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The Official Ground Hunting Thread

BTW, what's the deal with the turkey call? Just a 'cover' sound to put the deer at ease? I've never tried this but I have a Primos box call... how much technique and practice goes into that whole turkey call thing?
 
mschultz373 said:
BTW, what's the deal with the turkey call? Just a 'cover' sound to put the deer at ease? I've never tried this but I have a Primos box call... how much technique and practice goes into that whole turkey call thing?
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Yes, I've actually called deer in during turkey season. I think part of it is they eat the same foods and part of it is curiosity. During deer hunting, when I soft bump one, meaning they just hear me and don't smell me, I usually drop down and make some turkey calls and thrash some leaves. That way they can convince themselves it was friendly Ms Henny Jenny and not Mr. hunter, lol. It works more times than not.

For actual turkey callling to lure in turkeys you need to be moderately good, and less is generally better. Most people overcall.
 
when you call during deer season, what turkey 'call' do you most typically do? I've never hunted turkeys but my understanding is that there are a few different calls one can do.
 
When deer hunting I usually just make some hen clucks with just my mouth. When I bump a deer, I usually don't have a lot of time to get things together, so I just call with my mouth and rake the leaves around. I don't call too much. Just enough to put that thought in their heads and then a couple of more times as I am moving up to set up and clear out a spot for the seat.

I was carrying a little slate pot call early season and it worked well. I really need to get better with the actual mouth calls.
 
I had another fun hunt off the ground yesterday. I went out and walked a big loop through the south end swamp and at one point bumped 3 does out of a tree top but I could tell they were not likely to return since they kicked in the afterburners on the way out. I kept going and made a wide loop downwind to try and find a spot they might venture through before dark. About 3/4 of a mile farther on I found good fresh feed sign under a big red oak that was in a little transition between mature pines to the North and some river cane thickets. The tree showed signs of deer and pigs so I decided to set up.

I was hunting with my Hill style Northern Mist Longbow and Douglas Fir arrows again. Ground hunting and a trad bow just seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly.

I had a couple of hours under my belt with only a couple of squirrels and a tweety bird to keep me company when I started to hear leaves rustling to my Northeast. With all the pig sign scattered around my thoughts went right to rooting hogs. The noise kept getting closer and try as I might I could not see the source through all the short river cane. After several maddening minutes the source of the noise came into view. It was a flock of hen turkeys and they were within 15 yards before I could see them. They had come feeding and scratching and I am sure that red oak was the draw. They stayed in that cane within 20 yards of me for a while as I videoed them with my phone. Eventually they saw me or sensed something was awry and putted a little and left. That was bout 3:30 pm. I saw them as they left the area to the Northeast. About 4:30 another small group came through and although I heard them feeding and clucking this time, I never saw them. They headed South.

No deer or pigs were seen during this sit. I plan to go back over to where I busted out those does and set up there now that I kind of know what the area looks like. I had picked it on an aerial as a likely deer bedding spot and sure enough it was. The woods were just too open to approach from the South. I think a Westerly approach will work.

It was still a very fun evening. Having a flock of turkeys within 20 yards for five minutes is always cool.
 

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Made a good go of the last day of the season yesterday. Daughter and I didn't have many back cover options to sit side-by-side so we scavenged around and fashioned up a branch wall. Turned out nice. Lots of poo in the field but nobody wanted to step out while we were there. Ah well. 274 days to go!
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How many of you guys have used the heads up decoy in your ground setups?
 
Yesterday found me walking about a mile deep until I bumped two doe off the edge of a thick marsh near a couple of big chestnut oaks. I turkey called to them as they departed and set up the Packseat against the base of one of the big oaks. I was out again with the longbow since I am really just trying to get one with trad equipment before the end. It was a good hunt, but no deer showed. I did find a big rub about 3/4 of a mile back in a good area. It had been recently worked so hopefully whatever made it survived and will be available in October. We still have to the end of the month so maybe he will slip up and come by me yet. I need to get back over there post season and really walk that whole area out and get a feel for how it all lays out and how the deer are using it.
 

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What kind of tree is that? Hickory? I haven’t seen a rub on that kind of tree before. He must be a good one.
 
katiesmom said:
In addition to the good advice here, Robert Carter on youtube has some good videos on ground hunting. So does Jason Samkowiak.
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I avidly follow all of Robert Carters videos. I wish Jason would do some ground hunts out of the packseat but he did a video explaining why he hasn't. He is concentrating on making content and feels like videoing and ground hunting are hard to do.
 
NMSbowhunter said:
I avidly follow all of Robert Carters videos. I wish Jason would do some ground hunts out of the packseat but he did a video explaining why he hasn't. He is concentrating on making content and feels like videoing and ground hunting are hard to do.
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katiesmom said:
In addition to the good advice here, Robert Carter on youtube has some good videos on ground hunting. So does Jason Samkowiak.
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Looks like I need to check these guys out. Any particular videos? Links?
 
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Wife and sitting behind the ghost blind scoping some doe(s) out at 40 yards. I enjoy that little blind for what it is.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
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