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What a Mess Its Becoming

3K views 53 replies 28 participants last post by  Bowcrazy 
#1 ·
I can't believe what my most loved past-time has become. People everywhere without a clue, piles of corn, clearcuts, messing with em before season, killing em before season, intentionally messing up another hunter. I wish I could go back to the mid 80's to mid 90's, I didn't appreciate it enough back then. I've all but quit duck hunting because its not worth fighting morons. I hope it doesn't get that bad for me with turkey hunting. I'm just venting. :frown:
 
#2 ·
Longspurs- Man you hit that dead on the head! I talked about the exact thing last night Honestly after the last 3 years I honestly aint even looking forward to hunting the Ouahita National Forrest this year!:smack: I never realized how good I had it and I aint been turkey hunting alil more than 10 years but damn its changed! 2 years ago on Winona I took my lil bro and we parked not 50 yrds off of Hwy7 and we was headed to a food plot I had prescouted before season before 5am- well when we returned to my PU there were 3 PU's parked directly behind me!:smack: I couldnt even get out! If that wasnt such a nice truck I would have pushed everyone of them damn trucks into the ditch to have gotten out! I aint never been back to Winona since. Last year me and the wife hunted a areea in ONF that I have hunted for 10 years and I heard a gobbler firing away- we humped it about a 1/2 mile to him- I yelped a few times and he cut me off:thumb: we moved towards him to set-up and I hear a feller calling- he would yelp-blow a crow call yelp ddint have a clue but I thought I may have come in on him so the wife and I left him with the bird- it aint right to call a bird off another hunter- we left about a hour later we got on another gobbler we setup started calling and he started in on a string- be damn if the same guy I left alone didnt come in on us yelping on a box call followed by a crow call! The bird finally said enough and left and I was heated- I went to where they were and ended up following them until they slammed the doors on there truck- I was chasing em down a gravel road thinking that these Peckerwoods have a gun and you are mad as hell and that aint a good combination! These damn uneducated Peckerwoods are about to ruin the experience that I love more than deer hunting or anything else!I dont have a clue if I will kill a turk in South Dakota or not but I have heard the "Peckerwoods" are few and far between so I am headed there! Sorry I had to vent to and it aint even opened yet!
 
#3 ·
I feel your pain--your feelings are shared by alot of us. I've been turkey hunting for 30 years, and sad to say I've seen the same things. I don't know what happened to create such a monster. On both duck and turkey hunting, somehow "we" failed to pass along to our fellow newer/younger hunters the proper,correct, ethical,etc. techniques to hunt ----period. I even remember somewhere on this forum someone advising "not to walk to a gobbling turkey":head: I haven't got over that one yet. Things such as shooting your circling ducks---parking directly behind/beside your truck coming down your trail or road and cutting you off a gobbling turkey you are working--the list goes own. I was always trying to get away from someone on both accounts previously described, not get in their way and ruin their hunt.
 
#4 ·
I have hunted the Ouachitas for many years myself. I grew up hunting Winona and it got so crowded i had to leave that area myself. I think a lot of these guys have to be newbies to pull crap like that. I really hate to say it but i kinda wish turkey hunting was left off t.v. and out of the magazines ---i feel your pain.
 
#6 ·
winona is like walmart at christmas time so many people hunting there. I can remember when I would only see a few vehicles all day. as far as people coming in on you hunting there now with the good road systems there almost every turkey can be approached from any direction by another individual and you never know they are there. Last year I had one I was working shot within 200 yards of me. I never knew the guys was there b/c there were no trucks on the road I was on and he came from a lower road. Scared the heck out of me thats for sure. I have had this happen 2 x since hunting there and both were within the last 3 years. Winona is overcrowded. I have since started leaving the state to turkey hunt and finding lesser crowded states and more eager to work turkeys. This year I am only hunting in state 1 weekend of our season and spending the other days out of state. good luck and be safe.
 
#7 ·
I wonder how Game and fish will deal with public land turkey hunting, and when. It has, will, become unsafe and overcrowded in some areas they are responsible for. I suspect future regulations to be different between private and public lands. Like having to draw for turkey tags to hunt crowded public areas?
 
#10 ·
I dropped out of a lease this past year where I had been 'learning' to turkey hunt. And this year I will be among the crowds in Winona. There are places where they don't like to go and that is where I will be. Sandwich and water in my bag and I will wait till they have left and then do my thing. May work, may not. At this point I have no choice, I am addicted.
 
#11 ·
If I'm gonna wish,its gonna be for a return of the decade of the 70's. I started hunting the Ouachita's in 73 and you hardly EVER saw another truck anywhere on the entire circle that went around Muddy Creek,and there were very few roads cut into the area other than old log roads.It was heaven on earth and full of turkeys. I agree with others,tv and turkey call manufacture companies,was the beginning of the end of the good ole days. I have hunted alot of different places but some of my fondest memories are from that place.
 
#12 ·
The couple of times I ever had a turkey close it was run off by another hunter who knew I was there. I've never killed a turkey or even pulled the trigger on one. Whats bad is one of the times the guy knew me and I had spoken to him the day before and told him where i would be hunting so as to not be walked up on by him but that was a mistake because he was at my spot before I was that morning. He wound bringing his buddy back there too and ran the birds right out of the county. I am at the brink of giving up on turkey hunting all together.
 
#14 ·
just thankful for my 5000 acres of private land with just 3 or 4 of us running around.

is it bad on public land during the week?
It's been my experience that it's still pretty bad during the week.
I'm hoping that by not hunting the National Forest till Thursday morning this year that maybe I'll miss a few of the peckerwoods. Hopefully some of them will be headed up to Kansas or somewhere by the time I hit the Ouachitas.
 
#16 ·
It's really just simple, it's not neccessarily the fact that people are inconsiderate (which many are) it's the fact that we have more hunters these days. I agree with a few of the others I personally wish they wouldn't publize it as much, now don't get wrong I believe in taking kids if its part of your heritage, but could care less if joe blow goes.

I've been turkey hunting for 23 years and there was not near as many hunters in the woods until we hit the years of 2000.

Anyways I'm through griping, now I've got to pull myself out this slump im having.
 
#18 ·
It's been my experience that it's still pretty bad during the week.
I'm hoping that by not hunting the National Forest till Thursday morning this year that maybe I'll miss a few of the peckerwoods. Hopefully some of them will be headed up to Kansas or somewhere by the time I hit the Ouachitas.
Anymore it is just as bad during the week as the first weekend. I have one area i hunt where the road circles a small patch of woods and it is loaded with turkey in there but it is quite humerous actually. You will hear 14 vehicles stop and peacock or owl call and will not hear a peep but as soon as the door slams on the truck there will be 6-7 gobblers hammering off. In all the years i have hunted this place i have never killed a turkey in there because they are called at every day from the middle of March until the end of season. That is the hardest area i have ever hunted. The best thing about the Ouachitas is if you have plenty of time there are plenty of places to go and sooner or later you can find a spot all to yourself...at least for a season or two. Look for them rugged areas where no one will want to go and you can usually have the time of your life...but they are getting fewer and farther apart every year.
 
#20 ·
I was reading this thread and getting madder by the post thinking about all the times I've had turkey hunts or duck hunts messed up by someone doing something stupid or just plain arrogant. Then I got to thinking about how long these things happened. Some were a few months ago, some a few years ago, and some were 20 years ago. That got me to thinking about my attitude. I've come to the conclusion that things have gotten worse in the woods but I have gotten far less tolerant as I get older. I can't say that if I had the same care-free attitude that I had when I was 20 that I would be all that bothered by what I encounter now. As far as the animal rights activists say hunter numbers are declining so in theory we should have more room in the woods.:rolleyes:
 
#21 ·
Last year while driving to my area before daylight, a truck from a side road fell in behind me but didn't crowd me, no big deal. After two turns this guy's still behind me, probably by coencidence. Anyway I made my last turn off a little logging road and this guy goes real slow behind me. I'm early so I row down my window and listen to the whipper-wills. This guy gets out of his truck, unloads three shots, then speeds away. I must have "stole" his area that morning. Who do I think I am getting there before him.
 
#22 ·
You want kids to hunt, but when they grow up you don't? :confused: We need all the safe, good, hunters we can get to further hunting so we can have a voice.
Actually what I meant was; I wish grown men who never hunted turkeys wouldn't just decide one day they are a turkey hunter.

Yes, this sounds selfish, but it's starting to get ridiculas, before long people will have a blind they have to sign out for and stay in one place, kind like deer hunting.
 
#24 ·
Actually what I meant was; I wish grown men who never hunted turkeys wouldn't just decide one day they are a turkey hunter.

Yes, this sounds selfish, but it's starting to get ridiculas, before long people will have a blind they have to sign out for and stay in one place, kind like deer hunting.
What would you like for those grown men to do? Do they have fewer rights than you, the "expert"?
 
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