Ambush or calling

ICDEDTURKES · Post by **ICDEDTURKES** » October 17th, 2014, 2:26 pm

I think everyone will agree that given the chance its best to "get in front of a gobbler", or "get where you know he is going before him". Conversely we all run into gobblers time to time we strike, they come in and we have no clue where he was going or wanted to be when we struck him..

So what percentage of birds you kill are the first type, killing the gobbler based on knowledge learned through this encounter and exploiting him or also from knowledge gleaned on prior hunts/scouting.. And what percentage of gobblers you have killed in this manner do you feel you could have killed without calling to the bird considering you are in front of him or where you thought he intended to go.

guesswho · Post by **guesswho** » October 17th, 2014, 3:15 pm

Most birds I kill I think it's because I find a spot where he feels secure enough to close the distance to look. Not necessarily where he was going, but a spot that offers him fairly safe travel. But yet he will usually be killing close before he can figure out the hen is not there.

Waddle Whacker · Post by **Waddle Whacker** » October 17th, 2014, 7:11 pm

It depends a lot on where I am. Down here in LA, and MS, the extent of my scouting is going to listen for a week or so in the morning before the season opens. I'll usually hang around and see which way he's headed when he hits the ground....if he'll gobble for me on the ground. We don't have much open country, to scout and watch birds from a distance. So most, if not all, of my birds here are called in. Similar to what guesswho said. Positioning is obviously very important, but I don't think I'm always where the turkey had intended on going when he woke up that morning. When I'm in the Midwest its a different ball game. Sometimes an ambush is the only way I can get it done. But the Midwest affords me the option of glassing and watching to see what the birds are doing from a long way off. I've changed their minds and called em up, but I'll bushwack one too, if I can.

WV Ridge Reaper · Post by **WV Ridge Reaper** » October 17th, 2014, 8:06 pm

50/50 here..I much rather call one in because I feel as I have a better chance.But I'm not above of belly crawling..At the end of the day,if I heard a turkey and or a owl I've had a great day in the woods

devastator · Post by **devastator** » October 17th, 2014, 8:30 pm

Ive never killed a spring bird without calling,not to say i wouldn't!And have never had another person doing the calling.Would ambush before i would have someone else do the calling!

Frankinthelaurels · October 24th, 2014, 5:08 am

I believe a lot more gobblers are ambushed than hunters willing to admit to doing it, just human nature I guess. Here in the northeast I see tons of dead longbeards and hear very very little calling, and the usual explanation, I was calling very soft, yeah right, just say it, it won't hurt that bad. We actually have it written in our hunting laws that hunting is by "calling only"... maybe that's why so few will own up to it.

wiltznucs · Post by **wiltznucs** » October 24th, 2014, 9:59 am

Honestly, I'd imagine most of my birds in FL have fallen to good woodsmanship and scouting as opposed to calling.

I've killed many without calling in areas like the Nebraska sandhills where you can actually spot and stalk gobblers since the terrain allows it. It's guerilla warfare there and its a lot of fun.

I've harvested some by displaying a tail fan to entice dominant gobblers. Not sure where that falls in this scenario.

In my early years I believed that the only way to kill toms was to call them up. I learned quickly from those few old timers that were willing to share their secrets that the best turkey hunters have a wide array of tactics.

hawglips · Post by **hawglips** » October 24th, 2014, 10:01 am

ICDEDTURKES wrote:I think everyone will agree that given the chance its best to "get in front of a gobbler", or "get where you know he is going before him". Conversely we all run into gobblers time to time we strike, they come in and we have no clue where he was going or wanted to be when we struck him..

So what percentage of birds you kill are the first type, killing the gobbler based on knowledge learned through this encounter and exploiting him or also from knowledge gleaned on prior hunts/scouting.. And what percentage of gobblers you have killed in this manner do you feel you could have killed without calling to the bird considering you are in front of him or where you thought he intended to go.

I never get to scout before hunting, and never know where a bird may be or may want to go before I start hunting. But I often use a heavy dose of positioning based on the situation at hand. It's about 100% called up for me.

wiltznucs · Post by **wiltznucs** » October 24th, 2014, 10:42 am

hawglips wrote:I never get to scout before hunting, and never know where a bird may be or may want to go before I start hunting. But I often use a heavy dose of positioning based on the situation at hand. It's about 100% called up for me.

I probably use a call on nearly 100% of my hunts, and I'd imagine in many cases it may bring the bird closer by for a look.

On the other hand, you cannot help but wonder if after repositioning yourself if you happened to land exactly in his path. This is what I consider the woodsmanship aspect. Knowing the birds and the terrain and the most likely route the birds are going to take.

hawglips · Post by **hawglips** » October 24th, 2014, 3:15 pm

wiltznucs wrote: On the other hand, you cannot help but wonder if after repositioning yourself if you happened to land exactly in his path.

I usually reposition to get him comfortable enough to swing over for a look. I can think of one bird that just showed up because I was set up in a known area they like that time of day. But he was mostly following a hen, and I was calling, so I can't be sure. It's a very low percentage for me - from 0 to 5% that I could have killed without calling. Probably 0% - possibly the one bird mentioned above.

Now, I've bushwhacked a few who wouldn't play fair though....

wiltznucs · Post by **wiltznucs** » October 24th, 2014, 3:18 pm

hawglips wrote:Now, I've bushwhacked a few who wouldn't play fair though....

You and me both!

HuntnMa · Post by **HuntnMa** » October 24th, 2014, 3:29 pm

enough.....how's that for an answer, lol.
I do scout my butt off so I know where they should be and where they should be going but they don't always come in to calling but when they come by I'm taking the shot.

M Sharpe · Post by **M Sharpe** » October 24th, 2014, 10:18 pm

How do you know you just happened to be in the right spot at the right time or he just came in silent? There are a many a gobbler that don't gobble in the morning.

ICDEDTURKES · Post by **ICDEDTURKES** » October 25th, 2014, 6:01 am

wiltznucs wrote:
On the other hand, you cannot help but wonder if after repositioning yourself if you happened to land exactly in his path. This is what I consider the woodsmanship aspect. Knowing the birds and the terrain and the most likely route the birds are going to take.

And this is kinda what I am getting at although the thread title is misleading.. Alot of times we strike a bird work him to no avail and based on prior experience or what we glean at the time we "cut him off" so to speak and he comes in, sometimes gobbling and we shoot him.. Now obviously if he was gobbling he was responding to calling, but the path he took and the end spot was it actually a result of the calling or the fact he would have ended up there either way... On the other hand we have all walked in a woods struck a bird, set down at the nearest good tree, gobbler marches in like he had no immediate plan in mind, dies and pretty obvious a result of the calling..

Using the thread title ambush has folks thinking scout, bird goes point A to Point C sit at B.. Do not call whack him.. But are alot of the birds we call in more or less a ambush that would have occured with calling thrown in for good measure.

Just trying to stir up some turkey hunting topics in the dead season..

drenalinld · Post by **drenalinld** » October 25th, 2014, 11:08 pm

I repeatedly try to call them where they do not want to go.

GobbleNut · Post by **GobbleNut** » November 3rd, 2014, 8:16 am

drenalinld wrote:I repeatedly try to call them where they do not want to go.

Yeah, me too! I do it on purpose, though. After all, it would be too easy to kill 'em otherwise. I want to make it a challenge. ....That's my story and I'm stickin' with it....

hookedspur · Post by **hookedspur** » January 11th, 2015, 10:02 am

Im not sure if Ive ever Bushwhacked one or not

But I have figured a few out

Team Mule Pwr · Post by **Team Mule Pwr** » January 11th, 2015, 6:28 pm

I have harvested several birds and never picked up a call. That good of a hunter, I don't think so. A gobblers strut zone is one of his weaknesses, and when setting up I try to get into his zone. This doesn't work all the time but I have seen old gobblers come off the roost and run a quarter mile to get there and Beyoncé Hen couldn't call him till he got there. IMHO

Grumpy · Post by **Grumpy** » January 11th, 2015, 7:59 pm

I have a ranch where every morning they walk down a path to the corrals to feed. There is a couple of good ambush spots along the way but most is pretty open. As last resort I would hide in a small hay corral just before they get to where they go every morning. I may just do that this year because I'm taking a new guy out who has never hunted them. I might set up a ground blind close to where they always seem to roost too, will know more I guess when the time comes.

GobbleNut · Post by **GobbleNut** » January 14th, 2015, 6:36 pm

Turkey hunting to me has always been about turkey calling. First and foremost, that is how I hunt them. I want to find a bird that will respond to my calling, come to me, and I shoot him. That is what it is about.

Having said that, I have hunted long enough to realize that it is just not going to happen that way all of the time,...given the constraints I have in terms of time to hunt, and the fact that I often hunt places that I am not familiar with, and perhaps because I am not Superman when it comes to turkey hunting. There are times when I just cannot make it happen the way I would really like for it to.

Hence, I am willing to switch tactics,...if I decide that it is important enough for me to kill a turkey in a given situation,...i.e. an out-of-state hunt where I would really like to kill a bird. Although I hate it, I have set my rear-end down in a spot I know a gobbler would eventually wander by, acting like I was attracting a gobbler by calling sporadically, and then unceremoniously way-laid one when he showed up.

I have also resorted to hunkering down near the roost site, either at dawn or dusk, and sluiced a bird or two doing that,...also calling on occasion so that I could make myself feel good in the delusion that my calling had something to do with the gobbler's demise,...but knowing full well that it very probably did not.

I have said it before and I will say it once more,...anybody that does not have to do that on occasion is either hunting in turkey utopia,...or is living on Fantasy Island,...because, in reality, there are no turkey hunting Supermen.

davisd9 · Post by **davisd9** » January 15th, 2015, 8:08 am

I always try to call in a bird first. Even if he is across something that I do not think he will cross. Calling is what I do when I think/know a bird is around, but if he does not want to play my first game then I will always have 2-3 more games I am willing to play.

Probably not the popular answer but I have come up with some creative ways to kill turkeys. I have killed them the minute their feet touched the ground from morning roost, silent, gobbling their head off, strutting, spitting and drumming, searching, and about any other situation. I have never killed a tree hopper but you better believe if he is trying to be smart and hop limbs to my calls I will knock him down in heart beat. I would never roost shoot a turkey, I have come close through frustration but never did it.

I have called in a bunch of turkeys, I have been in the right place at the right time, I have figured out where he was going and go there first, and a bunch of other tactics; was I always successful, no, but I have killed some in all those ways with no shame. I was within the law and felt like I over came his vision and what other survival skills he has. I have taken clothes off to cross water, I have belly crawled through mud and cow patties. At the end of the day I am out there trying to harvest a bird. Is the hunt all about the harvest? Absolutely not! Some of my most memorable hunts do not end with a kill and they all required me to do different things to try to harvest the bird. I have been called crazy more than once and have had other hunters with me that decided they would "just wait by this tree".

If a bird is on a piece of property that I have permission to hunt then I will do just about anything tactic I need to. I will never kill a bird over a bait, I will never trespass, and I will never run up on him with a car and shoot him, but swimming, crawling, sneaking, waiting, calling, and a few other things will certainly come into play if it is needed to be done.

I am proud of killing birds with my calling and I think I call pretty well, but I have been very proud of birds I have killed with woodsmanship, patience, luck, and down right hard headness.

Seems like Gobblenut knows what I am talking about.

davisd9 · Post by **davisd9** » January 15th, 2015, 8:19 am

Also, I do not believe in call shy or unkillable birds. I do believe that most hunters will not do what it takes to kill some birds. If I figure out I have to sit in one spot all day long and not move to kill a bird people say cannot be killed then I will do it, may not kill him but I will be right there and have a new plan for tomorrow from all my thinking today.

As long as it is legal, ethical, and takes some sort of skill to achieve it then I am going to do it. Every gobbler I kill I want a sense of accomplishment, and not just the one that I pulled a trigger.

GobbleNut · Post by **GobbleNut** » January 15th, 2015, 8:34 am

After your comment about not roost shooting turkeys, I re-read my comment about setting up on the roost. My comment could have been taken as meaning that I would be willing to kill a bird off the roost. I will not do that,...definitely taboo as far as I am concerned, as well. What I meant in my comment is that I have waited near roost sites and killed a few birds either coming or going (on the ground) where I knew my calling was not the reason those birds ended up dead.

davisd9 · Post by **davisd9** » January 15th, 2015, 9:16 am

GobbleNut wrote:After your comment about not roost shooting turkeys, I re-read my comment about setting up on the roost. My comment could have been taken as meaning that I would be willing to kill a bird off the roost. I will not do that,...definitely taboo as far as I am concerned, as well. What I meant in my comment is that I have waited near roost sites and killed a few birds either coming or going (on the ground) where I knew my calling was not the reason those birds ended up dead.

Did not take it like that and I agree with what you said. I understand clarifying because I would not want anyone to think I was doing it either.

timbrhuntr · Post by **timbrhuntr** » January 15th, 2015, 9:36 am

I can with 100 % accuracy say that every bird I have killed involved calling of some form. It may have been the birds calling to themselves and letting me know where they were but it still involved calling !

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