What Odd Things Have You Learned?

[TreeTrunkNarcoleptic]

A couple of things I learned last year while pre-spring scouting:

I was with a friend scouting some birds in early march and we were walking back along a firebreak road to the truck. It was about an hour after sunrise and we had a low volume conversation going on as we walked, when he suddenly stopped. From his reaction I immediately deduced that he'd heard some thing. He was looking over my shoulder into the woods behind me so I stopped cold as well.

I whispered to him, "What'd you hear ?" He replied, "It's what I see."

We stayed frozen in the middle of that road for a minute or less and I heard the most unusual noise. It sounded to me like a big chicken or something. It went, "cluck-kee. ..........cluck-kee. ...............cluck-kee. ........yalp, yalp, yalp, yalp. .........cluck-kee, yalp, yalp, yalp."

A jake walked right out of the woods and stood in the road maybe 50 feet from us making kee-kee runs and lost yelps. We're dead in the middle of the road, obvious to the most casual observer. We have no cover whatsoever and this bird is not alarmed at all by our presence. It was like we were invisible or something. Eventualy he crossed the road and went off toward a field giving lost yelps all the way. I have to figure he might have been prematurely bumped onto the roost the evening before by a predator and was simply anxious to find company again, there is more coyote sign than anything else in that area.

I learned two things from that experience:

1. Remaining motionless is key. I could have been dressed like Bozo the clown and as long as I didn't move, that bird wouldn't have paid the first bit of attention to me.

2. Don't believe what you read as far as correct ways to call. Everything I'd read to that point on kee-kees indicated that you must do it in a 3 note fashion. However, that bird didn't get the memo. I didn't recognize it at first because it wasn't what I expected. The note combination didn't sound like any soundbite I'd heard on the internet, seen on a video, or read about in print. But it was no doubt a kee-kee run and very emphatic yelping.

[mark hay]

That's int'restin' TTN. I always hope to see or hear something new and different when I'm out in the sticks .
 
This past winter ,,actually late Feb or early March , My youngest stepson ,his youngest son and myself went down to the public land to take a walk and do some scoutin'. Within a half mile of the truck we heard a faint yelp. We stood around a bit and finally heard it again and determined the direction . We slipped around a little and got closer just to listen . About the time we reached our goal the flock went absolutely nuts . We stood there for at least 30 minutes listening to what sounded like 30 -40 , maybe more turkeys . They were making about every call we know . At least the ones I know . So many calling on top of each other and making so many different calls at once made it nearly impossible to single out any one bird . The volume just kept getting higher and higher . When I thought they couldn't get any louder , someone nearly two miles away at the rifle range fired a big deep booming gun. In spite of their volume the whole flock seemed to ''SHOCK'' at the report of the big gun . The gobbling, clucking, cuttin' , and yelping all got louder still , though it was very , very brief , but clearly discernable .
 
We backed out and 1/4 circled the flock from a distance and got down in the same holler with them . They had calmed down after we began to move . We eased up on a low ridge and right in front of us was a gang of juvenile jakes . They didn't spook bad but did put about 50-60 yards between us . As they stood around looking our way , more turkeys began coming into the little holler from three different directions. They were all out there now scratchin' and milling around . Then we start hearing this loud clucking way off to our left . It kept getting closer . Finally we can see this jennie coming . She stopped about 40 yards from us and no doubt she could see at least 20 other turkeys , maybe more , with some within 20 yards of her . She stood on that small hump and began to kee kee run. She kept it up for at least ten minutes , without pause or break in the sequence. At that time their was very little calling by the other birds , or possibly I was so focused on her I just blocked them out . I could have stayed right till dark , but you know how 6 year old boys are .
 
I have been fortunate to hear some great turkey chatter before ,,,,,but nothing with such numbers of birds , volume and length of the arguement .It was GREAT.

[swpatrkyhunter]

I learned that when your sitting perfectly still waiting for ole' tom you need to watch for other animals who want to investigate you. Such as a young bobcat wanting to play and lay in your lap. Same goes for baby groundhogs. LOL!

[dewey]

I have learned a few important lessons the last few years, here they are.

1. When you get a decoy like Pretty Boy and Pretty Girl and the DVD shows gobblers running up and attacking pretty boy like it was a WWE battle royal DO NOT assume that the same thing will happen to you.  My first hunt I called a gobbler in and he was coming towards my decoy and I was set up to shoot 3-5 feet in front of the decoy thinking that he will come the whole way ready to fight.  He stopped at 6 feet gobbled and then walked into the trees.  At 6 feet I had a clear shot at him but I was so convinced that he would come the rest of the way that I did not shoot him.

2. Don't wait for the perfect shot when the turkey is in range, if you are comfortable shooting at the range he is at, take the shot.  See the cautionary tale from above.

3. When hunting in a meadow/field or anything else that there is no easy way to determine ranges place sticks/branches oranything at a specified distance from where you are at so if you see the gobbler and he inside of those markers, let him have it.

There are alligators in my spring turkey woods and I shouldn't get between them and their pond.

Freaking Alligators! I thought I had it bad having to deal with my mother in-law, goodness gracious.

Dewey

[Duke0002]

Dewey wrote:  "2. Don't wait for the perfect shot when the turkey is in range, if you are comfortable shooting at the range he is at, take the shot."

That happened to me opening day.  Got too big for my britches!

[Cut N Run]

I learned that the more you have to pee, the greater the chances that there will be a turkey getting in range.
 
A couple of years ago I was feeling nature's call and hadn't seen much all morning (one hen that looked like she knew where she was going).  The gobblers were being pretty quiet after flydown and I was beginning to lose confidence in my spot.  Almost as soon as I moved around to relieve myself, I heard some hens squabbling less than 100 yards away.  I quickly finished business (as fast as I could, anyway) and repositioned myself.  Sure enough, there was a gobbler in tow with those hens, but they all stayed out of range.  I got that gobbler a few days later.  If I had gotten up and left when I felt the need, I would have never seen those birds & maybe even spooked them on the way out.
 
I also hate to admit checking around and determining there was no activity so I could get rid of some excess fluid, only to have a loud PUTT sound close behind me as soon as I stood.  It is a terrible thing to have to watch as a red-headed longbeard gobbler sprints away. I almost wet myself. Doh!
 
There has to be some direct correlation between the need to urinate and the likelyhood of turkeys closely spproaching your setup at that very moment.  Just sayin'.
 
Jim

[Duke0002]

Turkeys will eat just about anything.  One had a full white trillium in its craw -roots and all.

[eggshell]

Cut N Run, it's even worse if you gotta poop. There was this one morning I walked an entire ridge calling and never heard a Gobble. Well the pains hit me so I slipped over the bank and leaned my gun up against a tree and stepped aside to a fallen log and dropped the drawers. Almost with exact timing I hear a yelp down the ridge and begin to worry about another hunter ( something about me all squatted down with brown camo and white undies shining that made me uneasy) coming. well that fear soon left as I see a hen walking right to me on the trail I came out on, and then i saw it, a big ole gobbler. By this time they were 60 yards and closing fast, I didn't know whether to bear down or reach for the gun...I chose the gun. Now how I was going to shoot with my pants around my ankles I don't know. The gun of course was outa reach so here i was trying to scoot down this log fighting off pooping on myself and reach my gun. Of course i never made it, they both heard the crunching leaves and popped right over on top of me....you know that three note yelp being discussed on the other thread, well turkeys can outright laugh too. I could hear that gobbler laughing for 100 yards as he stumbled over the hill. At least I avoided dropping a load in my bibs(that my friends is a story for another day). 

[mark hay]

Dana , rumor has it , Gobblerman is looking into making a movie , using your story .

[eggshell]

I heard that too mark, but i also heard he signed you to a role in it. You play an Indian character called snowcap....translated that means, "one who Gobbler pooped On"