I agree. One place I hunt on public land there is only one road and gate into about 3000 acres. If someone is parked there, does that mean they get to cut off 3000 acres from everyone else? Now, that being said, I think if a person decides to go in then he has to know another hunter is somewhere on that 3k acres, and if a bird gets to gobbling, then common sense and courtesy has to come in to play. If you hear another hunter working that bird ahead of you, back out and go on. Otherwise, you have as much right to work that bird as anyone else. I pulled into this same spot last Friday. There were two trucks there with guys getting out. I stopped, walked up and introduced myself and asked where they were going. We told either other our general areas, wished each other luck, and hit the woods. Thats public land hunting.

bankhead is MUCH different then that. There are parking spots for each road and area and it is 180,000 acres.
Mutual respect is needed to keep things safe. There is no reason to not just drive to the next spot down the road or another road.
Makes no sense to me and I feel it makes it dangerous as heck.

The one time I called in four different hunters, 3 of them I waved off.....the last one was actually crawling to look over the ridge...right where the bird had been gobbling. I heard the leaves rustling and then caught the movement and actually was trying to set up to shoot when I realized it was some FOOLS face I was looking at.

I left in complete disgust as the idiot was within 40 yards when I saw him. I thought for sure it was the gobbler coming around on me. It was a young kid and I definitely gave him a piece of my mind about both ethics and safety.
He had never called ONCE! just started sneaking to my calling and the gobbling.

I told Matt Brock about it before..and it is why I never hunt there for turkeys. Id have giving up hunting if I hadnt a been so careful and shot some kid in the face by mistake. My heart was in my throat when I saw it was a persons face...believe me...scared me too death...and I saw then JUST how hunting accidents CAN happen.
I only hunt private land with ethical fellow hunters now. I NEVER want to be in that scenario again.

Lol lack of respect.

You have no idea of the situation. Just speaking out the side of you mouth. I will never just assume someone is hunting a gobbling bird as well as most wouldn't.

If I go to a gobbling bird and I can tell someone is in there I will leave.

So its not possible that someone parks there truck and walks in then a bird gobbles close to there truck and they aren't there.

If fact I don't know many hunters that would drive that close to a roosted bird if they knew it was there.


I CAN TALK IN ALL CAPS TOO.

X3! If you're gonna be cheap....you've gotta be tough.

I know guys who park their trucks in a spot and get in the truck with a buddy and go hunt somewhere else just to keep somebody from hunting "their" spot. These guys are hard core public land hunters. They sleep in the truck to be the first ones there. They cover up a LOT of woods and won't be within 10 miles of their truck. A little common sense is all that's needed to hunt public land. I'm pretty sure most of the guys on here would back off if they knew somebody was working a bird.

If I see somebody parked I jus move along unless it's at a main trailhead, there's liable to be 20 hippie cars with peace signs on em tree huggin hikers.

N2deer I'm glad we don't hunt the same woods! Lol!

I've had similar situations on public land in Missouri and it is very dangerous! Yahoo's from Mississippi and Arkansas make N2deer seem like a saint! Add them to the local hillbilly population and you get my reason for not hunting public land anymore!

i have done that before but when i do i usually hunt back to my truck. let me say this i usually hunt the same place and have hunted it for over 10 years but have hunted the national forest for a whole lot longer than that. where i worked a bird opening day and killed one last year is almost a mile from one heavy traveled road, i hear 5 or 6 trucks go down that road while i am at my listening spot.the main road is that far in another direction and 3/4 miles from truck. if you go down the road that is close and a closed and locked gat it almost 1.5 miles to the end. not many folks will walk in account of the HILLS even on the road with locked gate.
last saturday had one sounding off way towards the main road and being that i had to leave around 0900 the latest i decided to get back to the truck and hope no one was where i knew which hill he was on. plus with the rain i figured the swamp would have been up. when i finally got around to the spot and on the hill he had moved to a place i gambled he wouldnt be. if someone had been there i would have moved back to a fire lane and eased in, should have done that in the first place.

Translation: "I introduced myself, listened to where they were going to confirm it was not my spot, then lied about my spot so they wouldn't know it!"

I am a saint, I have done no wrong.

Im hunting my lease.

Shhh.

[quote=n2deer]I'm going to a gobbling bird unless I know there is someone there.

Its hard to know that someone is there unless you see them or hear them and that's it.

A truck don't mean chit to me other than another person is somewhere in there.I mean it is a 180,000 acres.
[/quote

180,000 acres should be plenty of room to find somewhere a truck is not parked.

I love aldeer and how a thread can just take a life of its own. A couple PM's and its all good. Maybe this thread will keep going long enough for me and JDawg to post a double on here. Lol anyways carry on.

If y'all ever see a gold Acura SUV with Auburn and turkey track stickers, y'all stay the hell away!!!!!

Been there done that, though not intentionally. I parked next to buddies truck at Upper Delta WMA. I had an idea where he was hunting since I had hunted that area with him before. I heard 3 birds gobbling. I went to the one I thought he wouldn't be hunting only to find he was indeed hunting that bird. I immediately slipped out and went after another one I had heard. It turned out to be a great move seeing how we both harvested a nice tom in the same general area. I was fortunate to know that piece of land where we were hunting. I am a whole lot more careful now days if I hunt public land. I've called in way too many hunters and every time it happens it scares the crap out of me. Always and I mean ALWAYS identify before pulling the trigger.

I don't care how much a turkey is gobbling, I'm not stopping at another guy 's truck and go after it.

A guy once told me to take a low brass #8 with you when hunting public land. When that gobbler starts hammering and the gravel starts flying from all the trucks headed your direction, fire that #8 if he hangs up. Then when you walk out and they ask "Did you get him", just say "Naw but I gimped him up pretty bad"

That would be pretty sweet buckbrush!! Maybe we can make it happen!!! This situation has made me think about something dealing with safety and different scenarios!! Never assume that if a turkey is gobbling that you're alone vehicles there or not or even if you hear someone or not! I can see how you thought no one was there due to our circumstances of being so close to the turkey that we couldn't call till he hit the ground with the fear of him zoning in on us and figuring us out! And like another guy posted lots of public land hunters may not call much at all!! Another safety fear I think about as well is if we had been set up and my uncle would have been setting away from me he can't hear near as well as he used to he might would have seen movement and shot you as he was pretty anxious to see one! Luckily this incident has come out in an extremely positive way with some aldeer brothers becoming friends rather than something that could have came out with a negative outcome! God bless and everyone please be safe!!!