questionable strategy

[tracebusta32]

All the more reason for you all to try hunting turkeys without a decoy, I have done both and find that it is quite a bit more satisfying going out of the woods with only one turkey in your bag.
 

[Cut N Run]

Hey Trace, how's it going?  Got a good one tied up for Spring?
 
I wouldn't use a fan in hand for any reason. There are too many people who are bold enough to tresspass that might also might be fool enough not to identify their target before they shoot.
 
Jim

[swpatrkyhunter]

Not very smart if you ask me! As stated before. You never know who might be on the property your hunting. people do tresspass. But on another note. A professional hunter on T.V. should have enough sense NOT to show something like that! I know that somewhere out there some guys who saw that will go out and try it. Some on public land! As a whole hunters are pretty good about safety. but there are alwasy those who do some really dumb things out there. We have all seen it at one time or another.

[shaman]

I'm a little late getting to this thread, but I figured I'd chime in anyway.

I've got 200 acres.  I normally hunt in the middle of it.  I'm usually the only one hunting.  I have a Transfan. I don't hunt with it often. I NEVER hunt with it close to my body.  It goes out 10 yards or more, usually away from the direction I expect turkeys to come.

My next door neighbor has several bad habits:

1)  He poaches.  He's been up 2 times already, and he's on the CO's "special list."  If he gets caught again, he'll do hard time.
2)  He's a lousy shot.  He's a lousy turkey hunter. 
3)  On at least one occasion he's come up on another guy's setup and shot at the decoys.
4)  He nearly shot me the first season I had little Mooseboy out.

 . . . and that's just one character in my neighborhood.  I had the state police come in and haul out another set of goobers I caught poaching my property last Spring.

Guys, I don't care what you hear about the odds of not getting shot. Consider that:

1)  Most shooting incidents during Turkey Season occur at close range
2)  In most incidents, the victim was mistaken for game
3)  The average number of seasons of experience of the perpetrator was 8, compared to 2.5 for deer hunting accidents.
4)  The vast majority of incidents involved the perpetrator seeing a flash of something and having his mind synthesize  the image of a turkey-- they are dead-nuts certain they've seen a turkey gobbler.
5)  Most incidents involve 12 GA shotgun blasts to the head and face.

To recap:  You have a bunch of guys out in the woods with shotguns, who are primed to shoot at the slightest hint of a gob in the bushes.  They see the red flashing on a sock, or a white handkerchief, or a patch of blue jeans and they imagine a turkey.

One last image I want to leave you with:  last Spring I shot a coyote that was making a pass at my decoys.  #4 lead is not the optimal load for coyote.  It killed her, but not right away.  Coyotes aren't people. I have no qualms about killing coyotes, but I can still see that coyote flipping over and over in the grass in agony until I put an end to it.

[Fan Club]

Shaman, since you mentioned the Transfan...
 
The first thing I thought of while reading this thread is that the instructional video for this device shows the inventor literally holding the fan on top of his gun barrel while raising and lowering it-
 
http://www.hunters-edge.com/TransFan_Gobbler.shtml
 
A questionable practice at best, they are careful to mention the safety factors and dangers of actually doing this.
 
The degree of ineptness required to be fooled by and sneak up on decoys boggles the mind. Or to shoot at what they "thought" was a turkey. There was a story posted here last year where a father had shot and killed his own son. Truly tragic and senseless. Most of us are seasoned enough to avoid any of this nonsense, but just like driving, you always have to watch out for the other guy.
 
 

[Fan Club]

> Truth is most hunting accidents happen by "seasoned" hunters. <
 
Guess that's why they call them accidents. I gotta believe most of the time it's the seasoned guy getting shot by some inept clown that has no business with a firearm. And while it may be a quick grasp of the obvious, indications are that most of the time neither knew the other was there.
 
At any rate, mandatory hunter safety qualifications, in the states that require them, have proven effective in keeping mishap percentages low. My public land hunting days are far behind me. A couple of incidents with the aforementioned inept clowns were motivation enough to find more private ground.
 
 
 

[Fan Club]

I'm sure you are correct TC, but whatever the facts are, they sure are hard to believe.
 
I hedge my bet by hunting with OTHs on private land. The guys I hunt with wouldn't shoot another hunter unless they were possessed or hallucinating or both. Could it still happen? You bet. But I'm betting against it happening to me by carefully selecting whom I hunt with and where.

[tracebusta32]

Sorry Cut, I just now say your post.
I'm doing well and hope you are to, I have a couple of new spots picked out this year but if I know me I'm sure I'll end up back where I always do.
I put in for a special permit for my son and I to hunt some new game lands in the county, so hopefully that will come through.
 
As for hunting accidents, I bet most accidents happen on public land which is one reason I ike to "hunt" for private tract's each year. Plusit's more of a challenge hunting private land....just kidding!

[trkyklr]

if my memory serves me correctly i beleive it was tom knapp on the show,but im not 100% just 98%

[shaman]

ORIGINAL: Fan Club


The degree of ineptness required to be fooled by and sneak up on decoys boggles the mind. Or to shoot at what they "thought" was a turkey. There was a story posted here last year where a father had shot and killed his own son. Truly tragic and senseless. Most of us are seasoned enough to avoid any of this nonsense, but just like driving, you always have to watch out for the other guy.

Actually, it's the seasoned ones that are most likely to shoot another hunter.  It's a scary thing, but your mind will play tricks on you. I'm drawing on various articles I've seen over the past 20-some years.  The stats say you're wrong-- it's guys like us, good seasoned turkey hunters, that cause most of the fatalities.

The problem comes from the brain's ability to take small bits and pieces of sensory input and synthesize what it is most likely to be.  It may be only the red flash on a hunting sock, but your brain puts it together as a full-blown gobbler.  The more experience you have, the more likely it is to happen. It happens to guys with an average of 8 seasons under their belt.  I probably read about it for the first time in Outdoor Life Magazine about 1988.  Before that, it was word of mouth from the turkey hunters that helped get me into the sport.

I'm sure you've all heard about not wearing any article of clothing that has red, white, or blue in it, right?  This is why.  I'm sure if you wore a red sweatshirt it won't happen-- the red field is probably too big to trigger the illusion.  It's when it's just a wee bit of one of these colors that it's a problem-- enough for the brain to confabulate a turkey head out of what it's getting. Then you have trouble.  I've been at this 26 seasons. I can say it's never happened to me, but I have had several close calls in the woods where I was hunted by another hunter.  In one case, I just called out to the hunter and he gave me wide berth. In the other case, I didn't know he was there until the shot and we were less than 50 yards away.

The scary part of it all is that most turkey hunters who shoot someone in this scenario SWEAR they saw a turkey.  This isn't about hearing a noise and firing into a bush, or walking with the safety off and their finger on the trigger.  This is a veteran turkey hunter doing the best he can to be safe and his brain manufactures a turkey where there is none. 

Please don't think I'm calling any of y'all a bunch of dimwits, or inexperienced, or careless.  The point of this all is that it is good guys like us that do the most of the killing.  It is probably also something that we can't help from the giving end of the shotgun.  What is required is to be ever vigilant when we're sitting somewhere that we watch out for ourselves, not use gobbling or gobbler yelping unless we're sure we're alone, and especially not have anything red, white, or blue in our kit.  Above all, use gobbler decoys with extreme caution.

One thing I did from my first season on was get a few pair of olive drab wool socks that were just for turkey hunting. They had no flash at the top. They lasted over twenty years, but they finally gave out.  I tried everywhere to find replacements, and finally found 5 pair of green and brown socks with no red flash at Bass Pro.  These are kept just for hunting turkeys.

If you have not heard of this phenomenon, then I suggest to anyone to go over to the public library and look at back issues of Outdoor Life and dig until you find what I'm talking about.  I've only taken T&TH for a few years, so I'm not sure if it was in this magazine.  I know I've seen it written about elsewhere, but I cannot say where.