| Author |
Message |
GN
| | Posted on Thursday, June 13, 2002 - 4:50 pm: | |
We seem to learn (or continue to be plagued)by mistakes we have made each season. This year I was on a group of birds that were on the same lil knoll each morning that I was in the area and in retrospect I approached them from the same direction every morning and as a result I think they got burned from hearing the same calls (even with differnet calling devices) from that area...even later in the season when the hens might not have been right with them I think they had "already seen the movie "when I cranked up on them from that side. We did kill a nice bird out the area but there were about 6 more in there we could not touch. Because of the configuration of hte property lines I really did not have much choice about the approach wihtout leaving an hour earlier climbing in htere from a different side...but next year i will go after them from a different side and maybe wil be more succesful with them. Just a note on a mistake I allowed to contnue. What was your error of the year? |
Dale
| | Posted on Thursday, June 13, 2002 - 9:12 pm: | |
I pushed too hard on one bird. It was a crafty national forest bird that I've been chasing for 3 years now. He generally roosts within 75 yards of the same spot. Its on a finger ridge that's got a flat about 40 yards wide before it goes straight up the mountain and when I say straight up, I mean vertical. Below the flat is a patch of wide open woods and a giant hollow. I've been fortunate to call the ol' boy off the finger ridge but couldn't close the deal last year. This year, he stayed henned up most of the season. Close to the end of this season, I was withing 10 yards of the crest of the finger ridge at daybreak when a hen tree yelped right above me and he thundered away about 75 yards across the flat. The hen made me out as I sat down and putted as she flew in the opposite direction. Thinking the ol' boy was still in the tree, I decided to attempt to relocate to the crest so I could see across the flat. As I got repositioned the ol' boy gobbled again, this time close. I froze but it was too late. When the hen spooked, he must have heard her fly, thinking she flew down he must have flown down and started her way on the ground. The bird made me out and walked away putting. The lesson I learned...no matter how bad you think your position is..if you are that close you are better off to say put than risk a move. Guess there's always year number 4 because I checked him out after season and he was roosting in the same spot. |
CottonTop
| | Posted on Friday, June 14, 2002 - 6:45 am: | |
Dale I have had this exact same thing happen to me several times and I tell you a little trick that I pulled off."If"the bird don,t see you or really get a good look at you cut down on your diaphram as hard as you can for about 30 seconds.If he goes a couple hundred yards and stops and gobbles back at you he is having second thoughts about what he really saw.About two days later you can clobber him by just a 'little' calling and a lot of scratching in the leaves.I was hunting up in Hillsville and pulled something like this off two different times.Good luck and "Keep After Ol'CottonTop" |
GN
| | Posted on Friday, June 14, 2002 - 9:33 am: | |
Cottontop, you sometimes do not have to wait two days to employ the stratgey you described...see my post ofApril 23 entitled "after about 20 attempts the nemesis goes down", wherein the laef scrathchin and a little rolcation and hard cut brought bird back after he saw something he did not like and walked off about 100 yds etc... |
GN
| | Posted on Friday, June 14, 2002 - 9:35 am: | |
Cottontop, you sometimes do not have to wait two days to employ the strategy you described...see my post ofApril 23 entitled "after about 20 attempts the nemesis goes down", wherein the leaf scrathchin' and a little relocation and hard cut brought bird back after he saw something he did not like and walked off about 100 yds etc... |
Freddy McGuire (Vaturkey)
| | Posted on Friday, June 14, 2002 - 9:47 am: | |
I do this at least once every year and sometimes more... We had worked a bird for several hours one morning and still had a few hours of hunting time left. I sat there and told Amy that we just needed to be patient and make smart decisions to wait this old bird out. He relocated in his pasture strutting area and I thought we needed to make a move. We got up and made a semi-circle around the bird and I blew a hawk screemer which he answered and I knew exactly where he was... WRONG... as we got 6 foot from the tree we wanted to setup against his big head popped up over the edge of the ridge 40 yards away... busted and the game was over! I still kick myself for that one! I was just moving too fast and not being patient... I have to re-learn that one several times a spring! |
GN
| | Posted on Friday, June 14, 2002 - 11:01 am: | |
Freddy, as you know from hanging out a little with me, it don't get any better when you start to lose a little of your hearing. When the leaves get out, it can be very difficult to jusdge distance ot a gbbling bird on the ground and when you get over 50 yrs old, it pays to add 50 yds to your estimate it seems to me. |
knight_va
| | Posted on Friday, June 14, 2002 - 1:21 pm: | |
Biggest Mistake I made all year??????.. I slept in 2 mornings I could have hunted!.......I guess the only other thing I can say is that I didnt make the one mistake I have in years past.....In years past I always got hung up on that one bird.... U all know him.. the ones we name!....I wasted many mornings after the same bird trying everything I knew to try twice or more.....This year I told myself I wasnt going to do that... I never hunted the same bird more than once a week this year.......I never chased any bird more than 3 times total all year.........It paid off.....DONT get all caught up in one bird........go find another one.........Beside that I pushed one bird to close & to hard this year & knew it before I did it... was sorta a fustration thing on the last Friday... a do or die situation.... I I did it ..he didnt die..lol.. oh well so is the hunt!
Max |
VA Hen
| | Posted on Friday, June 14, 2002 - 3:22 pm: | |
My biggest mistake this season was not hitting at what I was aiming at. Freddy and I were in birds alot the first week or two this year and as usual some did not cooperate because of hens and the one that did, I missed! Anyway, I got to see the beauty of what God created each and every morning I hunted! That helped make up for the miss.
Amy |
GN
| | Posted on Saturday, June 15, 2002 - 6:58 am: | |
Max....you...are...learning....to ....punctuate...very...well.... |
HODY
| | Posted on Monday, June 17, 2002 - 6:56 am: | |
Max, you are right, and I stayed away from hunting that one bird myself this year. It is nice to kill the ones we name, but they can really make you miserable when they are not killable. The biggest mistake I made this year was setting up in a known roost area, and after not hearing anything, getting up and moving. I knew they were there, but it was later in the season and I was wanting to hear a gobble. Of course I bumped the birds moving, and will never know if they were going to make noise or not after flydown. OH well I did work one later that day, but I knew I should have stayed put. I just really have trouble sitting down and blind calling, but I am trying to get better at this...PATIENCE!!! |
shopson
| | Posted on Monday, June 17, 2002 - 10:18 pm: | |
Hunting the same property I've hunted the past three years, hoping the pressure would dimminish. Wrong! After 4 weeks, someone there daily. Left and headed for the mountains. Got two gooduns in last 8 days. |
maytom
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 18, 2002 - 5:07 am: | |
I would have to say that between last spring and this spring, one thing for sure stood out, "Henned up birds" big time here in NY state!!
This year the gobblers would only give one or two gobbles from the roost then go quiet altogether!!
I guess that after hunting every chance that I could this season, I learned that you must sit tight much longer and call quieter and less frequently to try and bring those birds into gun range, if lucky!! Seems like that "Run-n-Gun" method doesn't work very well anymore in my neck of the woods. Henned up birds are a whole different game animal, and have to be hunted entirely different!!! We all love those "flash-in-the-pan" hunts, but when they don't come running right in, that's when you have to pull out your full bag of tricks!! |
Ryan Tucker
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 19, 2002 - 5:51 pm: | |
I know it is always the same for me. Patients! I always try to hear a bird shock gobble twice in a place before I move on him, but still sometimes I tear after one and bump them. Also, I tried hunting more aggressive this year. I got a lot of action but didn't close the deal as well as years past. I know it had something to do with the birds, but I also know I should have been more patient. When I got patient late I had more success |
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