Do you 2nd guess yourself?

[DaveHawk]

I was about too.Saturday morning not a gobble and I sat till 8:30 AM and started getting figgity fixing my ground blind and I look up and there was the big white head coming my way. Just a second earler I was about to move even through I know the birds come through this area allot. He was standing behind a fallen tree trunk about 30 yards out he poped his head up over the log just a little to high as he was woundring about ol Tom with a submissive her in from of him, He lost his head. I walked over to him and darn if he was not a lil 4" beard Jake. O well a bird in the hand is a bird in the pan.
A jar of Ragu, few gloves of grushed garlic and qubed breat and 1 hour in the the oven. Ya man that's what I'm talking about.

This this morning my friend woke me up at 6:30 with coffie in hand and said you got to come out side. The 40 acre lake had birds gobbling all the way around it. We counted atleast 8 different birds. I hope there still at it next weekend.

[Sidekick]

It's easy to second guess yourself but I've learned to just stick it out and be patient. You truely never know what could happen in 5 more minutes. Although sometimes it can make you wonder when it sounds like all the action is just a couple hundred yards away. We had fresh catfish, homemade bread and mushrooms after our turkey hunt yesterday. Washed down with the last of last years blackberry wine. OH YEAH!!

[MOGC]

The eternal question of all hunters is when to move and when to sit things out. In turkey hunting it is really easy to think "the grass is greener on the other side" and pick up and either walk away from a bird or bump one on the way out. "Patience is a virtue" is a good rule to go by. That is tough to do when all the rage is "runnin' and gunnin'", blah, blah... Woodsmanship is the best asset a turkey hunter has above all things combined.

[LampLighter]

Not any more with Turkey. I used to do that alot, especially due to that "grass is greener over there" thinking. Every single time as soon as I got to the "greener grass" gobbling cranked up from where I had just vacated. He was coming in silent. I do not do this any more. Remember, turkey hunting, you must learn from your mistakes. If you just shrug it off as bad luck, instead of sitting down for a moment, getting a dip of skoal, or a cig, and having a "think session" with yourself as to what went wrong, you will not progress.


Now, bowhunting deer, I second guess myself so much, I usually never hang my stand.

[DaveHawk]

I started wondering, if the birds are not talking do I go into deer hunting mode and wait them out? A good area that is torn up is a good bet that birds will be through sometime hopefully sooner then later.

[Sidekick]

Wait it out. I found a flock out in a pasture once and followed them at a distance all morning just to see what they did. They pretty much wandered around almost aimlessly in circles from woods to pasture to woods to cropfields to woods to pasture to.....Sit there long enough and one will walk by. Run and gun? I get riled up just hearing the words! Every clown in the woods is walking around with their kazoo when they should be sitting still.

[DaveHawk]

The property I hunt in Va has only 2 hunter me and the owner. maybe the local poacher now and then. Year before last my son and I did the run and gun thing and I called in a monster for my son. But since then I sit it out or try too. LOL

[Laturkeyhtr]

Patience is a virtue and waiting to move is critical. However, with that said, when it is obvious that he is leaving you behind, I have to go and check the grass on the other side. :D It is hard to wait until he wants to come back and look you up.

[dave-t.]

This past Sunday I had a lesson in patience. I set up at daylight, and had some toms working, but around 7:45-8am I could hear them starting to head the other way. I went to have breakfast, took the kids fishing to a pond, and pulling back into the driveway about 1pm, I could see up the ridge just over the top from where I was hunting, three toms milling around. They had to have come right past where I was set up.

If you are in a good turkey spot, and have time, hanging tight makes better sense.

[MOGC]

And something else to think about is how much ground you have to hunt. If you hunt a really small parcel of a couple hundred acres, probably many times there is no advantage to moving around within your small boundry area too much. If you have large areas to hunt, then moving can sometimes be the thing to do.

[DaveHawk]

MOGC I hunt an area of a 1000 acres or more with 2 large flocks of birds one on one side of the lake and one on another. Movement is not restricted to just around the lake but it is preferred. I know we have about 8 Toms rousting around the lake so waiting has been good this year but making a move when necessary has also been productive. Tomorrow morning I am hunting a specific bird with a big paint brush in a small corner of the property again I will have to wait for him to come through one of the major feeding areas in the oak hard woods just off a big field.