doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Turkey season is almost upon us.

Feller better hope there isn�t some jumpy Yankee sport walking around in them woods. Liable to get �fairy dusted�.


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Sweet homebOy Alabama.

I agree with Frank's comment at the video's end. This "fanning" or "reaping" will operate on Darwinian principles to reduce the number of not only turkeys in the woods, but also turkey hunters who do this sort of thing. This is why it's a good idea to sit with one's back to a tree, wide enough so no one can shoot you in the back and so that you have a clear view of some nimrod coming in to shoot whatever is calling and to clearly give you a chance to holler you are there. I put "fanning" in the same category as someone in buckskin slipping through the woods during rifle deer season--and that has been reported as seen. I've seen videos of _______ (fill in the blank with appropriate name, card carrying) crawling through the grass with a strutter decoy strapped to his back towards a live gobbler. The folks that do this defend themselves as to its obvious danger by the lame excuse :"I am on private property and I know who is on it" Apparently they have never heard of poachers who will not only trespass, but who will also shoot turkeys with centerfire rifles where forbidden by state law. Gil

While I don't think I'll ever low crawl holding a turkey fan or decoy, I don't have any ethical problems with decoys. Or setting up on a strutting area or pasture with a decoy out either. Reaping (crawling up to a bird with a strutter) on the other hand is dangerous and stupid.

I know that fanning works though. First time I saw it done was years ago when a guy hunting with me on a pasture edge thick with palmettos cut a palmetto frond and held it by the long stem through the fence turning it from side to side. The gobbler I'd been calling in vain to came in on the run to the palmetto. It wasn't even a dead brown one, but live and green...Geo

Turkey ethics is just a matter of legal as far as I am concerned; Hell, we shoot'em on the ground! We use decoys for ducks, doves and even deer.

The most different type of turkey hunting I ever saw was a 30 minute show on hunting them in someplace like New Zealand, can't remember exactly the place, but they organized a drive, like with pheasants, using beaters, and shot at them as they flew overhead. I need to do a youtube search and try to find something on that. Lest anyone think it was unsporting, they didn't get very many shots .............most were out of range.

SRH

Stan, I've read some accounts of a "wild turkey" showing up overhead in a UK drive. I know a woman who hunted turkeys in NZ and said they weren't too wily. In parts of New England, they are a city nuisance. Here's an account from Staten Island. No need for TSS or Winchester Longbeards; a sand wedge or 9 iron would do the trick. Gil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC2pGd-RMF4

On the front porch this afternoon. Just in time for spring gobbler season. I had them fitted in May of last year when Russell was in the lowcountry at Bray's Island. Hart's Turkey Hunter snakeboot by Russell. Gil

Smart to get the zippers, Gil. What a drag that would be lacing those things up at 0430 in the morning before the hunt. I�m tired just thinking about it....;-)

There's only one boot for turkey hunting, the Lacrosse Grange. Less than $100, 18" high rubber boot that you can walk all day in while wading branches, shallow creeks, and sloughs. That Russell boot you just paid a LOT for will be full of water quickly where I hunt. Never worried about snakes in 40 years of chasing turkeys, haven't come across one a single time during that span.
JR

I'm sure he's real proud of killing those two stupid jakes, on video no less. Really sad.
JR

John, for wet work, I have a pair of LeChameau Chasseurs covered with Turtleskin Gaiters. I can't put on a slip on rubber boot because of high insteps and that's why I got the LeChameau with its baffled zipper. I have side-stepped cottonmouths and copperheads turkey hunting and one place we hunted was loaded with Eastern Diamondbacks. One area I hunt regularly I ran across a coiled-up canebrake while looking for Chanterelles this summer. It was within a rock throw from where I've killed birds. What you have never seen, has seen you for sure. Gil