How did we Kill Turkeys in 88-92
Contributors to this thread:Turkey
From: Timbrhuntr
05-Feb-18
They were a lot dumber back then ! LOL !
From: HUNT MAN
05-Feb-18
My first decoy was a painted pink flamingo. It worked sometimes . Killed my first bird in 1990. Can still see him pitching off the roost. Hunt
From: Brotsky
05-Feb-18
The first one I killed in 1992 I was eating a sandwich on my tailgate and it walked out of the woods in front of me. I picked up my bow and shot him at about 25 yards. Seemed pretty easy at the time! Ha!
From: Bowfreak
05-Feb-18
An even bigger question would be, how did we kill them in 1987.
From: APauls
05-Feb-18
Last one I killed was just running down the road so I took off after it. Shot and missed it kept running so did I. Finally caught up and shot it. I guess there are still some dumb birds around. I'm a long ways from the 'Bamaeinstein strain of turkey though.
From: Jaquomo
05-Feb-18
My first decoy. It worked, too..
From: GhostBird
05-Feb-18
Killed my first one in 1979. It was illegal to use turkey decoys here in Alabama until 2005.
From: EmbryOklahoma
05-Feb-18
Lou, I had two of the EXACT decoys. Yes, they did work.
From: Brotsky
05-Feb-18
EF, hard to imagine but we actually shot them with ARROWS back in those days.
From: Jaquomo
05-Feb-18
I didn't know anyone who hunted turkeys here in CO so we made do with the tools we had. I listened to old Brownie's record until I nearly wore it out.
From: Beav
05-Feb-18
My dad made a decoy out of the body of a hard body goose decoy. Made the head out of wood and put a turkey cape over the body. It was actually pretty damn good and would still work today. That was in 1978.
From: Treeline
05-Feb-18
Lou, I still have a couple of those and they still work...
Was lucky enough to grow up on a river with tons of turkeys that were pretty dumb.
Killed my first turkey in 1982. Just snuck up on them and squatted down in some pushed up logs. Shot the tom as he was strutting at about 15 yards with a Texas heart shot and dropped him right there. Shot quite a few after that using similar method of spot and stalk. Didn't even know what calling or decoying was until learning about it from a buddy in the late 80's.
From: drycreek
05-Feb-18
I had never seen a turkey in 1988. Got my first (and only) Central Texas lease in the early nineties and the turkeys are what really sold me on it. I've been hooked on turkeys ever since. I don't have that lease anymore, but i have found a new place to go at least once a year to get my turkey fix. The first decoys I ever had looked like buzzards from a distance, but they worked too.
From: keepemsharp
05-Feb-18
Watching the shows now you have to use 12 ga. 3 and half inch dynamite loads or stay home. Before I went to just bows I did quite well with 2 and three quarter inch 6's in 20 ga. Guess we were just dumb. Only one kinda dead.
From: MNRazorhead
05-Feb-18
This is how!!!
From: Glunt@work
05-Feb-18
Mostly by luck. I had no second thoughts raining revenge down upon them with pop up blinds during the 90s. Finally hunted them with a shotgun a few years ago. Pretty darn fun but not much is more fun than getting one just sneaking around with a stickbow.
From: Rock
05-Feb-18
Shot my first one in 1985 or 1986 after stalking it. Have shot many since then by stalking, Blind (natural and portable) hunting with and without decoy's. Never have hunted them with a shotgun only Archery, remember when I first started chasing them and someone told me I needed to shot my first one or several with a shotgun. I told them I did not care as it was just some dumb bird and I was a bowhunter and that is how I would kill them.
From: 4FINGER
05-Feb-18
TreebarkCamo...4finger
From: Franzen
06-Feb-18
Man, that is good stuff. I can't even see the guy!
There wasn't even a season in my area then, so I don't know. Birds were a lot easier when it did start, and heck we still didn't do all that well. I guess we were as new to it as they were.
From: hogthief
06-Feb-18
My dad and I would listen to a Penn's Woods 8 track of how to hunt turkeys on our way to the MO ozarks in the early 70's. We had a blast! Chasing, and killing a few turkeys in the morning. Hunting mushrooms and catching crappie in the afternoon. Great memories.
From: Timbrhuntr
06-Feb-18
The first year I went turkey hunting it was with my bow in Michigan. Everyone laughed at me and said you'll never get one with that. Well the second day I had sneaked to within 15 yards of 2 toms. I raised up to draw my bow and they just stood there heads up looking at me for a minute. I didn't even shoot and they walked off. Boy was that a big mistake as for the next 6 years I couldn't even get close to one with a bow or I would screw up the shot.No way I was sitting in a blind. I guess it was a hard lesson to never look a gift horse in the mouth !
From: MNRazorhead
06-Feb-18
EF, I am kind of curious about that myself. If I remember correctly, I got that picture many years ago off of a Bowsite thread and kept it just for laughs. Don't know if it was an actual product or not. Does anyone know if the was actually sold or not?
From: Jaquomo
06-Feb-18
Oh, it was real. Tinks marketed it in the 80s and up until a few years ago a couple outlets were still selling the remaining stock. So it MUST work! Lol!
From: swampokie
06-Feb-18
I missed my first bird in 1990. Se Oklahoma jake. Started a fire that burns stronger every spring.
From: Matte
06-Feb-18
I grew up in a part of Kansas that we're void of Turkeys. Moved to Central Kansas for College. I stopped at Fred's bait shop at Cheney Reservoir and asked the guy if there were any Turkeys around. He jokingly said ya just go wonder around and you will get one. About thirty minutes later I did and was back at Fred's to see if he had a poloriod to take my picture as that was customary for bait shops to have in those days. He looked at me and said kid you know I was only kidding about it being easy to go get one. I said well it was this time. No calls, no decoys just a camo shirt and some sense.
From: MichaelArnette
06-Feb-18
I was a baby in diapers
From: lewis
10-Feb-18
Not sure but I still remember how we did it in the 60s 70s 80s 90s and the 2000s probably my favorite creature to chase Lewis
From: t-roy
10-Feb-18
I remember dedicating myself to killing one with a bow only back in the early 80s in Oklahoma. Took the entire season, but on the very last day of the season, I finally killed a Jake. Used a hard bodied plastic hen decoy with teeth marks on the neck. I still remember the look on that coyote’s face as he ran across the pasture, looking back over his shoulder, after tackling my deke!
From: writer
14-Feb-18
Decoys? Realtree? Mossy Oak ? A lot of newbies on here. :-) Remember it was a camo sweatshirt, Army surplus pants, Jersey gloves, Lynch box, slate from a chalkboard, one double reed diaphragm. Back then we thought turkeys were actually smarter than the oldest whitetail and most of our family and friends. Drove 8 hours each way to hopefully kill one bird. Miss the space we had to roam, the reverence we had for every bird and guys who regularly killed them.
From: Longbeard
14-Feb-18
1976, 12 Gauge, Lynch box call, hand made mouth call and Vietnam era camo's
From: Jaquomo
14-Feb-18
Writer, I sent you a pm. Hope all is well!
From: Pigsticker
14-Feb-18
I live in a town where you have the realtree crew, Michael Waddell, Joe Drake, Walter Parrott, Rickie Joe Bishop and other notables so you really have to be careful when you go to running a call and that’s how we used to kill them and still do!
From: longbeard
15-Feb-18
I'm not sure I understand the premise of the question...at least not for those specific years. But if its about the new camo and tools that we have now that we didn't have then, I guess I would have to say things evolve. Some things for better, some things for worse. Not everything you see in that catalogue is useful or an improvement, but much of it is
From: TrapperKayak
15-Feb-18
Black plastic garbage bags worked for decoys too.
From: TrapperKayak
15-Feb-18
Got this one in '96 with a decoy like the one Jaquomo has above...It was a jake and I had two deeks...a jake and a hen. He flew down, I was standing behind a pine tree peeking around, he went toward the deek. I shot and barely grazed his head. He thought the arrow was the deek pecking him and went to peck the deek, and I pinned him to the ground by the base of his neck with the second shot. Fun stuff!
From: midwest
15-Feb-18
Killed my first in '91 with a gun after a couple of unsuccessful seasons with the bow. Switched back to a bow in '94 after I learned how to hunt them better and killed this jake by hiding in shallow ditch I had brushed in. Good times!
From: writer
15-Feb-18
Longbeard, that’s what he meant. I think it helped that the average hunter was a better woodsman back 30-40 years ago. Most grew up hunting squirrels, running traplines... Show me a good, southern squirrel hunter who could head-shoot a limit of gray (cat) squirrels and I’d show you a danged fine hunter.
From: DL
16-Feb-18
Shot my first bird using a heavy Hoyt like this. I was told to put those little spring finger grabbers you put on an arrow so the arrow won’t completely pass through. Called this Tom in with a reed. He came in broadside at under 20 yds. I popped him and he went rolling downhill with the arrow still in him. I went running towards him and he got up running. He then took off with my arrow still in him. Well that’s not supposed to happen!! I came back with a dog to try and find him with no luck.
From: writer
20-Feb-18
Pretty much good everything hunters. Some of the best scouts and snipers in several wars have been Southern squirrel hunters.
From: turkeyhunter60
21-Feb-18
Started in the mid 70s in Northern Calif. Green camo. BDUs...Ben Lee calls, Lohman, and lynch calls, and hen decoy, 12ga. 3 inch Remington 1100...........Still use this stuff today....Killed them then, and still killing them now.....
From: TrapperKayak
21-Feb-18
"Put the rifle down, too." "I'll be needin' this for squirrels and such." "Who you callin' rabal!? You blue scum belly!" "Get in line, before I kick you so hard, you'll be wearin' your ass for a hat." Outlaw Josie Wales
From: JacobNisley
21-Feb-18
'92? Shoot, I was still in my mama.
From: SteveB
22-Feb-18
We called TBM (TurkeyBowMaster) and got all the advice we needed.
From: r-man
22-Feb-18
my first turkey back then was taken with a 1976 Buick SkyLark , no trailing required. it took yrs longer for me get one the right way.
