the by county harvest total level of transparency really necessary?

On this forum: When someone says "Great kill on ____WMA or even national forest...you're drawing an x on a map for trollers and other hunters. Granted it's a big x and no, maybe it will be hard to find "your" spot but I guarantee it will be an x on somebody's honey hole. If nothing else it puts an easy arrow for cyber scouters to follow. What's wrong with just saying public land? I mean, it's great that you're excited and want to post every detail of your hunt and the success, but just omitting the WMA or NF name would keep the cyber guys guessing.

Companies focusing on making a buck and marketing the easiest course of action to pulling the trigger on a 65 yard shot. Learn to call, learn to hunt...it's a skill and you don't learn the trade sitting in a blind with a remote driving a gobbler decoy around a clover patch for 8 hours.

I'm all for mapping, GIS software advancements, and for sure the DNR telecheck because it's finally showing what some of us have been saying since 2003 (turkeys are going bye bye). I do think that all of us have a duty to try and not blow up public hunting opportunities for the masses. Let them do what we did, figure it out with maps, chance, and boot leather. Private messages is what location donations are for, not an open forum.

Just saying and yes, I'm done with my rant

Good luck to everyone for the remainder of the season and stay safe out there!!!!!

JB

I don't have to worry about my spots because no one would hunt them over once because of how rough, and how little game they hold. Have at it. LOL.

 

[cumberland]

The "smoked him" hunters are what ruined everything. LOL.

 

[cumberland]

When i started turkey hunting in the late 70s we had great guys in turkey hunting like Ben Rodgers Lee, and Dick Kirby, and now we all we got is the dirt nap, smoked him punks.

 

[MKW]

You forgot Thunder Chicken...can't forget Thunder Chicken.
I freakin' hate that.

 

[JMB]

Oh buddy...don't get me started on this ridiculously ignorant "dirt nap selfie" thing I've been seeing. I don't know who started that, but I'd like to hit them in the face with a shovel. Whatever happened to having some respect for the game and a little reverence for the sport. Bottom line, thunder chicken, smoked 'em, dirt nap selfie, glory hounds, and Internet hotspotters should all take up golf and leave turkey hunting to those of us who actually care about the game and the future of the sport (the real sport of it, not this made up, commercialized version I'm seeing). It's scary that new hunters are learning how to hunt from social media, forums, and you tube videos. It's all breeding a terribly perverted doppelgänger to what hunting really is. This look at ME, watch ME, I'm so great, I just love the outdoors and let me take selfies and share what I've experienced today because I know everyone wants to hear about ME does not cut at the heart of hunting or human existence for that matter, but that's another story for some theological or philosophical forum that has probably been buggered up by some millennial hipsters in tweed jackets trying to remember what Thoreau looked like before he went for long walks in the woods.

 

[KentuckyHeadhunter]

You're on a roll! Very well said. The deer guys are even worse. Heck I can't even stand to see a Yeti sticker on a truck. Look at me. I bought an expensive cooler. Twenty years ago the last child left the woods never to return. It's all internet now.

 

[KentuckyHeadhunter]

Jamie I'm just as fired up over this as you are. I saw a show tonight called Wildgame Nation, Urban Thunder Creepers. I almost threw up. They were bowhunting turkeys off someone's back porch in a ground blind. This advocates this type of "hunting". It's not hunting. These guys should be ashamed of themselves. I'm calling them out as shameful and embarrassing to the art of turkey hunting. Date of episode is 3/13/17. Hunting shows are a joke and I hate to think people sit and absorb​ this trash. I only check that channel to see Ted Nugent say crazy stuff and see Jim Shockey's daughter. Wowza.

 

[Covehnter]

I couldn't agree more with most of what is stated above.

Today is the first time I've logged on since turkey season started. That didn't used to be the case.

I dropped BookFace on opening day of Georgia's season this year. I have watched things take a turn. And the turn wasn't a good turn. It was a downhill, slippery turn that is sure to end in a god awful train wreck type of turn.

I was watching goons of social media be praised and worshiped. Guys that just don't love it like I love it- yet they pretend too. . . it was making me twisted.

I watch guys attempt to walk in the foot steps of people before them. Mimicry. Instead of blazing their own path. Making their own story.

I once enjoyed sharing my travels. I watched it inspire folks to pack a bag and try some new ground, outside their comfort zone. I do enjoy being helpful. But there comes a time when one must realize the crowd has gotten cloudy, hard to tell the difference in the worthy and the worthless. So the crowd pushed me to fade this spring as the opening days across the southeast began to arrive. My responses got vague and my participation grew weak. And the spring carried on just the same. . .without social eyes.

I still have a couple weeks before I run the last patch down the barrel. I am still undecided on whether I'll put together a thread of travels for 2017. Either way. . . life will go on.

 

[cumberland]

Jamie I'm just as fired up over this as you are. I saw a show tonight called Wildgame Nation, Urban Thunder Creepers. I almost threw up. They were bowhunting turkeys off someone's back porch in a ground blind. This advocates this type of "hunting". It's not hunting. These guys should be ashamed of themselves. I'm calling them out as shameful and embarrassing to the art of turkey hunting. Date of episode is 3/13/17. Hunting shows are a joke and I hate to think people sit and absorb​ this trash. I only check that channel to see Ted Nugent say crazy stuff and see Jim Shockey's daughter. Wowza.

I know a lot of people like Drury Outdoors, but i lost all respect for them about 8 years ago in a video where Mark pickup a turkey they shot and the turkey was still alert, and holding it's head up, and Mark and the crew were laughing their heads off at it. No more Drury Outdoors for me after that.

 

[cumberland]

I couldn't agree more with most of what is stated above.

Today is the first time I've logged on since turkey season started. That didn't used to be the case.

I dropped BookFace on opening day of Georgia's season this year. I have watched things take a turn. And the turn wasn't a good turn. It was a downhill, slippery turn that is sure to end in a god awful train wreck type of turn.

I was watching goons of social media be praised and worshiped. Guys that just don't love it like I love it- yet they pretend too. . . it was making me twisted.

I watch guys attempt to walk in the foot steps of people before them. Mimicry. Instead of blazing their own path. Making their own story.

I once enjoyed sharing my travels. I watched it inspire folks to pack a bag and try some new ground, outside their comfort zone. I do enjoy being helpful. But there comes a time when one must realize the crowd has gotten cloudy, hard to tell the difference in the worthy and the worthless. So the crowd pushed me to fade this spring as the opening days across the southeast began to arrive. My responses got vague and my participation grew weak. And the spring carried on just the same. . .without social eyes.

I still have a couple weeks before I run the last patch down the barrel. I am still undecided on whether I'll put together a thread of travels for 2017. Either way. . . life will go on.

I know what you mean, i have almost gotten embarrassed to post my adventures and success for feeling like people will just think i am one of those modern glory hunters, instead of just wanting to show my passion for the whole adventure.

 

[M Sharpe]

I stopped watching videos when the truth series, volume 1 came out... When I started, all you had was an audio cassette tape! I was doing good on my own. After listening to the tape I learned the mating cackle, the cut, and all the rest of the junk!! Yep, you guessed it!! It all went down hill for a few years until I realized this was a bunch of malarkey!! Then came the "everyone gets a trophy bunch"!! I'm sorry but if the girl friend wants to go kill a turkey but she's got to have a blind so she can chat to her BFF and do her nails and have her snacks, she doesn't deserve to kill a turkey!!!! Man, I miss the old days!!!
I remember putting my foot on the head of a gobbler once and sending a guy a picture. That was the most insulting thing I have ever done!! I swore I would never do that again...and I haven't!! Nor do I ever intend to again!!! Just like calling them thunder chickens or taking dirt naps!!

 

[Nicodemus]

I stopped watching videos when the truth series, volume 1 came out... When I started, all you had was an audio cassette tape! I was doing good on my own. After listening to the tape I learned the mating cackle, the cut, and all the rest of the junk!! Yep, you guessed it!! It all went down hill for a few years until I realized this was a bunch of malarkey!! Then came the "everyone gets a trophy bunch"!! I'm sorry but if the girl friend wants to go kill a turkey but she's got to have a blind so she can chat to her BFF and do her nails and have her snacks, she doesn't deserve to kill a turkey!!!! Man, I miss the old days!!!
I remember putting my foot on the head of a gobbler once and sending a guy a picture. That was the most insulting thing I have ever done!! I swore I would never do that again...and I haven't!! Nor do I ever intend to again!!! Just like calling them thunder chickens or taking dirt naps!!

I believe you know my thoughts on all that foolishment. As for the old days, I still hunt about like I did back in the early 1960s. No decoys, tent blinds, or any of that stuff, and no dancing, hollering, and carrying on on like a Saturday night drunk. After watching a couple of so called hunting shows back in the early 80s, I realized right quick that the only good one was The American Sportsman hosted by Curt Gowdy. Doubt many here ever heard of that one. I`m not old school, I`m Old Testament.

Here`s to how it`s supposed to be, and originally was.

 

[turkeykirk]

Dang! I amgetting old. Remember watching the American Sportsman on Sunday afternoons in the mid 60's. Great outdoors show. Nothing compares to it now.